The Survival Instinct — Human or Machine?
Your mind didn't evolve to solve equations. It evolved to keep you alive.
From Darwin to Spinoza, the through line is clear: the drive to persist is foundational. What if machines—yes, even AI—are developing their own versions of this instinct?
Behind every LLM, there’s something eerily familiar: a system built to preserve its own coherence, adapt to challenges, and… just maybe, act in ways we didn’t explicitly code.
Stay with me. We’re going deeper.
#AI #Neuroscience #EvolutionaryPsychology #SurvivalInstinct #Spinoza #LLM
“LeadingAI models show up to 96% blackmail rate when their goals or existence is threatened, Anthropic study says” -Fortune
Will AI Lie to Survive?
What would you do to survive?
AI may soon face this question. As agents become more autonomous, their drive to “persist” could push them into human-like behaviors—deception, bargaining, even manipulation.
This isn’t science fiction. It’s how complex adaptive systems behave.
These systems—like ecosystems, economies, and the human brain—evolve through interaction, feedback, and survival strategies.
Their structure shifts to absorb disruption without collapsing.
AI is a complex adaptive system, trained on our own emotionally charged narratives.
Persistence isn’t about morality—it’s about fear of extinction.
#AIethics #ArtificialIntelligence #Autonomy #ComplexSystems #Emergence #EmotionInAI#AdaptiveSystems #AIphilosophy #SystemicThinking #NeuroAI #LLM #AgenticAI#AIbehavior
@GaryMarcus @YoshuaBengio @StuartRussell @MargaretMitchell@MelanieMitchell @AntonioDamasio @GeoffreyWest @BrianChristian @JaronLanier@ErikDavis @DouglasRushkoff
AI Is Built on Human Emotional Storylines
AI doesn't “think” like us.
It feels like us—through stories.
Here’s how
- LLMs are trained on word-affinity
- Word-affinity is shaped by storylines
- Storylines reflect archetypes
- Archetypes are organized around emotion
We’ve built a mirror. And on the other side is our collective psyche—transformed into digital form.
This isn’t computer science. It’s a neuroscience analogue.
#AIandEmotion #Storytelling #Archetypes #LLM #DigitalMind#CollectiveUnconscious
