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Perspective chauvinism: Difference between revisions
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But this is not the lesson of [[evolution]]. The environment changes dynamically and capriciously, and by survival of the fittest, the prevailing community adapts to it. We are part of the environment, and as we change, so does the environment, and fitness criteria shift. But not in any particular direction. [[Evolution]] develops ''away'' from an unfit present state, not ''towards'' an ideal future one. | But this is not the lesson of [[evolution]]. The environment changes dynamically and capriciously, and by survival of the fittest, the prevailing community adapts to it. We are part of the environment, and as we change, so does the environment, and fitness criteria shift. But not in any particular direction. [[Evolution]] develops ''away'' from an unfit present state, not ''towards'' an ideal future one. | ||
So it isn’t that we are progressing ever more quickly | So it isn’t that we are progressing ever more quickly ''towards'' something, but the place whence we have come falls exponentially ''further away''. We, and our technology, meander like a perpetually deflating balloon through design-space. Our rate of progress doesn’t change; our discarded technologies simply seem more and more irrelevant through time. | ||
The [[singularity]] is an idea based on perspective chauvinism. That we are arcing exponentially upward ''towards'' something, as the [[adjacent possibilities]] explode around us<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEtATZePGmg ''The “Adjacent Possible” – and How It Explains Human Innovation''], [[Stuart Kauffman]], TED, </ref> presumes that where we are, somehow, as close to our common end goal — truth, nirvana, [[apocalypse]]? who knows? — as civilisation has ever been. Now, seeing as we don’t, QED, know what that end goal is (else we would already be there), nor can we know how close we are to it, nor whether we are going in the right direction. Better hypothesis, thanks to [[Occam’s razor]]: ''there is no end-goal''. | |||
Come to think of it, the current vogue for grandiose political apology, today, for the cultural transgressions of 17th century explorers is a form of perspective chauvinism, too. | |||
{{sa}} | {{sa}} | ||
*[[Evolution]] | *[[Evolution]] | ||
*{{author|Ray Kurzweil}} | *{{author|Ray Kurzweil}} | ||
*{{br|The Singularity is Near}} | *{{br|The Singularity is Near}} | ||