Louisville Process Theology Network

Cultural Evolution Today

Oct 27, 2009

From Page 296:


?“Cultural evolution, like biological evolution, carries life to higher and higher levels of organization. And it does it in the same way biological evolution does it: zero-sum dynamics intensify non-zero sum dynamics; competition between organizations encourages integration with them.

In both evolutions, the two big barriers between to non-zero sumness are met and overcome with ingenious technologies.

?… Once co-evolution shifts into high gear natural selection is effectively over... cultural evolution long ago supplanted genetic evolution as our key adaptive feature... It has now put us on the verge of taking control of our genetic evolution, replacing natural selection with artificial selection. And, we?’ll increasingly be steering the evolution of other species as well.

We?’ve long done that in ham-handed way (witness cows, pigs, and potatoes), but now we?’ll be doing it in a lighting-fast way (witness potatoes with built-in organic pesticides). All in all, the shape of life on this planet is moving so fast via cultural evolution that evolution by natural selection is, for all practical purposes, standing still.

The various biological adaptations that got us onto the co-evolutionary escalator ?– learning by imitation, language, and so on ?– could be said to amount to one big biological adaptation: adaption for advanced culture. And this adaption could be called the last biological that will be produced in our species by natural selection.

But this is far from the end of the road, and far from the last adaptation of one sort or another that will be necessary.?”