Value

What does it mean to have value? When I say value, I don't mean self-esteem. Value measure the ability of a person to to survive and replicate. A person with many girlfriends, for example, has a lot of value because he is more likely to reproduce. An intelligent person, on the other hand, has a lot of survival value because he is more likely to conquer difficult situations.
It's funny to realize the implications it might have to lack or overflow with value. emotions come into play here again, by increasing our reactiveness (level of emotion) to high value and lower it at low value. Let me illustrate it with popular profiles.
A person that doesn't succeed in relationships, has few friends and has no special qualities that allow him to survive will be perceived automatically, by our brains, as a low value recipient. He will attempt to realign with high value targets for his own sake. however, his emotions will trick him and tell him to be highly reactive emotionally, which is an obvious indication of low value and he needs this interaction. Have you seen or known this person?
Another subject is the polar opposite; He succeeds in love, wealth, and health. He has so many options in relationships, friends, and money, that he has lost interest in trying to acquire things because he has the innate ability to get what he wants; his genes help him survive and replicate. his "unreactivity" is processed, in other people's brains, as high value, and we seem to have a liking for this person. Other times, low value people might exhibit jealousy, an emotion used to promote competition for a high-value object, person, or situation, and suffer at their presence, but the low value of that person is nothing for this high-value person because he can't affect him in any way. Do you know this type of person?

Emotions

What purpose do emotions entail?
In today's society, they are themes, ideals, driving forces. But why do we have them? why are we forced to suffer when we don't want to?
In our evolutionary theory, we can define emotions in one way; they are immediate reactions that enable strong reaction to survival values. what does this mean? I'll illustrate it for you.
Fear; how does this benefit us? well, fear of the dark, let's say, helped our ancestors avoid danger in the dark. Think of it this way: whoever avoided the dark, where dangerous predators roam, was more likely to survive. That's the long and short of it.
Sadness; protects reproduction value. by having an aversive feeling at the loss of a girlfriend, let's say, you try to avoid loosing the "chance to reproduce and pass your genes down to the next generation."
The same can be said for the positive emotions. happiness at the presence of a friend, for example, makes socialization repeatable. socialization helps reproduction because these social networks enable the survival value needed to become a more worthy mate.
I suggest you try to reason how each emotion enables survival or replication.

The Purpose of Life

Religion and philosophy have blasted us with confusion by giving a billion answers to a few hundred questions.  There is one question in particular, that confuses too many of us, and you may already have figured it out:

Why are we here?

The answer is simpler than you might think, but we'll take it step by step...

 In general, any animal with a brainstem (also called the hindbrain; it is an area of the brain that controls basic and biological functioning) knows how to interpret environmental cues in order to survive. but how would an animal know survival? what is survival?

Survival is when one successfully passes down their genes to the next generation. In order to survive, an animal must be able to ensure its own survival and its ability to reproduce; these abilites may be better stated as survival and Replication value.

Now, you must accept the fact that Humans are animals themselves; honestly, the only thing that does separate us from the animals is our ability to communicate with language. This single factor created society, art, and science. We are, as a matter of fact, incredibly complex beings! And it all maps perfectly in the brain. On the top lies an area called the forebrain, the area responsible for our higher-functioning abilities like problem-solving; under that is the midbrain, a series of organs that are responsible for emotion, metabolism (yes, that part that makes you hungry, horny and sleepy), and memory. But what controls the rest of the body? We know we can't make our heart beat consciously or think of every move me make while walking. That's right, we, like any other multi-cellular creature, posses a hindbrain, the inheritance and legacy of our earliest ancestors having lived millions of years ago (yes, probably a fish... maybe a guppy).

So humans share the basic blueprints of a control center we call "brain." How does this affect us, though? well, the only difference between a human brain and any mammal's brain is the development it has gone through by evolving. You feel hungry just as much as any animal feels hungry, you have memory that helps you move just as much as any animal, and you even find the need to reproduce (yes, we all need to have sex, sooner or later) as much as any other being!

But how does this relate to the original question, you may now ask. our biology and genome does not lie: we must survive and replicate. What does this mean? Well, as biological creatures it is our obligation to pass on our genes to the next generation to ensure the survival of our species (only the strongest, though... the rest of the "inferior" genes get weeded out of existence!) by making sure we get on the act sooner or later.

My fellow humans, ensuring our life over death and making sure we live long enough to pass our genes down is what ultimately motivates every action; from going out on a Friday night (replication) to feeling an adrenaline rush moments before a fight (survival), we live to ensure ourselves a place in the future of the great gene pool of mankind.

Activation

Welcome to a place where only an open mind will save you. I stumbled upon this theory a while ago, and even though it goes against what many people want life to mean, it is also the best possible explanation for emotions, conduct, motivation, and more. It is the nightmare of the idealistic person, though, to say that love is an evolutionary tool and not a powerful supernatural force.
It is a relief to me, at least, to know other people are more predictable than we might think. We have an animal side,  a "savage" part that determines what we want and how we want it.
I invite you to discover what I have come to accept as the legitimate driver of life.