The Selfish Gene vs. The Demiurge:Part 2, Mankind

So, with raw "uninterpreted" science we arrive at uselessness, or at the very least the ungratifying condition of being tools of our genes. A painful conclusion, perhaps, but one that acknowledges the facts and thus one that puts us in a position to honestly examine this world and develop a plan.

This theory of life makes no case for man in his present state being the "goal" of evolution or the universe. We are not created in the image of some sourceless deity, nor does our particular configuration represent a model for the dominant species in other circumstances. We are survival machines. That being said, no amount of bias will discount the fact that we are special. In intelligence (a broad characteristic with a finger in every pie) we reign supreme, in physical dexterity we are capable enough to survive, in language we are sophisticated nearly to a fault, in curiousity we exceed the feline by accomplishment as opposed to death.

We are, as joe said, a small part of something larger. There is no shame in this, no part of the whole is truly small enough to be insignificant. Our intelligence, and specifically our extragenetic, collective intelligence is astounding. In a few short generations we have confounded the snail's pace of evolution, outran the "accomplishments" (genes accomplish nothing but survival I know, but let's for the moment consider this a competition) of our genes, and in fact, as a species, are nearly parallel in importance to ourselves as our natural environment. We create change at such a speed that evolution virtually doesn't exist on a timescale we can comprehend.

I am of the belief that we are preparing, or should be preparing, to abandon life all together. At some point, and one can't predict the formula for change as a function of time, we will be ready to leave these bodies (our genes surely overstepped their bounds, or rather, created a monster they could no longer control), or at the very least this "system" behind. Why suffer the whims of nature when we were never the priority to begin with? Why trap ourselves in a body that was created merely to proliferate and as a suicidial misstep was capable of genius?

What does this mean? What it means is we should have no fidelity to tradition, and yet learn from it. We should have no attachment to our viscera and yet use it's template to escape. Our genes have no regard for us? Well then, we shall have no regard for them. This is nothing short of the slave (us, the survival machine) becoming the master.

The Demiurge is defined as a powerful creative force, Plato uses it as the force that created the material world out of chaos. We are this powerful force. We have the capacity to take this chaotic world (oh yes, there are "rules", but there is no purpose) and put our order on it. Not an order that succumbs to our genetic failures, our tendencies towards distraction, our myriad fears and weaknesses; but an order that stretches our fingers to every corner of the universe, defines the world as that which suits us, and relieves us from the whims of a nature that has tried to crush us since our inception.

So, as part of this sweeping, all-powerful force I will continue in part 3 to state where I (the small, almost insignificant piece of this force) think we've gone right, where I think we've gone very wrong, and see if we can't understand what we should do as individuals.

Please comment.