At some point between 150-person ancient tribes and New York City, human evolution jumped off of the “survival of the fittest biology” snail and onto the “survival of the fittest stories” rocket.

But how about Lulu?

(Motivation = Primal Motivations + Values + Morals)

To help us answer that question, let’s bring in the Johnsons. (A family that serves as an example.)

Couple that with the complexity, flexibility, and revisability of human value systems and moral codes—and you have a species whose behavioral output is the product of multiple axes of wild variability.

A dog’s core motivations are hardwired into it by its software. The software is the real animal trainer, using a variety of chemical treats and chemical electroshocks to steer the animal to its genes’ liking.

The Johnsons could go for a similar strategy, giving Lulu candy for staying home at night and lining her window frame with live electrical wire.

Now consider ten human tribes, living, like the ten wolf packs, in a common natural environment. The human capability for delusion means that those ten tribes could vary widely in their perceptions of reality, and thus behave entirely different from one another.

First, their primal motivations are super complex. On top of all the standard animal desires, humans are incentivized by all kinds of weird Snausages and electric fences. They crave self-esteem and want to avoid shame. They yearn for praise and acceptance and detest loneliness or embarrassment. They pine for meaning and fulfillment and they fear re... See more