The Trajectory of Humanity

This essay addresses the issue of the future of humankind and of the Earth our home. It acknowledges the problems we face from poverty to pollution and from generic anxiety to species loss. Humankind has replaced natural evolution with social and technological evolution, and if we are to survive we must take control of the process. I write, not as an expert, but as a generalist encouraged by the emergence of thought from multiple disciplines and perspectives which, it seems to me, can now be put together to form a consistent narrative. I begin by looking at Gauguin’s first two questions (D’où venons nous? Que sommes nous?) and conclude that, while we have evolved from the dust by a mechanical process, we are part of a unitary universe. We are free but are, to some extent, controlled by our past behaviour as a species, particularly by the adoption of a dominator-based model of social life which I see as a dead-end in social evolution. With regard to the third question (Où allons nous?), there is the possibility that the progression of social consciousness will allow us to increase cooperation so that we can meet the needs of our species and preserve the natural world on which we depend. If we are to do this we shall have to change the organisation of societies and their relations with each other, our inter-personal behaviour and self-awareness, and the spirit of the model that constrains us. I offer this work to the changing consciousness of our world. It has been, for me, an entrancing voyage of discovery and I hope that some of the material, or some of the connections between different ideas, will be of interest to you, the reader.