An organism's
fitness is measured by its ability to pass on its
genes. The most straightforward way to accomplish this is to survive to a
reproductive age,
mate if necessary, and then produce offspring. These offspring will hold at least a portion of their parent's genes, or up to all of the parent's genes in
asexual organisms. But in order for this to happen, an organism must first survive long enough to reproduce, and this would mainly consist of adopting selfish behaviors that would allow organisms to maximize their own chances for survival. Even the most simple of living organisms (for example, the single-celled
bacteria) are typically under intense
selective pressure to evolve a response that would help avoid a damaging environment, if such an environment exists. Organisms also evolve while adaptingeven thrivingin a benign environment (for example, a
marine sponge modifies its structure in response to current changes, in order to better absorb and process nutrients). Self-preservation is, therefore, an almost universal hallmark of life. However, when introduced to a novel threat, many species will have a self-preservation response either too specialised, or not specialised enough, to cope with that particular threat. An example is the
dodo, which evolved in the absence of natural predators, and hence lacked an appropriate, general self-preservation response to heavy predation by humans and rats, showing no fear of them.
Sentient organisms For
sentient organisms,
pain and
fear are integral parts of this mechanism. Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to
avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves promptly once the painful stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but sometimes pain persists despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body; and sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease. Fear causes the organism to seek safety and may cause a release of
adrenaline, which has the effect of increased strength and heightened senses such as hearing, smell, and sight. Self-preservation may also be interpreted figuratively, in regard to the coping mechanisms one needs to prevent emotional trauma from distorting the mind (see
Defence mechanisms).
Cellular Self-preservation is not just limited to individual organisms; this can be scaled up or down to other levels of life. Narula and Young indicate that cardiac
myocytes have an acute sense of self-preservation. They are able to duck, dart, and dodge foreign substances that may harm the cell. In addition, when a myocardiac arresta
heart attackoccurs, it is actually the cardiac myocytes entering a state of hibernation in an attempt to wait out a lack of resources. makes the argument that "
social groups that fight each other are self‐sustaining, self‐replicating wholes containing interdependent parts" indicating that the group as a whole can have self-preservation with the individuals acting as the cells. He makes an analogy between the
survival practices such as
hygiene and the
ritual nature within
small human groups or the
nations that engage in
religious warfare with the complex
survival mechanisms of
multicellular organisms that evolved from the cooperative association of single cell organisms in order to better protect themselves.
Instrumental convergence In the field of
artificial intelligence, the concept of
instrumental convergence holds that sufficiently intelligent agents have a tendency to pursue a similar set of intermediary subgoals such as self-preservation, as they instrumentally help accomplish final goals.
Stuart J. Russell illustrates this point by stating that a robot whose only goal would be to fetch coffee would have an incentive to preserve itself, as "it can’t fetch the coffee if it’s dead". Other proposed instrumental goals include resource acquisition,
self-improvement, and goal-content integrity. == Implications ==