I’m sorry if my question isn’t particularly clear, it’s sort of hard to explain what I’m thinking. Most things that are alive have at least some sense of self preservation, and I understand the very basics behind it. For humans, it comes from being prey. However, why was it there to begin with? What caused us to have such a strong will to live? What causes self preservation for any species?
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For a species to continue existence, it has to keep alive long enough to at least procreate. If some individuals are born without the instinct to survive while others are, it’s much more likely that those with the instinct will survive long enough to procreate and pass that trait to their offspring.
If that wasn’t a feature of life there wouldn’t be much life around. This is what we call natural selection. Beasts that do not have the self-preservation instincts are quickly erased from the gene pool. Reckless behavior in the wild is not an effective survival strategy, but being skittish or hyper aware of danger would be beneficial (depending on the environment).
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