Where does the instinct to survive in plants and animals come from?

Question

Hi friends,

I have read about J C Bose's experiments where he recorded anxiety and fear in plants via a crescograph. He also demonstrated that plants too appreciate good music.

Also, from experience you can tell that no cockroach wants to be stomped upon and all ants and spiders try their best to survive when teased. One would think that having a poorly developed nervous system would make them less prone to pain and anxiety.

Why do the lower life-forms seem to react so fervently or intensely to an external danger? What makes them want to live?

What about plants? Why do they react to external POSSIBLE dangers?

Yeah, I am still feeling the after-effects of the "Ask a stupid question Day"... ;)

Answer 1

The urge to continue living is the most basic instinct of every form of life. It could even be considered the defining characteristic of "life". Suicidal tendency is a self-correcting problem. If say a cockroach didn't have the instincts to run away from impending smushing, it would get smushed, and it wouldn't get to lay any more eggs, and the next generation of cockroaches wouldn't have those self-destructive instincts. The principle is the same for plants.

Basically, anxiety promotes survival, so anything that survives also worries.

Answer 2

it might be a bit wierd - but I do have spiiders roaming the house and neither I or my wife will kill them - but is is freaky when a wolf spider walks on you at 2 a.m. The little folk will immediately freeze when you look at them. In low light conditions, do they see a reflection from my eyes? I think not. There is a mental connection and how it may occur I do not know. But then again I can talk to red squirrels and the crows in the trees at home, and they answer me. I copy their calls, and surprisingly they copy me. Not that we have any real communication, but one notices another. As to the Bose experiments - I have reproduced some of his findings, the very intent of threat towards a plant resulted in .05 mv increases in electricl impulses within measurable area (stem, 10 cm) so I feel this is entirely true. The plant in question was a tomato, and 90 cm high, electrical measurement was taken via .5 mm platinum electrodes, running into a Fluke meter.
- Instinct indeed - 'life finds a way' - that which enjoys the condition known as life will be unwilling to relinquish the right to life.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Hi. Any creature without this instinct would have less of a survival rate. The Discovery Channel had a dinosaur program on today. The hatchlings could either 1) run into the woods or 2) run into the clearing. The ones who ran into the woods had a much better survival rate.

Answer 5

The rules of the natural world work in such a way that survival goes to the creatures who will work the hardest to earn it. The degree of motivation is determined mostly by genes; environment plays a lesser role. That's why ever sort of creature, regardless of intelligence (or capacity for learning), exhibits survivalist behavior. Genes are the players, not mind, and nature keeps the score, not the crazy liberal ideologists.

In every generation, there's a variation in the gene-coded capacity for will-to-power and for the talent necessary to exert that will. While the generation is growing up, nature cooks them in its pot of events, and the weakest and least motivated members thereof die and don't get a chance to have children.

The stronger and most motivated members continue on and, in the fullness of time, bring forth the generation to follow themselves. Natural selection is a form of culling. It's unguided, but it has an ordered effect on living species nonetheless.

Guided culling is called "eugenics," and if it's aligned with nature's own logic, eugenics can greatly speed up the work of natural selection in bringing genetic improvement to a living race.

Answer 6

Good question. Who can say what the life force is? the simple answers is "that the animal or plant wants to pass on it's genes to the next generation", but I don't think it is that simple.

An ant, for example, will not breed , nor will a bee, but it will sacrifice itself for the safety of the hive. I suppose in that situation, the colony becomes more important than the individual, and the gene survives via the safety of the queen.

You may be better putting this one on the philosophy boards.

Answer 7

Whether or not you want to accept this answer is up to you, but it's the only thing that holds water and survives. The answer is God. He made everything just as it should be. Even the lowest of lifeforms has the will to live, because God put it there. Otherwise, it would not be able to survive. You cut off a tree, and with time, little sucker branches grow out of the sides of the stump. You pull off a vine, and it encourages the whole plant to double up on growth, actually encouraging more growth. Cut a worm in half and it re-grows what was cut off. It's the will to live that God put within each living creature. Whether or not you're a creationist or an evolutionist, this is the only thing that makes sense. And you can deny the existance of God all you want, but it don't make Him gone. Just like you can deny that life has a purpose, until you see a bumble bee. He knows his purpose and he goes about his business whether or not you believe in it. Yours is not a stupid question. It's those who think they have all the answers that lack wisdom. Even I don't have all the answers. But I know Whom I trust to take care of what I don't know. It's what I do know that matters and that I have the responsibility to discharge as is needed. <*)))><

Answer 8

Nature. Instinct. The drive to reproduce is their most basic function. Most would die defending their young.

Answer 9

I really don't know but am looking forward to the answers you get. The question is inciteful and interesting.

Answer 10

Environment.