http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ETHICS.html (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996) |
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Author: F. Heylighen, V. Turchin,
Date : Dec 1, 1993 (modified); Aug 1993 (created)
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We see the fundamental "good", or goal to be strived for, as the continuation of the process of evolution, thus avoiding evolutionary "dead ends" and general extinction. Natural selection entails survival and growth or development (summarized by the concept of "fitness") as the essential value. Although the death of individual organisms is a side-effect of genetic evolution (genes themselves being immortal), it is no longer necessary for cultural evolution. Hence, the maximisation of survival leads to the striving toward immortality. (see also Moritz's paper on cybernetic immortality, and the information on "life extension". It also leads to the desire of actualizing the human potential (self-actualization), to maximally develop the knowledge, intelligence and wisdom which may help us to secure survival for all future contingencies.
We contend that humanity is in the process of a new metasystem transition, leading to a yet higher level of evolution: the human "superbeing" or "metabeing". Such (a) being(s) may become "cybernetically immortal": what would survive is not so much the biological material of their bodies, but their cybernetic organization, which may be embodied in organic tissues, electronic networks, or other media.
The main problem of an evolutionary ethics is to reconcile the goals of optimal evolution on the different levels: the level of the individual (personal freedom), the society (integration of individuals), and the planet (survival of the world ecology as a whole). The necessary competition between levels follows from the problem of suboptimization.
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