Beyond Civilization, humanity's next great adventure

Comments on Daniel Quinn's "Beyond Civilization, Humanity's Next Adventure"

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Click here for a description of this book. For links to this book through online book stores click here ( ISBN 0-609-80536-3 ).

Introduction

(on Daniel Quinn's "Beyond Civilization, Humanity's Next Great Adventure")

This book by Daniel Quinn is challenging us to take a few steps back and look at our own culture from a distance, enough distance to recognize the all pervading stressful and unpleasant characteristics of (our) culture that almost invariably make our days miserable.

Without trying to explain why humanity has ended up in this highly unpleasant situation of collective slavery, he clearly explains and illustrates what is our situation and since when in human history this misery started to dominate our lives. He shows how we are living in our culture, as opposed to how we would wish to live, would we have any chance to do so. As in his previous bestselling books, like "Ishmael", "The Story of B", etc., he points out that since the start of the agricultural revolution, some 10.000 years ago, gradually the "takers" took over from the "leavers", as he calls the 2 basic ways for humans to function in our present world. The "leavers" are the types that have chosen to live according to their primordial preferences and basic emotional make up. The "takers" are the types that live more in accordance with what present day culture requires from us. The latter basically live a life of slavery, in vain seeking compensations for their misery through all sorts of methods that our culture teaches us to find desirable. And they are the vast majority in our present day societies.

This Wiki adds to the books by Daniel Quinn by explaining scientifically "why" this strange and unpleasant situation could develop and what is more, why the emergence of this phase of misery in human evolution never could have been avoided in the first place, why it is a necessary but transitory state in humanity's existence.

In these pages we will take a small selection of pages of Quinn's "Beyond Civilization, Humanity's Next Great Adventure" and explain how his point of view coincides with the contents of this Wiki. What we will add subsequently is the "how and why" of it all.

In that way we aim to make Quinn's work even more comprehensible and powerful and embed it more firmly in scientific thinking.

The mysterious persistence

(from Daniel Quinn's "Beyond Civilization, Humanity's Next Great Adventure")

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.................. (p.59)

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(Comments on Daniel Quinn's "Beyond Civilization, Humanity's Next Great Adventure")

In the above text Quinn points out that it is rather remarkable that we, the ordinary human beings, keep accepting a life of relative slavery for which we do feel we are not fit. This ordinary (slavery) type he labeled elsewhere as "takers", as opposed to what he labeled as "leavers" or, in this text as "quitters".

This is quite in line with what is described in this Wiki, "takers" are the majority, having been molded into form by the power structures ruling our societies lives, whereas the "leavers" are the rare specimens that have escaped from the fetters of our civilization who insist on living a life they feel comfortable with.

In this Wiki it is argued that this miserable situation of Homo sapiens is indeed at variance with what would technically be possible for our species, but that this unpleasant situation is only a relatively short phase in our evolution, which phase by now is almost coming to an end. Basic to this misery is that since just a few thousands of years the fast evolution on the meme level put power structures in the lead of evolution, causing us humans to lag hopelessly behind in terms of where our genome has equipped us for and thus what we would prefer to experience as our social and biological environment. The power structures don't care as long as we survive suitably enough to serve as willing carriers of the meme sets of the power structures in charge. Mankind is emotionally and motivationally squeezed between its slow biological evolution of the genes and the much faster evolution of the memes we carry.

That painful friction between our hardware and "our" software only will come to an end by the time we humans start to understand the evolutionary characteristics of intelligence in general and our own intelligence in particular and we decide to take our unique situation seriously and act accordingly, finally utilizing our intelligent faculties to the full.

Quinn describes that specifically the emergence of power structures, managing and ruling food supplies and food stocks, act as the trigger and the underlying cause of the emergence and consolidation of slavery.

The turn away from tribalism

(from Daniel Quinn's "Beyond Civilization, Humanity's Next Great Adventure")

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................ (p. 70)

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And on the role of religion in strengthening the power structures in keeping us enslaved, Quinn quotes Karl Marx.

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.......................( p.76)

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(Comments on Daniel Quinn's "Beyond Civilization, Humanity's Next Great Adventure")

This also, is in line with the postulates of this Wiki. It says that religions never can grow and prosper if they would keep working on the uplifting and the welfare of the people. Therefore, in fact because of the dictates of evolutionary forces, religions always do the opposite of what they pretend to bring to the people. Otherwise they would not be able to compete with other religious structures and they would disappear. Any spiritual initiative or movement that would fulfill its promises to its people, would very soon lose its clients because self actualized individuals don not need such support of a "superior" system any longer. They are free and don't obey all the rules any more. Therefore all successful religious systems act as (tools of the) power structures and help keeping the population down. If they don't comply with enhancing and maintaining stress, ignorance and superstition on behalf of the software power systems in charge, they very quickly disappear because they are not an ESS (evolutionarily stable strategy).

Opium is the opium of the people

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............................ (p.78)

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And Quinn continues describing his own struggle with carving a passable life out of the societal conditions he has been living in.

Am I building my own pyramid?

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....................... (p.80)

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Putting the pieces together

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e to happen nevertheless. And because we happen to live on a planet where evidently these changes did happen, we may conclude that the transitions in question were not too improbable to happen sometime somewhere. And it is of course implicit that we are in exactly that place.

(comments on Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion")

We agree with the notion that the above mentioned three transitions in evolution must be very rare events and that much time is involved before such events eventually will emerge. In that sense we can understand the use of the "anthropic principle" argument. On the other hand we feel that these transitions, given enough time, do have to occur sooner or later anyway. Life can be regarded in its most original and primitive form as a configuration of inanimate matter that coincidentally finds itself in a form that enhances the same configuration to occur more often. Such a configuration in fact is then self-enhancing or catalyzing itself to be formed, making such a configuration just a little bit more probable than other, alternative configurations. Such a small difference in probabilities is already enough to start an evolution in inanimate molecules towards a gradual approach of something we would be able to recognize as "self-duplicating molecules" which can be regarded as the first step towards what we recognize as "life". Such a first configuration as a starting point may be rare to occur, but given enough time is is also inevitable that it will occur somewhere someplace.

Jackes Monod wrote excellent books and articles on this same consideration in the early seventies, one of his famous titles being "Chance and Necessity". Bottom line is that no matter how improbable it may seem that life emerges from inanimate matter, it will most certainly and unavoidably happen if the physical circumstances are favorable enough and given enough time. So there is, logically speaking, absolutely no need for postulating the hand of some "God" in order to be able to explain the existence of live matter. So if people adhere to religious fairy tales and such it is apparently not because of a necessity to explain the existence of our world, but rather for other personal reasons, most of which are not very honorable and in fact often are quite destructive for the persons involved or for their environment.

The emergence of "awareness"

(comments on Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion")

Similar considerations hold for the other two much debated transitions. The emergence of "awareness" is one of them. In a similar vein it can be argued that awareness is something quite different from the more basic forms of individual behavioral organization as can be found in larger numbers of more primitive species. At least, that is the argument of creationists, trying to find arguments for needing the hand of an external "creator" or God. However, similar to Monod's arguments, it can be shown that awareness automatically has to occur, once an internal information processing system, e.g., the animal's brain, has evolved far enough to make considerations and calculations on a "meta"-level possible. By then, "awareness" will result inevitably. And successively, so will "self-awareness" follow as soon as the next level of complexity and sophistication has been reached in evolution, simply because further development into that direction pays off evolutionarily.

These evolutionary transitions at first sight seem to be difficult to explain in terms of gradual evolutionary adaptations, and - naturally - they are embraced by creationists to defend the need for their God to be indispensable for explaining life as we find it. However, On this Wiki it is argued that these are in fact logical and inevitable phases in evolution that most certainly will occur in one form or the other, given enough time. Therefore they do not need any God or other fairy tale to become logically understandable.

The "intelligence barrier" in evolution

(comments on Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion")

So, the above mentioned transitions, from inanimate matter to life, and then to complex cells, and then to awareness, are inescapably occurring phases in the evolution of matter and of life. Besides, it is also argued on this Wiki that the level of "self- awareness" sooner or later automatically leads to higher levels of intelligence. And arriving at a certain level of intelligence is another of such seemingly "impossible" evolutionary steps. This Wiki is dealing with the fact that evolution, moving from more general moderate levels of intelligence to the level of intelligence of Homo sapiens, needed to bridge an evolutionary threshold, that, for very good evolutionary reasons, normally puts a limit to the level of intelligence and awareness in any evolving species. This evolutionary block on intelligence has up till now not yet been pointed out in public among evolutionary scientists, but it is not difficult to explain. Normally, in any species intelligence becomes self defeating in case it rises above a certain level (see here for further explanation).

The mechanism of this threshold is the reason why in a variety of phyla, whales, mollusks, parrots, corvidae, primates, etc., intelligent capacities have evolved, completely independently from one another, but that in all of the species involved the development of intelligence always stopped at more or less the same level. Apparently, there is a natural maximum to intelligence. That maximum level is around where self-reflection is becoming possible and meta-decisions about the own behavioral strategies are coming within reach. Only Homo sapiens (apparently) escaped from this quite logical evolutionary block and developed a higher level of intelligence than any species in any of the other phyla did. On this Wiki it is explained what made this escape, Homo habilis becoming Homo sapiens, possible. The trick is in the development of a very specific block on human intelligence, namely on all aspects of the own psychological functioning, regarding the Self as well as regarding personal and social relations. Such a specific block on the utilization of intelligence in certain fields of functioning, takes the sting out of the normal evolutionary block on the further development of intelligence, because this block prevents a higher intelligence to have its usual negative effect on procreational capacity. Elsewhere on this Wiki it is explained how such an evolutionary block on high intelligence normally works.

The "anthropic principle" argument: coincidentally it is "us"

(comments on Richard Dawkins' "The God delusion")

From an evolutionary point of view it is purely coincidental that the conquest of the intelligence barrier has been taken by Homo and not by some species of whales or octopuses or crows. In that sense Dawkins' "Anthropic Principle" (see above) can be applied. We humans are the most intelligent species on earth, because, whereas both phyla were ready for it, coincidentally that trick occurred in a primate and not in some octopus species. Otherwise clever octopuses would now be studying the behavior of a variety of primates instead of us humans studying the behavior of mollusks.

This Wiki is dedicated to spreading awareness about the present day situation of Homo sapiens in that we are standing at the brink of a next transition, point Omega, in which humanity will collectively quite suddenly overcome the cultural programming that boosts and enhances the already genetically built in blocks of intelligence regarding the own behavior. What we will enter then is an evolutionary phase in which the average human individual will develop much better and further than what has been considered "normal" until today. That realization will result in an enormous leap forward in the expression of the already inborn and readily available human intelligence. This will in fact produce such a huge and sudden leap in intelligence actually being expressed, that it is phenotypically an obvious discontinuity in our evolution.

The evolutionary leap of Point Omega

(comments on Richard Dawkins' "The God delusion")

If creationists would have known about the difficulty of our evolution moving from the previous, more common, level of intelligence of say, 1 to 2 million years ago, towards our present and in particular our future level of intelligence, creationists would certainly have embraced this transition as "impossible to explain evolutionarily". As is shown above (Climbing Mount Improbable), that would be completely wrong because although indeed showing a rather sudden and strong leap in phenotypic intelligence, it is all based as usual on very gradual processes of selection and mutation.

In fact, on this Wiki it is shown that this development of human intelligence is a good example of how in evolution some phenotypic achievements (may) occur in sudden leaps, simply because for a full deployment certain already built in design characteristics have to be overcome in order to make the novel characteristic express itself fully. For such transitions evolution does not show a smooth and gradual series of changes, but happens in sudden bursts and leaps. Fodder for creationists it seems, but as this Wiki shows, the phenomenon of creationists and other deluded souls are themselves part of the cultural strengthening of the awareness blocks regarding the self, that have been built into the genetic basis of our behavior before the explosive development of human intelligence could start in the first place.

Once we all understand the why and how of the existence of "creationists" and all other cultural tricks that keep our already innate self-blindness securely in place, the typically human stupidity will finally understand itself and as a consequence a rather sudden explosion of higher intelligence will grab the whole of humanity. It will be a highly contagious process that nobody can escape from and that nobody in his right mind would want to escape from anyway. In the transition phase it will be primarily the so called "privileged" and powerful, not yet aware that they in particular have all along been taken for a ride, who will resist the awareness to spread. But they will not any more be able to prevent the transition from happening. They will still be a majority, but their majority will have lost its critical mass. At that point in time the minority of enlightened souls will have reached its own critical mass, triggering a chain reaction from that point on, resulting in a mass transition that we call Point Omega.

Usefulness of Religion

(from Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion")

Dawkins points out that much research has been done to compare the moral and ethical attitudes of religious people as compared to non-religious people. Many institutions, political parties and religious authorities would relish the idea that religion breeds moral and ethical behavior. However, such a correlation, let alone a causal explanation, has never been found. On the contrary, the massive number of attempts to find such an effect, paired to the failure to do so, is an overwhelmingly strong evidence that such a relationship does not exist indeed.

If there is any relationship at all, it is rather the other way around. It has been shown by a number of researchers that in our modern and relatively prosperous societies there clearly exists a positive correlation between religious belief and zeal and the frequency of criminal behavior. Also, religion tends to give shape, coordination and direction to human evil behavior. It makes evil behavior more massive and therefore much more dangerous and destructive. Dawkins quotes Blaise Pascal (1670) saying that "One never commits evil deeds so happily and thoroughly as when instigated by religious conviction". And this seems a very accurate and true statement, valid until today.

Baseline of Dawkins' comments is that religions are not serving any positive and useful goal in boosting and preserving human "goodness" and in controlling human destructiveness and other evil behavior and that we could better do without these delusive and confusing mind sets.

But, as one can ask, if religious delusions are so utterly useless, why then are they so common and influential in any modern human society ? Why would such anomalies exist if there was not one or other evolutionary advantage on some level of functioning ? The whole situation looks like an evolutionary anomaly.

On this Wiki we defend the notion that religious fervour and zeal do indeed have a specific purpose. Only, they are not useful to the individuals themselves. The individual carriers of these religious notions clearly do have an impaired capacity to see the truth and to grasp the important mechanisms of social life in a sober and coherent way. Cognitively and also in terms of personal flexibility and personal opportunities they are at a strong disadvantage as compared to individuals with a more sober and intelligent mind set. They do carry an enormous load of confusing rubbish with them all their lives. On the other hand the religious zealots may enjoy a more solid embedding in the prevalent culture and derive safety and security from their apparent adaptation to societal norms and requirements. But that then only comes at the high personal price of loss of personal freedom and self sufficiency. Besides, such advantages would also hold in case the communal belief systems were not so full of superstition and lies.

As is described on this Wiki, religious zeal and fervour, yes, what is more, the advantage of religious delusions and blindness, yes even the advantage of blocking intelligence and thus reducing the potential useful output of the individuals, do indeed have a high evolutionary advantage. What seems unbelievable and self contradictory on the level of individual functioning and what seems an anomaly from the evolutionary perspectives of human beings, becomes quite logical and "natural" if seen from the perspective of the evolution of "power structures", Power Structures being the meme set entities that rule our evolution since the agricultural revolution.

It is also shown on this Wiki that this situation, this anomaly of human intelligent faculties being hampered and constricted by all overruling and powerful meme sets of delusion and collective blindnesses and superstitions, no matter how useful they may be from the perspective of the present evolution of "power structure meme sets", are only a transitory state in human evolution, or rather in the evolution of any hypothetical intelligence in the universe, and that humanity, for purely technical reasons, is at the brink of the next giant evolutionary (phenotypic) leap into a future without further needing religions or any other system of "collective blinding". In that for us humans novel situation our intelligent faculties will no longer be hampered, limited and controlled by the present all pervasive power structures, but can be exploited to the full of their potential, causing an as yet unexpected and for most people unbelievable take off of a truly enlightened society. It is also shown on this Wiki that, because of the underlying mechanisms of the contagiousness of human development and social interactions, this transition, Point Omega, will happen rather suddenly and at a surprising speed.