Hybriduality and Geoethics

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You are united in your opposition to the imposition of food risks upon you without your consent.

Hybridual morality is based upon three geoethical principles: First, there is a Principle of Consent which requires that any action reasonably likely to affect one or more others cannot be undertaken without the prior consent of those likely to be affected. If many are likely to be affected, then prior consent may be achieved via a representative democratic process. If there is doubt as to whether or not others will be affected, then an expert group should provide an opinion regarding that likelihood.  If the likelihood turns out to be too small to bother obtaining consent, but the adverse consequence nevertheless occurs, one is geoethically clean.

Second, there is a Principle of Equilibria that requires any action reasonably likely to affect others to be structured so as to minimize harm and preferably to increase the satisfaction level of all affected parties.

Actions which harm some parties unleash unstable forces in human society and such forces end up inuring to everyone’s harm.

Remembering that we are hybriduals, not individuals, it is crucial that actions contribute to a stronger We rather than to tensions within We borne of dissension over inequality. Actions which harm some

parties unleash unstable forces in human society and such forces end up inuring to everyone’s harm. It is frequently not possible to know the consequences that one is consenting to. By requiring those actions that affect others to also benefit others, there is at least a partial safety net in place to better ensure that our actions are helping We, and not just Me. Beneficent actions move society to a stronger and more stable equilibrium.

Finally, the conditions of any consent to an action should be independently monitored and enforced, wherever possible. This third principle of Geoethics is called the Principle of Assurance. It ensures moral solutions are enduring in reality rather than chimerical and rhetorical.  In other words, the Principle of Assurance involves Ti and Gi in an agreement amongst Me and We. The ethical benefits of consent and equilibria are only as real as they are assured of implementation.


Image 3 - Justice

Taken together, the three principles of geoethics implement a morality of hybridualism which is (i) cognizant of the multiple selves each of us comprise, and (ii) takes advantage of new tools of communications, while still being (iii) consistent with the moralities of the great religions. In essence, geoethics and the morality of hybridualism simply extend the Golden Rule of religion, and the Categorical Imperative of modern philosophy, into the newly recognized realm of hybridual beings and the newly emerged capabilities of cybernetic communication systems.

The Fiction of Biology

Biology is said to be the study of life. But this is not really true. In fact, biology is only the study of some kinds of life. Biology, as practiced today, studies living things that are deemed similar to human life in one particular aspect – the possession of organic cellular chemistry characteristics. These characteristics are the use of six atoms (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur) to form molecules that build cellular membranes, metabolize nutrients and self-replicate in accordance with a chemical code.   

Life is such an important concept – perhaps the most important concept – that it should be defined based on why life is important, not based on the lowest common denominator between humans and bacteria.


Image 4 - Biology

Because biology defines itself as the study of life, it obligates itself to define life. Yet, biologists frankly concede that they cannot consistently define life, and that, as they define it, life blurs into non-life. For example, biologists generally define life as something that is well-organized, seeks nutrients from its environment,

Because biology defines itself as the study of life, it obligates itself to define life.

adapts to change and replicates. However, these same characteristics apply even to stars – they are organized into distinct shells, they gravitationally attract hydrogen and helium atoms from interstellar space,

they alter their structure under gravitational influence and they reproduce via nova and supernova explosions, which seed interstellar space with thermo-nuked atoms. Since biologists do not want to study stars (and similar non-squishy examples abound), they attempt to more strictly define life as something organized upon cellular organic chemistry. Both their general (any self-replicating, well-organized, and interactive thing) and their specific (any self-replicating, well-organized, interactive cellular organic chemistry) definitions miss the mark because both fail to recognize the salient feature of life – its purpose, as evidenced by what it uniquely does.

Life is important because it is the only way to make reality more pleasurable, and less painful, than it otherwise would be. Life accomplishes this by imposing order upon reality. It imposes order upon reality by processing, sharing and extending information, since information is a necessary, and sufficient, basis for development. Information is, in and of itself, a reduction of uncertainty, disorder and chaos. Therefore information is, in and of itself, a tool for imposing order upon reality. Information enables greater pleasure, fairness and justice than offered by a lifeless universe.


Image 5 - Evolution of Man

Evolution has created beings with an ever greater ability to impose order on the world.  One could say that the purpose of life was to evolve, but that would be like saying the purpose of arithmetic was to add.  We evolve so that we can achieve ever greater ratios of pleasure-to-pain in the world; ordering reality is the best way to do this (beats random chaos!).  The evolution of sensory, manipulative, mobility and cognitive systems are the successful outcomes of an age-old process of trial-and-error to find the best tools for ordering reality.  Just as the purpose of arithmetic is to appreciate an abstract reality, and the ordering of numbers via addition is a super tool in that regard, the purpose of life is to enjoy total reality, and the ordering of phenomena via evolution is a super tool in that regard.

 

 

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