The competitive and cooperative aspects of evolution, Elisabet Sahtouris [Archive]

aoibhghaire

24th June 2018, 17:39

The competitive and cooperative aspects of evolution theme from Elisabet Sahtouris makes a lot of sense. One can expand her theme on a cosmological scale that can be substantiated. Partnership with nature intelligence is really the key to this evolution. Humans on this planet have disconnected from nature intelligence which is reflected within our present situation. Genuine partnership with nature intelligence is a built in formula/template for all living systems to evolve throughout the Cosmos. This leads onto why other living systems throughout the Cosmos may have common characteristics to ourselves but aligned to a natural evolution.

Cosmic Convergent Evolution CCE

Cosmic Convergent Evolution CCE is the phenomenon posited by numerous biologists and anthropologists of two or more species of widely different origins evolving extremely similar features in response to the same environmental opportunity. Intelligence and that of extraterrestrials with whom we might communicate are likely to have converged considerably and to converge further in the future. Much of this future convergence is likely to be artificial, i.e. assisted by technology.

CCE offers an integrative new vision of evolution, life and intelligence.

CCE provides certain ecological and sociological niches that are not Earth-specific or human-specific and are archetypal throughout the universe. These are all evolutionary inevitability, where our counterparts are across the galaxy. There may be countless technological civilizations throughout the universe and the ones that do make it may look familiar to us.

Ref: C.L.F. Martinez, SETI in the light of cosmic convergent evolution, Acta Astronautica, November 2014, DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2014.08.013

This perspective suggests cognitive universals underpinning the behavior of animals with brains. Consideration of what we can know of intelligence in beings elsewhere in the universe obliges us to recognize universal and local factors relevant to SETI. E.g. linguistic communication turns out to be constrained by local circumstances even though the existence of linguistic activity will be universal in intelligent beings.

Cooperative Civilizations

A civilization which has managed to survive far longer than us doesn’t make sense in an uncooperative development. The pressure of long-term survival of limiting population requires an evolutionary trend that increases our intelligence, this continues to evolve into a cooperative civilization to take on planet scale problems.

Ref: S. Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. New York: Viking. ISBN 9780670022953. (2011).

In this universe there may exist many different kinds of creatures with widely varying levels of sentience and cognitive awareness. Some societies may possess more information than others; some beings may process information faster or more efficiently than others. Thus there is a natural ordering or continuum of all living things. Those entities which are more negentropic¹ are better serving their mission of life in the universe; hence they are inherently "more ethical." Those beings which engender the same negentropy¹ as others are "equally ethical."

Ref: J. Griffith, What is the Meaning of Life? In The Book of Real Answers to Everything! ISBN 9781741290073. (2011).