Big Historical Foundations for Deep Future Speculations: Cosmic Evolution, Atechnogenesis, and Technocultural Civilization

Last, Cadell

doi:10.1007/s10699-015-9434-y

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 223 publications

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“…Astronomers have estimated that our planet will sus-tain complex multicellular life for another billion years [1,2] while futurists predict humanity will survive for the next 5100 to 7.8 million years [3,4]. Despite these projections, few scientists conceive of a habitable planet that does not include people (e.g., [5,6]). Unlike previous thinkers [3,7], we look beyond humans to consider future multicellular life on a post-Anthropocene Earth.…”

Section: The End Of the World As We Know Itmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Anthropocene Conservation

Watson

2020

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

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Section: The End Of the World As We Know Itmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Anthropocene Conservation

Watson

2020

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

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“…Various versions of another large-scale pattern that is evident in the evolution of life on Earth has been identified by a number of evolutionary thinkers over the past century (e. g. see Teilhard de Chardin 1965;Corning 1983;Blitz 1992;Crawford 1992;Maynard Smith and Szathmáry 1995;Stewart 1995Stewart , 2000Last 2017). This pattern resulted from a step-wise process in which living processes have been progressively integrated into organizations of increasing scale.…”

Section: An Evident Trend Towards Increasing Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Tajectory of Evolution and Its Implications for Humanity

Stewart

2019

JBH

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Does the Big History of life on Earth disclose a trajectory that has been driven by selection? If so, will the trajectory continue to apply into the future? This paper argues that such a trajectory exists, and examines some of its key implications. The most important consequence is that humanity can use the trajectory to guide how it evolves and adapts into the future. This is because the trajectory identifies a sequence of adaptations that will be favoured by selection. If humanity intentionally evolves its social systems and psychological capacities so that they follow the trajectory, humanity can avoid negative selection and instead survive and thrive indefinitely into the future. This would enable humanity to make a positive contribution to the future evolution of life in the universe. But it turns out that immediate selection will not drive the evolution of life on Earth further along this trajectory. Instead, intentional action by humanity is necessary. It is as if the evolution of life on any planet is a developmental process that has a very unusual characteristic: evolution will continue to develop successfully beyond a certain point only if it produces a sentient organism that: (i) awakens to the possibility it is embedded in a developing process; (ii) realizes that this developing process will continue successfully only if it chooses to intentionally drive the process forward; and (iii) commits to doing whatever is necessary to achieve this. On this planet, humanity is that sentient organism. The existence of such a key evolutionary role for humanity is capable of providing humanity with meaning and purpose in a larger scheme of things. For individuals who commit to driving the process forward, the nature of the trajectory has immediate consequences for what they should do with their lives, here and now.

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“…When the person dies, P assumes a zero value which denotes that the noeme is significantly compromised. However, other thinkers predict that there will come a time when totally artificial substrates would develop “minds” and continue to exist without being dependent on biology. Although this scenario is too futuristic and well beyond the scope of this article, for the sake of completeness it can be said that if these thinkers are correct, then Eq.…”

Section: The Noemementioning

confidence: 99%

Technological integration and hyperconnectivity: Tools for promoting extreme human lifespans

Kyriazis¹

2014

Complexity

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Artificial, neurobiological, and social networks are three distinct complex adaptive systems (CAS), each containing discrete processing units (nodes, neurons, and humans respectively). Despite the apparent differences, these three networks are bound by common underlying principles which describe the behaviour of the system in terms of the connections of its components, and its emergent properties. The longevity (long-term retention and functionality) of the components of each of these systems is also defined by common principles. Here, I will examine some properties of the longevity and function of the components of artificial and neurobiological systems, and generalise these to the longevity and function of the components of social CAS. In other words, I will show that principles governing the long-term functionality of computer nodes and of neurons, may be extrapolated to the study of the long-term functionality of humans(or more precisely,of the noemes, an abstract combination of 'existence' and 'digital fame'). The study of these phenomena can provide useful insights regarding practical ways that can be used in order to maximize human longevity.The basic law governing these behaviours is the 'Law of Requisite Usefulness', which states that the length of retention of an agent within a CAS is proportional to the agent's contribution to the overall adaptability of the system.

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Big Historical Foundations for Deep Future Speculations: Cosmic Evolution, Atechnogenesis, and Technocultural Civilization

Cited by 23 publications

References 223 publications

Post-Anthropocene Conservation

Post-Anthropocene Conservation

The Tajectory of Evolution and Its Implications for Humanity

Technological integration and hyperconnectivity: Tools for promoting extreme human lifespans

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