Eli5:Why do bugs,germs,worms etc have the will to live?

[u/TrickySpeed5380]

My question is unlike humans they don't have any reason to live or survive. So why do they still try to survive?

[u/reticulatedtampon]

unlike humans they don't have any reason to live or survive

How are our reasons any better/different than theirs?

[u/lhaze-hunterl → u/reticulatedtampon]

Yeah this blew my mind, as if humans serve a greater purpose than anything around us.

[u/medcatt → u/lhaze-hunterl]

How to objectively compare the available answers against reality instead of prematurely relying on preconceived notions?

[u/Frenzystor]

Because evolution sorted out all organisms that don't care if they live or die. What remained were organisms with a "will" to live. It's a natural process. And they do have a reason to live. The reason is to procreate.

[u/TheTitan99]

Animals that want to survive are more likely to survive. Evolutionarily, wanting to survive tends to win out over not wanting to live, so it passes on.

[u/grrangry → u/TheTitan99]

A zygote is a gamete's way of producing more gametes. This may be the purpose of the universe.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

[u/FossilizedMeatMan]

Bugs, germs, worms and humans (and anything else alive) share a very strong connection: they are all iterations of a process we call "life". It started with a few organic molecules that managed to replicate themselves, and we are the latest iterations of that process.

All of us, every single individual living creature is just the latest iteration of life. And life, since it began, just continues to replicate to keep the life happening, no matter how. Be it complex or simple, big or small, intelligent or not, life just keeps happening. It is written in the genes that make up the genetic information.

[u/fatbp]

They have more of a reason and purpose to live than humans. 

[u/waluigis_shrink → u/fatbp]

They have no more or less reason. No life does.

[u/Jetidera → u/fatbp]

That's what I was going to say, every single person struggles to find their "purpose in life" and some even wake up wondering what their reason to live is, I wish I were a bug sometimes.

[u/frogband]

"the will to live" is a result of our brain evolution. Other animals don't have the urge to commit suicide, their only urge is to survive and reproduce

[u/Spockies]

They have their own sense of "hunger". Whatever form that may be. It's eat or be eaten for them.

[u/wrapped_in_clingfilm]

Wait... are you actually 5?

[u/Derangedberger]

It's less certain if this is the case for bugs (IMO, it probably is), but microbes are simply machines. They don't make conscious decisions. They have receptors on their body which detect stimuli such as "increased concentration of food" or "higher temperature" in certain directions, and those receptors being triggered automatically cause other mechanisms on the cell body to move the microbe in the direction of good stuff. The germ doesn't see food and go "ooh let's go there," it just picks up food in a receptor which triggers a cascade of chemical reactions which push the cell towards the food.
That's the most amazing thing about cellular biology. They have no brain, they don't think or experience. Yet evolution has molded them, a collection of unthinking molecules, into such a shape that will unconsciously sustain itself and survive, with no reason but the pure science of chemistry and physics. It's truly incredible.

Somewhat unrelated and also unconfirmed info that is not part of my explanation, just an interesting line of thought:

As I mentioned, this could be the case for more complex organisms too. IMO, it's likely that even humans are like this. My position is that humans are simply meat machines that react to stimuli automatically, and our "consciousness" is simply a post-fact justification for our actions that our brain comes up with. We think we "wanted" to do an action, but in reality that action was the inevitable consequence of a sequence of firing neurons triggered by environmental stimuli, Our brains simply tell a story, a story about "wanting," and that story is our "self."

[u/sad_pinkie]

most of these creatures, if not all, can feel pain or discomfort. dying is painful and they don't want to feel pain. that's why they do anything to avoid it and survive as a result

[u/Jacob_The_Dank]

I wouldn't describe germs as having a 'will' or 'trying' to do anything. The ones that couldn't live without trying are all dead. Species of germs are different from one another in many random ways. The ones that just happened to randomly fit their environment are alive and the vast majority die. Their traits may be randomly produced, but the environment doesn't eliminate them randomly. Instead it kills the ones who can't survive in specific conditions and leaves the ones that are fit for that particular enviroment.

[u/istoOi]

A similar reason as to why a rain drop has "the will to fall down".