Future of humanity

This paper presents nine propositions: (1) humanity is cascading through a rupture in its history into an epoch of “anthropo-transmutation”; (2) to prevent self-destruction and facilitate pluralistic thriving many counter-conventional radical innovations in human values, institutions and policies are essential; (3) enlightened voluntarism cannot be relied upon; (4) human enhancement possibilities too requite strict control and regulation, based on clarified value judgments; (5) novel decisive global governance norms and structures are urgently needed; (6) the future-shaping stratum must be mobilized; (7) spiritual leaders advancing raison d’humanite are essential; (8) political leaders are critical, but to meet existential needs of humanity they need much improvement; and (9) priming political leaders to cope with the fateful issues posed by science and technology is a top priority. Recognizing the need to upgrade political leaders, adding it to public discourse and working out conc...

This article elucidates the relevance, significance and importance of the eight major inquiry domains in the practice of humanity nurturance. These domains were derived using the generativist systems theory of apithology, which examines the causative dynamics of health in living systems. Apithology uniquely concerns itself with the dynamics of generative forms independent of the determinate conceptions of human observation. This allows for the interpretation and appreciation of developments that include humanity-scale perceptions. The field of humanity development is one discipline that requires this form of non-observer specific inquiry and the use of more expansive referents. The advantage provided by this article is that, in understanding the specificity and contributive necessity of the eight domains of inquiry for the apithology of humanity, we also come to appreciate the reason for their obscuration and the difficulty of their perception. The receptivity to this elucidation of the eight domains provides an initiating pathway for researchers into a humanity-centric ontology, epistemology and methodology. This makes the premise of humanity nurturance a practical reality.

La tecnología avanza a pasos acelerados. Esto comenzó en los orígenes mismos de nuestra evolución. El problema es que la velocidad de este cambio se acelera cada día y desafía nuestra forma de vida y, potencialmente, nuestra misma existencia. Homo Singularis presenta un maravilloso recorrido por la evolución del ingenio, desde las primeras máquinas simples, pasando por los avances de la Revolución Industrial, y por aquellos desarrollos y acontecimientos que llevaron a la computadora, la red, la inteligencia artificial y la robótica. Innovadores, científicos, centros de investigación, personajes pintorescos y grandes sucesos dan lugar a cientos de historias que permiten entender el mundo digital actual y nos preparan para lo que viene.

Because permanent space settlement will be multigenerational it will have to be viable on ecological timescales so far unfamiliar to those planning space exploration. Long-term viability will require evolutionary and adaptive planning. Adaptations in the natural world provide many lessons for such planning, but implementing these lessons will require a new, evolutionary paradigm for envisioning and carrying out Earth-independent space settlement. I describe some of these adaptive lessons and propose some cognitive shifts required to implement them in a genuinely evolutionary approach to human space settlement.

World ships are hypothetical, large, self-contained spacecraft for crewed interstellar travel, taking centuries to reach other stars. Due to their crewed nature, size and long trip times, the feasibility of world ships faces an additional set of challenges compared to interstellar probes. Despite their emergence in the 1980s, most of these topics remain unexplored. This article revisits some of the key feasibility issues of world ships. First, definitions of world ships from the literature are revisited and the notion of world ship positioned with respect to similar concepts such as generation ships. Second, the key question of population size is revisited in light of recent results from the literature. Third, socio-technical and economic feasibility issues are evaluated. Finally, world ships are compared to potential alternative modes of crewed interstellar travel. Key roadblocks for world ships are the large amount of required resources, shifting its economic feasibility beyond the year 2300 and the development of a maintenance system capable of detecting, replacing, and repairing several components per second. The emergence of alternative, less costly modes of crewed interstellar travel at an earlier point in time might render world ships obsolete

Humanity is on the threshold of recognizing the fundamental error in its view of life and death. Both death as well as active life is necessary to the vital formation of a larger, more essential whole. In this paper, I apply the sociology of knowledge and change as it pertains to death and focus on ways in which we can step outside its traditional frameworks and limitations. I also discuss topics related to death such as birth, aging, sickness, and war, and examine cultural differences in attitudes toward death. I offer varying perspectives including the Buddhist view and from these draw implications and conclusions. I apply the lenses of contemporary social scientists such as Edgar Morin, Kenneth Gergen, Edward Stewart, Milton Bennett, Mary Catherine Bateson, E. Doyle McCarthy, Philip Slater, and Piotr Sztompka. To these I add other relevant passages from the writings and speeches of key thinkers on the topic of death, in particular, Buddhist philosopher, peacebuilder, and educator, Daisaku Ikeda. To construct a more humanistic and sustainable view of life, it is first of all crucial to establish a culture which perceives death in its larger living context as but one cycle in the expansive eternity of life.

Who am I? What am I? Where am I from? Why am I here? Where am I going? Our Evolution responds to these five classic questions as well as more than 100 others.

The author analyzes evolution beyond philosophical inquiry and even the scope of biology. He focuses on evolution of the consciousness - our personal world.

Our evolutionary process has progressed over thousands of years. Life after life, we accumulate innumerous experiences and knowledge that results in our present state: complex consciousnesses who are full of nuances. Transcending societal superficiality, this book has a profound, yet objective and practical, approach. It shows how to optimize our performance in this life and even prepare for our next existence.

It is not by chance that we have a certain family or friends, for example. Also, when we are reborn and what we realize in this life are not randomly determined. We prepare for our impending physical existence in the non-physical dimension before being reborn onto this planet.

If we are truly the result of what we construct in our evolutionary progression, which is conquered step-by-step, let us work towards engendering a more agile and aware rhythm in Our Evolution.

Is is a coincidence the reason why we have specific family or friends? Is it the law of the coincidence that determines when we are born and what we should carry out in this life? Before being born, we prepare and plan the objectives of our existence. There is a reason for every situation we experience. Understanding them is vital to take lucid control of our life.

This book addresses topics directly related with our conception of life and of ourselves. It is a perfect material to give an overview of IIPC studies, being the ideal gift to present to a someone who wants to take contact with these studies. The development of consciousness evolution is millennial. Life after life, we accumulate numerous experiences and knowledge that result in what we are today: complex consciousnesses, with numerous subtleties and different facets. Going beyond the superficiality of human studies, Our evolution is a deep study, but yet objective and practical. It guides us on how to optimize this life and, furthermore, on how to prepare our next physical life. If it is ourselves who create our evolutionary path, advancing each step by ourselves; why couldnt we impose a more agile and lucid rhythm in our evolution? Our Evolution shows us why it is possible to accelerate evolution and how to do it. This book seeks to answer the five classic philosophycal questions below, and more than 100 basic queries.

We are witnessing a transition in epochs: from the
Anthropocene, in which human activities shaped our environment, to
what I call the "Automacene" -the epoch that machines will direct
what we do and how we do it.
My research findings indicates that there's 60 percent chance the
revolution will be capable of completing "all human tasks" by 2040,
allowing humans to move to a trans-humanist society. Further, the
research reflects what it means to be human in the age of technology
and artificial intelligence "Cyborgs, Robots, Machines...etc.".
By researching how does the artificial intelligence and how does
human intelligence can affect the environment in reworking and
adapting it to their own needs, we can conclude that the Anthropocene
is reshaping our planet in profound ways. Scientific research reflects
that the changes that have occurred in the last 50 to 200 years have
led scientists to investigate about the anthropogenic and the
transhumanist impacts on the Earth

We are witnessing a transition in epochs: from the
Anthropocene, in which human activities shaped our environment, to
what I call the "Automacene" -the epoch that machines will direct
what we do and how we do it.
My research findings indicates that there's 60 percent chance the
revolution will be capable of completing "all human tasks" by 2040,
allowing humans to move to a trans-humanist society. Further, the
research reflects what it means to be human in the age of technology
and artificial intelligence "Cyborgs, Robots, Machines...etc."

To many people, it seems natural to conceive of the mind as a kind of ‘sandwich’ (Hurley) with cognition as the inner filling, wedged between action and perception. According to this model, mental states and activities are intimately tied to what’s going on inside the head, but only indirectly related to our bodies, our interactions with other people, and the world around us. In this course, we consider a loosely knit family of alternative approaches which study human agency and cognition as embodied, embedded, extended, and enacted (‘4E’) phenomena. In particular, we take as our focal point the ‘extended mind’ thesis, which asserts that our minds are ‘hybrid’ entities that emerge from the dynamic interplay between brains, bodies, and environmental resources such as symbols, tools, artifacts, cultural practices, norms, group structures, and social institutions.

In the first part of the course, we take our cue from Clark’s (2008) flagship presentation of the ‘extended mind’ thesis. By comparing Clark’s thesis with related developments, we explore its implications for understanding human cognition, affect, knowledge, rationality, and education. In the second part of the course, we examine Malafouris’s (2013) cross-disciplinary framework (‘material engagement theory’) for studying the human predisposition to reconfigure our bodies and minds by means of artifacts, tools, and material culture. Importantly, technologies are not simply ‘neutral instruments’ that facilitate our existence, but actively give shape to what we do, how we experience the world, and how we live our lives. To analyze the moral significance of technology, we take as our starting point Verbeek’s (2011) ‘post-phenomenological’ approach to moral agency as a property of human-technology associations rather than, as traditionally conceived, an exclusively human affair. In the third and last part of the course, we reflect on emergent scientific, technological, socio-economic, and political developments that (further) blur the boundaries between the traditional category of the human and its various ‘others,’ such as animals and machines, and that seem to be on a path to take us beyond human beings as we currently know them. Coming to terms with the potential displacement of ‘humanity’ as the shared reference point of our identity presents a formidable challenge. In our course, we contrast two strikingly different projections of what it means to be ‘human’ into the future: the ‘post-humanist’ framework outlined by Braidotti (2013), versus the ‘trans-humanist’ project advocated by Fuller (2010).

Human society has reached a critical crossroad in history. The global dynamic process that has driven the prosperity and freedoms embodied in Western civilization is grinding to a halt. The narrowing opportunities for humanity as population presses on technologically defined resources is generating protests, ugly competition, disputes, wars, and a loss of confidence in our political and social institutions. How the world reacts to this crisis over the next few decades will determine the fate of both Western civilization and the rest of the world. Prospects, however, are not bright. Not because the underlying dynamic mechanism of global change is malfunctioning, but because so-called "progressives"--who are really metaphysical interventionists--are attempting to reshape the world using pseudo-science, which is unable to realistically interpret the dynamics of human society. These radical interventionists are engaged in mythmaking rather than reality construction. If they have their way--and they are currently enjoying major successes--the world will experience the establishment of a global command system that will block the natural transition to a new and higher state of technological achievement. I call this outcome the "Dutch windmill syndrome". The outcome will be a massive reduction in material prosperity, the loss of individual liberty, and a huge loss of life. Essentially it will involve "the dying of the light". There is, however, a better way, which is outlined in this paper from the INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL DYNAMIC SYSTEMS (Canberra). Note: unfamiliar terms and concepts are explained in the Appendix.

This paper begins with a refutation of the orthodox model of final Pleistocene human evolution, presenting an alternative, better supported account of this crucial phase. According to this version, the transition from robust to gracile humans during that period is attributable to selective breeding rather than natural selection, rendered possible by the exponential rise of culturally guided volitional choices. The rapid human neotenization coincides with the development of numerous somatic and neural detriments and pathologies. Uniformitarian reasoning based on ontogenic homology suggests that the cognitive abilities of hominins are consistently underrated in the unstable orthodoxies of Pleistocene archaeology. A scientifically guided review establishes developmental trajectories defining recent changes in the human genome and its expressions, which then form the basis of attempts to extrapolate from them into the future. It is suggested that continuing and perhaps accelerating unfavorable genetic changes to the human species, rather than existential threats such as massive disasters, pandemics, or astrophysical events, may become the ultimate peril of humanity.

The present volume, Anthropology and the Future of Humankind, is the outcome of the Round Table: 2013, one of the academic discourses of the Indian Anthropological Congress 2013, organised by the Indian National Confederation and Academy of Anthropologists (INCAA) at Kannur University, Kerala, during February 14 through 16 2013. The theme chosen for deliberations at the Round Table was “Anthropology and the Future of Humankind”. All contributions incorporated in this volume emerged in a way out of the responses to a somewhat provocative write up that was circulated by the Organising Committee among all prospective Speakers at the Round Table. The intention was neither to enforce unanimity in this respect, nor even to arrive at a consensus. The basic objective of the whole exercise was to examine the issues from various angles and dimensions in order to highlight alternative views regarding the subject. Therefore, no attempt has been made toward any synthesis of the views expressed by individual authors. After all, alternative views reflect greater realities of any given situation that enforced convergence of thoughts as are often found in practice.

We are on the threshold of the human age – and this is precisely the reason why with this book, we aim for a constructive dialogue about the future – not about a far-off, anonymous future; it’s about the future we want to shape for ourselves.
A utopia? Certainly – because we must observe shaping our futures from the perspective of the possible and not primarily as a mere extension of today’s living environments.
Realistic? Just as certainly! This dialogue dares to ask: What future do we want to see become a reality?
This impetus is born of two impressions which are contradictory only at first glance. Our society is significantly marked by longing for a clear future picture.
The second observation: We aren’t holding a dialogue about the future, at least not sufficiently. And yet every one of us carries our personal future picture within us – possibly several of them: some worth striving for, some less so. Envisioned, perceived, felt, far too seldom fully formulated and shared, and even more rarely incorporated into a constructive dialogue that can enable us to shape our futures actively and responsibilities.

The limits and consequences of humanitarian military operations continue to be major issues in Western public debates on global security, democracy and human rights. This article focuses on the intersection of war and humanitarianism, situating the study of humanitarian militarism within a European context in which a reinvigorated proliferation of the military ethos coexists with ongoing transformations in European military culture and a resurgence of nation-state ideologies. Building on a reeection of the historical consolidation of humanitarian militarism and interviews conducted with soldiers, the paper explores the politics of humanity produced by humanitarian militarism.

Law is a universal institution that has pretensions of being ubiquitous and complete. However, in a complex, plural and volatile world, its limits and possibilities are shaken by the speed, depth and extent of ongoing transformations, its resulting ethical dilemmas, and the difficulties of forming consensus in the political universe. This article provides a reflection on how the Law has attempted to deal with some of the main afflictions of our time, facing demands that include the needs to (i) keep the technological revolution on an ethical and humanistic track, (ii) avoid that democracy be perverted by populist and authoritarian adventures and (iii) prevent solutions to climate change from coming only when it is too late. At a time when even the near future has become unpredictable, Law cannot provide a priori solutions to multiplying problems and anxieties. When this happens, we must set clear goals for the future of humanity, basing them on the essential and perennial values that have followed us since antiquity.

Lars von Trier is obsessed by sin, death, punishment, and all his films always come to that kind of an end: someone is punished for the evil doing of humanity, or of some people around the main character. We could understand that stance if it came from some sectarian fundamentalist, for example of the Christian Born Again in Jesus Christ, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons or some other affiliation of the Christian faith, not to speak of other religions. That makes some collaborations surprising like the one with Stephen King because Stephen King is strongly optimistic about the future of the world because he believes human beings can face and probably control any nasty negative and morbid situation. In the Dark Tower what is important is not that the last page is the same as the first but that all along the members of the team of adventurous volunteers led by a gunslinger have always been able to step over any difficulty and painful task.

This article aims to present what was said by the late scientist Stephen Hawking who stated in 2018 that the human species could be driven to extinction in 100 years and that, due to this, he would force human beings to leave the Earth, as well as to demonstrate that the threats of extinction of the human species cited by Hawking can be faced without the need for human beings to escape from Earth.

Artificial intelligence is the highest form of human development and sound outcome of human conscience till the date. But the very development seems to be devastating to human future ahead and has been heavily projected accordingly. More than it may be to decay and destroy the world, the negative and chilling views on the prospective damages of AI that scholars are percolating to public are costing many times on humans; and that is plunging human mindset into irreparable pessimism and negativity. This article explores the way that AI is being depressingly explored and investigated to browbeat public. In addition, this write-up highlights the serious lacuna, which the advanced academic engagement has still grossly failed to fill up, of a great deal in course of mainstreaming views and discussions for noble cause of human development and societal well-belling. Further, it unmasks the dire need in making constructive, encouraging and optimistic mind-set building academic pursuits and writings then makes an alarming call to the all prominent scholars to engage with due compliance of it. Method and Hypothesis As a doctrinal qualitative research based on extensive survey of secondary data and literature, methodologically, with adoption of paradigm of descriptive interpretation, this research hypothesizes that the discussions and discourses over AI are biased, hold a serious lacuna thus need to be reconstructed to make it balanced and build better world than to browbeat people.

A wide ranging interview with Steve Fuller by Peter Jandric in the new journal, Post-digital Science and Education, covers the highlights of Fuller's career, his intellectual motivations,  projects, focusing especially on his views about science and technology studies, intellectuals and the university, the future of humanity, and the 'postdigital' more generally.

In a future highly technological society it will be possible to modify the personality using different kinds of technological tools. Consequently, we could become buyers and consumers of personality. As such, personality, which is a core aspect of the self, could turn into a commodity. This article intends to address the following questions: 1) How can new technologies modify personality? 2) Why might personality become a commodity? 3) What is wrong with turning personality into commodity?

This article brings together for the first time the foundational tenets of the discipline of apithology as applied to the nurturance of humanity. The discipline of apithology was formed to consider a different category of questions concerning the generative potentials of living systems. As the discipline looks at the attributes of health within a generativist paradigm the field has naturally extended to consider the health of humanity as a systemic totality. Although apithology as a field has many applications, its greatest contribution may be in the care and maintenance of the generative potentials of the humanity system. Research in this field of inquiry relates less to solving problems identified as human concerns and more to enabling the humanity capacities required for our collective future becoming. In this article eight essential inquiry domains in apithology practice are contrasted. This offers an introductory perspective, at the widest scope, into the foundational elements of humanity nurturance.

The likelihood that modern civilization will collapse has been estimated many times for many reasons. From evolutionary and archaeological perspectives, the repeated disintegration of ancient civilizations (none have survived more than a few millennia) are unsurprising. Can we expect modern civilization to also collapse? This is likely absent proactive, self-preservative methods that may be informed by survival strategies known to evolutionary biology. Such methods include deployment of technologies to realize the current potential of modern civilization (and the modern genomes we select to protect) to be the Earth’s most long-lived complex adaptive system. I suggest some of these methods, which include the uses of technology to spread humanity from Earth to other solar system habitats.

Philosophy defined as pursuit of wisdom can be understood as the desire to arrive at the ultimate knowledge - the knowledge of the whole. But when it turns to be scientific and attempts to look at the world “objectively”, it arrives only at a knowledge of a part. What remains largely unquestioned about the world-view of modern science is its essence. The essence of scientific outlook is indifference. To place the world before us as an object of indifferent investigation is not an effective method of reaching truth about everything. Consequently, philosophy needs to follow its own path. Under the surface of illusion which results from scientific investigation there is a universal knowledge which arises from man’s devotional and affective engagement with the world. Philosophy can be regarded as a pursuit of the knowledge of the whole, but it is not the knowledge of the whole. The knowledge of the whole for which philosophy looks can be revealed in myth.

This paper begins with a refutation of the orthodox model of final Pleistocene human evolution, presenting an alternative, better supported account of this crucial phase. According to this version, the transition from robust to gracile humans during that period is attributable to selective breeding rather than natural selection, rendered possible by the exponential rise of culturally guided volitional choices. The rapid human neotenization coincides with the development of numerous somatic and neural detriments and pathologies. Uniformitarian reasoning based on ontogenic homology suggests that the cognitive abilities of hominins are consistently underrated in the unstable orthodoxies of Pleistocene archaeology. A scientifically guided review establishes developmental trajectories defining recent changes in the human genome and its expressions, which then form the basis of attempts to extrapolate from them into the future. It is suggested that continuing and perhaps accelerating unfavorable genetic changes to the human species, rather than existential threats such as massive disasters, pandemics, or astrophysical events, may become the ultimate peril of humanity.

Yarar ile eşitlik arasındaki gerilim hararetli tartışmalara konu oluyor, gelecekte de olacak. Shulman ve Bostrom'un yarattığı üstün yararlanıcılar senaryosu da yarar ile eşitlik arasında kurmaya çabaladığımız dengenin varlıklararası farklılıklar üstünden okunabileceği bir alan. Girişini yapmakla yetindiğim ve olabildiğince basitleştirdiğim yarar-eşitlik yarığı Shulman ve Bostrom'un odağında olmasa da onların kaygısına, diğer bir deyişle, "İnsanlar üstün yararlanıcılarla çıkar çatışması yaşadıklarında kaynakların nasıl dağıtılması gerekir?" sorusuna bir değişken olarak sinsi sinsi eklemlenecektir hiç kuşkusuz.

If humanity is faced with common problems, then we need to address them in a language that we share with each other. This does not mean that we overlook the diversity of languages. To overlook this diversity is neither possible not desirable. Without ignoring their differences, we may still try to find a common language among all our languages which expresses our common concerns and common destiny.
We need to find together through conversations with each other a language that envisions a gracious future for all of us. Our diversity may indeed make this language richer not poorer.

Based on interviews with fifteen though leaders representing major initiatives from all over the world, this paper explores the reality of global crises facing humanity at present and suggests ways in which we can take the next sensible step to address these crises.

It is ironic and indeed counterintuitive that our own human nature has a huge potential to drive us towards physical and cognitive enhancements that may completely alter the characteristics of our species. As I have outlined in a previous work, human nature is defined by emotional amoral egoism. Humans are genetically and neuro-chemically programmed to 'feel good' and are driven by a number of factors, which I call the "Neuro P5″: "power, profit, pleasure, pride and permanency". Consequently, if a technology appears which enhances any of these strong motivators, our neurochemically-mediated calculations, emotions and survival instincts will intuitively push us in that direction. I therefore believe such technologies bring us on the brink of inevitable transhumanism. This radical human metamorphosis and enhancement (physical and cognitive), through the convergence of various emerging strategic technologies, is not a question of 'if' but of 'when', 'how', and "at what cost".