Capturing the highest form

[Thunderbird]

Of all the myriad impulses of mankind and life in general how many can you think of that can be summed up by the following phrase ?


Capturing the highest form.

[Moontanman]

Capturing the highest form? To me spreading complex life to planets where it doesn't exist is the highest goal humanity can achieve, other wise we are no better than any other creature that has ate, breathed, and excreted across the Earth through the ages.

[Thunderbird]

Originally Posted by Moontanman

Capturing the highest form? To me spreading complex life to planets where it doesn't exist is the highest goal humanity can achieve, other wise we are no better than any other creature that has ate, breathed, and excreted across the Earth through the ages.

Ok... that explains why no one was responding.. I am being to vague. By "Capturing the highest form" I mean to say man, and all life tends to seek out that which represents the highest Form from a female bird looking for a mate or a man doing his best for his kids or an artist, writer, film maker, on and on. Even Evolutionary process that over time create complexity and beauty.

I in fact cannot thing of anything that life does that cannot be described in this way.
Its seems universal to life.
Thanx for the response Moontanman.

[Moontanman]

I started to say raising my children to be better than I am but I gave it some thought and decided that wasn't enough. all creatures endeavor to do that in some way, humans have the capability to do something no other creature ever has, reproduce the Earths biosphere, that is the highest form to me.

[HydrogenBond]

There are two drives in nature, survival of the individual and survival of the species. These can take two separate paths or can merge into one path. But the second is harder to do. For example, global warming, if due to humans, will cause some humans to want to maximize the individual, but it may not lead to the best long term goal of the species. Other are more willing to short term sacrifice individual maximization, for the longer term species maximization. Maybe the highest form are path that can maximize the needs of the species, while also maximizing the needs of the individual.

Parenting sort of works this way. On the one hand, good parents sacrifice much of their childhood whim that could maximize the individual. They shift in favor of the future, which contains their children. But at the same time, doing this often brings a joy and forfillment that maximizes the individual in other ways, so their is a natural balance.

But with other social things, this balance is not as easy to do, since many things only maximize one or the other, but not both. For example, all the shady loans made by banks maximized somebody in terms of acquiring wealth. But this approach led to a long term problem for the herd.

Morality sort of appears more designed for the future of the species, but may not maximize the individual. Lack of morality, in the traditional sense, may be better for the individual but may fall short of species maximization. The highest form might be a hybrid that can meet both needs at the same time.

For example, sex will maximize the individual. But not all circumstances for sex will maximize the species. If culture ends up with a lot of unwanted children or a lot of diseases, the species is not maximized, even if the individual is. It then takes a social mop to clean the mess for the species. The level of social mop is a good litmus test of how high the form is in terms of maximizing both needs at the same time.

There is also the reverse, where maximizing the group will not maximize the individual. There are also lower forms beginning from this end that don't achieve the best balance. Possible examples are prohibitions. These can lead to a police mentality that can limit the involvement of otherwise productive citizens. If we decide wearing green hats is taboo, we create the very conflict we say will occur if people are allowed to wear green hats. The green hatter are rounded up and taken out of the productivity loop. There are often individuals who benefit by this, leading to a different type of mopping process. This is also lower form due to the social mop. The higher form won't need either mop but this is harder to figure out.