Cosmic Evolution

The present article is devoted to the issue of unity of laws, patterns and mechanisms of evolution at all its stages and levels and also to the place of social evolution in the single and universal process of universal evolution or mega-evolution. Despite the enormous differences between cosmic, planetological, chemical, biological, and social evolutions, there are many similarities. Unfortunately, quite a few works are devoted to their identification. In the present article we will consider a number of such important similarities, which, in our opinion, clearly demonstrate the systemic-structural and functional-evolutionary unity of the world at its different levels and in different areas. The understanding of these similarities deepens our perception of social evolution and its regularities, and leads us away from the false idea that social evolution in all aspects is different from the evolution of previous levels. In the first section our key goal is to give our own definitions of evolution and social evolution which would cover as many variants of evolutionary changes as possible. In the second section we tried to give a rather voluminous and dialectical picture of the unfolding universal evolution instead of a primitive scheme: cosmic – biological – social. There introduce notions of main and transitional phases of universal evolution and show the importance of its planetological and chemical phases. In the third section we show that one can reveal a number of similarities at all levels and phases of mega-evolution, which can be generalized in uni-versal laws, rules, mechanisms, patterns and principles of evolution. One should note that in fact none of the important laws and principles as well as none of important rules of evolution have been ‘lost’ in the process of moving from lower to higher levels. They were only modified and became more complicated, and there also appeared some new principles and rules (in retrospect one can see their rudiments at the lowest levels of evolution). Some of these laws and rules are described in this section. In the fourth section we will try to present some evolutionary and philosophical ideas that explain the profound similarity in the laws and patterns of mega-evolution at all its levels and phases. In the Conclusion we discuss evolutionary and non-evolutionary matter.

Abstract: Using simple probability theory, this article explores 76 subatomic, cosmological, terrestrial and biological events/phenomena which must have occurred in precise order which led to the development of our species according to the known laws of physics. The ineluctable conclusion of the mathematics involved is that God invariably exists.

""Latest version: http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.1648

Where does it all come from? Where are we going? Are we alone in the universe? What is good and what is evil? The scientific narrative of cosmic evolution demands that we tackle such big questions with a cosmological perspective. I tackle the first question in Chapters 4, 5 and 6; the second in Chapters 7 and 8; the third in Chapter 9 and the fourth in Chapter 10. However, where do we start to answer such questions wisely? Doing so requires a methodological discipline mixing philosophical and scientific approaches.
In Chapter 1, I elaborate the concept of worldview, which is defined by our answers to the big questions. I argue that we should aim at constructing comprehensive and coherent worldviews. In Chapter 2, I develop criteria and tests to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of different worldviews. In Chapter 3, I apply those methodological insights to religious, scientific and philosophical worldviews.
In Chapter 4, I identify seven fundamental challenges to any ultimate explanation of the origin of the universe: epistemological, metaphysical, thermodynamical, causal, infinity, free parameters and fine-tuning. I then analyze the question of the origin of the universe upside down and ask: what are the origins of our cognitive need to find an explanation of this origin? I conclude that our explanations tend to fall in two cognitive attractors, the point and the cycle. In Chapter 5, I focus on the free parameters issue, namely that there are free parameters in the standard model of particle physics and in cosmological models, which in principle can be filled in with any number. I analyze the issue within physical, mathematical, computational and biological frameworks.
Chapter 6 is an in depth analysis of the fine-tuning issue, the claim that those free parameters are further fine-tuned for the emergence of complexity. I debunk common and uncommon physical, probabilistic and logical fallacies associated with this issue. I distinguish it from the closely related issues of free parameters, parameter sensitivity, metaphysical issues, anthropic principles, observational selection effects, teleology and God's existence. I conclude that fine-tuning is a conjecture, and that we need to study how common our universe is compared to other possible universes. This study opens a research endeavor that I call artificial cosmogenesis. Inspired by Drake's equation in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, I extend this equation to the Cosmic Evolution Equation, in order to study the robustness of the emergence of complexity in our universe, and whether or to what extent it is fine-tuned. I then review eight classical explanations of fine-tuning (skepticism, necessity, fecundity, god-of-the-gaps, chance-of-the-gaps, weak-anthropic-principle-of-the-gaps, multiverse and design) and show their shortcomings.
In Chapter 7, I show the importance of artificial cosmogenesis from extrapolating the future of scientific simulations. I analyze two other evolutionary explanations of fine-tuning in Chapter 8. More precisely, I show the limitations of Cosmological Natural Selection to motivate the broader scenario of Cosmological Artificial Selection.
In Chapter 9, I set up a new research field to search for advanced extraterrestrials, high energy astrobiology. After developing criteria to distinguish natural from artificial systems, I show that the nature of some peculiar binary star systems needs to be reassessed because of thermodynamical, energetic and civilizational development arguments which converge towards them being advanced extraterrestrials. Since those putative beings feed on stars, I call them starivores. The question of their artificiality remains open, but I propose concrete research projects and a prize to further continue and motivate the scientific assessment of this hypothesis.
In Chapter 10, I explore foundations to build a cosmological ethics. I build on insights from thermodynamics, evolution, and developmental theories. Finally, I examine the idea of immortality with a cosmological perspective and conclude that the ultimate good is the infinite continuation of the evolutionary process. Appendix I is a summary of my position, and Appendix II provides argumentative maps of the entire thesis.

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Big historians are attempting to construct a general holistic narrative of human origins enabling an approach to studying the emergence of complexity, the relation between evolutionary processes, and the modern context of human experience and actions. In this paper I attempt to explore the past and future of cosmic evolution within a big historical foundation characterized by physical, biological, and cultural eras of change. From this analysis I offer a model of the human future that includes an addition and/or reinterpretation of technological singularity theory with a new theory of biocultural evolution focused on the potential birth of technological life: the theory of atechnogenesis. Furthermore, I explore the potential deep futures of technological life and extrapolate towards two hypothetical versions of an ‘Omega Civilization’: expansion and compression.

"Abstract: This paper introduces foundations for a new kind of cosmology. We advocate that computer simulations are needed to address two key cosmological issues. First, the robustness of the emergence of complexity, which boils down to ask: “what would remain the same if the tape of the universe were replayed?” Second, the much debated fine-tuning issue, which requires to answer the question: “are complex universes rare or common in the space of possible universes?” We argue that computer simulations are indispensable tools to address those two issues scientifically. We first discuss definitions of possible universes and of possible cosmic outcomes – such as atoms, stars, life or intelligence. This leads us to introduce a generalized Drake-like equation, the Cosmic Evolution Equation. It is a modular and conceptual framework to define research agendas in computational cosmology. We outline some studies of alternative complex universes. However, such studies are still in their infancy, and they can be fruitfully developed within a new kind of cosmology, heavily supported by computer simulations, Artificial Cosmogenesis. The appendix [section 9] provides argumentative maps of the paper’s main thesis.

Keywords: artificial cosmogenesis, cosmic evolution, computational cosmology, digital physics, Drake equation, Cosmic Evolution Equation, robust- ness, fine-tuning, multiverse."

Man has long been regarded as a measure of evolution. The ‘humanization’ of man has become a criterion of civilization. Economic growth has gradually become the only engine of development and, nowadays, of democracy. When speaking of evolution we continue to claim that it is ‘in the name of man’, yet in practice everything is done in the name of wealth and profit; but humanity’s successive failed attempt, socialism, does not mean that we should uncritically throw ourselves into the opposite extreme. Humanity should be able to invent, choose and achieve the best variant of its own development.

El autor postula la espiritualidad como atributo esencial de todos los seres en el Universo y no algo exclusivo del ser humano, en contraste con la cosmovision moderna. Remite luego a la teoria del «Big Bang», y a la abismante precision que requirio la aparicion del Universo para sostener que el nacimiento del mundo fue un evento no solo fisico sino primordialmente espiritual, donde la mente humana y todas sus capacidades psiquicas tambien tuvieron su origen en ese chispazo inicial.

The concept of "logical depth" introduced by Charles H. Bennett (1988) seems to capture, at least partially, the notion of organized complexity, so central in big history. More precisely, the increase in organized complexity refers here to the wealth, variety and intricacy of structures, and should not be confused with the increase of random complexity, formalized by Kolmogorov (1965). If Bennett is right in proposing to assimilate organized complexity with "computational content", then the fundamental cause of the increase of complexity in the universe is the existence of computing mechanisms with memory, and able to cumulatively create and preserve computational contents. In this view, the universe computes, remembers its calculations, and reuses them to conduct further computations. Evolutionary mechanisms are such forms of cumulative computation with memory and we owe them the organized complexity of life. Language, writing, culture, science and technology can also be analyzed as computation mechanisms generating, preserving and accelerating the increase in organized complexity. The main unifying theme for big history is the energy rate density, a metric based on thermodynamics. However useful, this metric does not provide much insight into the role that information and computation play in our universe. The concept of " logical depth " provides a new lens to examine the increase of organized complexity. We argue in this paper that organized complexity is a valid and useful way to make sense of big history. Additionally, logical depth has a rigorous formal definition in theoretical computer science that hints at a broader research program to quantify complexity in the universe.

El autor postula la espiritualidad como atributo esencial de todos los seres en el Universo y no algo exclusivo del ser humano, en contraste con la cosmovision moderna. Remite luego a la teoria del «Big Bang», y a la abismante precision que requirio la aparicion del Universo para sostener que el nacimiento del mundo fue un evento no solo fisico sino primordialmente espiritual, donde la mente humana y todas sus capacidades psiquicas tambien tuvieron su origen en ese chispazo inicial.

This yearbook is the fourth in the series with the title Globalistics and Globalization Studies.The subtitle of the present volume is Global History & Big History. The point is that today ourglobal world really demands global knowledge. Thus, there are a few actively developingmultidisciplinary approaches and integral disciplines among which one can name Global Studies,Global History and Big History. They all provide a connection between the past, present, andfuture. Big History with its vast and extremely heterogeneous field of research encompasses allthe forms of existence and all timescales and brings together constantly updated information fromthe scientific disciplines and the humanities. Global History is transnational or world historywhich examines history from a global perspective, making a wide use of comparative history andof the history of multiple cultures and nations. Global Studies express the view of systemicand epistemological unity of global processes. Thus, one may...

Presented at the British Society for Criminology |  Green Criminology Research Network | 2020 Conference: Green Criminology in the Anthropocene.

This paper looks at the increasingly dire predictions of ecological and social collapse to suggest how these phenomena together affect directions in criminology. Specifically focused on religious terrorism and violent extremism, I trace the relationship between terrorism, extremism, and their psycho-physical contexts in order to identify the semiotic process that structures a given socioecological (dis)order. My objective in demonstrating a metaphysical environment that situates crime in the breakdown of social order, where the dual aspects (psychic, physical) of carrying capacity push individuals out of their respective zones of resilience, highlights the phenomenon that a threatened ecosystem or bioregion will in turn enact terror through its member species. That is to say, religious terrorism and violent extremism must be understood as signaling the desire for systemic transformation, since it is the technological infrastructure and economic mode itself that is recognized as a threat to the well-being of its constituent members. Since state-responses to terror, violent extremism, and criminality generally attempt to problem-solve within an obsolete paradigm (deterrence), this paper ends with speculative solutions rooted in cosmic evolutionary theory to suggest the paradigmatic logic of a more comprehensive metaphysic that views ecological restoration as both addressing the need for systematic transformation along with the root causes of harm, simultaneously increasing ecological and psychological resiliency for individuals and communities alike.

English abstract: A vindication of the wide-ranging perspective of Herbert Spencer's theories of cosmic evolutionism, as an intellectual enterprise far more ambitious and comprehensive than that of his contemporary Charles Darwin. (A retropost from 2011).
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Spanish abstract: Reivindicamos la amplia perspectiva de las teorías del evolucionismo cósmico de Herbert Spencer, como una empresa intelectual muchísimo más ambiciosa y comprensiva que la de su coetáneo Darwin. (Un retropost de 2011)

This work attempts to approach an understanding of global brain singularity through a logical meditation on temporal dynamics of universal process.  Here global brain singularity is conceived of as a future metasystem transition mediated by psychosocial and technological mechanisms towards a higher qualitative level of existence.  In order to better understand this phenomenon we start with an overview of universal history with the tools of big history and cosmic evolution, which situate humans in relation to a material complexification from big bang to global civilization.  From this exploration we then focus precisely on the complex dynamics of the human system as it has evolved from local hunter-gatherer bands to a global interconnected network of nation-states and international organizations. In light of this analysis we attempt to theoretically mediate global civilization with new concepts relevant to the future of politics, economics and psychosocial life in general.  We then analyze humans as biocultural evolutionary agents of this future metasystem in order to understand the fundamentals of growth, reproduction and their possible transformations in a global brain. This analysis gives us the framework we need to develop sophisticated speculations on the future of evolution into the deeper future. Finally, we leave universal history and future evolution behind, bringing our attention back to the internal depths of the present moment.  In this move we attempt to understand the structure of contemporary knowledge, introducing pathways that may be explored, and tools that may be utilized by human minds in order to make intelligent and reasonable interventions in universal process.