The Ongoing Evolution of Humankind
Perhaps it is most important to recognize that human evolution is not finished. We are still changing (for good or ill) and this change is not occurring in an orderly manner, but rather through the random (even chaotic) variation in genetic makeup found among members of our species and through the swerving and diversity of social systems that have been described by Greenblatt and Page. With the emergence of micro-evolution as an important field of study, we must come to the startling recognition that nothing is constant and unchanging – including the fundamental makeup of social systems and individual human beings. If Martin Luther was to nail some radical proposals on the door of a contemporary church, corporation or government office, it might contain some wishful statements regarding human micro-evolution and the possibility of further improvement in individual and collective human capacities. Such proposals might be nothing more than representations of human search for meaning, purpose and advancement—but perhaps these characteristics are adaptive. They may have first appeared in the genetic anomalies of an ancestor—whom we might label an “ultra-genius”.
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References
Gardner, Howard (2011) Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences [3rd Ed]. New York: Basic Books.
Greenblatt, Stephen (2011) Swerve: How the World Became Modern. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Kuhn, Thomas (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Page, Scott (2011) Diversity and Complexity. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
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