So to survive our ancestors at the very least needed to balance two very strong conflicting needs.

On one side I would call it the absolute, the physiological need to stay alive. The imperative of survival. Survival impulses to seek shelter from threats to achieve food, to attain protective clothing against the elements, fear of predators, all the future survival concerns that would keep us going.

And of course, to incentivize though that very strong survival impulses, the brain has set up very strong neural rewards to promote attaining survival advantages and security.

The midbrain from birth, the circuits that promote survival are deeply wired from amygdala, hippocampus, adrenal acapech, especially cortisol.

So the dopamine though, which is the principal neural reward,

which promotes taking care of yourself, making sure you're safe, attaining objects,

hoarding compulsively attaining things that make you feel secure are very strong.

And the left hemisphere of the brain helps out in this task of survival in that it looks out for

long-term survival planning and it's deeply wired to help in the triggering of dopamine.

There's no two ways around it.

If we don't survive, the species obviously would not be doing very well.

So it's strongly implicated and it's a very principal need that we all have to feel secure safe by attaining all the stuff that ensures our physiological well-being. Then on the other side, we call that individual survival.

Then there's the drive to connect collectively with other people, which is equally important for us.

As a species, our principal advantage, is that we connect so well and collaborate on such remarkably

different levels. No other species is capable of spreading new tools, new information,

organizing, and that's really why the human species is fared so well.

We connect not just emotionally, which is the core principle impulses that drive us to connect.

But we also can use language.

So we can connect on multiple different levels.

Again, though, the principal area of the brain responsible to keeping us connected is the emotional

realm of the right hemisphere and our emotions are largely litmus tests to impel us to connect and to achieve

secure interactions and relations with others.

...