BEATRIZ ZANFORLIN

It might be that conscience is a self-correction trait that evolved within the human species.

I suspect that at some point in our ancestral history, our instincts ceased to be the most suited to the external environment. To adapt, one evolutionary strategy could have involved the development of a new trait: the ability to understand and control our instincts, namely conscience. This adaptation may have proven so advantageous that over time, it became more refined, enabling our instincts to diverge significantly from what would be optimal for survival. Because we have a self-correcting mechanism, we can also allow more “mistakes”. This is why we might, for instance, feel feel a strong urge to act aggressively but choose not to. Beating someone would probably not be the best survival strategy in our current environment, however, we still feel that urge. That is because our conscience allows us to suppress it and move on, thereby reducing the selective pressure for such instincts to diminish in future generations.

I also suspect that the development of a conscientious mind could be a general process present across animal life, not exclusive to humans. Andrew Parker explained the Cambrian Explosion by the evolution of sight, an extremely successful trait that proliferated in most animal species. We might have once marveled at the success of trilobites just as we marvel at the success of the human species today, not realizing that conscience might become a widespread trait in millions of years from now.