CopyRight @ 1996
1. genetics
2. sex differences and adaptation
Genetics
What about our genetics in the future? To make it short,
the potentials are less limited than our needs. Even with the
present massive changes that we must respond to, the human race
presently has enough genetic diversity and potential to adapt if
we change how we manage ourselves and our genetics. Since the
time of the tribes, the general rule has been to promote breeding
out of the family, but in the group. Hybridization did occur, but
was mostly an exception, largely due to isolation. During the
time of the cities, hybridization went against the rules of the
stratified society, but was not preventable. These rules were
maintained by the religions. Sometime religions actually
orchestrated the merging of different peoples by showing the
relatedness of their gods.
Artificial selection will be used to ban disease and
frailty. It will give health, beauty and intelligence. It will
create a new nature for humans. It can create a new world. It
will slam home a responsibility that will force a new type of
conciousness or we will go extinct. This book intentionally only
examines some presently existing possibilities. The true
potentials are not only unguessable, they may never be developed.
Change for survival may be necessary, but change for the sake of
change could be dangerous. The hybridized human of the next
ecology will be adapted to a comfortable niche that should exist
for geologic ages. Perhaps populations or planets may come and
go, but if humans get established off the earth, our specie may
survive an unimaginably long time. It is impossible to guess what
goals different groups will pursue in the future.
Consider the idea of all humans being more or less
genetically equal. Healthy, attractive, intelligent, stable,
nice, capable and happy. What will the society for this group
look like? As said before, this is the challenge for humans.
Artificial selection will not be able to do everything.
Natural selection will still be acting, but in more subtle ways.
Racism and the stratified society would be archaic in a
hybridized population.
First and foremost in a consideration of the development of
the human specie and ecology, the effect of hybridization between
tribes must be examined. This is the effect that led to our
pesent civilization and technologies. It is what will allow us to
progress to the next stable ecology.
This is a discussion of a specie in transition and the ways
specie may be able to survive until the development of a new
stable ecology. This can only be done by the intentional
adaptation and adjustment of the specie. Here are some thoughts
on how we might be able to survive and be happy doing it.
Global Village concept
In the computer industry is a concept called the Global
Village. It is the idea that eventually computer connectivity
could become so effective and common, that the world would be
like one village - when it comes to communication. To convert
this to a social concept, it could be referred to as a global
community. Villages have communities.
Part of the conclusion of this book can be put in the form
of the Global Village concept. This is appropriate because it is
a sociological view, to complement technical and genetic views.
These changes in ecology is are beautiful and significant
phenomena to consider. Usually the ecology of an organism is
primarily dictated by its energy supply, but as mentioned before,
it is rather different for humans. It turns out that presently
there are physical effects of communication and genetics, where
evolution can be expected to focus now, presenting the human race
with the potential for a step in maturity to far more than we are
now. Before that happens we will have to create a niche
environment appropriate to our potentials. Much of that has to do
with what technologies we can command. It is amazing that human
belief will affect human evolution and vice versa. That holds
great promise for the evolution of humans. This is what this
paper is supposed to illuminate for those who look for a way for
humans to live and grow. We are not evolving towards some preset
evolutionary goal. We are trying to find a viable survival route
with what we have got or can create. Sort of like a marriage.
###########
MORALITY
Morality is the will and the method to survive.
Morality is the lessons that we start learning as children,
that tell us how we can live our lives. A moral system must tell
us how to live, grow, be happy and raise families. To a large
extent, moral systems are based on value and belief systems.
Moral systems are so basic, not only do we not notice them, we
are designed not to question them. This is the bottom line time.
This is what we have to understand and get sorted out if we are
to survive. All previous information leads to this end.
The lessons of moralities are many and varied. The first
lessons we learn are related to personal sanitation. Our tree
dwelling ancestors had no reason for an instinct to avoid fouling
their temporary nest. As we have developed the habit of
occupying the same location continuously, we have started to
develop cleaner habits in the direction of the habits of a cat.
Since we do not have a well developed instinct towards
cleanliness necessary to sedentary or civil living, it must be
taught.
So what are the rest of the lessons? How do the moralities
of the tribal and stratified societies look in view of the
ecology that is presently developing? That is why the changing
ecology was described in the form of this book. We can assume
that some lessons are basic enough, like sanitation, that they
will not change much. The describable changes in human ecology
are where the new moral lessons and techniques will have to be
developed.
Up to now, most moral systems were developed for tribal
situations. The stratified society included laws for how
different tribes could interact. We need more than that. So
starting with sanitation, what are the beliefs, values,
techniques and understandings that will help us survive our
transition to a more mature specie and then continued survival?
The discussion is in the context of existent moral systems
embodied by religions, law, humanistic beliefs and whatever can
be dug up. Elements of the ecological system will include clean
resource characteristics, artificial selection, computers,
techniques, wisdom and hopefully, some love, hope and happiness.
As said before, the potential for humans is amazing.
Future moral systems, as opposed to older systems and
reflecting a more complex world, will have to teach increased
understanding of the requirements of survival, rather than just a
time tested formula. Fundamentalist moral systems do not respond
adequately to diverse and changing circumstances. A tribal moral
system will include moral laws such as rituals for washing and
prescriptions for how often. Future moral systems will have to
describe what the objective of sanitation is as well as possible
techniques or standards.
The body of any moral system is the family, marriage and
childraising. For any moral system, the first rule must be to
carefully raise and teach the children. Moral law comes from
that. The moral laws of religions were never meant to benefit
gods, they are for the preservation of peoples.
###
So how to raise children, make families and communities?
Unfortunately, that question is not the most critical one here, or
the hardest. We know a lot about child raising and the sober
researchers can figure out the rest. A child must be raised with
love, touching, talking, stimulation and example. But why?
Everything follows that. For many people today and more in the
future, the critical techniques we use for solving problems, will
make us face the questions of our own existence. Because of how
humans respond and act in relation to basic drives and beliefs,
our basic beliefs about ourselves is critically consequential.
The basic questions are: why am I alive; where from; what to do;
why is life like it is; what are the relationships of the world;
what hope is there? In biological terms it means the same thing.
Humans require explanations of the patterns that their intellect
can recognize, but not explain. It is part of survival. So why
do it? Animals do not ask. Humans, up until recently, have had
to completely rely on mystical explanation. Every culture
remembers the story of their creation by god. The belief system
that includes the mindsets of science, now offers new
explanations, but lacks reasons. Knowledge is the enemy of
faith. The peoples of the new ecologies based on knowledge,
need reasons, more than techniques. So why? Hey, it's the only
game in town.
Child raising is what we were designed for. There is
potentially lots more to life, but it is surprising how much
children can offer. As already said, if it does not include
happiness, it is not worth it.
Having children is the only chance for physical immortality
that we have.
We are designed to be creative. There is no creativity
greater than children. We like challenges and stimulation, there
are few greater than educating and socializing a child.
Humans survive and operate out of love. Love is a facet of
the family. The greatest real happiness comes from love.
If a person grows old without having children, unfulfilled
instincts will make them regret it. Though families do not insure
against it, lack of family almost guarantees loneliness.
We have the potential to become something great.
Take care of oneself. Take care of ones family. To take care
of others and ones society, is to take care of oneself.
This is the core of morality, the lessons of family.
#########
In the past it was a function of religion to regulate the
genetics of the population, primarily by promoting breeding out
of the family, but within the group. It seems unlikely that
religion will act the same way, because we are genetically
different from what we were and also we are much less isolated.
Humans will develop a knowledge and a conciosness of their
genetic nature and its consequences. Artificial selection
would replace this function of religion.
xxxxxxxx
We are going to have to learn and teach the importance of
children. Our instincts prompt us to sex, the consequence of
which is families. Birth control has removed that consequence.
Our instinct fails at that point. It does not seem likely or
desirable to fore go the benefits of birth control, so moral
lessons must be learned that will compensate for this changed
factor. Now it becomes necessary to teach having children as a
moral lesson. We must teach the choice to have families.
Pregnancy stimulates development of parental behaviors,
especially in women. Men tend to develop parental behavior for
other reasons corresponding to the reasons for monogamy. It is
one of the functions of religion to teach family values, but it
is the primary function of the family. Some cultures already do,
but many groups and families do not strongly teach this. It used
to take care of itself. It is surprising, because it is new, but
now a child must be taught that there is a reason to have
children.
Childraising is a much more complex and involved project
than it used to be. Good child raising techniques are not widely
known, taught or even agreed upon, but they are certainly widely
neglected. It must be taught to children that raising a family is
difficult, demanding and partly technical. It is also simple.
Often, it takes maturity for an individual to understand the
value of family, especially when the living is easy. The
importance of family must be taught early.
Since childraising is almost as difficult as it is
valuable, both education and policy must be formed as an aid. To
call a society wealthy is to describe something of the values of
the society. In a diverse, stimulating, high energy society,
there are many values to compete with the family values that are
the basis of all societies. We will learn more about child
development and requirement. Machines will be able to greatly aid
the teacher by providing individually paced, diverse and patient
instruction. At the core of what morality is about, we will have
to learn more about what is necessary for any family form to
survive, prosper, improve and continue. We will have to learn and
develop useful forms of communities.
####################################################################
08/21/94 interesting and relevant to a speculitive discussion
about the future adaptation
A PART OF CHAPTER 9
monogram on the equality of men and women.
There is no usefully accurate way to describe men and women
as equel -- except perhaps law and treatment. Simply consider it
from the physical view. Humans are
a sexually dimorphic specie. This is largely due to the demands
of aggressive competition between men. That competition in men
and its lack in women is a consequence of our reproductive
nature. Generally, men can beat women in a fight. They are
designed that way.
If you want to argue with this, you are missing the point.
Humans are adaptive enough that they compete at all
available levels. That women have a disadvantage at the level of
physical confrontation, is a real everyday thing. Sure, women are
capable of being physically aggressive, but it is the exception
to the rule.
At other levels.. Women effectively use one of the two X
chromosomes at any given time. Men use the X and the Y. Does the
Y chromosome confer psychological competitive advantages as well
as physical advantages? What is the nature of the genetic
advantages that men have over women? Are men capable of being
more psychologically aggressive than women, as they are designed
to be more physically agressive?
How should the differences between men and women be viewed.
Is it differences that can be exploited fairly to mutual
advantage or should we have as a goal a real equality between the
sexes. We tend to promote monogamy, which restricts the mans
reproductive potential to the same as his mate. In general we
legislate against situations where physical aggressiveness
determines the outcome of encounters. Still, this often leaves
the women short of ability to compete equally. Natural law
promotes that men win.
Humans are tool users. Much of our strategy is based on
technology. Does the X chromosome confer any advantages in
technological ability? It seems unlikely. This may suggest that
in a promiscuous technological envirnment, it would not be hard
to promote a situation where women could compete on fairly equel
footing. That could produce a real social equality. Still, it is
likely that men will retain an advantage at many levels. That is
fine in a promiscuous envirnment, but the more harsh and
competitive the envirnment, the more disadvantage to the women
and the more the reasons to want the women to be the equels of
their male counterparts. Technically, a decision could be made to
promote an envirnment where the form of competition gives women
an equel footing or an effort could be made to to increace womens
potentials and subsequently there ability to more equally compete
with men. If humans widely move into space, it is more likely
that the latter situation would be common. Humans will have to
adapt in many ways. Aggression is a strategy for limited
resources and so would be expected to be more common to a static
ecology such as a planet bound one.
Theoretically, it should eventually be possible for women to
remain quite a women and still have any potentials on the Y
chromosome that are not on the X chromosome. This will not give
men the ability to have babies. The difference may be necessary
or just tolerable.Who knows? Some humans may end up opting to
become hermaphrodytic. Solutions may be very different depending
on the created ecology. Again, that is a situation that will be
dictated by future technology, including transport.
Determination of this may have a lot to do with how
promiscuous we envision the next ecologies to be and what
strategies we want to use. This is a question of basic long term
significance.
It seems an unsupportable arguement that humans cannot
develop social and family systems that are not traditional role
dependancy relationships where the male must be the competitor
in the society, to support a domestic wife. The issues will be
about strategies for parents that will adaquatly provide for care
of the children. Issues of sexual equality and gender
characteristics must be based on reproduction and child care
first, social convenience and personal desire secondarily.
Wynn Edwards provided a description of why group selection
could not occur. Individuals die alone. Evolutionary theory
suggests that evolution will occur at all levels that exist. This
is where the human niche exists. Cooperation at the group level,
that promotes the survival of human communities and societies.
This may even relate to the relative complexity and relatedness
of the human genome.
Back