The Search for Human Values in this new age

I recently watched a documentary about Ray Kurzweil.  “Ray Kurzweil has been described as “the restless genius” by the Wall Street Journal, and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes. Inc. magazine ranked him #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States, calling him the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison,” and PBS included Ray as one of 16 “revolutionaries who made America,” along with other inventors of the past two centuries.”

His recent book entitled, “The Singularity is Near”, talks about the exponential growth of technology, radical life expansion, and how we will transcend our biological limitations.  Ray predicts that Artificial Intelligence will equal and over take human intelligence within approximately twenty years and that human and machine will merge within forty years.  Whether we agree with him or not, it is not difficult to see that the rate of change of technology in our society is phenomenal and the ability for mankind to impact our environment is increasing at an ever increasing rate.

The question we don’t seem to ask ourselves is whether we as a race are going to use this great power to benefit or destroy ourselves and all other living creatures on this planet.  If there are other intelligences in the universe would they want to see mankind as part of their club?  We are already at a population density that is squeezing other life forms out of existence, and at the very least impacting their ability to find sustenance.

What kind of a race of sentience beings should we be?  What kind of character should we have and what should our focus be?  I do not see where this question is being asked or studied in any organized fashion.  The various religions have always been the primary teachers of what is right and what is wrong.  In the past these groups have been insulated from each other and in the last century they have become insulated from the general society well.  More and more laws have been past to prevent them from having any say in our schools.  So who is studying values and passing them along.  Some may think that they are preventing other people’s values from being taught to their children by not having religion taught in the schools.  This is not true.  Children are learning values everyday just by the people that they associate with and the TV programs they watch.  People and particularly children learn values from which behaviours they are punished for and which they are rewarded for.  This can be very haphazard and in some cases down right dangerous.  Some of the most forceful influences on children’s values come from peer pressure.  Children and particularly teenagers want to be liked by their friends.  They will quickly take on the values of the group and frequently these are not good values to have.

Since humans have the ability to have such a huge impact on all other life on this planet and maybe on the universe in some distant future, I think it is important that we ask the question – “what should our character be?”  I believe that our focus should be on benefiting all forms of life and not just our own.  Just as we seek sustainable energy use we need to look at sustainable life.  We need to ensure that we have a positive impact on all life forms.  I personally like the Buddhist philosophy of “desiring that all sentient beings achieve happiness and its causes and to be free of suffering and its causes”.  Are we likely to achieve this in the short term?  I think not, but it should be the ultimate aim of humanity.  Is it not the fundamental desire of every living creature to achieve happiness and freedom from suffering?

The following are the traits that I have observed in people who seem to be happy and which I believe will lead to the good of all:

• A Purpose driven life – a higher reason for existence.
• Selflessness – a surrendering of one’s ego to something greater than ourselves – courageous
• A giving spirit – altruistic
• An attitude of gratitude
• Love and compassion for others
• A positive attitude – the cup half full instead of  half empty – full of faith and hope in the future
• Respect for ones own mind, body and spirit

None of us have completely achieved these traits, although some are further along than others.  Life should be about working towards being this kind of people.  In all likelihood we will never achieve the goal, but each day we can make an incremental movement toward it.

I’m sure that these are not all the traits necessary to being successful in life and they may not even be worded most appropriately; however they are a starting point for discussion.

I would really like to see people in general and our leaders in particular raise this as an issue and then form groups to dialogue on them.  It should be part of our university curriculum for the best and the brightest to research.  What is the best character for individuals to have that will most benefit all living creatures?  We provide enormous amounts of funds for curing diseases, but what about the disease of the spirit – what I call “stinkin thinkin”.  To gain common agreement on what humanities goals should be and the values (character) most suitable to attaining them is probably as daunting a task as trying to cure cancer.  This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try.  I have observed that most of us are own worst enemies and because of false beliefs and values we create suffering for ourselves and others around us.

I do not pretend to think that there are simple answers to this issue.  In fact I doubt that we even know the appropriate questions to be asking.  My vision is that this topic would extend far beyond this blog and eventually be a top of mind issue for all the people’s of this world.  It should be in discussion panels on tv and at our parent teacher associations.  It should be studied at the university level and funded as part of research.   I know this issue is already being discussed and worked on by various organizations.  The David Suzuki foundation is certainly one that is concerned about the environment and sustainability of our environment.  However, I don’t think anyone is really addressing the root of the problem which I believe lies at the core of our very character.  How do we develop a character that is much more other’s focused and much less me focused?

The unspoken issue facing humanity!

A number of years ago I remember that there was a concern about the escalation of the human population.  I very rarely hear it raised as a concern anymore.  The exponential rise of population on this planet is at the source of many if not most of the primary issues facing mankind now.  If we had a quarter of the earth’s present population we would not be looking at the extinction of many of the world’s species and environmental contamination would be of much less significance.

Have a look at the following graph:

This graph is more than exponential.

Most humans do not seem to be aware of the implications of this accelerating human population growth — namely,

• more wars — over resources such as food, water, fuel, minerals — in addition to the current religious and territorial wars
• wiping out other forms of animal life — not only species that man does not directly need for survival (tigers, lions, elephants, rhinos, crocodiles, etc. — bye, bye — good thing we have pictures and movies of them on the internet), but also food-fuel-lubricant species such as fish, shellfish, whales, etc.
• wiping out plants — forests and brush land that we need for oxygen as well as for fuel and paper and chemicals and pharmaceuticals
• more disease — not only because of sewage disposal issues, but also closer proximity and more contact
• atmospheric pollution — air and temperature
• water pollution
• and many more things degenerating or disappearing, things that man needs and/or values.

Most of the fast growth is in Africa and the Middle East — the explosive zones, one might say.

David Suzuki talked about this in one of his presentations.  If you were to put bacteria in a test tube and fill it with nourishment what would you see over time?  If the bacteria doubled such that it would fill the test tube in one hour you would see very little happening for most of the early part of the hour.  It would only be towards the last few minutes that you would come to see that the bacteria are soon going to run out of food.  At this point in time it is almost too late to prevent catastrophe.  We as an infestation on this planet are soon approaching this point.

There is a law of supply and demand.  For the most part all of our efforts have been put into trying to control the suppliers.  The focus of essentially all environmentalists has been on the companies that produce various products.  I do not disagree that we need to ensure that whatever is produced is as environmentally sustainable as possible.  However, as long as there is a demand for something there will be a supplier.  Trying to blame those who produce things for all our woes will never solve the problem.  There are just too many people wanting things.  You will never convince a citizen in the Amazon that he should not cut down trees if he sees this as a way to provide for his family.

This same false thinking is also present in our war on drugs.  It is almost inestimable as to the time, money and resources that go into this so called war which is trying to expunge the suppliers.  As long as there is a demand there will be a supply.  The money that has been spent and the lives that have been destroyed is phenomenal.  The jails are overflowing and countries such as Mexico and many other Latin American countries have had their societies thrown into chaos.  If we took just a fraction of the time, money and resources that have been thrown into this so called war and spent it on finding ways to reduce the demand what a wonderful impact this would have on our and other countries well-being.

People who are well adjusted and happy and are free of suffering have no need for chemical stimulants.  Their source of happiness is an inside job.