Conjecture

The departure from the rest of the animal kingdom is that our sense of value came loose from fitness. Before social animals, value was set biologically: evolution programmed snakes, fish and mammals to treat as valuable what served survival and reproduction. Social mammals added a layer that prioritised inclusion and prosocial behaviour, but the behaviour stayed tethered. Part I draws the line precisely: when male baboons fight for dominance they are fighting because biological and social drives say the mating and feeding rights are worth the cost, and they are not fighting because their religion tells them they will go to heaven for killing or dying against the enemies of their god. Humans judge major decisions against a constellation of ideas instead, which is why college feels meaningful, why crusaders volunteered to die at the edge of the known world, and why vows of celibacy are intelligible at all despite guaranteeing that one's genes end.

Coordination architecture