What is evolution? Evolution is the adaptation process of a system to the changing environment. With evolution, the system is capable of ...
What is evolution? Evolution is the adaptation process of a system to the changing environment. With evolution, the system is capable of functioning in a changing environment. Evolution creates and implements processes in response to environmental change.
An evolving system requires having a medium for information storage. The information storage contains the knowledge (how to create, implement, and use) about the processes, which are necessary to operate the system. Evolution requires a process to change this information as well. The evolution requires a selection process also to choose between the systems according to its suitability to the environment. Additionally, evolution requires a process, which converts the stored information to the different attributions of the system.
Evolution is not about progression. However, there is a side effect, and at the same time, an efficiency-enhancing function of the evolution, the information accumulation. As different adaptation processes evolve in the evolving system, the information, which is describing these processes, remains in the information storage. By this information accumulation, the system capable of building more and more complex processes and more and more complex systems to respond to the changes in the environment.
Level-1 evolution
The Darwinian, biological evolution.
This is how the biosphere works on Earth. In this level of evolution, the information storage is the DNA. The process, which changes the DNA, is the random differentiation of the DNA and the mixing of the sequences of the DNA between the individual creatures. The selection process at this level is to fit into nature itself. The process, which translates the information of the DNA to attributions, is the cellular machinery.
Level-2 evolution
Technological evolution
This is the evolution of the human species. Human evolution primarily is not a level-1 evolution. We can still change and adapt according to the level-1, as typical differences of the human body formed adapting to the different environment. However, the level-1 evolution is a long process, takes many thousand years to adapt to the changing environment. The Eskimos, the Africans, the Asians, the Europeans are differently adapted to their specific environment, but in the human's case, the level-1 adaptation is secondary for the adaptation to the environment. The human can live in very different environments, but to make this happen, not the level-1 evolution is the main contributor but the level-2, the technological evolution. We are able to live in different environments not because our body adapted to it, but because we acquired knowledge, which helps to adapt. With the developed knowledge, we implement and use behaviors and tools to adapt to the environment. We create technical civilization. Without this knowledge, our livable planet would be a hostile environment. With the necessary knowledge, even space is a livable place for us.
The information which is stored on the level-2 evolution is in the human brain and additionally, all the recorded information too, which we acquired and which is available for us as knowledge. The process to change the information, which is necessary to adapt to the environment, is the science, the research, and the development, a kind of behavior of ours. We are curious, and we are problem solvers. It is science and technology to find out how to throw rocks or how to build a computer. It is based on research and development. The selection process to choose which is better on the level-2 evolution is still the environment, the nature of its laws, and additionally, our human society as well. We are creating what is good for us and for our society. Nature never lies, but the society, by its artificially created laws sometimes shortsighted, and the selection by the society creates problems instead of solutions. Still, society is a provider of selection.
On the level-2 evolution, the process, which converts the stored information to attributions, is the technology. The technology is that made us of creating stone axes and build cities. The technology creates everything, which made us adapt to our natural or artificially created environment.
The level-2 evolution is not just about the outside world. As technology evolving and the acquired knowledge grows, everything which falls outside of our mind becomes to be our environment. So, our own body becomes to be our environment. As our body changes, science and technology help us to adapt to these changes, in an active manner. We learn how to fix our malfunctioning or aging body parts. Not just fix it but to replace it as well. Ultimately, the level-2 evolution will release us from our biological origin. The level-2 evolution will convert us to a machine. Biology is machinery too, based on chemical reactions, but this machinery is deeply rooted in our biological, level-1 evolution. Level-1 evolution is deeply bonded to our earthly environment. The level-2 evolution will release us from these bindings.
We are learning how to replace our body parts, and we will learn how to replace all with a non-biological replacement. Ultimately, the level-2 evolution will take us to a non-biological, conscious machine. Will we be still humans? If we can transfer our human emotions, desires into the non-biological machines then the level-2 evolution will extend humanity. If not, then the level-2 evolution will create a new race, the intelligent, conscious non-biological machine. Our human race may still survive if we will be able to continue our evolution to the level-3.
Level-3 evolution
Consciousness evolution
This is the foresight evolution of human society.
As long as we can preserve our human race under the level-2 evolution, a direction is open in our evolutional continuity: the evolution of the consciousness in the environment of the society.
The human society is a complex system built on different individuals. Our different behavior is which makes us different. Behavior is a complex system. Behavior is rooted in and is partially influenced by our ancient evolutional ancestry. Our behavior partially determined by our old, ancient part without which we could not understand our human behavior. However, and it is an important element in our human evolution, our behavior can be controlled by our consciousness. Our behavior is derived from not only emotions and instincts but also our consciously controlled will. It is still a debate that we have freely acting will or not, there are thoughts about it on this blog. If it is free or not, the consciously controlled will and behavior is a selective evolutionary force in the environment of the society.
We are doing this selective process, since when the society exists. The society provides negative feedback to the individual behavior, which unfit to the expected behavior end provides positive feedback for the fitting one. The society even developed subsystems to fulfill the feedback functions. Within the society, laws, education, organizations handling criminals, and other subsystems support the function of providing feedback and selection mechanisms to the different behavior.
The community cannot control the behavior and the consciousness of the members of the society directly, but indirect mechanisms are functioning and have important roles in society.
As the level-2 evolution progresses, it opens more and more possible ways to control and/or select, or maybe even determine the society-fitting conscious behavior on the level of the individuals.
It looks scary. This means, the society or more realistically, some part of the society entitled to determine what good behavior is and able to enforce it through by affecting individual consciousness. It is the ultimate dictatorship. This method could result in and produce robot-like individuals. Yes, it could if the applied method is not an evolutionary process, and if the values are determined by a small part of the society instead of the whole. The level-3 evolution must be a system of evolution to work. If the society does not function in an evolutionary way, it will lose its flexibility to adapt to the changes, and will cease to exist.
Nature has direct, unchangeable laws, and everything that exists in nature must adapt to these laws. Society is a kind of product of nature, but its laws are changeable. It is the second degree of the environment. It is the nature of nature. The society exists in the natural world, but it has its own set of rules. Like how we think about the multiverse. Every universe has its own set of laws in the range of what the multiverse allows. The difference is if a universe selects its own laws, the laws cannot be changed in the universe's lifetime. The society is more flexible, and in this way, a more difficult system. It can rewrite its laws on the go, and this environment, the society itself has no direct set of rules like those that nature has. The society must find and modify its laws on the fly.
Religion has the same role in society. It has a set of rules, which are supposed to affect the religious person's behavior. Religion is even able to affect consciousness. A religious person may think it is a direct effect, an atheist may think, it is an indirect effect, but either way, religion is a strong modifier of the behavior. The rules of the religions are set of behavioral advises on how to live in society promising some kind of reward. The reward creates a strong motivation to obey the rules and modify behavior, even affects consciousness, and this way, religion is a strong level-3 evolutionary force in the society, if either religion is a product of the society or religion is an effect on the society by the existing God. Religion is an effective way to modify society through the level of individuals. Religion not just has rules, but it creates templates too by offering the promises, and this way able to create goals and create direction for the level-3 evolution in society.
Still, evolutionary principles are valid in society, and society could function in an evolutionary way.
On the level-3 evolution, the information storage of the controlling rules is the institutions of the society and the individuals. The method for implementing this information is learning by the individuals, or, as the level-2 evolution progresses, by directly implanting the expected behavior.
Evolution requires a process to change this information. On the level-3 evolution, the will of the individuals provide this process and produce different behaviors. To preserve the flexibility of society, this must be an unrestricted process.
The evolution requires a selection process also to choose between the systems according to its suitability to the environment. Because the society has no template to adapt to - as a biological being has nature as a template - the already existing set of rules is the template, and it is the provider of the selection process. Because the rules of the society are not determined, the changing behavior and the existing rules must form a dynamic affecting-determining interaction. The existing rules limit the different behaviors by applying enforcing methods, and an unfolding behavior (if it is successful on the level of the society) react and change the existing set of rules.
The evolution requires a process, which converts the stored information, the laws, the society's rules, customs, and practices into different properties of the system. The allowed behavior and its effect on society is the process, which converts the set of laws to the different properties of the society.
Because the level-3 evolution has no predetermined template to adapt to, this evolution can lead to pitfalls, difficulties, even could lead to a dead-end and to the extinction of the society. However, if the flexibility of the society can be maintained the pitfalls are less dangerous. The frequently used negative marker, multiculturalism, and the freedom of individual behavior are the vital ingredients of the flexibility for a successful society.
Yes, this is a description of our society. We are living in a level-3 evolving system. Evolution has no direction, but the evolution's information accumulating effect provides the direction of society's evolution to create a more and more complex system and development. This development frequently leads to repeating patterns, but overall, because of the collected information, it produces a continuously higher level of living for the members of the society.
Additionally, the concurrently happening level-2 evolution is a determining aspect of the level-3 evolution. The evolution of our society is deeply affected by technological evolution. It ever was but looks like the effect is stronger and accelerating. Today's effect is the information revolution and its effect on society. It has a determining effect on the members of the society, to their behavior. The behavior is the driving force of the level-3 evolution, and the behavior is a selection property in the fitting into the society. The changing behavior because of the level-2 evolution creates new challenges on the level-3 evolution. Society can handle these challenges in a conservative way by changing the laws, customs accordingly, and by this, controlling the behavior and its determining factor, the person's consciousness and will indirectly.
However, an interesting new aspect arises considering the concurrently occurring level-2 evolution. We are turning ourselves more and more into a machine. It is not a determining aspect until this conversion does not affect our behavior and our consciousness. It does not create importance until we are just turning our legs, arms, liver, or heart to a machine. However, it creates big importance if we start to turn our brain into an artificial machine. The importance would start when the level-2 evolution affects the behavior, and its corresponding part, the consciousness. It does not matter if this conversion creates artificial intelligence with its own free will or our human consciousness transplanted to a non-biological substrate. New challenges, but more importantly, more possibilities arise. This level-2 evolutionary step could create a new direction on the level-3 evolution. The possibility of affecting individuals' behavior through consciousness. This could happen in a bad or a good way. The direct modification or control would be against the principles of the evolution and would lead to an ultimate but fragile society of autocracy. However, if the principles of the evolution remain valid, this level-3 evolution with the help of the level-2 evolution could create a quickly responding, flexible, viable society. How?
At this stage, the technology is able to control the behavior and consciousness effectively and efficiently. The society may not directly control the individuals because it would be against the principle of the evolution, but the society would be capable of creating a diversity of different behaviors, or just let it as a random process. According to the fitting of this new behavioral pattern into the society, if the specific behavioral pattern successfully fits in the society, this behavioral pattern can be maintained or reproduced, the unfitting patterns can be repressed or changed.
In many religions, God's goal is the same: to create a perfect society by perfecting and sustaining suitable individuals. God in these religions offers a refining process for the individuals which leads to the creation of a perfect society. God creates a level-3 evolutionary process by selecting and maintaining the precious value, the suitable consciousnesses, what even God does not form directly because of his limited power or because of his will to maintain the individual's freedom.
Consciousness cannot be modified directly. Consciousness is not a thing, it is an effect of the brain, like the rainbow. The rainbow cannot be modified directly, the order of the color cannot be changed, the arch of the rainbow, or where it can be seen. Consciousness is similar to that. However, consciousness is even a more difficult case, because every consciousness, and what comes with it, the will, is different. This is why so important and must be highly valued the consciousness, which is useful for the society. It should be kept, preserved, and even cloned if the level-2 evolution reaches the appropriate level of the development to be capable to do it. The level-3 evolution may lead to a refined society with individual consciousnesses, which all are useful to society.
It is the ultimate method of the level-3 evolution: evolution through the directed evolution of the consciousness. The level-3 evolution would create a refined collection of the behavior of the members of the society through the controlled impact on consciousness.
The level-3 evolution could lead to level-4 evolution.
Level-4 evolution
Evolution toward the ultimate consciousness
This could be the final stage of human evolution
When technology and society are able to affect and modify, even create behavior and consciousness, it could drive to the ultimate consciousness. Ultimate consciousness means everything under the control of one consciousness. The given society ceased to be a collection of individuals, everything is under the supervision of one collective consciousness.
Evolution means adapting to the changes. At this stage, the adaption is under the control of one consciousness, which is in possession of all the previously gathered information and knowledge. The adaptation in this stage happens not by the diversity but by its own flexibility. The ultimate consciousness knows everything that became known before, and it can acquire even more knowledge. Ultimately, it can possess all the knowledge that possible to be known. And it can act accordingly.
We reached the level of God. The final stage of human evolution is when the human becomes God. Only need to survive until that. However, other societies may already be reached this level of natural evolution. Maybe they are our Gods.
Happy birthday Darwin!
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