Life is not driven by organisms' desire to survive. That idea is doubly wrong.
First, it's not organisms that drive life, but self-replicating molecules called DNA and RNA. Our bodies are merely the immediate, temporary external environment for self-replicating molecules.
And second, the inherent interest of DNA and RNA is self-replication, not survival. The survival of an organic molecule and the survival of an individual organism are not permanent states anyway. There will always be something that finishes off an individual organism. But through self-replication, self-replicating molecules have spanned millions of years, developing and preserving an amazingly complicated structure.
Life started as a chemical automatism involving the elements of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen.
The diversity of life results from the fact that nature cannot make exact copies. Cosmic radiation interferes, and environmental circumstances interfere. Errors occur, and accidents happen.
Nature cannot make exact copies. But nature can make many copies. And then, it's not survival of the fittest, but reproduction of the fittest.
For a number of insect species, males compete to fly highest. The prize is copulation. The prize is not survival. All competing males, including the winners, are dead anyway within 24 hours.
For humans, too, the purpose is not survival of the fittest, which is unattainable. The purpose is reproductive behavior. That is what we are programmed for. Whether this will lead to the self-replication of DNA isn't certain. As mentioned above, the whole string of interconnections is prone to error.
Both the will to survive, even though it may be strongly felt by the individual, and the concept of survival of the fittest, are logical fallacies. Or intellectual traps. These traps exist to trick us into reproductive behavior and to handle the logistics of self-replication.
Self-awareness on a human level was likely an evolutionary error. It developed from self-awareness in lower life forms. Apes, monkeys, elephants, dogs, and even some birds have self-awareness. Self-awareness is a by-product of brain development, and it gives the animals listed above a competitive edge.
But human self-awareness goes a step further. Human self-awareness allows us to see through nature's trickery and boycott it.
