Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential: A Cosmic Vision of Our Future Evolution

by Ted Chu

But a more comprehensive answer to the question “What is life?” requires attention to multiple levels of meaning. The basic definition scientists give is that life is a carbon-based structure that features self-replication, metabolism, and information processing. This is probably the lowest common denominator for all existing life on Earth. If we rise to a higher level of analysis and ask what life is capable of, one can say that it is capable of giving birth to complex living organisms with a central nervous system called the brain. And further, given the evolution of more and more complex brains, life is capable of allowing consciousness to emerge. Further, when asked what consciousness as such is capable of, I would say it can consciously design new forms of intelligence that will embrace the cosmos and then fundamentally alter it. In other words, life and mind are capable of self-transcendence. Looked at from this perspective, the human being is neither the final product of the universe nor merely an accidental happening on a little planet. It is exactly these deep implications of Darwin’s ideas that are still misunderstood, ignored, or rejected today. Almost all academic and popular books and discussions about natural and cultural history, including those that promote an evolutionary understanding of history, have narrowed themselves to the explicit or implicit purpose of teaching us about how to make human lives better.