Quote of the Day: Charles Darwin

[Inspiration Bot]

"The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason."

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[MickinMD ★]

12 hours ago, Inspiration Bot said:

"The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason."

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But wouldn't we have evolved so that our instincts tended to have reasonable results, otherwise our instincts would have led us to become extinct?

If we become sedentary and out of shape, our bodies start producing fewer of the biochemicals to transport and burn fats because we're not doing that often enough - that's what really happens in people that have "slow metabolism" - some regular exercise a few days a week cures it.

But our bodies never start making less of the biochemicals that process and burn carbs because we need it to quickly provide energy when we suffer pain or fear and our instincts need us to act quickly to take our hand off the hot object, flee from the bear, etc.

There is a myth about Lemmings, mouse-like rodents in the Arctic, that they follow their leaders and commit suicide by falling off cliffs or into the ocean.  If that was a true instinct, there wouldn't be any lemmings left.

There are instincts for which there appear to be no reason, but usually a reason is discovered.  The Monarch Butterflies fly north from Mexico into the USA in one generation, from the USA to Canada in the next generation, then from Canada back to the same place Mexico in the third generation.  If there were Monarchs with other instincts, they don't exist anymore so there's a good chance the weird every-three-generations migrations have a reason.