Hi all,
Some of you may be interested in the e-mail I am attaching below. I
have not yet had time to read the book, but from the description I think
it sounds very promising and very relevant to many of the discussions in
this group.
Jonathan Marder
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Stewart" <jes999@tpg.com.au>
To: <marder@agri.huji.ac.il>
Sent: Monday 29 May 2000 05:41
Subject: Evolution's Arrow
> If you are interested in psychological evolution, you may want to have
a
> look at my book 'Evolution's Arrow: the direction of evolution and the
> future of humanity.' The book uses an understanding of the direction
of
> evolution to identify the next great steps in our psychological and
> social evolution. Evolution's Arrow has just been published in
> Australia, and I have decided to put the full text on the Internet
until
> it finds a publisher outside Australia.
>
> Evolution's Arrow argues that evolution is directional and
progressive,
> and that evolution moves in the direction of producing cooperative
> organisations of greater scale and evolvability.
>
> The book founds this position on a new theory of the evolution of
> cooperation. It argues that existing approaches to the evolution of
> cooperation are inadequate. They are unable to account for the
evolution
> that has organised molecular processes into cells, cells into
organisms,
> and organisms (including humans) into societies.
>
> The new theory subsumes the narrower 'selfish-gene' perspective, and
> shows that self-interest at the level of the individual does not stand
> in the way of progress toward cooperation over wider and wider scales.
> Evolution progresses when it finds ways to build cooperative
> organisations out of self-interested components. Chapters 5, 6 and 7
> develop this new theory, and Chapters 13, 14 and 15 apply it to the
> evolution of life on earth, including human evolution. Chapters 16 to
18
> of the book use the new theory to identify how we must change our
> societies if we are to continue to be successful in evolutionary
terms.
> A critical step forward will be the emergence of a highly evolvable,
> unified and cooperative planetary organisation that is able to adapt
as
> a coherent whole.
>
> Chapters 8 to 12 of Evolution's Arrow show that evolution itself has
> evolved. Evolution has progressively improved the ability of
> evolutionary mechanisms to discover the most effective adaptations.
And
> it has discovered new and better mechanisms. The book looks at the
> evolution of pre-genetic, genetic, cultural, and supra-individual
> evolutionary mechanisms. And it shows that the genetic mechanism is
not
> entirely blind and random.
>
> Evolution's Arrow uses this analysis to examine the past, present and
> future evolution of our psychology. The book locates our current
> psychology in a long sequence of progressive improvements in
> evolvability. It uses the direction of this sequence to identify the
new
> forms of psychological software that we must develop if we are to
> continue to be successful in evolutionary terms. It shows how we must
> change ourselves psychologically to become self-evolving organisms -
> organisms that are able to adapt in whatever ways are necessary for
> future evolutionary success, unfettered by their biological or social
> past.
>
> The book identifies what this capacity will entail, and how it can be
> developed. To become a self-evolving organism, an individual must
> undergo a psychological transformation. This entails the formation of
a
> new "I" that consciously manages the individual's pre-existing
physical,
> emotional and mental adaptive processes so that the individual can
> pursue evolutionary objectives. This self-management will enable the
> individual to adopt whatever values and motivations are needed for
> future evolutionary success. A self-evolving organism will have the
> capacity to move at right angles to its biological and social past.
This
> will enable it to pursue evolutionary objectives directly and
> consciously, and to use a comprehensive understanding of the direction
> of evolution to guide its actions. These ideas are developed in detail
> in Chapters 10, 11, 12, and 19.
>
> The Internet address of the book is:
>
> http://www4.tpg.com.au/users/jes999/
>
> Do you know anyone who might be interested in having a look at the
book?
> If so, please feel free to forward this e-mail and address onto them.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> John Stewart.
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