metaevolution: 1. a branch of philosophy which uses concepts from biological evolution, such as natural selection and survival of the fittest, to investigate and explain various other phenomena. Similar to metaphysics, it can be used to explore controversial topics through the medium of thought experiment. Ultimately, metaevolution is about humanity's attempts at controlling the shape and direction of evolution. This journal was first published on Jounalspace.com in November, 2004.
Current mood: drunk
This was my latest entry, that never got posted on the now doomed Journalspace.com site. Since I was thinking about posting after the inauguration, I guess the older entries will have to wait on disk for a little while. Maybe I should try to post shorter, more frequent entries...in any case, enjoy...
On MetaEvolution by David Hunter Tow...or...The Mutha...of All Book Reviews With Alternative Readings
Season's Greetings to all, and Happy Holidays to Most!
First, a quick life update. I lost my job being outsourced to MySpace due to personality conflicts with my supervisor. So it goes. It was a great experience; quirky and a dumb, easy way to make money. But the following month wasn't so keen. Blessedly, I found another job quickly in this rotten economy, and I have made a vow to myself that I will never bitch about my job again (at least not publicly).
And now, for the book review of The Future of Life: MetaEvolution, a Unified Field Theory by David Hunter Tow. This has been an especially hard entry for me to psyche myself up for, because essentially I have to tear down a book about the theory that I myself espouse (that's why it's a mutha.....!). You see, back in '06, when I first googled "metaevolution", I came up with 9 of the first 10 hits being my page. In my arrogance, I thought I had invented a new concept that would come to dominate the philosophy of the twenty first century. Since then, I have discovered not one, but two books that were written on the subject in 2000! One is a book by a Spanish author, which is not translated yet, but appears to be about current events, and the price of oil. The one I'm writing about today is pure scientific rhetoric (in the original meaning of the word, i.e. ....Bullshit!) that was written by an Australian science writer. Neither book has made much of an impression, so I still am proud to be the premier American thinker to explore the subject, and I intend to give the american viewpoint on the australian book.
In this weighty tome the author's biggest mistake, besides the overly complicated, pedantic vocabulary that drives an ordinary layman to throw it away, is the lack of concrete ties to the present, and the lack of pragmatism. Metaevolution is a philosophy, not a science, that says we can improve ourselves, and the world at large, by knowing and applying the science of evolution. It is a progressive perspective that preaches self determination and self directed evolution. It encourages thought experiments, and brain storming for solutions. This book, by becoming so lost in the language of science, also loses authority and any concievable touch with reality in the process. Therefore, I will not recommend it, but tear it down piece by piece, and give suggestions for alternative readings that will mean more to the average American.
I was first drawn to this book by the promise of creative thinking on the subject of artificial intelligence in the (NEAR!) future. What I got was a confusing and uninspired list of what we have now, in incomplete form....What I would recommend instead is "Rapture For the Geeks" by Richard Dooling if you're looking for a book that is entertaining and informative. It's author relates how there is a group of people called Singularitarians who are anticipating, if not enabling the moment when man develops the first "self aware" computer. They call this future event the Singularity, stemming from the idea that mankind will change in upredictable ways after it occurs, i.e. that we will begin to take the steps towards self-directed evolution from that universe shaking moment forward. Dooling's book is funny in a misanthropic sort of way, written from the viewpoint of one who has had countless battles with his computer, and has come back from the other side with a little prophetic wisdom for us all. And his advice for what to do when computers take over the world?....why, learn computer programming, of course! His reasoning is that our future digital overlords might keep a few of us old-fashioned intelligences around if we're useful, thinking us cute and quaint and cuddly. While this advice doesn't really appeal to the old dog in me (see the state of my webpage...:())..!!!), I did think it was hilarious and even learned something simple and basic like how to insert a hyperlink in my background....have to give that one a try.
The next part of the original book, remember it?, about Meta-evolution goes on to great lengths to renumerate the social evolutions of religion throughout the ages, and then points out how God is all a delusion and that religion is soon to become a null factor in future societies....humbug! I feel that census studies which show a declining attendance at churches don't take into account that while some individual churches decline, others may be growing. So when the author says that churches may continue, but without the references to God-a kind of social missionary situation- I feel he has made a ridiculous prediction based on his bias as a biologist (I'll never understand why some scientists have the need to vehemently belittle the idea of a God...), and that brings about the suspicion that the entire book is the work of a scientific hack. Generally, I don't like my readings to be a parroting of other people's work and attitudes, but to be a breaking of new ground that keeps one turning the pages, incessantly. Can't say this book was a page turner, but for a better view of the concepts of social evolution, I'd recommend "Non-Zero" by Robert Wright. It explains history in a non-condescending way, and breaks more new evolutionary ground than this batty Australian ever will!
Finally, the book goes on to conclude (after rambling through many physicists' uninterpretable differing visions of cosmology) that at the end of the universe, there is the possibility that all remaining life has joined together by evolution to become a super-state called the Omega state. Here at least was something new to me; the idea of convergence, and all that it stands for in evolutionary terms. He goes on to say that intelligences in this state, being omniscient and omnipotent, could possibly create new universes! But don't call that state of being God, because by any other name than Omega, it wouldn't smell as sweet. But seriously, this may be a little new to me, but is not necessarily a new idea. How about the writings of De Jardin, a grandfather of Metaevolution whom I have never met, but who pioneered the idea of Gaia, the self-aware earth, and explores the Omega concept. Or Isaac Asimov, my favorite uncle of Metaevolution, with his ideas about psychohistory (a science of social evolutionary engineering), and whose final sequels to the Foundation series reveal the ultimate need for beings to make a choice about what type of universe they want to "evolve".
I guess the biggest lesson I learned during this quarter was one of humility. I always knew science was large and competitive, and that the phenomenon of convergence means that many people may be thinking about publishing about the same problems I think about, with a slightly different perspective. I always knew this and accepted it, yet still made no efforts to rush my writings or seriously research my subject. I even welcomed it, but until I read MetaEvolution, my googling the web for this word led me to believe that there were very few people in the world who understood the concept, or used it correctly in their scientific articles. And so I felt compelled to define the concept at Wikipedia (I don't remember if I told this story during one of my previous entries). After failing to write a comprehensible article for the word without mentioning the existence of God (and my own writings), I settled for defining the word on Wiktionary. I wrote only my definition of the word (there's more than one, actually), was quickly corrected by the Knowledge Nazis there and was satified enough with the result that I left it mostly alone (I'm slowly subverting it with small additions!). Here's the definition: metaevolution (plural metaevolutions)
- a branch of philosophy which uses concepts from biological evolution, such as natural selection and survival of the fittest, to investigate and explain various other phenomena. Similar to metaphysics, it can be used to explore controversial topics through the medium of gedankenexperiment, or thought experiment.
Maybe now that I've read the book, I can rewrite the article for Wikipedia without so much emotion and delusion clouding my eyes. Believe me, I'm still delusional sometimes (I could tell you some doozies!), but it seems to me that introducing a new subject on Wikipedia almost always causes a new blossom of information to be written about it. I've seen new subjects on the site go from paragraph to pages in the matter of a few weeks. I am actually amazed by Wiki and what it represents, so here it comes world: meta-evolution preapproved and packaged; look for it on a web page near you! As for me, someone qualified and respected had to write this weighty book defining the concepts of metaevolution, but I'm seriously considering changing the name of my page back to what it originally was, "Metaevolution: The Study of Kittens"
Peace Out and Happy Holidays, YO!
P.S. Just for fun, read "Tales from the Teacher's Lounge" by Robert Wilder, but only if you like heart breaking humor. EDUCATION ROCKS!!!, Bob
Mon Jul 29, 2013 at 7:08 PM PT: Praise allah, vishnu, bhudda, and whoever the hell else you want, both my kids got full boat scholarships to ivy league schools...! Now, they both have copies of this book with them at college, and maybe they can tell me whether it's full of shit or not. I'm reprinting this book review for them back on Facebook. Hold on Haley, i;m making notes in your copy...:)