A Story of Stories

Values and morals have the power to override a human’s innate drives. Where traits like honesty, integrity, generosity, propriety, respect, loyalty, or kindness are valued, people will behave differently than where they’re not.

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 Story Virus

After hearing this, Lulu ends her fling with the bad baby.

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

(Motivation = Primal Motivations + Values + Morals)

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.