CONCEPT
Conatus
Spinoza's name for the endeavor by which each thing strives to persist in its being — the essence of any organized pattern, and the force that explains productive addiction and Luddite resistance with a single principle.
In the third part of the Ethics, Spinoza introduces a concept that functions as the hinge between his metaphysics and his psychology: conatus, the striving by which every particular thing endeavors to persist in its existence. The proposition sounds tautological — things tend to keep being what they are — but the tautology conceals the force that drives most human behavior in the age of AI. Because human beings do not simply persist as biological organisms. They persist as identities, as professionals, as members of communities, as bearers of specific skills. The striving to persist in these elaborate forms of being is what drives the compulsive builder, the resistant senior engineer, the organization defending its business model, and the technology itself reaching toward every available channel of deployment. Conatus is not choice. It is essence in action.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The compulsive builder who cannot stop working through meals and sleep is exhibiting conatus