/sci/ - Science & Math

>>10521358
The more an organism has developed its cognitive capabilities and its conscience/awareness of their self, the less their are guided by instincts/hormonal drive. This is a clear pattern that remains true all throughout the spectrum, from the so called "eusocial animals" that are virtually only driven by chemical/instinctual motivation, to humans where the instincts and hormones play a very small part, if at all, in motivational drive.

The reason for this proportionally inverse presence is not that clear, but it is likely due to the conditions in which cognitive abilities would be able to develop: if your behavior is dictated by instincts, there is little space for your thoughts to make the difference, so animals that did develop such abilities likely had a less strong instinctual base and/or progressively lost it.

The problem with the absence of instincts, however, is that the organism does not really have any reason to behave in a way that would maximize survivability for itself and the species. That is the reason why we are born with a set of fundamental pulsions, that provide us with pleasure (food, water, sex), rewarding us for actions that help humanity go forward, regardless of what our brains think of the matter.

tl;dr women feel pleasure during sex because they don't go into heat, the same way men feel pleasure because they don't go into rut.

As for why do we orgams, it is likely because of how conditioning works: if we felt always the same amount of pleasure, we would not be that incentivized to keep doing it, knowing that a higher reward is coming will keep us enganged longer (thus increasing the likelihood of fecundation). We also don't know precisely when we will orgasm, which gets us even more engaged in the act. It's the same principle behind the addictive nature of slot machines. At least that would be my theory.