Microstory 309: Instinct

This is an experimental Stepwisdom microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 300. More to follow.

Many people have attempted to define the exact qualifications of an instinctive behavior. The reason for their qualms with claiming that instinct remains within the human species comes out of an attempt to decategorize humans as animals. And that’s all well and good, and I agree that humans are decidedly not animals, but we cannot forget our animalistic tendencies altogether simply because we’ve developed a high enough degree of intelligence to override these instincts. Our instincts are still there; it’s just that we’ve been trained to handle situations from an intellectual perspective. I’ve already discussed how evolution works; that a species will evolve according to a genetic trait that supports its survival and/or propagation. One thing to remember from this, however, is that these traits occur according to environmental changes, and random mutation. No one is capable of determining which traits to accept and which to reject. That is, it doesn’t matter how badly we want to to evolve, and become something greater, evolution isn’t going to get us there. For that, we need scientific ingenuity, but that is a different discussion. The fact is that we’ve yet to develop any technology specifically designed to to inhibit, or otherwise modify, our baser instincts. At the moment, and for the most part, our instincts are dormant, but given the opportunity, any human can transform themselves into an exclusively, or at least primarily, instinctual creature. As much as you might fight the truth, you are capable of turning into an animal. There is a place for this; for instance, in a survival situation. You may even find yourself one day wanting to turn towards your instincts in order to protect yourself from psychological trauma. Never forget that your species would never have survived without relying on their instincts. They are the first step towards a more advanced level of survival; intuition.