I believe that it is fairly trivial to show that while evolution is in fact an optimization process, it is not optimizing for goodness. It is a pretty big jump from “evolution has an arrow” to ”...and it points where we want it to”. In fact, I believe that there is significant evidence that it does not point where we want. As evidence, I point to basically every group selection experiment ever.
The equivalent of your proposal in the language of kin selection is for organisms to become more closely related. That’s happening in humans, since humans have come to possess more and more shared memes—allowing cultural kin selection to produce cooperation between them on increasingly-larger scales. Once you properly account for cultural evolution things do seem to be reasonably on track. Other mechanisms that produce cooperaation—such as reciprocity, trade and reputations—are also going global. Essentially, Peter Kropotkin was correct.
I also object to the use of the word benign in the comment, as it appears to be there simply to sneak in connotations.
Hmm. I essentially mean: not being bombarded at a high frequency with meteories. I’m obliquely referencing Buckminster Fuller’s book Approaching the Benign Environment.
That page is pretty silly. These days, most of the scientists involved agree that kin selection and group selection are equivalent—and cover the same set of phenomena.
The equivalent of your proposal in the language of kin selection is for organisms to become more closely related. That’s happening in humans, since humans have come to possess more and more shared memes—allowing cultural kin selection to produce cooperation between them on increasingly-larger scales. Once you properly account for cultural evolution things do seem to be reasonably on track. Other mechanisms that produce cooperaation—such as reciprocity, trade and reputations—are also going global. Essentially, Peter Kropotkin was correct.
Hmm. I essentially mean: not being bombarded at a high frequency with meteories. I’m obliquely referencing Buckminster Fuller’s book Approaching the Benign Environment.