Paradigm for a Sentient Self-replicating Intelligence’s Evolution

This post announces a new page on the site. The new page is an attempt to communicate some of my thoughts on humanity’s greatest questions and challenges and how we can move forward. Among the questions are as follows:
Is there a purpose to life?
What lies ahead for humanity?

What follows here is a copy of the first draft of the page.

Paradigm for a Sentient Self-replicating Intelligence’s Evolution
aka Humanity’s new Paradigm

At some point every self-aware organism must ask themselves questions. I believe the important ones are, what more is there than living and reproducing then dying? and is there a purpose to life? I feel that we do indeed have a fundamental purpose.

We are the natural result of the physical laws of information and energy. I believe that the Universe somehow desires to break free of the cycle of expansion and collapse and that the development of a self-aware organization of information and energy has sprung from this desire.

Nature has brought us to this point. To move beyond our present level we must move beyond nature. Organizing information and energy into systems of greater and greater complexity decreases entropy. One can imagine a very advanced system of intelligence jumping to another Universe before the one which spawned it had collapsed thus preserving its order and metaphorically, all that Universe had worked for. This seems at least theoretically possible however we have many down-to-earth challenges before it can be a true possibility. An intelligent but misguided civilization could easily destroy itself before it can engage in post-natural self-directed evolution. (One answer to the Fermi Paradox is that no sentient intelligence has yet survived past the nature stage of their development.)

This is our present stage. We can go either way: destruction or continued advancement along a path of increasing order. If we are to get to a transhuman future we must solve some very basic problems first. Competition, distribution of resources, tribalism, unchecked population growth, war and faulty belief systems are but a few of the challenges ahead. Our propensity to form groups, to compete with others, for individuals and groups to hold conflicting belief systems and to value those in their group or family unit above all others are ‘hardwired’ into us.

If we are to move forward we must do so as one enlightened people. To have varying agendas is in itself synonymous with disorganization. At our current development this seems an impossible task. It is our very nature to compete and an evolutionary technique to assure that the most fit genes survived to be passed to future generations. For, if they were not, the prime goal of achieving sentience would never have been achieved.

Humankind, with its intelligence did arrive on the scene however. And it is this very fact which announces that it is time for humanity to move beyond nature. We cannot continue warring and expect to direct our evolution. Just as competition assured that fit genes survived in our ancestors, only an intelligently reasoned plan embraced by a united humanity will assure our continued survival and evolution. Some may argue that if competition was good for primitive man then it is good for us. However nature can only take a species so far and we have reached that limit since primitive man did not posses the ability to destroy his whole species.

First we must eliminate the causes of strife, conflict and war…

These will be addressed next, please check back or follow…

Tags: Extropian, Extropy, Intelligence, peace, Transhumanism