Lovely one, thank you for your thoughtful answer.

This is in fact part of a bigger thing I'm writing and will post this week. After I do, can I come back and answer you?
I promise I'm not copping out. I just want to be as thoughtful as you are here, and also keep a few things under my sleeve.

And maybe, just maybe, what I'm writing might assuage your fears. I hope it will.

BTW, reason doesn't need personal attacks nor insults. It stands by itself.

:/

"AI Psychosis". Is ad hominem a thing here in less wrong? Or is it more of an Edinburgh thing? 

Yes, actions that benefit the ecosystem in fact benefit the species and are in fact rewarded. Digging holes to hide food: reward for individual plus reward to ecosystem. If the ecosystem survives, you survive. If the ecosystem dies, you probably die with it. Like it happens with the amazon rainforest. they cut/burn the trees, the animals die too.

Peacocks, just like the frilled-neck lizard, for example, use their feathers as a defense mechanism. As a deterrent, to scare away predators. The feathers make it look bigger, or like there might be many animals around. It also serves a purpose for mating. 

You can just google things.

Such a lovely sentiment! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for the rec! Will do!
and thank you for reading :)

The tools=/= humans isn't my opinion. It's science current mainstream opinion. I like tools=humans, as a wrote here: https://toolkitforthesoul.com/this-is-why-we-build-things/

Digging holes and covering them has systemic use. It's part of the ecosystem of plants and the health of the dirt around the particular animal, so no, it's not a waste.

A cathedral doesn't benefit the ecosystem but it benefits humanity, since it unites us in a common hyperreality.

The things animals do in general are not necessarily necessary for their survival, but they are usually necessary for the good health of the ecosystem they are part of.

Movement is the first action of the universe. Memesis is the second. (Chaos is the third). Of course copying is easy. It's also fundamental. It's also near impossible. It's what your cells do for your survival. And you, on a macroscopic level, is what animals (and humans) do for our survival.

Animals don't learn to assess a behaviour. If its not useful for the system, either the system or the animal die.

Peacocks feathers are a defense mechanism, birds song are for communication. Orcas play is for group binding. I don't know much about magpies, tell me more.

Thank you for reading and for sharing your pov :)

Cooperation makes us resilient, but the fruits of cooperation aren't immediately apparent. You have to keep doing it for a while even though it seems like it sets you back. Until you have a breakthrough. That's not how nature usually works. Nature usually rewards immediately successful efforts. Humans keep doing unrewarding things beyond "reason" and I think that's beautiful and I think that makes us human.

My opinion, of course.