Date: 19 Nov 2006 08:37:29
From: Biking Thru
Subject: part 2 of Darwin 11/20/06wqc D Rushkoff (science)
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WQC: Douglas Rushkoff on evolution having purpose and direction
-- I can't prove it more than anecdotally, but I believe evolution has
purpose and direction. It appears obvious, yet absolutely unconfirmable,
that matter is groping towards complexity. While the laws of
nature=97and time itself=97require objects and life forms attain
durability and sustainability for survival, it seems to me more a means
to an end than an end in itself.
Theology goes a long way towards imbuing substance and processes with
meaning=97describing life as "matter reaching towards divinity," or as
the process through which divinity calls matter back up into
itself=97but theologians repeatedly make the mistake of ascribing this
sense of purpose to history rather than the future. This is only
natural, since the narrative structures we use to understand our world
tend to have beginnings, middles, and ends. In order to experience the
pay-off at the end of the story, we need to see it as somehow built-in
to the original intention of events.
It's also hard for people to contend with the great probability that we
are simply over-advanced fungi and bacteria, hurling through a galaxy in
cold and meaningless space. Our existence may be unintentional,
meaningless and purposeless; but that doesn't preclude meaning or
purpose from emerging as a result of our interaction and collaboration.
Meaning may not be a precondition for humanity, but rather a byproduct
of it.
That's why it's so important to recognize that evolution, at its best,
is a team sport. As Darwin's later, lesser-known, but more important
works contended, survival of the fittest is not a law applied to
individuals, but to groups. Just as it is now postulated that mosquitoes
cause their victims to itch and sweat nervously so that other mosquitoes
can more easily find the target, most great leaps forward in human
evolution=97from the formation of clans to the building of cities=97are
feats of collaborative effort. Better rates of survival are as much a
happy side effect of good collaboration as their purpose.
If we could stop relating to meaning and purpose as artifacts of some
divine creative act, and see them instead as the yield of our own
creative future, they become goals, intentions, and processes very much
in reach=97rather than the shadows of childlike, superstitious mythology
The proof is impossible, since it is an unfolding one. Like reaching a
horizon, arrival merely necessitates more travel.
Biking is still pumping actions:
A good clean way to get around.
No uni action:
Biking is still re action to:
Same as before, more then you to.
B A N B S.
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