NP? "The direction of evolution and the future of humanity," or not...

Doug Millison millison at online-journalist.com
Fri Aug 2 10:56:18 CDT 2002


http://www4.tpgi.com.au/users/jes999/
EVOLUTION'S ARROW
The direction of evolution and the future of humanity
John Stewart

To ensure the book is accessible outside Australia, I have made it freely
available on this site, in both a HTML version and in a printer-friendly
PDF version.  

Summary
Evolution's Arrow argues that evolution is directional and progressive, and
that this has major consequences for humanity. Without resort to teleology,
the book demonstrates that evolution moves in the direction of producing
cooperative organisations of greater scale and evolvability - evolution has
organised molecular processes into cells, cells into organisms, and
organisms into societies.

The book founds this position on a new theory of the evolution of
cooperation. It shows how self-interest at the level of genes and
individuals does not stand in the way of the movement of evolution toward
increasing cooperation. Evolution progresses by discovering ways to build
cooperative organisations out of self-interested individuals.

Evolution's Arrow argues that 'management' and 'governance' are keys to
explaining the evolution of cooperation. The book shows how management can
organise cooperative organisations of self-interested components.
Management can be external (eg. proteins managed by RNA, and human
societies managed by rulers or government) or can be internal and
distributed (eg. insect societies managed by genes reproduced in each
individual insect, multicellular organisms managed by genes reproduced in
each cell, human tribes managed by inculcated beliefs reproduced in each
tribal member).

The book also argues that evolution itself has evolved.  Evolution has
progressively improved the ability of evolutionary mechanisms to discover
the best 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 goes on to use this understanding of the direction of
evolution and of the mechanisms that drive it to identify the next great
steps in the evolution of life on earth - the steps that humanity must take
if we are to continue to be successful in evolutionary terms. It shows how
we must change our societies to increase their scale and evolvability, and
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 our biological or social
past. Critical steps are the formation of a unified, cooperative planetary
society, and the emergence of evolutionary warriors - individuals who are
conscious of the direction of evolution, and who use their evolutionary
consciousness to promote the continued evolutionary success of humanity.
The book develops and extends the ideas that were first presented by the
author in a number of papers published in the international Journals
Artificial Life, Evolutionary Theory and The Journal of Social and
Evolutionary Systems.

http://thefacts.com/story.lasso?wcd=4266
[...] For more than a year, Steve Olafson, the Houston Chronicle's Brazoria
County reporter, kept an online diary criticizing elected officials and
commenting on local politics.
While alter-ego "Banjo Jones" wrote unabashed commentary about local
businesses, government and Brazoria County newsmakers on a Web site,
Olafson covered some of the same issues for The Chronicle.
The Web site, which often lambasted The Facts and even took digs at the
Chronicle, was shut down Tuesday.
"When we learned about the Web site and Steve's involvement with it, we
asked him to take it down," said Jeff Cohen, the Chronicle's executive vice
president and editor. [...]

http://brazosportnews.blogspot.com/2002_07_28_brazosportnews_archive.html#796017
74
[...] Strum, strum, strum
The news of our demise has been greatly exaggerated.

...strum, strum ...

The power of the press is awesome, especially if you own one, which we do,
sort of.  [...]





http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0802-01.htm
[...] Rumsfeld's December 19-20, 1983 visit to Baghdad made him the
highest-ranking US official to visit Iraq in 6 years. He met Saddam and the
two discussed "topics of mutual interest," according to the Iraqi Foreign
Ministry. "[Saddam] made it clear that Iraq was not interested in making
mischief in the world," Rumsfeld later told The New York Times. "It struck
us as useful to have a relationship, given that we were interested in
solving the Mideast problems."  [...] In March of 1984, with the Iran-Iraq
war growing more brutal by the day, Rumsfeld was back in Baghdad for
meetings with then-Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz. On the day of his
visit, March 24th, UPI reported from the United Nations: "Mustard gas laced
with a nerve agent has been used on Iranian soldiers in the 43-month
Persian Gulf War between Iran and Iraq, a team of U.N. experts has
concluded... Meanwhile, in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, U.S. presidential
envoy Donald Rumsfeld held talks with Foreign Minister Tarek Aziz (sic) on
the Gulf war before leaving for an unspecified destination."  [...] The day
before, the Iranian news agency alleged that Iraq launched another chemical
weapons assault on the southern battlefront, injuring 600 Iranian soldiers.
"Chemical weapons in the form of aerial bombs have been used in the areas
inspected in Iran by the specialists," the U.N. report said. "The types of
chemical agents used were bis-(2-chlorethyl)-sulfide, also known as mustard
gas, and ethyl N, N-dimethylphosphoroamidocyanidate, a nerve agent known as
Tabun."  [...] Donald Rumsfeld was in Iraq as the 1984 UN report was issued
and said nothing about the allegations of chemical weapons use, despite
State Department "evidence." On the contrary, The New York Times reported
from Baghdad on March 29, 1984, "American diplomats pronounce themselves
satisfied with relations between Iraq and the United States and suggest
that normal diplomatic ties have been restored in all but name."  [...]
Throughout the period that Rumsfeld was Reagan's Middle East envoy, Iraq
was frantically purchasing hardware from American firms, empowered by the
White House to sell. The buying frenzy began immediately after Iraq was
removed from the list of alleged sponsors of terrorism in 1982.  [...]
Senior officials later told reporters they did not press for punishment of
Iraq at the time because they wanted to shore up Iraq's ability to pursue
the war with Iran. Extensive research uncovered no public statements by
Donald Rumsfeld publicly expressing even remote concern about Iraq's use or
possession of chemical weapons until the week Iraq invaded Kuwait in August
1990, when he appeared on an ABC news special.

Eight years later, Donald Rumsfeld signed on to an "open letter" to
President Clinton, calling on him to eliminate "the threat posed by
Saddam." It urged Clinton to "provide the leadership necessary to save
ourselves and the world from the scourge of Saddam and the weapons of mass
destruction that he refuses to relinquish."

In 1984, Donald Rumsfeld was in a position to draw the world's attention to
Saddam's chemical threat. He was in Baghdad as the UN concluded that
chemical weapons had been used against Iran. He was armed with a fresh
communication from the State Department that it had "available evidence"
Iraq was using chemical weapons. But Rumsfeld said nothing.  [...]



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