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Originally Posted by Helm
Do you see that as man becomes more cerebral and less emotional, his sexual drive could gradually wither to nothing? Could man reach a point where he is -from an evolutionary standpoint- useless, or will some other instinctual failsafe come into play?
I am interested in this topic so much because I am trying to be free from instinctual drives.
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I think it depends on which level.
At an individual level, it might be possible as I personally believe in the power of mind over flesh, however I do not know whether it'd be possible to totally "anihilate" those instinctual drives, as much as to "lock" them.
In an evolutionary perspective, it is IMO simply not possible that humans evolve away from their instincts unless they evolve towards another mean of reproduction than sexual pairing - like parthenogenesis or whatever else. Which is not likely as sexuated reproduction seems to be the most "evolved" way of spreading genes so far. Unless something new appears, you never know.
Well my personnal opinion is that as much as a thinking animal as we are, it is still in our nature to be animals. I have been in contact with many animals, observed their group behaviours as well as those of humans with a very objective eye, and I've found this to be true, that most humans are exclusively instinct driven, not any less than any other animal. Far from allowing the masses to free themselves from their instincts' slavery, their ability for reflexion is mostly used to serve those instincts. Maybe this is nature's revenge against civilization.
My own path of reflexion on the subject has led me to believe that to free myself from my instincts as much as possible I need to aknowledge them, for what they are, no more but no less. I feel in no way lessened by the aknowledgement of being an animal in nature, and knowing my instincts and recognizing them when they are at work allows me to use my mind to control / shut / work around them better than trying to anihilate them.
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In that sense, what we are talking about, how nature uses pleasure to make sure we mate, is a defective practice.
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But none of nature's way is a sure, straight, flawless one. There are bugs everywhere and this is why there is a need for evolution after all. Like, what about reproduction instinct being in contradiction with survival instinct, it can lead to pretty unefficient situations in some animals. But on the whole there will be small adjustments made here and there and it'll always end up working. Or the species will disappear. So I guess we'll see if the sexual pleasure thing was a bad idea in a "few" (hahahaha) years, but I agree with you that it has the potential for a "bad idea", evolution-wise.
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Man should stop trying to regulate the conditions under we indulges in his instinctual urges, and start trying to control those urges themselves.
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Agreed. However most can not, and do not even want to.
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And that's like asking if all americans are mcdonalds sustained, politically inept white trash. Oh, wait!
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I didn't say it. Everybody, *look* how I didn't even said a single word about this.
Mwahahahahahaha