[jamongo]

but in the NEW evolutionary paradigm we would all exist as a mutually supportive grouping.

Or perhaps we are just food being raised for some alien race, (as has been suggested elsewhere)?

[orbsycli]

haha!
who knows man,
who knows!?

[Haldrik]

I found this thread through a Google-search for "neo-human devolopment", and I take it as a major SIGN that I found it!

I, too, have a very strong feeling that humanity is at a crucial point in its development (although maybe it's just ME!), when it can FINALLY begin to direct its evolution in ways which can help us as INDIVIDUALS and voluntary collectives achieve a kind of sovereignty/freedom which is now accessible primarily to lucid dreamers, poets, and other assorted marginals...
The problem I see, and that I'm frankly having trouble coping with, is that the information isn't really ACTIONABLE. At least a Jew who wants to hurry the coming of the Messiah has some tools at his disposal: he can perform mitzvot day in and day out and feel that he's contributing...Yet where does one start to bring about the neo-human, or more acurately, bring OUT the neo-human which is already hiding in our DNA? Do we just sit back and watch the unfolding our destiny?
I wrote a short piece in which I ponder these questions and related ones, but I'm not sure whether I'm allowed to post links on here, so here goes: http://haldrik.blogspot.com (it's lame, I know, but I'm more concerned with the message than the format).
If this is not allowed, then I'd appreciate it if someone could just edit out the link part, rather than erase my post and banish me from the board entirely!

orbsycli: I don't know you at all, but based on some of your posts I'm betting that you also believe that there is a lot more at stake in this question than simple genetics...it's way bigger--and it AIN'T IN ENGLISH!

Peace!

[TheBigDog]

orby, you are absolutly correct. man is being enslaved by his rapidly progressing technology. too impatient to allow natural selection take us in new directions we use technology to mold ourselves into the long lived unlabored well fed and comfortable beings that would be man of the future

why does the usa have a higher infant mortality than some 3rd world nations? because we trump natural selection with improved medecine. what would not in primitive times be a passed trait becomes a common trait as technology replaces genetics. look at the rate of infirtility. it will increase with each medical advance that enables conception where it is not naturally possible as the infirtel pass on that trait where the could not in the past.

orby, all you did was squint at the world and bring the truth into focus.

lets toast to science!



Bill

[Buffy]

Two thoughts:

• Our most important evolutionary advances in the last 3 millenia have been societal. While many animals have evolved complex societal structures, ours has been accellerating both due to social sophistication (politics, pop-culture, instant-mass-communications/propaganda, transmogrification of social groupings as multiple and non-geographical/familial/racial associations) as well as technological (next item). Its incredibly naive to think that evolution is just a function of changing DNA: society is the organism.
• Technology gives us a way to control our evolution, even if we are driving like neal cassady on 5 drugs simultaneously. If we bothered to discuss it with some openness about differing goals and world-views, we might even be able to avoid some nasty disasters we seem to have lurking in the not too distant future (climate change, cloning, pandemics, etc.). Yeah, yeah, from evil scientists to greedy megacorps who don't care about disasters they're sowing for the next generation, its easy to say "we can't do anything about it" or "we have to stop them from doing anything because it will be evil no matter what." Cool heads can prevail if we let them.

Will our DNA catch up? I think it is actually: when you look at the rapid change in height, age of puberty, and other adaptations that we don't even know about yet but appear to be happening, although maybe not fast enough. That's where our ability to step in and do something about it may develop into the most interesting evolutionary change yet. Scary, yes: see every sci fi film/book in the last 100 years. Inevitable? I think so...jump in and help or sit back and enjoy the ride...

We are Devo,
Buffy

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by Buffy

Two thoughts:[list][*]Our most important evolutionary advances in the last 3 millenia have been societal. While many animals have evolved complex societal structures, ours has been accellerating both due to social sophistication ...

Excellent post. Thanks.

Reminds me of the SF novel, "When HARLIE Was One", by David Gerrold. The main AI character (Human Analog Robot, Life Input Equivalent), makes the observation at the end of the book that Humanity's evolution has shifted from DNA to a "game" of our own devising.

The first proto-humans raised a behavioral "bar"--get over the bar and you can mate with me. The bar may have involved the ability to master a few words, or handle a knife. As more and more of the "tribe" mastered that game, the game was made more complicated--the bar was raised again. Now you had to be able to imitate social behavior, master a language with verb tenses, dress appropriately, etc. Over the millenia, the "game" has rapidly evolved in complexity. Master the game, or you don't get to mate with those who have.

HARLIE concludes that since his creation, there is now a new player on the scene, a machine that can play the game.

A machine that can rewrite the rules of the game.

En guarde!!!

[Eclogite]

I suggest that some of what we see as new directions in our culture are actually reapplications of our old instincts with the aid of technology.
Example: walk down any high street in the UK and everywhere someone has a mobile clamped to their ear, or is texting a message (sorry, msg) on their keypads.
New. Different. Total contrast with ten years ago. True. The last part. But not new, just a reapplication of tribal culture. Maintaining contact with fellow tribal members. Bringing them into proximity even though they are half a city, country or world away.
Not so many changes underneath.

[good_sir_knight]

Just wondering orbsycli, are you saying these thoughts are your own?

[orbsycli]

The first thread consisted of a mix between my thoughts and quotes from a a guy in a movie called waking life.
if you've seen the movie, you'll know which guy I'm talking about.

Amazing.

[good_sir_knight]

Eamonn Healy, he is an irish man lecturing in St Edwards Uni, Austin and I suppose to some is known as "shape-shifting man", those who have seen the movie.