Thoughts on competition

[MTL]

An alien environment that copiously supplies all the needs of it's inhabitants (from microbes to whatever) will not experience evolution.

They'll be VERY easy for us to conquer/enslave/eat/boink, whatever we want.

Now, that's most certainly true here on Earth, and MAY be a universal constant.  There are creatures on land and sea who are perfectly adapted to their environments (scorpions, cockroaches, sharks, etc.) who, as far as we can tell, have not changed in eons.  What drove human evolution?  The need for shelter, heat, the need to find food - - the need to combat the environment in order to stay alive.

An Evolutionary Biologist, like Richard Dawkins, would be better suited to answer that question,

but my haphazard guess is that each creature reacted to its immediate surroundings, circumstances, and needs;

meaning, you continue doing whatever was currently working...until it stopped working,
and a new solution was needed.

for some bottom-feeding fish, this meant to keep using the system of camouflage and ambush to catch food,

For some primates, this meant more social cooperation and developing tool-using and problem-solving skills.

And competition has always gone hand-in-hand with survival,
even amongst your own species.

As we evolved, I suspect there was a turning-point,
where we had developed such a sophisticated brain
that "curiosity" became a by-product of our evolution;

also, we probably mastered our surroundings to a degree that it freed up some of our hunting/gathering time for more recreational uses, like leaving paintings on a cave wall in what is now Lascaux, France...

...the primitive forerunner of art and philosophy.

Anyway, like you, I have never really understood what drives sporting competition;
I ALWAYS felt bad for the other team, so I never enjoyed winning so much.

I only just became a fan of the Montréal Canadiens in recent years,
and it had more to do with embracing the culture of Montréal,
(where hockey is the only real religion)
than it had to do with hating other teams.