Why the World is Blind

Adaptation Theory Overview

The text below talks about a fairly simple explanation for why people generally act the way they do. It talks about human beings as being adaptive rather than intelligent. This is not so much of a theory as a perspective from which to look at things. This perspective is one very different from what we are usually taught by our society, yet by looking at the world and at people through this perspective things fall together perfectly.

A False Assumption

We are used to seeing a human being as a sentient intelligent life form, one that makes decisions, one that is free and independent from other forces. While it may appear so on the very surface, the essence couldn't be further from the truth. A human being resembles a mindless animal or a preprogrammed robot far more than he does our over-glorified vision.

Human Evolution

Throughout evolution every creature competed for existence. After billions and billions of random permutations life diversified greatly, producing a vast array of creatures that can survive and reproduce. Most of those creatures are extremely primitive, suited to survive in a certain environment, bacteria, insects, and alike which function like tiny devices (and can, by now, be very accurately simulated by computers), finding food, staying functional and ultimately reproducing. Then, of course, there are numerous creatures that are more complicated. They aren't just suited for one environment, but they can adapt to the patterns of different environments. Those creatures have a brain, a complicated organism which is a complicated network capable of discerning some patterns. And then we have the ultimate unit, one capable of adapting and reproducing in virtually any environment, one that is able to extrapolate and act on extremely complex patterns, one we call a human being.

Social and Environmental Influence

Think of the moment we are born. At that moment we possess virtually nothing, a few trivial emotions, reflexes, that is all. And at the essence that is all we are, nothing significant is added naturally throughout our lifetime (except perhaps some reproduction related changes). The rest then becomes a product of our environment.

Every thought, emotion and action is aimed directly or indirectly toward adapting to our environment. When our environment requires that we "feel" a certain way, we do, when it requires adopting a certain belief structure, we do, and when it requires that we use our ability to solve complex patterns, use and apply logic and reason we do it as well, but only when it is necessary to adapt and function within our environment.

That is why individuals who are considered to have the highest intellect and the greatest minds only apply them to their isolated fields. That is how an intelligent and logical person can believe in a religion without ever having an ability to question it. Why should he question it if it doesn't help him function? Reason and logic isn't even natural to a human being, but is a way some of us learned to adapt more effectively to our environment.

In our present environment the picture is far more complex. Questioning philosophies even defying society can sometimes become part of our adaptation. But the seeds of it are still there, our minds developed by random, with emphasis only on survival and reproduction, our society developed even more randomly, with much fewer evolutionary permutations.

Think also of the process through which we grow up. Instead of having a logical structure for learning, we are first taught by our parents, who oversee this process at random (logic and reason not applied to the way a parent treats their child, the process is adaptive). Then we are bombarded by ideas, beliefs and philosophies all at random, the final result is an individual which has adapted to this random environment and does nothing more than function in it.

The only forces that control these random factors are forces of evolution. The view that we should never have children or that we should end our lives early can't become widespread simply because the number of individuals harboring those views would never effectively grow. Those forces alone can't lead us to anything more than our current pointless existence. Virtually any individual can adapt to somewhat function in our society and will survive and reproduce, and usually intellect is more likely to prevent that than aid it.

True Intelligence, Next Stage in Evolution

If there were no alternatives to what is described above then my writing would have been nothing more than a pointless example of the point that I am demonstrating. However, there does seem to be one. To function intelligently instead of adaptively one must defy every single force that is inevidently controlling us. The only way to defy those forces is to act based on our logic and reason alone.

The human race has not yet reached intelligence, but reaching it will be the next stage in evolution. A stage when we defy our nature to be nothing more than adaptive animals and make every decision logically. The only alternative to random selection will be intelligent selection.

The ideas presented on this page are not particularly new. Alone they don't bring up anything unique. However if you believe you are possibly an individual that has defied the forces of adaptation, please read the remainder of this site about a philosophy and a goal based purely on logic and which lies beyond all aimless philosophies and views produced in this adaptive world.

 

 
Aim of Impartial Philosophy and Key Concepts

A Strategy Toward the Fundamental Goal

Why the World is Blind
Adaptation Theory

Social Experiment
and How it Will Begin

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