Why is life programmed to survive?

[Arkilogue]

Surely electromagnetism and gravity exert shaping force on living structure?  Would you call that a push or a pull?

A push.  All those things are in the mix, providing the backdrop which must be accounted for by the life forms which survive to reproduce.  But explain to me in what manner such conditions are intending toward a particular outcome.

Is the manifestation of round waves in a round bucket full of water "pushed" or "pulled" by the shape of the bucket?

All are pushes, nothing is being drawn to a particular outcome.  There is no meta-intention, just inevitable outcomes given the nature of the materials.  (This is just my own spur of the moment metaphor, probably no longer helpful.)

Gravity shapes things radially in the cosmos but on our scale the interaction is vertical. Electricity travels as a tubular skin effect in one direction. So combining these gives me a vertical tube that flows in one direction. You probably do this each morning after coffee.

"Material" is not the only influence, there are forces and fields to account for as well.

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Looking transparently through the horizontal strata of the earth, yeah that big freaking hole is a disorder.  But again, from who's perspective?

The phrase you're looking for is "ideologically abhorrent eyesore".  I don't like strip mines either, but you can't argue with the order in which they are dug and operated. Unless you don't really want to talk about -order-...and would prefer, instead..to discuss that other phrase.  

The dissection of a body can be a very meticulously ordered procedure....of undoing all the structural order of the body.

Yes, and?

I'm taking about the original order of the strata of the earth being dug up with tiny buckets and put in piles or sifted in machines. The original order is no more.

A surgical military strike is a symphony of order and mechanical operation....that causes destruction/disorder.

So which is it? Is the dissection of a body and act of order or disorder? Is the dissection of the earth order, disorder or neither/both?