>Resolution of conflicts between "base motivations" (e.g. protective-
>ness vs. self-preservation, cooperation vs. competition, etc.).
One "base motivation" will be greater in magnitude than the other.
>Motivational Hierarchies -- dominance and recession, rank-order
>(prioritization) etc.
When resources are scarce, the "fittest" survive at the expense of the less "fit".
>[3] The self-destruction of intelligent systems.
An evolutionary dead end - like homosexuality. New deviants will pop up with every generation - but hardly ever are the deviations advantageous. That's why evolution by natural selection takes so long.
>[4] Hypertrophication of a "base-motivation" (e.g. bulimia) or its
>atrophication (e.g. anorexia nervosa).
The desire to be beautiful is the offending base motivation. When the unit's learned definition of beauty and such is in line with this behaviour, it will occur.
>[5] The invariability of "base motivations" seems to imply the
>termination of evolutionary process in the species concerned;
>why evolve from unicellular morphology to multicellular? Why
>experiment with other than asexual reproduction?
In the words of Yoda - there is no "why". Deviations in the new generation occur, then the line either continues or does not, no reasons for the nature of these deviations are required. They are merely emergent properties of the underlying freshly generated genetic code.
>[6] Are the "strictly defined goals" of a mushroom any different
>than those of a flatworm, and if so, how and why?
I can't quite see what you're getting at here - the obvious response is to take the pee and refer you to "The Origin Of Species" by Charles Darwin.... 8P
>[7] Was there a primordial "base motivation" to evolve an "intelligent
>system" for implementing the reduction of "strictly defined" needs?
And we're back to the premises again. "Motivation" is an (I'm going to need a rubber stamp for this handy phrase) abstract symbolic concept. The "motivation" to survive has grown out of the fact that genes DO survive. As soon as the first lot of creatures that especially wanted to survive existed, they would have very quickly completely replaced other more apathetic creatures in the struggle to survive. Hence our now very strong hatred of the concept of death. Motivation doesn't mean anything in the pure context of the primordial soup.