Reply I.D. apwp
#153
Type: Essay
Topic: Evolution, Religion, Philosophy, The Mind

The Next Evolutionary Leap In Terrestrial Life, Part 1
by Nate A. Lindell, created 14 June, 2013

Evolution as the cause of our existence is hotly disputed by those who do not correctly understand it, many of whom have been misinformed about the nature of the process by those who fear that evolution threatens the superstitions that comfort or empower them and thus preach against it sophistically. Belief in evolution, at least *hard* evolution, eliminates the possibility that a spiritual or even a material God (i.e. Jehovah or aliens) having "created" us, particularly the possibility of any God having created us in his/her/its image. Those who believe that a God created them and lived their life accordingly have much to lose should they embrace evolution, and little to gain, as Pascal's wager explained.

If you are one of the people who rejects evolution as even a possibility, please read "Selfish Genes and Selfish Memes" at pp. 124-134 of "The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul", which is an excerpt from Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene" and understandably explains how hard evolution worked to create life on Earth,

Or create-*ing*.

Why must we think that the evolutionary process has now ended?

Assuming you've now read and understand Dawkins' exposition of how life evolved into (in some forms at least) its present more-complex *macro* scale from an originally entirely simple *micro* scale, consider how life on Earth in its more complex forms (we'll call it macro life) has come and gone.

Long ago there was the age of the dinosaurs and insects; now we live in the age of the mammals and insects. The age of giant mammals - mammoths, cave bears, etc. - has, relatively speaking, recently ended. The age of the amphibians seems to be coning to an ed, with the global extinction of frogs and salamanders. the age of the primate that engages in reflective thought, makes and uses the most complex tools of any previous animal, etc - the age of mankind - is here.

Also in "The Mind's I" is Harold J. Morowitz' "Rediscovering the Mind", Which, at p. 40, pointed out to me "...the dramatic instances of discontinuity in evolution..." That prompted me to wonder what the next leap might be. Consider with me the leaps that were, as I gleaned from Morowitz and Dawkins:

1)From the Big Nothing to the Big Bang - the coming into existence of our universe;
2) The beginning of complex molecules that replicated themselves from simpler surrounding
constituents - the beginning of primordial life;
3) The encoding of directions on how replicators replicate themselves in *genes* rather than based on
the laws of chemistry;
4) Replicators joining with each other to form a colony, magro life, which facilitates their survival
and the passing on of their genetic information (see Dawkins' piece at p. 134);
5) Macro life, through the natural[1] selection process (i.e. the elimination of characteristics that
don't aid a life form's survival, preservation of characteristics that do aid survival), developing
a brain that is complex enough to enable the being - man - to engage in complex, self-reflective
thought.

One could further subdivide these leaps in the evolutionary process, or identify leaps I overlooked; but the point is, *they happen*. And each leap springs from what the last leap was.

Reflective thought, a.k.a. consciousness - it's only a stepping stone, I say.

"All the great empires of the future will be empires of the mind"

-Winston Churchill, 1953

You're all invited to unchain your imaginations and leave a comment as to what this *could* mean, regardless of ol' Winnie's original context. As for myself, it could mean that the next great evolutionary leap will be into a reality more profoundly mastered by the minds that depend on material reality (see my post #'s 119 & 135).

No doubt, as Nathaniel Branden well explained in "The Psychology of Self-Esteem", the more powerful, focusable and flexible one's consciousness is, the better one will be able to effect their survival and thus pass on the genes with that design. We already use *chemicals* (eg. Ritalin, Adderall, Depakote, SSRIs, etc.), electrical devices (eg. cochlear implants, deep-brain stimulators, even prosthetic eyes that directly stimulate the occipital lobe's visual cortex), and are getting to the point where we'll be able to use stem cells, if not transplants of brain tissue to enhance human consciousness. Imagine being able to :

~ hear like a bat
~ see like a mantis shrimp (they see ultraviolet light) or a cuttlefish
~ smell like a bloodhound (even average dogs can *smell* skin cancer cells)
~ have the kinesthetic sense and neural processing speed of a hummingbird.
~ etc.

Imagine the removal, deadening, or better control of the parts of our brains that cause mental or emotional illness in people, altering our very souls!

The possibilities are promising, scary, and interesting.

Footnotes
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[1] People are natural. What they do is natural. Yet we call it artificial. Yet more evidence of the contempt we have for our own species...which I will demonstrate :)