chemical robot - alive why

DNA

the programme writer for our emotions
is our DNA
as it is for our toenails and our blood cells
we are programmed from birth to have emotions
as our brain becomes more mature
we have more sophistication in
the types of emotions we have
and in
the way our brain deals with emotions,
(hopefully)

emotions are old programmes made to help survival
not survival of us individuals
but survival of DNA
chance errors in DNA generate random changes
these survive or don't survive
iron rusts
but you wouldn't say it plans to rust
so DNA changes
but it doesn't plan to
it just happens through random errors in copying
so to say that DNA sets up emotions
really means that survival chose the DNA
which had emotion coded
perhaps better to say survival chose emotions

so DNA, survival and evolution look like a plan
but they are just an inevitable result of chemistry
DNA/survival selected emotions that help us, the donkeys
we are the donkeys transporting human DNA through time
DNA has no plan
it has only inevitable survival
or not survival
emotion appears to make us transport DNA better through time
by making us do things that promote survival
long enough to procreate and care for our children

DNA gives us a carrot and a stick
to keep us on the right path
the right path for the survival of dna
the carrot is happiness
the stick is unhappiness

when we choose the things that make us happy
eg being communal,
this helps us survive
when we do things that make us unhappy
eg not having any purpose or future
we tend not to survive so well
the carrot and stick have persisted over time
but as our brain's cortex has become more sophisticated
but the sophistication is only in the
multiplicity of carrots and sticks
and the complexity of the game they create
we have found more things which we see
as getting us a carrot or a stick.
these days in the western world
wealth success and social standing are predominant
as our carrots
if we don't achieve these things we get a stick
these things appear to help DNA to survive

the problem that emotions bring is
that they are programmes for DNA survival
but we are not DNA
and we will not survive
death is inevitable

so our purpose is different from DNA's
we can't get rid of emotion
so our only choice is to be happy
in fact emotion demands this

to get our happiness effectively our only option
is to do so communally and sustainably
rather than in the unbridled way that dna would have