What drives human behaviour. It has been a long quest – a hobby horse of Behaviourists and Psychologists. In this article,I make an attempt to put forward my reflections on what is the most fundamental driver of all human actions.
The most popular and seminal work on this subject was proposed by Abraham Maslow, American Psychologist. It was called the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Image Source: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
As you may know already, Maslow proffered that there is a hierarchy of needs for a human being – the ones at the bottom of the pyramid are the most basic ones and only when those needs are fulfilled one looks to ‘higher’ needs. These typically are:
Breathing, sleeping, eating, safety (clothing, shelter) and propagation. These needs are basic & true, not just for us humans, but also for all other animals.
“For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to a) mate with b) eat c) run away from and d) rocks.”
– Terry Pratchett
Of course, the first three are fundamental to our living. Need for clothing & shelter comes from the atavistic Darwinian survival instinct. Yet, as you can guess from the title of the article, it is the last need in the list – propagation – that is, in my humble opinion, the most fundamental of all needs. It is the most foundational need – our very purpose of living. It is propagation that drives us to breathe, eat, sleep and survive. In my humble view, it is the lowest/most fundamental pedestal in the hierarchy of human needs. All the other needs, including the need to survive & eat/breathe arise because of this fundamental need to procreate. Further & higher, all the sophisticated motivations – fashion, job, money, car (bigger than neighbour’s), health & fitness, travel, friendship, cults, nationalism, war, status, self-esteem, hierarchy…all the way to self-actualisation can be understood as emergent complexities of this ‘basic instinct’!
This insight emerged when Darwinism was better understood in the form of neo-darwinism. Neo-Darwinism shifted the focus from the often misquoted Herbert Spencer’s catch phrase “survival of the fittest” to the “theory of replicators”.
The Selfish Gene
The evolution of life is all about genes – the master algorithms that are competing in a complex adaptive self emergent system. Genes are basic units. They manifest in the form of organisms with varying degrees of complexity. They do so to ensure their own survival.
Starting with single cell organisms, life gained in complexity. Plants & Animals emerged as complex variations of the original single cell organism. As the complexity of the species increased, the executive function of the body got delegated to the brain (and the associated neuro-hormonal systems); but the genes continued to be in the driver’s seat, driving the behaviour of the organism so as to ensure their own propagation.
It is this ‘driving of the behaviour’ where all the pedestals of the Maslow’s hierarchy come from. To ensure that a human being successfully propagates his/her genes, he/she must get attracted towards the opposite sex and copulate. They should pick a healthy (possibly the healthiest among the available) partner. This gets subconsciously measured by attractiveness, height, sense of humour, success, money, a perfect beach body, excellence in sports or arts, intelligence, empathy etc. For this to happen, the human must first of all survive till the age, when it is biologically possible for him/her to copulate. Here comes breathing, eating proper food, good health, a safe house, protection from cold, heat, infections and accidents. Also, the genes of one’s child are far more important than one’s own. This is because one has already served the fundamental purpose of living by reproducing. The future propagation of the gene is going to happen through the child. For both of these reasons, genes drive the behaviour of parental care to the extent that they put their child’s life on priority over their own!
So on & so forth. You get the flow. Even the higher pedestals of the Maslow’s hierarchy chart can be understood in the similar vein. Self Esteem, social hierarchy, self actualisation and the Aristotelian Eudaimonia are all complex adaptations towards just one fundamental goal – gene replication & propagation.
All humans die…genes survive!
We run an unending relay race…passing the genes from one generation to the next, like a baton. The baton wins the race against other batons….we just play our role of carrying them, and passing on to the next one!
I picked the title of this section from the seminal book, “The Selfish Gene” by Prof. Richard Dawkins. Here’s a snippet from the 4th chapter of this book, The Gene Machine:
“I am trying to build up the idea that animal behaviour, altruistic or selfish, is under the control of genes in only an indirect, but still very powerful, sense. By dictating the way survival machines and their nervous systems are built, genes exert ultimate power over behaviour. But the moment-to-moment decisions about what to do next are taken by the nervous system. Genes are the primary policy-makers; brains are the executives. But as brains became more highly developed, they took over more and more of the actual policy decisions, using tricks like learning and simulation in doing so. The logical conclusion to this trend, not yet reached in any species, would be for the genes to give the survival machine a single overall policy instruction: do whatever you think best to keep us alive.
The genes are master programmers, and they are programming for their lives. They are judged according to the success of their programs in coping with all the hazards that life throws at their survival machines, and the judge is the ruthless judge of the court of survival. ….the obvious first priorities of a survival machine, and of the brain that takes the decisions for it, are individual survival and reproduction. All the genes in the ‘colony’ would agree about these priorities. Animals therefore go to elaborate lengths to find and catch food; to avoid being caught and eaten themselves; to avoid disease and accident; to protect themselves from unfavourable climatic conditions; to find members of the opposite sex and persuade them to mate; and to confer on their children advantages similar to those they enjoy themselves.”
Chapter 4, The Gene Machine, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
The Selfish Meme
Memes (term coined by Richard Dawkins, I think) are ideas that replicate & evolve just like genes. The colloquial usage of the term for popular pictorial jokes, is well, just colloquial. Any idea that replicates over & over – belief, drawing, music, theories, languages, cults, fashions, technologies and philosophies are all memes. The evolution of ideas is autopoietic. They evolve through a process of constructive argumentation; where the ideas are debated, the bad ideas are rejected, and the best idea among all prevails, until it gets replaced with another better idea. This is nothing but Darwinian “blind variation & selective retention” and the interaction is the “Sex”!
The interaction/discussion/exchange/argument/debate over ideas is akin to biological sex and it plays the same role in evolution of ideas as the role that sex plays in the evolution of genes. It should be no surprise therefore that the word intercourse is used both for communication among people and love making!
Beginning of life was an emergent phenomenon of evolution…the beginning of ideas was an emergent phenomenon of life.
“The whole of biological evolution was but a preface to the main story of evolution, the evolution of memes.”
– David Deutsch, The Evolution of Culture, The Beginning of Infinity
The evolution of genes have triggered an evolution of ideas; and just like the propagation of genes happen through sex, the propagation of ideas happen through ‘sex’ of ideas. As Matt Riddley famously puts this into perspective in this Ted Talk – When Ideas Have Sex
Creation in biology or creativity in ideas is what drives the progress; Neither emerges ex nihilo. They emerge from an intercourse of existing set of genes or memes. Species or ideas that persist for long periods of time are ones that are the result of cumulative combinatorial successes.
Human societies run into static & dynamic phases. Static Societies are ones where dogma prevails. Such societies have taboos, which prevent questioning dogma and exchange of ideas. Exchange of ideas are often not just dissuaded but forbidden. Classic examples are the pre-renaissance Europe of the Dark Ages or current North Korea. The Dynamic societies are ones where ideas are openly debated & criticised, and the best ideas prevail. Such ideas take the civilisation forward, opening up paths for new ideas. Best example is the Silicon Valley!
Here’s the thing:
The thought amazes me that it was never about us! It was never the evolution of species, but the evolution of genes. It’s not that we need genes to reproduce, it’s the genes that need us as carriers and propagators, to replicate themselves. We are just complex carriers and replicators for our genes.
Evolutionarily speaking, our only purpose of living is the propagation of genes. And hence, ‘Sex’ is the ultimate drivier of all behaviours & motivations.
Evolution has emergent properties for taking ‘quantum leaps’ into new realms. Origin of life was one such leap. The next leap of emergence came with ideas or memes. Even this time, we are only the carriers & propagators of ideas. Our natural proclivity to chit-chat & argue as social animals is what sets memes or ideas on an autopoietic path of evolution.
Just like to progress biologically all you need is propagation, to progress memetically, all you want is interaction…exchange and churning of ideas (natural variation) and propagation of the best versions (selective retention).
Hence, the title, All You Want is…
P.S. – Feel bad, if you clicked on the title bar hoping to see something better; but that’s completely understandable, for that’s what you’re genetically coded for!