The transcendental nature of the evolutionary process

[bascule]

Daniel Dennett described evolution as a ratchet with which we can do some very heavy lifting. Provided that an ambiogenic event is responsible for life on earth, it explains how a mechanical, blind, and purposeless system could have spat out sentient life. But where is evolution going to take us in the future?

 

I've seen a number of articles dealing with the evolutionary stagnation of humanity from a biological standpoint, wondering in which direction humanity will evolve biologically. But I think that's such a naive view, as human evolution is increasing at an unprecedented rate, but in a societal and technological manner rather than a biological one.

 

Animal life is, at the base level, about being an anticipater/avoider. You anticipate potential dangers and avoid them, at least long enough to have lots and lots of offspring. As our knowledge of the universe increases we are becoming increasingly better anticipater/avoiders, to the point that we have begun anticipating some rather enormous future problems that will happen billions or trillions of years in the future, such as the sun going supernova or the entire Milky Way galaxy eventually being sucked into a black hole. And while we certainly don't yet have a mechanism for avoiding these problems, we can anticipate them, at that's the first step towards fixing them.

 

The amount of matter and energy under conscious control is going to increase exponentially, and more and more of that is going to be put towards predicting the future. Our system of knowledge is going to grow increasingly more persistent, communicatable, structured, and interconnected. As this happens, the number of this consciousness can't do will decrease exponentially.

 

The natural limit of this process, as time approaches infinity, is for consciousness to eventually control all matter and energy (to the extent that it possibly can) and for it to transcend every barrier that nature has placed in its way (to the extent that it possibly can). We certainly can't say what those limits will or will not be given our rather puerile understanding of the universe, but simply put things that seem impossible to us today will be entirely possible for a conscious entity in such a position. Once an entity has transcended every possible barrier within its ability to do so, what really seperates it from a God?

[Mokele]

So you're basically saying that humans will evolve into gods? If so, sorry, but several good sci-fi writers (and innumerable bad ones) have beaten you to that observation.

 

Mokele

[bascule]

So you're basically saying that humans will evolve into gods? If so, sorry, but several good sci-fi writers (and innumerable bad ones) have beaten you to that observation.

 

Something like Gaia/Galaxia from Foundation, yes, but I think Asimov didn't really think through how powerful the collective conscious effect would be.

[metatron]

I’ve made several post on my fossil discovery, and subsequent evolutionary model, [Archetypal descent] that states complex life was spawned by central life forms that catalyzed instantaneously when environmental thresholds are reached, just prior to the Cambrian explosion.

 

One thing that jumps out at me from this new model is this.

 

It appears we may not be the dominant life form on the planet!

 

According to my interpretation of this fossil, in the context of the fossil record. Their exists in each of the phyla, a nested hierarchy.

A central life form, or life forms, acting as a sustained information bank for the phyla, and we are only on the periphery of this hierarchal system.

 

 

Curiously This view point has never been considered.

 

We may only be back seat drivers in this path of evolution and only think we are tending this planet.

 

It appears we may be the tended.

 

I do realize this may to some to reflect the religion view point, but not really. I arrived at this view though scientific investigation though the lens of systems theory, which I consider my main school of thought.

 

I’m still left with the fact that once again we find our selves not at the center of the universe.

 

I just wonder who will try to burn me at the stake first…… The scientist or the creationist.

[CanadaAotS]

the creationist, they have their stakes and matches ready at all times