"'Cosmenosis - What'd be truly fantastic is no purpose, no evolution, in all of that yonder.'"
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 194.
This is very imprecise thinking: "...purpose..." and "...evolution..." are run together as if they were almost identical and "...purpose..." is placed first. Surely they are opposites? Evolution is what happens when initially unconscious organisms interact with their environments. Those that are able to survive longer breed more so that more members of the next generation inherit pro-survival characteristics. Over time, the species changes. If longer limbs aid survival, then average limb length increases. Pro-survival characteristics include sensitivity to environmental alterations. Such sensitivity increased until it became sensation, thus consciousness. Conscious beings can have purposes. Purpose could not have existed until after there had been a long enough period for the evolution of increasingly complex and sensitive organisms.
Ivar plausibly hypothesizes that, when a conscious species has become dependent for its survival on its technology, then it ceases to evolve greater intelligence. He has the evidence, which we have not, of many species very diverse but none noticeably more intelligent. Thus, an Elder Race guiding the evolution of the less evolved is at least possible but by no means probable.
No comments:
Post a Comment