http://www.youtube.com/...
Paul Ehrlich points out our ethical obligation to try to change our culture to improve life on earth for all concerned.
A call for cultural evolution. A biologist's approach:
Step 1: Identify the selective agents.
- War - Famine - Religion - Education - Global climate change - Leadership
Step 2: Support selective agents which are effective in accomplishing positive direction of cultural evolution.
Step 3: Publish paper on results. Reap rewards if progress avoids or limits catastrophic damage already in progress.
Some thoughts to frame the discussion:
Step 1: Identify the selective agents.
War -- so far not very efficient at making cultural evolution improve the species - war just seems to breed more war unless taken to the extreme limit of complete genocide.
Famine -- again not efficient. Humans don't seem to learn from these hard lessons; historic response is just to make more babies when the famine's over - hell, even while the famine's in progress.
Religion -- efficient at killing large numbers, but actually works to stagnate cultural evolution - a freezing agent of cultural evolution.
Education -- working in countries that embrace it, but failing in others due to effects of Religion, ability to learn, poverty, war - average IQ is 100, after all.
Global Climate Change -- perhaps good as a selective agent by being the proverbial 2 x 4 hitting the mule on the head but slow to act and made deniable by the effects of Education, Religion.
Leadership -- upon reviewing the world's leaders, there seems to be a shortage of actually intelligent, forward-thinking effective leaders that know where to lead their people in a cultural sea change direction. Not currently an effective agent for change, except perhaps in Scandinavia, but the banking crisis took care of that for a while, especially in Iceland.
Feel free to identify more selective agents.
Step 2: Support effective selective agents.
I thought we did that last year when we elected Obama - - oh well... how's that working out?
Step 3: Publish, and maybe not perish?
We'll know in 20 years or so -- maybe sooner. I don't personally believe cultural evolution takes place on a time scale that can respond fast enough to have an effect on the current crises in progress. Not without some genetic changes as well. It's not like we don't or won't soon have the tools to make these changes what with the genome project, et al. There's that leadership problem, though.
I am glad Professor Ehrlich is trying, though - - all power to him.