Human Evolution Going Forward?

In an apocryphal vignette, a reporter asked Mahatma Gandhi what he thought about Western Civilization and Gandhi responded, “I think it would be a good idea.” The same could be said about human evolution: that it would be a good idea. Is there hope for us?

What could the long-term future human race be like? There are many ways things could be worse in the distant future, including the complete extinction of humanity. We would not be the first species to leave the stage. But will evolution instead take us forward to a humanity that is an improvement over the current version? Should we assume that our descendants will be somehow better than we are? Better technology, certainly. But better people? What would that mean?

Smarter? Maybe not. The very concept of intelligence is likely to change once we have machines with more brainpower, knowledge, and creativity than we have, which now seems like a safe assumption for the not too-distant future.

Stronger? Not likely, given that those same intelligent machines will be stronger than we are and alleviate the evolutionary, selective pressure to develop stronger people.

Then what? How about kinder and wiser? The biggest problems facing our world today are consequences of our greed and anger. These emotional patterns fracture our society, leading to dissatisfaction at a minimum and to murder, rape, and war at the extremes. They also exacerbate our material problems, such as climate change. To some extent this may be alleviated by a world in which major advances in technology give us all a satisfactory, even luxurious, life, by today's standards. But when no one needs to go hungry or even deprived, greed and anger will still be with us. Self-centered egoism is subtle, insatiable, and defensive. It could be a very long time before it truly gives way to kindness at a society-wide level.

How does wisdom come about? How does freedom from greed, anger, and more generally from egoism come about? Such freedom is a consequence of a wise and compassionate heart and mind, which are consequences of seeing the reality that we are not separate, that we are inwardly the same, that we are one. People who are really free in that way are not so rare, but certainly constitute a small share of our population. Will evolution grow that share? Perhaps. Whereas once upon a time, competition conferred survival benefits, we are moving into an era where cooperation and consideration confer greater survival benefits for the whole of humanity. Climate change, for example, by its sheer scale cannot be turned around except by pervasive cooperation among us.

To get an idea of where evolution might be taking us, we note that the past couple of millennia have gradually brought us into the realm of individual rights. This development seems to have run its course, in the sense that what started as a step forward that improved the lives of people is now becoming a hindrance, in two ways. We focus on rights and not on obligations. Secondly, the focus on individual rights has moved toward group rights, which could become another step forward, if certain aspects of it change. The current focus on group rights too often arises as opposition to other groups, leading to the splintered politics of group identity and outrage.

The call of evolution is toward accepting our obligations to serve each other, society, and all life on this planet. That call is to shift from focusing on rights to focusing on obligations, and to expand our group identity to include all people and all life on this Earth. In the process, individuality need not be lost. Instead, we value each person, including ourselves, even more, in light of the unique individuality that each one of us contributes to the whole. This requires us to become able to see beyond ourselves and beyond the type of group identity which excludes anyone, to become able to cooperate, to have compassion, and even love, the type of love that sees our unity beyond our differences.

This evolutionary step is becoming more and more urgent. And that very urgency pushes us toward making that step. Can we moderate our insular and sectarian opinions and not be driven by them? Can we value the opinions of others? Can we expand our world view, to base our opinions on the welfare of all of us, not just of those who agree with us or who share some identity-making characteristics with us? Can we loosen the hold that our opinions have on us, so that we might live more by conscience than by opinion?

For that, we need to delve deeper into ourselves, to find an identity that transcends our differences, an individuality that does not separate us from other individuals, but rather illumines our unity, our sameness. This is the prime role of spiritual practices, including those of the Fourth Way.

For this week, look into yourself. Are you your opinions? Do they drive your actions? To what extent do greed and anger, desire and rejection, invade you? What would it mean to move along the direction of positive evolution, both your own in this life, and toward the life you would want your distant descendants to lead. What kind of world would you want them to inherit? Could your inner work in this life help shape that world? J.G. Bennett looked toward a future humanity for whom the inner journey to the Sacred will be the norm. Can we be part of that stream now? Can we create a better future?

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