But, [“I want my father to accept me”] is already a very high level goal and I have no idea how it could be encoded in my DNA. Thus maybe even this is somehow learned. [ . . . ] But, to learn something, there needs to be a capability to learn it—an even simpler pattern which recognizes “I want to please my parents” as a refined version of itself. What could that proto-rule, the seed which can be encoded in DNA, look like? [ . . . ] equip organisms with something like “fundamental uncertainty about the future, existence and food paired with an ability to recognize if probability of safety increases”
Humans [and animals in general] are adaptation-executers, not fitness-maximizers [ obligatory link, although my intention is not particularly to direct you to [re-]read ].
In the extreme limit, if natural [/sexual] selection could just compose us of the abstract principle “survive and reproduce”, it would. But natural [/sexual] selection is a blind idiot god [obligatory link] without the capacity for such intelligent design; its entire career consists of resorting to crude hacks, precisely of the mold “directly wire in an instinctual compulsion for the child to please its father”. I forcefully recommend Byrnes’s writing on imprinting in animals and humans; it changed my mind about this some years ago.
“Why am I aligned with my own [stated] values [as opposed to my less-prosocial, subconscious urges]?”
and
“Why am I aligned with evolution’s values [to the extent that I am]?”
Humans [and animals in general] are adaptation-executers, not fitness-maximizers [ obligatory link, although my intention is not particularly to direct you to [re-]read ].
In the extreme limit, if natural [/sexual] selection could just compose us of the abstract principle “survive and reproduce”, it would. But natural [/sexual] selection is a blind idiot god [obligatory link] without the capacity for such intelligent design; its entire career consists of resorting to crude hacks, precisely of the mold “directly wire in an instinctual compulsion for the child to please its father”. I forcefully recommend Byrnes’s writing on imprinting in animals and humans; it changed my mind about this some years ago.
“Why am I aligned with my own [stated] values [as opposed to my less-prosocial, subconscious urges]?”
and
“Why am I aligned with evolution’s values [to the extent that I am]?”
are different questions.