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.
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