Dr. Cisek describes how evolution added function to the brain through addition and/or replication. Much is retained but often repurposed.
It is not difficult to see that “lower” animals are capable in managing interaction with other life forms. Much of these behaviors are instinctive and surprising sophisticated. This is the subcortex that is retained as the controller of the cortex - the default operating system. We have instinct but they are so universal that we have no version of mammals without them; they are kind of invisible. We just want to do stuff and nobody knows why.
Avoiding, approaching, and using affordance plays significantly as building blocks in subcortical programmed behavior.
The cortex shapes these to be more fine, flexible, sequentially chained, and particularly, executing fine grained goals.