Scarcity and adaptive behavior

Abstract

The scarcity is one of the fundamental features of life in the universe. The resources for survival were, are and always will be scarce. Therefore, all creatures had to adapt to this situation. The fundamental purpose of this article is to demonstrate that over time all living organisms went through a severe and selective adaptation to the rarity. The main tool for fighting rarity was the adoption of the economic behavior. This type of behavior is widespread in the animal world. The long process of natural selection and the survival instinct had made possible that all creatures possess the ability to adapt to the limited amount of resources. In the absence of developed intelligence, the animals have adopted a conduct adaptate to scarcity by a ritualized behavior and, to a lesser extent, by learning. Unlike animals, the humans have reacted against the rarity with their exceptional comparative advantage, that is, an unusual development of the brain. Thus, they were able to adjust the volume of resources limited by the limited understanding of cause-effect relationships. Over the time, the humans have learned that the their reaction against scarcity must be the reflection and the sober behavior. The greatest difference between humans and other living organisms is that the humans have the ability to fight scarcity with conducts transmitted by cultural way. The exceptional brain development and the learning ability are the most important human weapons against scarcity. Unlike the biological adaptation, the cultural adaptation allows to purchase and send a huge amount of knowledge from one generation to another, which is impossible on the way biological selection. Therefore, the human behavior is much better adapted to scarcity than the animal behavior.