complexity intro
change & stability
prog. complexity
more complexity
homo nobilis
references
discovery story
implications
invitation
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The Advent of Homo nobilis, stellaris (III) |
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Seven major evolutionary milestone - and not even counting the 'lesser' ones, such as the automobile, flight, the transistor, the polymerase chain reaction, the human genome project - in the space of 64 years, is an evolutionary "explosion" of unprecedented magnitude. The acceleration of cognitive evolution has now become, and definitely on any evolutionary scale, all but vertical - and virtually infinite. |
On the previous scale of thousands of years, these evolutionary milestones would be confined within a vertical line. On the scale previous to that, on the scale of millions of years - it is a vertical line.
The most striking aspect - the intense clustering of so many evolutionary milestones all at once - is also the most telling. It is the evolutionary "explosion" and proliferation which occurs when the universal law of Progressive Complexity opens up new and hitherto unoccupied domains for the evolving organisms.
It has happened twice before, albeit in biological evolution, and about 600 million years ago, when increased ozone shielding opened up the occupation of the surface waters of the seas; and again about 400 million years ago, when further ozone shielding allowed Life to colonize the land.
In our case though, the driving force is now cognitive evolution, which is infinitely faster, since evolutionary advances can be taught, rather than genetically transmitted among competing populations. Nevertheless, the driving dynamics are exactly the same.
Indeed, we have encountered exactly the same phenomenon of explosive evolution in the evolution of technologies in our time, of which the evolution of computers and computer technology is the most widely familiar example, while an equally dizzying explosive evolution in the biotechnological sciences is not quite as familiar to all.
Exactly the same thing has occurred in the evolution of the World Wide Web incidentally. Here too we have witnessed a dizzying explosion and proliferation - which, however, has now run into its natural limitations as set by human nature, but this is another story altogether. Nevertheless, it parallels exactly the crazy proliferation of electrical gadgets when electricity first burst upon the scene.
The crux of the matter is that the dynamics of Progressive Complexity are clearly apparent in all forms of evolution, be these physical, chemical, biological, instinctual, psychological, technological, cultural or cognitive. And the unprecedented explosion of so many evolutionary milestones in such a brief period of time is the inevitable hallmark of evolution entering a new domain. We are indeed in the midst of an evolutionary quantum leap in cognition and consciousness. Here then, are the seven major evolutionary milestones of our time.
The "Explosion" of Cognitive Evolution In Our Time
1) The discovery of the nuclear force
by Albert Einstein, as described in his famous E=mc^2, and his recognition that light can behave either like waves - or like particles, in his special theory of relativity, in 1905. This marks H. sapiens, sapiens' cognitive penetration deep into the fundamental laws and forces of our universe.
2) The discovery of quantum physics
by Neils Bohr in 1913, with his recognition of the quantum nature of energy. His discovery catapulted H. sapiens, sapiens into the new domain of quantum physics - into the microcosmic heart and core of energy and matter - and deeper into the fundamental laws and nature of our universe. H. sapiens, sapiens' cognitive awareness now includes the former secret of the birth of our universe itself.
3) The harnessing of nuclear fission
with Enrico Fermi's first demonstration of nuclear fission in 1934. H. sapiens, sapiens had acquired, for better and for worse, yet another fire - and this time, star-fire itself - the nuclear fire that rages at the core of every star in the universe. H. sapiens, sapiens had created, and then used, miniscule and momentary stars on the Earth. However great this cognitive quantum leap may be, this writer believes that we will find out that star-fire is entirely inappropriate on the Earth.
4) The invention of our first mind-tool
with the construction of the first electronic all-purpose computer (called ENIAC) in 1946 by Eckert and Mauchly, at the University of Pennsylvania. And while many earlier inventions - Blaise Pascal's first calculator
(1642), Babbage's 1820s concepts for the "Difference Engine", and the programmable "Colossus" of the British Intelligence Service during world war two, led up to ENIAC, we shall take ENIAC's unique all-purpose capacity as the defining marker which signalled the advent and use of H. sapiens, sapien's newest tool - "man the tool-maker's" first mind-tool.
We need to take a moment here to set H. sapiens, sapiens' newest tool into its perspective. Until ENIAC, all of our tools were hand-tools. Even our most sophisticated automated machines are essentially hand-tools, used for, and limited to processing materials. ENIAC was the first machine which processed information. H. sapiens, sapiens had invented the first mind-tool of our kind.
There is a vast distinction between the finite realm of material processing, and the infinite realm of information processing. ENIAC marks nothing less than the advent of the new Age of Mind-tools. Anthropologists of the far flung future will divide human evolution into two phases; the Age of Hand-tools; and the Age of Mind-tools.
Today, we are just at the very beginning of the Age of Mind-tools, and much at the same stage with our electronic chips as Homo ergaster was with his stone chips. And what the future of the Age of Mind-tools will bring is just as unimaginable to us now - as our time is to the shapers of the first flint.
Other than this, there simply is no comparison. Mind-tools operate within the infinite cognitive domain of information; hand-tools operate within the mindless domain of materials. It simply is not the same ball game. And the changes the Age of Mind-tools will bring to our civilisations will dwarf all the changes Homo has ever experienced as the result of his inventions - by many orders of magnitude.
These changes will happen very, very fast. In fact, vast changes are well underway already. 'The Information Age' is profoundly restructuring many cultures of the Earth already - despite much strong resistance - and uniting the peoples of the Earth into what will be a planetary society of free individuals.
Since the prime function and purpose of cultures is to provide abiding social stability for their people, this will result in much turmoil, and far more than we have seen already. Still, and in a few decades, we will look back at our time as the end of "The Dark Ages".
5) The deciphering of the double helix of DNA
by Crick and Watson, in 1953. Homo sapiens, sapiens has now acquired the ability to change the very life-codes of all living things to his design - in other words, to play god. And we have done it already; we have created many strains of genetically engineered bacteria, hundreds of weird fruit flies, as well as genetically engineered mice - even engineered mice which are growing human appendages, such as a human ear, on their backs. And most recently, we have managed to clone sheep, monkeys and cattle, and people are talking about cloning humans.
Meanwhile, most of us are eating genetically engineered fruit and vegetables already. We have not only become active agents in the process of evolution, but we have given it our own new directions, and speeded it up to practically overnight. Nature takes hundreds of thousands of years to evolve a new species; we can now do it in a few months.
6) The Birth of the Internet
initiated by ARPA (the Advanced Research Project Agency) as the ARPANET in 1958, based upon the vision and proposal of J.C.R. Licklider for an "Intergalactic Network" where researchers could share their ideas and resources. Generously funded by the US Department Of Defense and initially also used by the DOD for communications until 1983, when it was split into the MILNET for DOD operational communications, and the ARPANET for academic research and communication purposes.
Again, we need to take a moment here to consider a few of its myriad and immensely far reaching implications.
The Internet is humankind's first planetary library, and the information it holds is now availabe to anyone in the world who can afford a computer and an Internet connection. More importantly though, it also gives every such individual the opportunity to be heard around the world, and to freely express his or her views.
Until the advent of the Internet, this was not possible, as all public expression, other than local speech, was limited by the editorial policies and whims of the various media. Consequently, and not surprisingly, the Internet now holds everything from the most base to the most exalted human thought - from the most base bathroom graffiti to the most exalted thoughts our kind is capable of.
This is what the Internet is, but what it will be, and what it will bring is another story altogether - and none of us can now fathom more than that gleaned from a few first glimpses into a new and infinite domain. Two things are certain though.
Its inherent freedom of information will wash over the world like a tidal wave, and make anything else but freedom impossible.
And it is already well on its way to transforming humanity into a planetary society of free individuals - with all the initial turmoil this will bring as local cultural and power structures will give way to the inevitable future of humanity.
Finally, and with the all of the knowledge of the world it will hold, the Internet will be the equivalent of a planetary brain, in which each individual at his or her computer terminal is a neuron or node within this
global brain - a node which brings its consciousness to bear upon this mechanical planetary brain.
And no, it will never be a planetary mind. For this, it would need self-awareness, curiosity, intent, purpose, and the ability to conceptualize. And this will never be.
7) Humankind's Leap into Space
as marked by Armstrong's first step onto the surface of our moon, on July 20. 1969. For the first time, humans have stood upon and left their footprints, along with their inevitable garbage, on another celestial body. With this small step for one man, and a great step for humanity, humankind has emerged from its planetary chrysalis and has taken its first steps into the all but infinite vastness of the Cosmos. This milestone marks humankind's transition from a planet-bound to a space faring race - and its transition from H. sapiens, sapiens to Homo stellaris (we'll come to the "nobilis" bit in a bit).
In our own time, we have come to understand the nature of our universe to within split nano-seconds of its very birth, and many scientists are now feverishly looking for the one simple equation which will explain, and contain, the whole universe.
We have acquired and now wield star-fire, and we have made many miniscule, momentary suns on the Earth.
We have begun to use and play with our brand-new mind-tools, have taken to carrying our new auxiliary mechanical minds around with us in briefcases, in our shirt pockets and purses, and can now buy additional mechanical memory at the drugstore. And as one might fully expect, we are also earnestly trying to equip our ancillary mechanical brains with a reasonable facsimile of our own native intelligence.
Meanwhile, we have also taken to cutting, stitching and tailoring the very life-codes of living things to our own design, and have created new living things never seen on this Earth before.
And to top it all off, we have also gone out into space and left our footprints, as well as some garbage, on another celestial body, we have made and lofted our own miniscule moons into orbit around the Earth and several other planets, have gone to live in some of them, and have sent off two mechanical emissaries bearing the signature of our kind, into the universe at large.
Seven major evolutionary milestones in 64 years, in a bit less than one average human life-time - in less than a blink, so to speak, of an evolutionary eye - and all of them dwarf anything that our kind has ever done before.
We can truly say that never have so many done so much in such a short time.
Humankind now functions within a cognitive context that far transcends, and bears very little resemblance to the cognitive awareness at the beginning of the 20th century. We have come from what amounts to the almost mediaeval perceptions and realm of consciousness of gas lamps and horse-and-buggy days to the vastness of the cosmic consciousness and perceptions of Man on the Moon in one life-time. We have become, practically overnight, cosmic beings. Today, we are a far different people than those of the turn of the 20th century. And far from having come to a grinding halt, cognitive evolution has indeed shifted into high gear in our time - and it will continue to accelerate exponentially.
This concludes this brief overview of the milestones of our current cognitive evolutionary quantum leap from Homo sapiens, sapiens to Homo nobilis, stellaris. And the nobilis part is
next.
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