6. The philosophy of good and evil
Good and evil are, indeed, rather relative concepts. Even the normal has various interpretations... However, there is some absoluteness hidden in all these words! And here are a few examples of evil that had a deep impact on humanity. The good, seemingly the opposite of everything humans have done until now, is indissolubly connected with the normal. And there is no need to adhere to a certain philosophical current in order to go further. The way of scientific knowledge, of logic, rational and normality seems to be what the mankind has to follow now, as a species that has just understood the reality. We should use a series of simple principles (that are only partially covering these matters) arising from our obvious material nature and endorsed by science, which must be corroborated with an a priori validation offered by the human's cognitive abilities. Therefore, as it was postulated in the Prime Theory's introduction [1], our full knowledge on reality is possible. Moreover, it is absolutely necessary and it will even help us to redefine more accurately the terms related to all these processes and concepts.
Our species has acquired a large dose of negativity through the ages, sometimes exceeding the amount of positive. And we are not only talking about the millions of years of interspecies and intraspecies struggles that impregnated us with negativity, which made the human's way up to the top of the food chain. There are many other gaps, more subtle ones. However, there is hope; all of these may be changed eventually, the historic evil may be annihilated if we start right now that initiative for humans. What are the basic concepts and principles of this project? Here are three of them:
All of these principles are leading automatically to a new set of rules, to a new "decalogue" for humans, deeply connected to their life, place and their role in the Universe. It is not in my power to identify what exactly is good or bad for man, but some ideas may be easily extrapolated from the above principles, as well as from a natural practicality - enhanced by evolution and adaptation over time - which was offered us for free to learn from it. We may thus be able to discern what would be useful, good, progressive and necessary to our successors to ensure their peaceful cohabitation, protection and continuity. It will be better to get rid of our primary instincts, mysticism and pseudo-ideologies, and to follow a simple philosophy of normality. The leap described above must start by a global assimilation of this general concept and by implementing it as a modus vivendi to all individuals. This concept should propagate normally across generations, people becoming simply and gradually aware of this global purpose, of this "greater" good - which is the preservation and development of their species. To change the global paradigm that is associated with our very existence might be very difficult, but it will come naturally once we all realize that the survival of the species is in fact our common, supreme goal.
Considering the long time it took our planet to build a proper environment for life, the first organisms to emerge, evolve and adapt, plus the long period of transition from primates to the modern human - we could easily identify a universal mechanism that allows life to emerge, to perpetuate and develop continuously. This mechanism worked perfectly on Earth, leading us to this point when the modern human is compelled to turn into a traveler, an explorer of the galaxy. Obviously, this process can only be done once the human's inner conflict is successfully surmounted. However, this conflict must be firstly known and understood in detail, then turned into an inactive state; this is the only way our inward progressive type of forces could become dominant. The purpose of this step may seem quite distant and vague, but it is more important than any other thing. And this is not an artificial change that is imposed for the sake of a perfect utopia; it is just the natural path the humanity has to follow, over several generations, in order to turn the modern man into a normal human being. To avoid the humanity's extinction in humanhuman conflicts. To show respect for the very small odds of life's emergence and evolution processes.
But is it worth it for humanity to have a future?
Observing the chain of extremely improbable events that eventually led to life, to its evolution to intelligence and consciousness, my simple answer is yes. The uniqueness of these cosmic and planetary events has a huge intrinsic value, which we must always honor. And humanity can do this by starting that global mutation described above, starting to turn itself from a planetary civilization into a stellar one. We all came to realize that the "spark" of our life is just an ephemeral flicker of the stardust and therefore is our supreme duty to keep this light shining for as long as possible.
What are the laws all people should obey?
Isaac Asimov [17] formulated for the first time the Laws of Robotics, ensuring in a logical way that all AI-based entities, created and programmed to help us, will never harm humans, in any way. In other words, the man - as intelligent being - may establish consistent rules of behavior for any AI-based machine in order to manage all situations that may arise in the new manmachine relationships. And it is not about the preconceived idea that such a robot, which might get at some point an incipient form of self-consciousness, would automatically like to eliminate the "competition" - its creator, i.e. the human. Robots can always be programmed with a set of clear rules to control their entire behavior. Here is the original set of laws (that includes Law zero):
• Law 0: A robot may not harm humanity, or by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
• Law 1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, except when required to do so in order to prevent greater harm to humanity itself.
• Law 2: A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law or cause greater harm to humanity itself.
• Law 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law or cause greater harm to humanity itself.
They are in fact fundamental laws which humans must also obey in the name of the common welfare, as an expression of their social conscience and free will. And here is my proposal for three basic laws of humanity, laws that should be obeyed all the time by each individual:
This minimal set of laws must be adjusted once the human evolution reaches a cosmic dimension, especially if we meet another advanced civilization.
The exodus to other planets is absolutely necessary?
Of course, the human exodus is necessary, and it should have several destinations. We need more resources, we need more space and we must explore the unknown. Humans need to colonize other planets, but they must not disturb any other life forms or alien civilizations in this process.
What has prevented us to have a faster growth rate?
The progress of humanity was remarkable, especially in the last two hundred years. We took advantage of many natural resources (such as coal, gas and oil), so we have built cities and cars; now, we are communicating instantly and we are traveling very quickly. But all these things could have had a higher pace if an obscure force would not have opposed constantly, in addition to our well-known social problems.
The generic term "church" will be further used to denote all sorts of organizations, institutional or not, which spread "religion" through an elaborate scheme involving mass deception. They actually sell some pseudomoralizing stories centered on one or more deities, on a divine creator of the world, used across millennia to control and exploit the less informed people. Many persons have taken this whole invention for granted, even believed in this supreme being. Over time, the church has managed to impose "faith" as a single means of knowledge and to indoctrinate lots of people, perverting their minds and slowing down the global progress of the mankind by centuries. The malicious combination of some so-called answers related to the mystery of life, the imposition of a so-called code of conduct for people in the name of a socalled sacred text, the artificial segregation in believers and non-believers and the punishment of the latter - all of these have created a criminal mechanism that has freely operated in the last two thousand years. Its impact on humanity, regardless of the historical period or location, was and still is disastrous.
Presented as a "spiritual" thing, this "faith" mechanism is a concept full of pseudo-explanations that targets a sensitive area (still dominated by some mystery) of our conscience. It has exacerbated the primal instincts of humans and alienated them gradually, paralyzing and annihilating their natural appetite for knowledge and rational explanations. There may be a justification for that, it may have been normal in the dawn of human civilization, when the fire and the falling stars were inexplicable things. Maybe it was normal then, for about five minutes. Unfortunately, these pseudo-ideas were spread rapidly; the church's institutions have strengthened and even tried to suppress the scientific "opposition". And there were many servants willing to continue this criminal scenario, while most politicians took advantage of this opportunity and let the church thrive. Seneca himself might have said "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful". Anyway, this church business has turned into the ugliest affair of global dominance and control in human's history, and does not seem to fade fast enough in the third millennium. Power, in any form, is something very attractive, something worth killing for, both physically and spiritually; therefore, many people are still lacking today their complete freedom of thought. Indeed, humans were violent creatures, territorial and possessive, willing to take advantage of the others. But many years have passed and this kind of struggles should be long gone from our personality. Humans turned civilized at some point and this had to change them, to affect them deeper, up to the genetic level; only a few generations later, they must have become normal and balanced beings, living in peace and working for the common welfare.
We may continue to blame our nature, but there is more than that... Our inner essence is in fact a mixture of love and hatred, aggressiveness and understanding, personal and group well-being, altruism and greed, which seemed to be progressive at first. However, these antagonisms should have diminished over time, and the biased groups of individuals had to disappear. If we were to measure accurately, the global "benefit" brought by churches to our civilization is in fact a significant delay in human progress, an overall human regression of hundreds of years. Science would have been in a higher, normal position and the earthlings would have been free to choose their new home planet now! These religious organizations have caused serious harm to humanity in general, and their evil influence is very difficult to compensate; they all clearly show, as well as the politics, the negative side of the groups, leaders and social structures, as they all have favored the abuse of power. Unfortunately, taking advantage of the so-called freedom of religion and of the broader concept of freedom, these churches are and will still be able to control a large number of people for many years.
But the goodness will prevail eventually?
The great work of many scientists has significantly reduced those delays in human evolution. Over the last centuries, geniuses like Darwin, Newton, Einstein have shown the true power of human mind and how the scientific knowledge may help us progress. They revealed the materiality of the world and the laws of nature at any scale. Also, they have proved how life emerged and evolved naturally, shedding light this way on millennia-old mysteries. The creationistic "blindness" of the human reason has just come to an end. A new era, of scientific progress, has begun; people must embrace it in order to improve their life and to protect the planetary environment. The positive and the tolerance will be released from all of us, and we eventually come to live together in normality, we will freely expand and evolve.
Our intelligent species is about to complete a difficult evolutionary stage. But we have to rethink life itself and its real value, and, to that purpose, a minimal initiative was described above. We cannot engage in a major cosmic endeavor as long as our inner and outer conflicts are not yet settled; they must not follow us in space, under any circumstances.
***
It was a very long journey... It all started with the granular fluid and its special mechanics, with those hydrogen atoms that filled the space about 14 billion years ago. Then the first stars ignited, and many other chemical elements were forged inside their hot cores. Some stars went novae, and all the planets and their moons were soon born from the accretion of that cosmic dust. At the edge of a regular galaxy, on a small planet called Earth, complex molecules have joined together and formed the first living cell. One cosmic moment later, about 4 billion years, those primordial organisms turned into some evolved creatures named humans. They are self-destructive, but intelligent and full of curiosity beings. They have reached their Moon, and soon will set foot on another planet, Mars. But could they travel even farther, on the way to the starlight, leaving behind all their inner contradictions and becoming a normal, real cosmic civilization?