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 that self-interest at the level of the genes does
not
prevent cooperation from increasing as evolution unfolds. Evolution
progresses
by discovering ways to build cooperative organisations out of
self-interested
individuals.
The book also shows
that evolution itself has evolved. Evolution
has progressively improved the ability of evolutionary mechanisms to
discover
effective adaptations. And it has produced new and better
mechanisms.
Evolution's Arrow
uses this understanding of the direction of evolution 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.
A key step for
humanity is to increase the scale and evolvability
of our societies, eventually forming a unified and cooperative society
on the
scale of the planet. We must also transform ourselves psychologically
to become
self-evolving organisms - organisms that are able to escape their
biological
and cultural past by adapting in whatever directions are necessary to
achieve future
evolutionary success.
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