Telescopic Evolution, Paradigm Shift, and Singularity: Basic Concepts and Foresight

Telescopic Evolution, Paradigm Shift, and Singularity: Basic Concepts and Foresight

Over the last two weeks I have been contemplating topics to research and write about for this extra credit paper. Just recently I was speaking to my younger brother about the future and he said something that really struck a harmonious note that I hadn’t really felt between us. He said very simply that “something was coming.” He didn’t know if that meant revolution, war, or paramount phenomena, only that some event loomed in the near future unlike what we have already witnessed. I responded by saying that this event was the “Singularity.” What better way to consider the past few cosmic months in this class than to consider cosmic events of the future.

But of course, I am not a physicist. I am only an Anthropology degree seeking student and thus, I will approach this paper in that manner. I will begin with basic concepts of human development and adaptation to provide a context for the evolutionary paradigm, outline the theoretical shift from human-evolution to neo-human-evolution, and briefly discuss what the possibility of singularity means for the future.

Natural Selection and Artificial Selection

Charles Darwin is often referred to as the father of evolutionary theory and through his work On the Origin of Species he posits a familiar theory “…Natural selection acts only by taking advantage of slight successive variations; she can never take a great and sudden leap, but must advance by short and sure, though slow steps” (1859). Two important points come through with this summary. The first being that nature acts on variation with a species, and that the advantageous traits are perpetuated. The second being that this is a slow but successive process meaning that once an advantageous trait is selected for, it will be perpetuated in successive species as long as it remains advantageous. This is a process that occurred naturally for millions of years until the rise of the hominid species and increased cranial capacity.

It is intuitive to think that larger brains came as a successive adaptation as Darwin proposed, but there is another adaptation that coincides with larger cranial capacity and that is bidedality. A theory introduced by Tom Hogervorst, Heinse Bouma, and John de Vos, a trio of Dutch orthopedic surgeons, states that bipedality was a necessary adaptation to changing environmental conditions of the time (from arboreal forests to savanna grasslands) and that with the advent of bipedality came a “wider, rounder pelvis” in order to support the increased weight on two legs rather than four (2009). This not only allowed for increased survival rates and higher energy conservation levels in hominids, but also, to put it simply, allowed birthing mothers to bear children with larger heads. This increased the amount of advantageous cranial capacity that could physiologically be passed on, through birth, in later generations. As generations pile on generations, you come to a comparatively modern hominid brain that has symbolic capacity, linguistic capabilities, and reason. But this is only one side of the evolutionary coin.

With the ability to communicate and reason, the primitive human species no longer had to rely on natural selection to perpetuate traits, rather they moved to artificial selection, an important step for man because it brought about the use of technology for adaptation. It began with stone tools, took a “Great Leap” forward in the Cro-Magnon man (Dawkins 2004), and approximately 50,000 years later we have the beginnings of artificial intelligence, space travel, and nanotechnology. This would seemingly contradict Darwin’s theory as mankind could now take great evolutionary leaps toward becoming an organism that is “irreducibly complex” (1859).

Telescopic Evolution and Paradigm Shift

Natural selection is still at work under the current evolutionary paradigm and artificial selection is merely a derivative of this function. It is a simple difference between random variability and variability within a pool of chosen traits. This chosen pool is typically an unconscious choice but can also be consciously chosen, a method that is much more prevalent in regard to domestication in modern society. To illustrate how quickly this process can occur with artificial selection, an example from Richard Dawkins’ book The Ancestor’s Tale will suffice.

In an experiment done by D.K. Belyaev, a Russian biologist, he and his colleagues bred silver foxes in captivity strictly for tameness and within 20 years, they succeeded in doing so (Dawkins 2004). The speed at which this artificial selection occurred is very significant considering this evolutionary function has been at work in hominids and their ecological contacts for thousands of years. It is also important to note that with the selection for tameness, other secondary and tertiary traits came forth that were not selected for (Dawkins 2004), similar to the theory posited earlier by Hogervorst, et all. It shows that artificial selection can happen very rapidly but is still considered a form of natural selection and traits are still perpetuated partially at random, especially in regard to incidental traits.

Technology, however, does not development randomly. With each new breakthrough the human species makes, it adds to the theoretical framework with which the next adaptive problem is approached. This changes Darwin’s slow, successive process of natural selection from linear progression to an exponential progression. Dr. Eamonn F. Healy, a professor of chemistry at St. Edwards University in Texas, illustrates this concept in a Richard Linklater film entitled Waking Life. His theory can be broken down into five specific points.

• First, evolution at this stage of the human species is defined by it’s interaction with the environment, as was discussed earlier.
• Second, there are two types of information: analog and digital - Analog being the genetic information contained within DNA and digital being manmade technology, past to present (2001).
• Third, the time scales at which these digital developments are made are rapidly increasing. This idea is also proposed by inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil in his book The Singularity is Near as the “Law of Accelerating Returns” (2005).
• Fourth, that as the exponential nature of this law continues, we will soon see developments and innovations within a lifetime scale and that manmade technology will eventually equal or supersede biology. Healy posits that technology will become so advanced that it could be “knit together with neurobiology” (2001).
• Fifth, that surpassing biology will cause the current evolutionary paradigm to shift and that the “knitting” of these two types of information will double the evolutionary potential and produce a “neo-human” based on the new evolutionary paradigm (2001).

Singularity

The importance of Healy’s five points is found when considering the older evolutionary context. In reference to analog and digital information Healy states, “Before on the old evolutionary paradigm, one would die and the other would grow and dominate. But under the new paradigm, they would exist as a mutually supportive, noncompetitive grouping” (2001). This refers to a dichotomy between the evolution of analog information and digital information. He also notes later that with this doubling of evolutionary potential and shift to noncompetitive evolution, you lose the previous adaptions that were necessary for survival, both in humans and in other organisms (2001). These adaptations are based on efficiency and doing whatever is necessary and sufficient for survival. War, parasitism, dominance, morality, and predation are all examples, given by Healy, of social adaptations prevalent in surviving species today (2001). With the advent of this new evolutionary paradigm, these harsh predatory conditions for survival are no longer necessary. If we were to reach a point in medical technology where we could integrate man with version of nanotechnology, it would remove worries of cancer, obesity, diabetes, AIDS, and perhaps even death.

Kurzweil and Healy always speak of this possibility with awe and wonder, as they should, but it always from a positive perspective about how we cannot comprehend what it could be like. Healy describes it at “an almost instantaneous fulfillment of human - human and neo-human potential” (2001). Physicist Mischio Kaku speaks more definitively, saying that it will be based on what resources can be harnessed. He refers to this as Type 1, 2, and 3 civilizations.

• Type 1 civilization being one that has completely planetary control over plate-tectonics, steers global climates, and mines the oceans for resources.
• Type 2 civilization would be one that has harnessed the power of an a whole star, specifically in regard to the re-ignition of their as it begins to die.
• Type 3 civilization would be in control of an entire galaxy.

As you might expect, Kaku deems us as a simple, Type 0 civilization. But in his book Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century, he makes a series of predictions, namely that from now until the year 2020, advancements in quantum mechanics, computing, and DNA knowledge will explode (1997). He also notes that these breakthroughs will be so dramatic and important, that countries will survive or die based on their knowledge of these areas. In a United Nations conference, Kaku says that we have already taken the first step toward a Type 1 civilization with the advent of the internet, a global system of communication. It is now just a matter of time before worries about disease and prosperity are overshadowed by the endless possibilities of science and genetic master (Kaku, 1997)

Works Cited

Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species. New York: Sterling, 2008. Print.

"Darwin's Theory of Evolution." Darwin's Theory Of Evolution. All About Science, 2002-2011. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. <http://www.darwins-theory-of-evolution.com/>.

Dawkins, Richard. The Ancestor's Tale: a Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution. Boston: Mariner, 2004. Print.

Kaku, Michio. Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century. New York: Anchor, 1997. Print.

Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.

Waking Life. Dir. Richard Linklater. Perf. Dr. Eamonn F. Healy. 2001. DVD.

What Is Coming to Earth. Perf. Michio Kaku. 2011. You Tube, 2 Apr. 2011. Web.