1. Mechanism

2. Opinions

3. Further reading

4. References

Conscious evolution refers to the ability of the human species to choose what the species Homo sapiens will become in the future, based on recent advancements in science, medicine, technology, psychology, sociology, and spirituality. Most leading thinkers in this area have focused on the conscious evolution of how we think, live, organize ourselves, work together, and address issues, rather than on biological evolution.

The idea of conscious evolution is not a specific theory, but it has loose connections to integral theory, Spiral Dynamics, and noosphere thought.^[1] It is also sometimes connected to the theory of the global brain or collective consciousness.^[1] Some have suggested “conscious cultural-evolution”^[2] as a more accurate term, to reduce association with standard biological evolution, though this is not widely applied.

Conscious evolution suggests that now that humanity is conscious of its history and of how things evolve (evolutionary consciousness), and given the rapid pace of change in society and culture, humanity can (and should) choose advancement through co-operation, co-creation and sustainable practices over self-destruction through separateness, competition, and ecological devastation.

Mechanism

At the centre of the concept of conscious evolution are the approximate definitions of the term’s constituent phenomena ('consciousness' and 'evolution'). However, the term implies more than these phenomena generally encompass, not least as it is often used with strong assumptions of a collective interest/ common good.

Evolution does not exclusively act upon morphological (phenotypic) variation; it can also work on a cognitive level.^[4] Daniel Dennett has suggested that evolution is simply a process which uses natural selection as a basic algorithm for progression.^[3] This could be applied to changes in behaviours, practices, concepts, theories and ideas (cultural evolution). In these situations the mutating replicators of evolution can be considered memes (theoretical units of cultural information)^[4] rather than genes. Over the last 10,000 years humanity is increasingly capable of influencing its own environment and cognitively adapting to these environmental changes through the use of evolving memes. Memetic (cognitive) innovation (as opposed to morphological variation) has therefore become the primary driver of humanity’s evolutionary success.^[3]

Humans are ‘conscious’, and are consciously manipulating the memes they use. Consciousness itself (in humans’ brains) can therefore be said to have agency over its own evolution, because memetic usage influences evolutionary success. Evolution is also something humans are conscious of. Consciousness (in human brains) can therefore be simultaneously conscious of evolution (working in this case upon memes) while consciously manipulating its own memetics, in order to influence its own evolution. Evolution (in the sense of its impact upon memetics) is therefore increasingly a subject of knowledge, rather than an unknown pressure operating on the world.^[5]

Opinions

Conscious evolution is largely the output of several luminaries’ personal evolutionary journeys^[6]. The central objective is to achieve a globally sustainable future by developing the idea that humans can guide evolution, now that we are conscious of it (evolutionary consciousness)^[6]. Owing to the broad definition of the term, numerous writers and thinkers, from a range of fields and backgrounds have contributed ideas to the concept of conscious evolution. These include; Erich Jantsch, Teilhard de Chardin, Jonas Salk, Ervin Laszlo, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, Bela H. Banathy, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Andrew Cohen, David Bohm, Eric Chaisson, Duane Elgin, Brian Swimme, Ken Wilber, Jorge Taborga and others.

One of the earliest uses of the phrase 'conscious evolution' may be that of Mary Parker Follett in 1918: "Conscious evolution means giving less and less place to herd instinct and more to the group imperative. We are emerging from our gregarious condition and are now to enter on the rational way of living by scanning our relations to one another, instead of bluntly feeling them, and so adjusting them that unimpeded progress on this higher plane is secured." (The New State, p. 91)

Human evolution, has thus far been the consequence of billions of random events and chance interactions (as opposed to a planned endeavour).^[7] Given that humans have knowledge of this evolutionary process (evolutionary consciousness) it is the task of humanity to take control of these random changes, to avoid the 'disastrous fate' (extinction) that has befallen the majority of species that have ever existed.^[7] This idea that evolutionary consciousness should be used as a tool, or even an argument for self-guided evolution, is a major central theme of the concept of conscious evolution. Bela H. Banathy ^[5] captures this sentiment succinctly in his paper Self guided/conscious evolution: “Our consciousness of evolution becomes a springboard for leaping into conscious evolution.”^[5] The issue then arises of how humanity can be expected to know how it should use its recently acquired evolutionary consciousness to select the best evolutionary path.^[5][8] Jonas Salks^[8] is optimistic that humanity is capable of merging intuition with reason in order to find the path that leads to conscious evolution: “It now remains for human beings to decide the ultimate course of human evolution. By imagining ourselves inside the process of evolution and by imagining the process of evolution working inside our minds, we may discover how to deal with the opportunities that might influence the direction of evolutionary choices.”^[8]

Numerous aspects of both co-intelligence and ethics, in our self-guided, conscious evolution are also present in the writings of Barbara Marx Hubbard, one of the most widely published advocates of conscious evolution. Hubbard has a positive opinion of humanity and the evolutionary process.^[11] She has claimed that: “Every tendency in us leads us toward greater wholeness, unity, and connectedness... Integration is inherent in the process of evolution.”^[11] However, Hubbard has been criticised for focusing on the most hopeful evidence that conscious evolution is taking humanity in a positive direction.^[12] Scott London commented in a review of her 1998 book Conscious Evolution; Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential, that much of the evidence provided was “soft data”, “highly questionable”, or “anecdotal”.^[12] Despite these criticisms Hubbard, and numerous other advocates of conscious evolution, are continuing to promote the concept, with some suggesting it be included in education and government^[1].

Further reading

• {{cite book|first=Bela|last=Banathy|authorlink=Bela H. Banathy|title=Guided Evolution of Society: A Systems View|year=2000|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781475731392}}
• {{cite book|first=Mihaly|last=Csikszentmihalyi|authorlink=Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi|title=The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millennium|year=1993|publisher=Harper Collins|isbn=978-0060166779}}
• {{cite book|first=Pierre Teilhard|last=de Chardin|authorlink=Pierre Teilhard de Chardin|title=The Future of Man|year=1964|publisher=Harper & Row|isbn=978-0060904968}}
• {{cite book|first=Mary Parker|last=Follett|authorlink=Mary Parker Follett|title=The New State|year=1918|publisher=Longmans Green Co|isbn= 978-0271018263}}
• {{cite book|first=Barbara Marx|last=Hubbard|authorlink=Barbara Marx Hubbard|title=Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential|year=1998|publisher=New World Library|isbn=978-1577310167}}
• {{Cite journal| last1 = Marx Hubbard | first1 = B. | title = Conscious evolution: The next stage of human development | doi = 10.1002/sres.510 | journal = Systems Research and Behavioral Science | volume = 20 | issue = 4 | pages = 359–370 | year = 2002 | pmid = | pmc = }}
• {{cite book|first=Erich|last=Jantsch|authorlink=Erich Jantsch|title=The Self-Organizing Universe|year=1980|publisher=Pergamon|isbn=978-0080243122}}
• {{cite book|first=Ervin|last=Laszlo|authorlink=Ervin Laszlo|title=The Age of Bifurcation|year=1991|publisher=Gordon & Breach Science Pub|isbn=978-2881244919}}
• {{cite book|first=Jonas|last=Salk|authorlink=Jonas Salk|title=Man Unfolding|year=1972|publisher=Harper & Row|isbn=978-0060137397}}
• {{cite book|first=Alois P.|last=Swoboda|authorlink=Alois P. Swoboda|title=Conscious Evolution|year=1921}}

References

• 1977–78 A Group
• 1977–78 Albanian Superliga
• 1977–78 All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship
• 1977–78 Atlanta Flames season
• 1977–78 Australian cricket season
• 1977–78 Australian region cyclone season
• 1977–78 Austrian Football Bundesliga
• 1977–78 Bahraini Premier League
• 1977–78 Belgian First Division
• 1977–78 Birmingham Bulls season
• 1977–78 Blackpool F.C. season
• 1977–78 Boston Celtics season
• 1977–78 Buffalo Braves season
• 1977–78 Buffalo Sabres season
• 1977–78 Cardiff City F.C. season
• 1977–78 Chicago Black Hawks season
• 1977–78 Cincinnati Stingers season
• 1977–78 Cleveland Barons season
• 1977–78 Colorado Rockies (NHL) season
• 1977–78 Colorado Rockies season
• 1977–78 Coupe de France
• 1977–78 Cypriot First Division
• 1977–78 Czechoslovak First League
• 1977–78 DDR-Oberliga
• 1977–78 Detroit Red Wings season