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CopyRight @ 1997 This is a summary of the first part of what I found by looking at human ecology. It is meant to look at how massively human ecology has changed and what humans might be able to do to adapt to these changes. There is far more to the situation than is described here, but this does cover the most important change, the effect of medicine and other factors that remove natural selective effects. As mentioned, there is far more written about this elsewhere. Still, there is a second part to what I found that is more subtle, but perhaps just as important or perhaps more so. Here it is called morality.Morality is the term for the strategies we use to survive. Often it is mistaken for religion and it is often the message of a religion that they created morality. In truth, morality is independent of religion and the religions are a part of morality. To many people this may seem incorrect. They believe that moralities are the rules laid down by God for humans to follow. A question could be asked, what is God's purpose in laying down these laws? Most of this essay is to describe morality as methods of biological survival and to describe what is necessary for survival. At a point the laws that come from religion that are called morality are examined for their effectiveness in promoting survival. It turns out that the teachings of religions are actually fantastically effective survival strategies. In that human survival is based both on cooperation and competition, this description actually leans more towards religious morality and its emphasis on cooperation than perhaps stricter biology and its emphasis on competition. This seems appropriate in light of the genetic model used. There are many different ways that people survive. People that live in the same city, may survive by completely different methods. Indeed, all civil societies are composed of different occupational castes and they each have a different morality that is appropriate to the niche that they occupy in the city. Also there are moralities that one would not naturally think of as moral. There are criminal organizations such as the Mafia, that are the strategy that a people use to survive over long periods of time. They violate the tenants of most moralities, but they have allowed those people to survive and so are a morality. This part of my study was started because I recognized that humans are undergoing such massive changes in how we survive that it seemed likely that we would need new moral tools and strategies to survive. It was tough, because moralities and beliefs are far more slippery subjects than are genes, which are slippery enough. I started the examination by trying to figure out what moral tools we have used in the past and what we have at present. Early on, I used one premise, that is also a bias of the entire examination. It is an ecological premise though and probably correct. It is that humans have gotten where we have primarily through cooperation. Sometimes, looking at the present world, a person can feel just a little bit cynical and that statement is good for a laugh. Still it's true. This is not to put down individual accomplishment. The truth lies somewhere between Ayn Rand and Karl Marx, but really in the simple process of living, cooperation is our most important strategy. My conclusion was that there is an existing moral system that has so much potential for promoting and allowing cooperation, that we are not going to soon require much in the way of new systems. More than that we are going to require more understanding of the reasons for using moral systems. It is unfortunate that our main vehicle for moralities, religions, have generally been based on precedence and authority instead of reason and understanding. Perhaps it was inevitable and necessary, but in the future, the reasons behind moral rules and techniques will have to be understood instead of just learned or they will not be effectively practiced and passed on. The rest of this essay is a summary of the path I followed to try to find out what humans needed to know and believe in order to survive, as well as some of what I learned on the way. So this part is a summary of how humans have learned to cooperate. To cooperate, there must be communication. Topics that must be examined to describe communication are: Intelligence Language Memes a. Intelligence - The biological definition of intelligence is a social behavior that allows the individual to remember, understand and influence the other members of the society. In humans, there are also occupational and technical aspects to intelligence, but they are discussed elsewhere. A major aspect of the social ability intelligence gives to humans is communication. Communication includes language skills as well as non-verbal communication and the ability to manipulate memes. Intelligence can be considered the natural basis of the ability to understand and create. b. Language - The ability of language to enhance communication is illustrated by the limitations on communication when there is not language. Humans communicate in many ways, but none compare to language for speed, precision and versatility. In ways language seems like such a technical thing, but the mechanisms of language are extremely broad as is shown by languages made for the deaf and blind. c. Memes - Memes are what we communicate. They are natural groupings of information and as such facilitate communication greatly. Like language, you can see how useful memes are to communication by considering what they allow and what would not be possible if information did not naturally group. It was only about 20 years ago that Richard Dawkins described his concept of memes. Any student of humans must realize the incredible importance and power of that concept as a tool to describe and understand humans, but an understanding of memetics has only just begun. The problem of describing memes is that they follow rules similar to genes and yet critically different rules as well. The importance of memes cannot be overstated, but currently the concept is still too new to be more than basically understood. Still, it is clear that the importance of memes cannot be over stated. The long ongoing dichotomous discussion of nature verses nurture could easily become a three way discussion of nature, nuture and memes Cooperation requires some kind of agreement. It can be very formal or it can very tacit and understood. Here, these agreements are all called contracts. They include: Marriage - Marriage has always had at least two components. An economic aspect and a reproductive aspect. Marriage is very important in biological terms because it is so important to the family, which is a basis of human survival. It is a very strong agreement of mutual responsibility and mutual goals. As society has developed, so has the institution and scope of marriage. Money - Money is an odd thing, but here it is used, as it is in human society, to represent the physical resources necessary to survival. The mutability of money represents the variability of resources in the human economy represented in a very basic contract of great versatility. In biological terms, all economic activity and business contract could be categorized as money. All contracts are just another name for a formal cooperative agreement. Law - Law encompasses many aspects of cooperation including regulation of competition. Many, times law is the field upon which cooperative ventures are built and law is what is used to resolve disputes that arise in cooperative ventures. Social stability of the society is often the purpose of law. Religion - A religion defines a community. A community is defined by its social and cooperative nature. Religions define a morality which is both a method and an agreement about how a community should live. Historically, religions have been the most important vehicle of morality. Social Compact - There are many social compacts. These are the informal agreements between classes and groups that all contribute to a society. if human survival is based on agreements and contracts, it is the informal agreements that are the most important to the most people. These can be agreements within families and communities all the way up to informal agreements between the classes and political bodies of a society. Examination of social contracts and the symbiosis they allow, show how truly important and basic cooperation is to human survival. Also, the social compact may regulate what competition there is in society. These are the understandings of acceptable standards of behavior. Part of the cooperative methods we use to survive are organizational systems including: Religion Politics War Caste Class Institution Industries a. Religion - Religion is about morality and survival. Humans survival is based on families and communities. Morality cannot be regulated by simple law so regulation of the family and community is one of the primary functions of religion. By setting standards of behavior, religion facilitates much of the basis of social organization and allows for the agreements of social compacts. It creates communities that cooperate as families. It also sanctifies marriages, one of the most important contracts of the entire society. b. Politics - In order to create the power structure that politics is all about, politics always creates cooperative groups. Then the function of these groups is to compete for power. Political laws are to regulate this competition so that it is not destructive to the society. c. War - In many ways, war is an extension of politics. In any case, C.D. Darlington discussed the importance of organization to both. Historically, the success of the international ruling caste was based on the ability to organize, especially in terms of warfare. d. Caste - Is a term that refers both to a groups tribal nature and their occupational nature. The basic castes are ruler, priest, warrior, scribe, craftsman and peasant. They are so basic to the organization of a society, that a description of castes was how Plato described his idealistic utopia. In terms of occupation, these castes were the functions necessary to the existence of a society. Since they come from a tribal origin, they also have the added natural cooperative characteristics of a family and community. e. Class - Class is an economic term. The commonest basic description of classes is that of a farmer that brings grain to a miller. The miller just naturally has more economic wealth than the farmer that brings their grain to the miller. Much of the economic organization of a society is based on features of the class system and its attendant economic features. Circumstances also promote cooperation within the class. There is also a natural symbiosis between the classes. While there has often been contention between the classes, over all it has contributed to the organization and cooperative potentials of the society. f. Institution - Institutions are considered to be multi-generational behavioral patterns. Things change and families mature, but each generation has the same immediate needs, many of which are based on the requirements of families. Really, most organizational devices can be called institutions, but it is a useful way of categorizing different needs and methods of filling those needs, in a society. g. Industries - Industries fulfill the material needs of a society. They provide the food, clothing, shelter and other devices we use to survive. In itself, that is not so remarkable, but the cooperative systems that make industry work, are remarkable. Industry brings together entrepreneurs, designers, labor and financial specialists to create a product. The organizational system of an industry can rival that of a military organization. ** Then there are philosophies to be considered, since it is in philosophy that describes if cooperation is to be used as a tool of survival. It should be recognized that much about cooperation, methods of cooperation and reasons for cooperation, are learned. This is embodied in philosophy. This is examined by looking at philosophies of: Dharma Buddhism Christianity a. Dharma - Dharma (liberally described) is the idea of dividing life into three parts. The first part, from birth to 25 years, is a time to grow and learn, preparing for adulthood. The second part, between 25 and 50 years is a time to rise a family. The third part (and part that is important here) is from 50 years on when the person is supposed to devote their energies to their society. This is important as a very basic model of effort and apparent altruism that is part of what is needed to maintain a healthy functioning society. b. Buddhism - Buddhism is many things, but there is a form of Buddhism that teaches that an individual should love all others. It's actually hard to see what this means in practice, but it is a philosophy that shows great potential for promoting social cooperation, as is mentioned in the next topic. c. Christianity - To a certain extent, Christianity is what this discussion leads to. The original question was, if we are entering a new ecology and undergoing major changes in our genetic nature, what do we need in the way of a morality for this new ecology. Will any existing moralities be adequate or will we need a completely new one. Well, an examination (a long examination) shows Christianity to be the most cooperative of existing philosophies in the western world and probably the whole world. It is natural and so easy to lose sight of the philosophy under any religion. Religions are about Gods. If you ask who Jesus was, you are likely to get an answer that he is God (or God's prophet, in much of the world). People focus on the sacred, mystical or eternal aspects of Jesus and often miss the incredible earthly philosophical impact his teachings have on all aspects of every day life. The lessons of Christianity give western society a basic cooperative nature that is the foundation of the entire society. The cooperation that allows democratic politics to work, modern technology to create and current mega-civil bodies to exist, are all based on teachings descended and husbanded since the time of Jesus. Many cooperative philosophies exist and many did before Jesus, but it is his legacy that we use. The message taught by Jesus was one of love one another and forgive one another. This is remarkable both in that it is somewhat counter intuitive and that it works very well. Following natural instincts, humans seem to be very quarrel some and revenge is the natural response to insult or attack. Generally, those habits work against the development of a civilization. Christianity works to inhibit that quarrelling and benefits everyone. One question here is do Christian philosophies of cooperation make humans work analogously to insect communities where genetics promote cooperation. I think there are fundamental differences, but it is an important question ask to understand human cooperation in a society. It is also quite (potentially) possible. Another important question is whether Christianity is enough to fulfill human requirements in the next ecology. A lot more is going to have to be known about the next ecology, cooperation and Christianity, to answer that question. Obviously this kind of statement about a religion is a controversial position, but this book is to describe a method of viewing even more than any one view. At such, saying that Christianity is such an effective cooperative method is observational and not any more empirical than the description of the cooperation that Christianity has fostered. There are other cooperative systems in use and there are others that have been described, but were never or are not currently implemented. It would be expected and memetics suggests, that just as the development of the civil races was a matter of hybridization, moralities can and will absorb other practices that work well. Also, just as the genetic development of the other civilizations parallel each other, so too will the cultural and moral development. Remember that here this is not immediately about religion, Christians or Gods, it is about human survival based on cooperation. This analysis can be applied to all human systems and will have to be if we are to survive. Also, this is not to ignore the importance of the philosophies of history. The philosophies of from the Greeks, particularly science, will have to be examined for how they will relate to survival, but those can be considered within the framework that has already been described and also they will present rather advanced topics in terms of an ecological analysis. Actually, Christianity inherently incorporates, Greek science and Hellinistic thought. Eventually, the philosophies from the time of ancient Egypt to Robert Heinlein will have to be categorized and, more difficultly, evaluated as to their effect and utility in terms of human survival. There is going to be a lot of judgment involved as well. Then it will be time to look at non-cooperation and individuality in morality and survival. Cooperation is the basis of human survival, but not the only method and even in a cooperative situation, there are times for non-cooperation. Also, in biological terms, cooperation always is an attribute of a group. Very often, these cooperative groups compete quite sharply. Conclusion
Humans are currently experiencing a huge change in just about
everything related to their ecology and survival. In order to
survive, humans will have to create and adapt to a new 'stable'
ecology. Adaptation will be both genetic and strategic.
Morality Monographs Back to Introduction and Index . . . . .... Just some working notes...... While this is about moralities, methods of survival, there are many things that go into a morality. It can be a problem of semantics. Are these beliefs, behaviors, knowledge, culture or what? How can this study be categorized. Usefully categorizing the information can be as important and difficult as finding what parts are important. Luckily, recently, a new concept has been developed that offers great potential for describing human activity and belief. This is the meme model of Richard Dawkins. The shortest description of a meme is that it is an integration of belief, knowledge and behavior. In many ways, it seems similar to the object model in computer programming that says that data should be packaged with the methods that manipulate the data and the behaviors that result from the data. In this sense, to examine a belief, the premises of the belief must be described, what biases it results in, what actions it results in, etc. It seems to be an extremely powerful tool for describing human existence and it is the primary method used here. There are many memes that comprise any morality and in many ways, they will be arbitrary delineation's within things that are observed, but like objects in programming, they are meant to represent how things exist and work in the real world. So this part of the book examines memes big and small, that seem critical to creating a useful model of human morality. I started out with a number of categories of study to try to describe human beliefs and knowledge. The first topic that needed examination seemed to be individual beliefs. The second topic was institutions. The word institutions was used to describe group or multi-generational beliefs. In this area was contracts, which had great significance. Also, it is institutions that we use to organize our society. The third topic to study was present religions and their strategies as well as survival strategies that were not associated with religions. It is easy to see how industries that supply food, energy and transport contribute to survival, but sometimes it is harder to see how secular philosophies and religious beliefs translate into survival strategies, but they do and they are the basis of human morality. This part of the study involves enormous amounts of information. Most of the original analysis should be available on the web, but here, the goal is brevity, so I will try to describe the most important points, very briefly. Still, these points added together should give a person a foundation for an understanding of human moral challenges and the methods used for solving them. Then, an intelligent conclusion can be achieved about what we will need in the future and what might provide for those needs. Individual Beliefs |