Synthetic Philosophy and Deductive Engineering
Since first adopting an approach to philosophy as synthesis, evolutionary thinking has gradually grown in importance is my conception of how philosophy can contribute constructively to the future.
When philosophy is conceived in the context of the evolution of homo sapiens, it is natural to think in multi-billion year timescales. When projecting forward on that scale the significance of homo sapiens seems greatly diminished. In a ten billion year timeframe from the pre-biotic beginnings of our evolutionary trajectory, homo sapiens may prove significant for no more than a million years, and our intelligent progeny, having spread across the galaxy and perhaps beyond, will have been shaped on that massive canvas, by evolution and/or design, in diverse ways inconceivable to us now.
Looking back over the most recent 4 billion years of our evolution tells us that not only are the forms shaped by evolution continuously in flux, but the process of evolution itself has evolved alongside the life forms it created.
It may be thought that we are now at a point at which evolution will soon be superseded by design, and the relevance of evolutionary theory will be purely historical. But my own view, informing my conception of synthetic philosophy, is that a generalised conception of evolution will remain a dominant factor in shaping the future of our intelligent progeny.
In “The Selfish Gene” Richard Dawkins presents as tautological a gene-centric account of biological evolution. That there might be tautological theses about evolution should not be controversial. After furnishing definitions of relevant concepts, any conclusions deductively derived from those definitions can reasonably be described as tautological. The question whether any physical system conforms to the definitions (and hence the conclusions) remains empirical.
Dawkins’ theories about biological evolution here on earth lack the generality needed for insight into the kinds of evolution which may be significant in the proliferation of intelligence across the galaxy and beyond.
Within Dawkins’ theories an important element is the idea that genes whose effect is to maximise their own replication will predominate over their alleles in the gene pool.
This is an effect of exponential growth. In Synthetic Philosophy, the effects of differentials in exponential growth become a generalised evolutionary theory. What we expect is that among the characteristics of self-proliferating intelligent systems, those which secure the most rapid rate of proliferation will eventually predominate over alternatives which do not enable such rapid proliferation.
Note here the shift to talking of proliferation. In determining the characteristics of trans galactic intelligence originating on earth, the primary challenge is in crossing interstellar distances.