THE HUMAN SPECIES IS AN ANOMALY OF EVOLUTION
The human species is an anomaly of evolution in that it is a “generalist” species composed of specialized individuals working to benefit humanity to the detriment of the environment — the equilibrium of which we will ultimately destroy if draconian measures are not taken.
In contrast, ALL other species are “specialized” and composed of generalist individuals looking after themselves in the instant and for their own sake, but contributing to their species’ survival if they adapt — or to their extinction when not having enough variations to adapt to changing environments.
As such an anomaly, we have reached a limit, and the Twentieth Century can be seen as the terrible-twos stage of our evolutionary development. Therefore, to “evolve” and become a responsible species, we need to “recapitulate our ontogeny” by developing a “theory of collective mind,” as we need such a theory of mind to overcome this self-center period of our development as a child.
Indeed, if “species are individuals” Ghiselin (1974) and Hull (1978), ours needs to grow up:
Here is how we generally see ourselves in evolution:
However, here is how I see the evolution of our lineage from the point of view of our collective unconscious:
Indeed if chimps have 98% of our genes, Australopithecus, who were evolved chimps, must have had as much or more, thus contributing to our collective unconscious to a greater extent, having lived longer than all the subsequent species of our lineage.
Furthermore, here is the damage to the environment caused by the conscious behavior of our lineage:
NB As you can see in this“macroscopic” description of our evolution, specialists, by seeing our living environment as an externality, have created the uncontrollable environment of knowledge in which we unconsciously live and which is destroying the environment.
By not being aware of the anomaly of their specializations, normal scientists are as limited in their capacity to control the destructive force of nature that our environment of knowledge has become, as the Scholastics were to discover these forces in nature while discussing among themselves the number of angels that fit on the head of a pin. Strings theorists who are paid to “shut up and calculate” while this is happening come easily to mind here.
“Of course, our failures are a consequence of many factors, but possibly one of the most important is the fact that society operates on the theory that specialization is the key to success, not realizing that specialization precludes comprehensive thinking” (Buckminster Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, 1969)
“Specialists by knowing ever more and more on less and less will end up knowing everything about nothing,” Konrad Lorenz in Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge, 1973
This piece is from a 77yo learned-ignorant “comprehensive thinker” with two general BA and one unspecialized MA in Zoo-Anthropo-Sociology. Who consciously decided to become a generalist after reading the quotes mentioned above on specialization in the late 70s when searching for a Master’s degree to complete a first eclectic BA equivalency acquired in his late twenties. And for whom “What the fuck!” has been the working hypothesis that made him an extraordinary (in Kuhn’s sense) anthropologist of knowledge while working among scientists as an outsider:
My findings:
CQFD
Flying above this institutionalized insanity, I have never dared collect any of this money. I have always been on my own while life was taking care of me.
PS Although I may seem to repeat myself for those who follow me, I am still working full-time on my PhD dissertation, which will be a “theory of collective mind” understandable by everybody. As it should be if we want to use our resources to resolve the present existential crisis in which scientific progress has led us.
I already have many extensive drafts in the wait, but none of them is concise enough to be understood at different levels of understanding by all 9 to 99 honest minds, as it must be. However, I’m getting there.
