We’re coming to understand that life in this world is that of an extended family, not just from a human perspective, but from all manner and forms of sentient organisms. The purpose of Survive is not to enumerate the processes of every kind of life up the evolutionary tree, from bacteria to humans, but to look for the common denominators on that tree and to explore what motivators of all life forms share with greater emphasis placed on primates in general, but humans in particular throughout the journey of this book. And, although the concept of survival is evident in a biological sense, it expands far beyond simple physical survival for the human being. The questions of psychological, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual survival, as well as the overriding question of identity all play a role. Who is the “me” that is fighting to survive? That is the existential question we struggle consciously or unconsciously to address.
