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The Future of Life and What it Means for Humanity

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Abstract

Vidal’s (Found Sci, 2010) and Rottiers’s (Found Sci, 2010) commentaries on my (2010) paper raised a number of important issues about the possible future trajectory of evolution and its implications for humanity. My response emphasizes that despite the inherent uncertainty involved in extrapolating the trajectory of evolution into the far future, the possibilities it reveals nonetheless have significant strategic implications for what we do with our lives here and now, individually and collectively. One important implication is the replacement of postmodern scepticism and relativism with an evolutionary grand narrative that can guide humanity to participate successfully in the future evolution of life in the universe.

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References

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  • Rottiers, F. (2010). What and that humans do: Participating in the meaning of life, a contributor’s critique. Foundations of Science. doi:10.1007/s10699-010-9220-9. arXiv:0912.5508v2.

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  • Vidal, C. (2010). Analysis of some speculations concerning the far-future of intelligent civilizations. Foundations of Science. doi:10.1007/s10699-010-9221-8. arXiv:0912.5508v2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Member of the Evolution, Complexity and Cognition Research Group, The Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium

    John E. Stewart

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  1. John E. Stewart
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Correspondence to John E. Stewart.

Additional information

This paper is a response to commentaries by Rottiers (2010) and Vidal (2010) on my (2010) paper.

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Stewart, J.E. The Future of Life and What it Means for Humanity. Found Sci 17, 47–50 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-010-9222-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-010-9222-7

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