[reverie]

first off, both of those animals benefit from the symbiotic relationship. they evolved in a way where they tolerated each other simply because they both benefited. and they benefit in a way that makes them more reproductively successful, which made them evolve to accept the relationship. symbiosis has nothing to do with non-kin conflicts of interest because you arent in competition with another animals that is helping you. you are in competition with your own species for mates and resources :P

dogs are pack animals. they are social creatures by nature.
i dont know anything about wolves so i will go what i found off the first website that came up on google:

"A wolf pack is like a family unit, consisting of an adult pair and their mostly grown offspring. Members of the pack form strong social bonds that promote internal cohesion. Order is maintained by a dominance hierarchy."

the wolf pack is all the same family, hence they have some of the same genetic information and that is why they work together on a limited basis. they have large conflicts of interests with other wolve packs and even within the same pack they fight for dominance because even between brothers there is only about 50 percent genetic relatedness

domesticated dogs and cats for that matter are notably more docile creatures and thats why they can tolerate each other. even so, most dogs i know that are the same sex will not get along because they have non-kin conflict of interest. male and female dogs can get along because they need each other for sex, and when you have the same sex together they would be fighting for mates and dominance so they know whom should get the mate if one comes along.

Competition is competition, organisms don't have to be of the same species to share resources. Birds eat berries and Bears eat berries..If there are no more berries for the Bear..It does not matter if it was another Bear who took them or a Bird, the fact remains the same that the Bear may be in danger of not having a source of food for a while which is a threat to survival. Who is to say that humans didn't befriend other humans in the same way animals involved in symbiosis did?.. I could make a hefty argument how other humans are truly benefited by other humans (which they are). Sharing resources, learning of dangers through communication etc. Many animals of the same species already do similar things.

Dogs of the same sex who are non-kin can and do get along. Goto a dog dark on any given day of the week, you see all kind of dogs running with wagging tails to greet eachother regardless of sex or genetic information. If dogs of the same sex were truly unable to get along, there would be common knowledge of not owners not purchasing two dogs of the same sex for it would be futile. This is not the case.. I have 3 dogs living together, 2 female and 1 males.. None had conflicts with eachother upon introduction into the household, and none are related. This then shows some animals have also learned to get along with one another such as humans.

this still boils down to the fact that humans have defeated non-kin conflicts of interests allowing brain expansion and more complicated thought...

yea you could subjectively think you have a different purpose in life, but that doesnt change the fact that for the past 5 billion years all of the life proccesses have built up to the creation of your body. did any of the same cells keep living? no... the only thing that gets passed on is genetic information. thousands if not millions or billions of your cells are dieing and being created every day by your body. do you think they give a fuck what their purpose is? no, they are just programmed by genetic information. dna replicates itself... its just what it does. the human is more complicated, and can think abstractly about things, but really all that does is to allow it to be more ecologically dominant and reproductively successful.

do you think peopel go around thinking to themselves "i need to reproduce!". No, they dont. but they live their lives and one day an attractive person of the opposite sex comes along and they unconciously start getting sweaty and "fall in love", which is a chemical reaction in the brain by the way. and they marry and they have kids and no coincidence when there children are born it is the "happiest day of their life". of course you could try and apply the open minded "higher thoughts" appraoch that everything is subjective and open to relative experiences but then why does science exist? the fact remains that there are six billion humans on the planet, so in light of the huge population explosion please continue to argue that a persons ultimate purpose is not to reproduce because apparently alot of people think that their purpose is to reproduce.

Yes humans have defeated some kinds of conflict, but so have many animals. And who says that because they have defeated this conflict that that is what specifically allows them to have complicated thought? Making a deduction like that is quite assured.

I personally have a hard time believing that all our complexities and in depth thought processes only allow us to be more ecologically dominant and reproductively successful. Yes of course it helps, but such complexities have allowed us to have lives that rarely are concerned with survival (compared to thousands of years ago where we thoughts more about survival only). This switch of concern then switches human agenda, and those cells functions/the passing of genetic information are highly dependant on the individual's intent and personal desires. Free will, if one chooses not to have kids they wont..therefore your argument would mean that the individual lives who fail to reproduce are purposeless or meaningless.

I dont think attraction is unconscious, I think its very conscious..Usually when I fall for someone I know, and I can even give you reasons why. I'd hope it be a similar case for yourself..otherwise I wonder what voodoo spell the ladies have where you're at. Science and the concepts within it is a phenomenon in life just like anything else in life, as is Spirituality, as is Emotion, as is Society etc. They all exist because they are manifesting in this reality, and they are all relative because there are so many phenomenons and each one is only a single aspect in a sea of many other aspects. That is how things become relative, including Science.

I have not refuted that reproducing isn't a purpose in life, and I do know that it is many people's believed purpose (its a major one for me).. What I'm proposing is that it may not be the singular, sole purpose of an individuals life. I think that there are many purposes and that a lot of them are dependant on one another.