Evolution of Ethics

Evolution delivers social behavioural adaptations at the group level that benefit the greater good, producing ethical outcomes.

There is increasing recognition that evolution operates at the group as well as the individual level. Multilevel selection questions the sufficiency of an evolutionary theory that operates only at the genetic level. Darwin was aware of this problem and proposed that natural selection can operate at more than one level of the biological hierarchy. Natural selection at the group level explains many social behavioural adaptations that evolve for the greater good of the group- reducing group conflict, enhancing productivity and promoting more effective community structures.

Enhancing the potential of the individual through knowledge acquisition can therefore enhance the potential of the social group, which in turn feeds back to the individual or is transferred to other groups- benefiting all levels of a society in the process. Each piece of knowledge gained by the individual and group is recycled in some form within the entire life system. This process of cross-catalysis therefore leads to accelerated problem solution on a global scale, whether in response to pre-defined or self-organising goals.

In essence, collective behaviour can lead to group-level functions that resemble the behaviour of a single or super-organism, with capabilities far beyond that of the individual. This is now occurring at the human level via the global web at an accelerating rate.

The rate of acquisition of knowledge by groups is also largely independent of local social turmoil such as wars and conflict. It is instead dependent on the rate of exchange of information between a system and its environment and the capacity of the system to process that information and generate an appropriate response. Evolution is therefore a two-way street. However the morality of the evolutionary process itself is neutral.

History is replete with instances of 'barbaric hordes' overrunning more socially 'advanced' states, or of 'civilised' nations dominating more 'primitive' peoples. In both cases, the result is a transfer of information through the merging of cultures, technologies and social structures, allowing cross-fertilisation of one with the other. In many cases, the adjustment is painful and uneven, particularly for most indigenous cultures, with valuable knowledge either lost or suppressed.

Advances in computing and communications are now facilitating the transfer and generation of knowledge between cultures at breathtaking speed, resulting in the phenomena of evolutionary global convergence. This occurs when trillions of interactions and feedback loops at the information level allow processes to be optimised almost instantaneously at all levels of society, from local to global and back to local ad infinitum. At the same time, the new knowledge generated induces another round of opportunities to realise further potentiality gains.

This is the process driving life's future for better or worse.

But while cultural, economic and technological information is generated at a massive rate, another meta-process is at work; a secondary selection feedback loop, sifting and winnowing out the useful applications and guidelines required to ensure the most beneficial outcomes for life. This meta-knowledge can be categorised as ethics; a constraining influence, ensuring the survival of life in the face of a surfeit of potentially extraneous or lethal knowledge and capable of building a more just and equitable society.

The implications for our world of this evolutionary ethical selection process provides a more positive prognosis as we enter the next and most turbulent transition phase of civilisation’s future.