I saw a clip of Richard Dawkins on YouTube recently discussing how the Zeitgeist has shifted towards greater and greater respect for human rights in at least the Western World, if not the world as a whole. He led off with some remarkably racist quotes from Abraham Lincoln that reflected the prevailing views of the era, then moved on to describe how carefully the fate of civilians has been managed in the US invasion of Iraq when compared with mass civilian bombings of World War II in London, Dresden and Tokyo.
Things have changed. We have changed.
His point is that that shift happened due to a complex dialog within our societies that gradually has beaten down our prejudices to the point where it would take an extraordinary set of circumstances for us to collectively and unquestioningly engage in acts of appalling cruelty that were accepted even 50 years ago.
Part of the change is due to technology, I think. Global communications systems support the publication and awareness of the actions of governments, corporations and people. Part of the change is also due to the enhanced effectiveness of the press in Open Societies as they publicize events and humanize transgressions. Part of the change is due to increasing education levels and the ability of more people to understand concepts like rights and responsibilities, and to feel empowered by a sense of ownership of their own governments.
I liken this drift to an evolutionary process, but one that has a definite resistance to an overtly selfish genetic analysis because it does seem to be optimizing towards virtuous goals rather than simply supporting the selfish interests of individuals. Or does it?
This blog will be exploring some of the cultural, social, biological, philosophical, theological and personal issues that surround ethics, morals and virtue. I will point out up front that I am a materialist with a poetic side and am not above cheering for ideas that seem interesting but have minimal support in the broader literature. I will also point out that I am an engineer and scientist by training with a special interest in the evolution and simulation of intelligence, which will tend to color my discussion.
About Me
- Erdos56
- Northern California, United States
- Variously a consultant, entrepreneur, researcher, musician and artist, I am lately interested in belief, government, ethics and, especially, theories about the biological roots of altruism and trust, and how those ideas are reflected in the modern world. My name is derived from the name of the mathematician, Paul Erdos, who is known for athletic contributions to graph theory. Graph theory is all about connectedness, so I like the notion when tied to blogging. I once thought I had an "Erdos Number" of 5 or 6 (how many coauthors are you away from Paul Erdos; a six-degrees of separation-style game), but I think my number is actually 4. Still, I keep the 56 because I once blogged under Erdos56 and others may want to locate me again someday. The image above is a tiny little view of art rendered from my very own DNA...
1 comment:
I think I'd previously shared with you the concepts in the "Evolution of Cooperation." This, now that I'm half way through "Wikinomics" is another example (but I don't know where it sits in the book's typology) of voluntary collaboration based on the testing of "bots" with best fighting strategy in a conflict game. Winning strategy was called "Tit for Tat and Relax". It was the most successful and most compact of all the competitors thrown into the arena. Ciao, SoCal Frank
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