# Species-Level Maturation **Domain:** evolutionary biology, systems theory, civilizational studies **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Classification:** Infrastructure Concept **Maturity:** analytical framework, emerging conceptual category **Related:** [[Evolutionary Capacity]], [[Planetary Governance]], [[Conscious Design]], [[Systemic Responsibility]], [[Ecological Consciousness]], [[Civilization Phase Transition]] --- ## Definition **Species-level maturation** refers to **the evolutionary stage at which a species develops sufficient cognitive, institutional, and technological capability to consciously direct its own evolution and that of its environment, accepting responsibility for planetary-scale consequences of its actions**. Species-level maturation represents transition from unconscious adaptation to deliberate design, from population thinking to system thinking, from local to planetary scope. It implies both new capabilities (terraforming, genetic modification, conscious institution design) and new responsibilities (preventing extinction, managing planetary systems, distributing resources equitably across the species). --- ## General Context The concept bridges evolutionary biology and civilizational studies, drawing on Teilhard de Chardin's Omega Point concept and contemporary systems thinking about humanity's role as planetary force. Species-level maturation implies that humanity has moved beyond unconscious drives (survival, reproduction, resource accumulation) toward capacity for deliberate planetary governance. This maturation is incomplete—institutional structures lag behind technological capability, creating dangerous misalignment. --- ## Theological and Philosophical Context Pope Francis and Teilhard de Chardin frame species-level maturation as spiritual emergence—humanity developing consciousness of its planetary role and responsibility. This theological framing emphasizes ethical transformation accompanying technological capacity. --- ## Governance Context Species-level maturation requires [[wiki/Governance Frameworks|governance institutions]] capable of operating at planetary scale with foresight spanning generations. [[UNSC Resolution 2803]] and [[wiki/Climate Justice|climate justice]] frameworks represent early attempts at species-level governance. --- ## Climate Meritocracy Context The [[Climate-Meritocracy]] framework assumes species-level maturation as prerequisite—that humanity can design planetary governance systems allocating resources based on merit rather than historical accident. This assumption remains contested. --- ## Key Insight Species-level maturation is paradoxical: achieving it requires accepting responsibility for planetary consequences while simultaneously transcending species-centered thinking toward genuinely ecological consciousness. The two requirements can conflict. --- ## See Also [[Systems Theory]], [[Governance Frameworks]], [[Ecological Systems]], [[Theological Perspectives]], [[Stability-Seeking Systems]] ## Relationships - **Edge source route:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] connects this topic to exact Annual Question passages promoted into the Simple Reminders archive. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “In the past 13 years we have been able to study 222 first born babies interacting with their new parents using video cameras and the Swiss Lausanne Triadic Play method. I am very impressed with babies and working with them has renewed my faith in our species. However, in the first study we did with 130 newlywed couples we discovered the grim fact that 67% of couples experienced a large drop in relationship satisfaction in the first 3 years of their baby's life. We also found that hostility between parents increased dramatically. The baby was deeply negatively affected by this increased hostility. In fact, from the way a couple argued in the last trimester of pregnancy we could predict with high accuracy how much their baby would laugh and cry.” > **— John Gottman**, *2007, Edge Annual Question, “What Are You Optimistic About?”* [[reminders/Civilization/Babies Renew Faith in the Future of Our Species by John Gottman|Babies Renew Faith in the Future of Our Species by John Gottman]] > “Darwin's books and letters are full of careful descriptions. The amateur struggling with a field guide may take comfort reading how he frets over the difference between a stem with two leaves and a leaf with two leaflets. Darwin seems to have had a soft spot for fumitories, giving wonderfully detailed descriptions of the different varieties, whether and under what conditions they attracted insects, and how the geometry and flexibility of the different parts of the flower affected how pollen was carried off by visiting bees. He was looking for mechanisms that ensured evolutionary variability by making it likely that bees would occasionally transfer pollen from one flower to another, giving rise to occasional crosses—analysis later reflected in the Origin of Species.” > **— Ursula Martin**, *2013, Edge Annual Question, “What *should* We Be Worried About?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Darwin's Greatest Tool Was Close Observation by Ursula Martin|Darwin's Greatest Tool Was Close Observation by Ursula Martin]] > “The example of cosmetic plastic surgery is instructive. Reconstructive in its origins, it is increasingly used for cosmetic purposes. I predict the same shift for deep brain stimulation. Cosmetic surgery is used to render people more appealing. In human affairs, appearance is critical. For our hypersocial species, personal appeal opens doors that remain shut to mere competence and intellect. Undoubtedly, cosmetic surgery enhances quality of life, so how can it be denied to anyone? And yet, it is by its very nature deceptive; the operated face is not really the person's face, the operated body not really their body. However, experience teaches that these reservations as to authenticity remain theoretical. The cosmetically adjusted nose, breast, thighs or skin tones become the person's new reality, without significant social backlash. Even face transplants are now feasible. We read so much into a face—but what if it is not the person's "real" face? Does anyone care, or even remember the previous appearance? So it will be with neurocosmetics.” > **— Marcel Kinsbourne**, *2009, Edge Annual Question, “What Will Change Everything?”* [[reminders/Neural Interfaces/Deep Brain Stimulation Will Become Neurocosmetic by Marcel Kinsbourne|Deep Brain Stimulation Will Become Neurocosmetic by Marcel Kinsbourne]] > “The search so far has been met only by a great silence, but as astronomers continue their hunt for intelligent neighbors, computer scientists are determined to create them. Artificial intelligence research has been underway for decades and a few AIs have arguably already passed the Turing Test. Apply the exponential logic of Moore’s Law and the arrival of strong AI in the next few decades seems inevitable. We will have robots smart enough to talk to, and so emotionally appealing that people will demand the right to marry them.” > **— Paul Saffo**, *2009, Edge Annual Question, “What Will Change Everything?”* [[reminders/AI Control/Discovery or Creation of Non-human Intelligence Cures Humankind's Existential Loneliness by Paul Saffo|Discovery or Creation of Non-human Intelligence Cures Humankind's Existential Loneliness by Paul Saffo]] > “Scientists use a diagram of a mountainous landscape to illustrate this principle. The contours of the undulating landscape indicate adaptive success of a creature. The higher the elevation of an entity, the more successful it is. The lower, the less fit. The lowest elevation is zero adaptation, or in other words, extinction. The evolutionary history of an organism can thus be mapped over time as its population begins in the foothills of low adaptation and gradually ascends the higher mountains of increased environmental adaptation. This is known in biology and in computer science as “hill climbing.” If the species is lucky, it will climb until it reaches a peak of optimal adaptation. Tyrannosaurus Rex achieved peak fitness. The industrial-age Olivetti Corporation reached the peak of optimal typewriter. Sex Pistols reached the summit of punk rock.” > **— Kevin Kelly**, *2017, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Term Or Concept Ought To Be More Widely Known?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Evolution Warns Against Premature Optimization by Kevin Kelly|Evolution Warns Against Premature Optimization by Kevin Kelly]] > “My example of a deep, elegant, beautiful explanation in science is John Maynard Smith's concept of an evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS). Not only does this wonderfully straightforward idea explain a whole host of biological phenomena, but it also provides a useful heuristic tool to test the plausibility of various types of claims in evolutionary biology—allowing us, for example, to quickly dismiss group-selectionist misconceptions, such as the idea that altruistic acts by individuals can be explained by the benefits that accrue to the species as a whole. Indeed, the idea is so powerful that it explains things I didn't even realize needed explaining until I was given the explanation.” > **— S. Abbas Raza**, *2012, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Favorite Deep, Elegant, Or Beautiful Explanation?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Evolutionary Stable Strategies by S. Abbas Raza|Evolutionary Stable Strategies by S. Abbas Raza]] > “Prior episodes of significant global warming within the Pleistocene, more-or-less the last 2 million years, have invariably followed cooling periods with glacial advances. During the Pleistocene, the human lineage, within the genus Homo, successfully adapted to changing environments (including climate) and evolved to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the changes, even as populations of Homo reacted to the constraints environmental changes created. Human populations evolved diverse adaptations to the different climates and ecological circumstances they encountered, but the improvements in communication skills, planning depth, and retention of deep history with tales, poems, song, and other aspects of cultural behavior dispersed throughout humanity.” > **— Milford H. Wolpoff**, *2016, Edge Annual Question, “What Do You Consider The Most Interesting Recent [Scientific] News? What Makes It Important?”* [[reminders/Civilization/Global Warming Once Again, a Most Serious Challenge to Our Species by Milford H. Wolpoff|Global Warming Once Again, a Most Serious Challenge to Our Species by Milford H. Wolpoff]] > “The Neanderthals disappeared when Homo sapiens, who by then had learned the art of sewing, took over Europe and Asia. This new species, descended from a southern branch of Homo erectus, was unique among primates in being hairless. In their view, anything with fur on it could be classified as "animal"—or, to put it more bluntly, game. Neanderthal disappeared in Europe for the same reason the woolly mammoth disappeared there: the ancestors of the modern Europeans ate them. In Africa today, hungry humans eat the meat of chimpanzees and gorillas.” > **— Judith Rich Harris**, *2005, Edge Annual Question, “What Do You Believe Is True Even Though You Cannot Prove It?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Hairlessness Helped Make Humans a New Kind of Primate by Judith Rich Harris|Hairlessness Helped Make Humans a New Kind of Primate by Judith Rich Harris]] > “Human evolution is now commonly depicted as the consequence of species replacements, where there are a series of species emanating from different, but usually African homelands, each sooner or later replacing the earlier ones. It is not the selection process that provides the source of human superiority in each successive replacement, but the random accidents that take place when new species are formed from small populations of old ones. The process is seen as being driven by random extinctions, opening up unexpected opportunities for those fortunate new species lucky to be at the right time and place.” > **— Milford H. Wolpoff**, *2001, Edge Annual Question, “What Questions Have Disappeared?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Human Evolution May Be Driven by Replacement and Random Extinction by Milford H. Wolpoff|Human Evolution May Be Driven by Replacement and Random Extinction by Milford H. Wolpoff]] > “Probably some bacterial ancestors look back at the period 1000-600 million years ago when both water and air were full of hydrogen sulfide (poisonous to people). Before oxygen bubbled up and its combustion fueled the frenetic rate of environmental degradation that began in the Proterozoic eon and continues until today was "The Age of Bacteria", a calmer, quieter time. Aided and abetted by our very recent (Holocene) loud, careless, ignorant, frantic, clever but unwise, ephemeral human species, the rest of our planetmates have been there before us and will be there when we're gone.” > **— Lynn Margulis**, *2010, Edge Annual Question, “How Is The Internet Changing The Way You Think?”* [[reminders/Civilization/Humanity Is a Brief and Reckless Episode in Bacterial Time by Lynn Margulis|Humanity Is a Brief and Reckless Episode in Bacterial Time by Lynn Margulis]] > “I believe, but cannot prove, that our species is passing through a transitional stage, from being animals to being true humans. I do not pretend to understand what true humans will be like, and I expect that I would not even understand it if I met them. Yet, I believe that our own universal sense of right and wrong is pointing us in the right direction, and that it is the direction of our future.” > **— W. Daniel Hillis**, *2005, Edge Annual Question, “What Do You Believe Is True Even Though You Cannot Prove It?”* [[reminders/Civilization/Humanity May Be Passing from Animals to True Humans by W. Daniel Hillis|Humanity May Be Passing from Animals to True Humans by W. Daniel Hillis]] > “Material culture is the thing that makes us human, driving human evolution from the outset with its continually modifying power. Our species' particular dilemma is that in order to safeguard what we have, we have continually to change. The culture of things—invention and technology—is ever changing under the tide of words and routines whose role is to image fixity and agreement when, in reality, none exists. This form of change is no trivial thing because it is essential to our longer term survival. At least, the longer term survival of anything we may be proud to call universally human” > **— Timothy Taylor**, *2009, Edge Annual Question, “What Will Change Everything?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Humanity Must Keep Changing to Preserve What It Has by Timothy Taylor|Humanity Must Keep Changing to Preserve What It Has by Timothy Taylor]] > “When time came to an end, the gods decided to run a final experiment. They wanted to be prepared after the big crunch for potential trajectories of life after the next big bang. For their experiment they choose two planets in the universe where evolution had resulted in similar developments of life. For planet ONEthey decided to interfer with evolution by allowing only ONE species to develop their brain to a high level of complexity. This species referred to itself as being „intelligent“; members of this species were very proud about their achievements in science, technology, the arts or philosophy.” > **— Ernst Pöppel**, *2009, Edge Annual Question, “What Will Change Everything?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Intelligence Could Be Evolution's Most Dangerous Experiment by Ernst Pöppel|Intelligence Could Be Evolution's Most Dangerous Experiment by Ernst Pöppel]] > “The list of existential threats to humanity includes climate change, nuclear war, pandemics, asteroid collisions and perhaps AI. And all of these can be avoided. Some can be addressed here on Earth. Others require activity in space, but with the ultimate aim of protecting the planet.” > **— Yuri Milner**, *2017, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Term Or Concept Ought To Be More Widely Known?”* [[reminders/Existential Risk/Intelligence Determines How Long Civilizations Survive by Yuri Milner|Intelligence Determines How Long Civilizations Survive by Yuri Milner]] > “What inspired Darwin and Wallace were encounters with places rich in birds and mammals found nowhere else—the Galapagos and the islands in southeast Asia. There are no such places in Europe. Darwin spent most of HMS Beagle's voyage too far south in South America, while Wallace's first trip was to the Amazon. The Amazon is very rich in species, but it is a striking example of the law that such places rarely have many species with small ranges. (I suspect this cost Wallace dearly because his sponsors wanted novelty. He found that on his next trip, to the East.)” > **— Stuart Pimm**, *2012, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Favorite Deep, Elegant, Or Beautiful Explanation?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Islands Reveal Evolutionary Laws That Continents Conceal by Stuart Pimm|Islands Reveal Evolutionary Laws That Continents Conceal by Stuart Pimm]] > “There are several messages to be taken from the realization that natural selection functions more like a tinkerer than an engineer. We shouldn’t expect optimality from natural selection—it just gets the job done, taking the easiest, most accessible route. And as a corollary: we humans are not perfection personified, just natural selection’s way of turning a quadrupedal ape into a big-brained biped. Had we not come along, some other species, from some other ancestral stock, might eventually have evolved hyper-intelligence. But from different starting blocks, that species probably would not have looked much like us.” > **— Jonathan B. Losos**, *2017, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Term Or Concept Ought To Be More Widely Known?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Natural Selection Is a Tinkerer Not an Engineer by Jonathan B. Losos|Natural Selection Is a Tinkerer Not an Engineer by Jonathan B. Losos]] > “A median estimate is that a third of all the species will be on the fast track to extinction within the next quarter century. Over 90% of all languages will be gone by then, because languages spoken by fewer than a million people are rarely taught to children. Most tropical forests will be gone by 2025 and with them, their species and peoples. Global warming will ensure that the species that survive do so in the wrong place. Coral reefs will be cooked alive in too-warm oceans, tropical glaciers will long have been only a memory preserved in the National Geographic photo collection.” > **— Stuart Pimm**, *2002, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Question? ... Why?”* [[reminders/Existential Risk/One Third of Species May Be Headed Toward Extinction by Stuart Pimm|One Third of Species May Be Headed Toward Extinction by Stuart Pimm]] > “Comparative psychology finds that pointing (in its full-blown form) is unique to our species. Few non-human species appear to be able to comprehend pointing (notably, domestic dogs can follow pointing while our closest relatives among the great apes cannot), and there is little evidence of pointing occuring spontaneously between members of any species other than our own. It appears that only humans have the social-cognitive infrastructure needed to support the kind of cooperative and prosocial motivations that pointing gestures presuppose.” > **— Nick Enfield**, *2016, Edge Annual Question, “What Do You Consider The Most Interesting Recent [Scientific] News? What Makes It Important?”* [[reminders/Civilization/Pointing Is a Prerequisite for Language by Nick Enfield|Pointing Is a Prerequisite for Language by Nick Enfield]] > “The penalties of continuing to graduate cultural illiterates (in science and the humanities) may not be evident in year 2000 Wall Street, but it is troubling the leaders of our economic success, the CEO’s of major corporations who see a grim future in our workforce. Can we continue to import educated workers? As the low-level service jobs continue to give way to robots and computers, the needs are increasingly for workers who have high level reasoning skills, which a proper education can supply to the vast majority of students.” > **— Leon M. Lederman**, *2000, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Today's Most Important Unreported Story?”* [[reminders/Existential Risk/Survival Depends on the Race Between Education and Catastrophe by Leon M. Lederman|Survival Depends on the Race Between Education and Catastrophe by Leon M. Lederman]] > “Despite what we see in Star Wars and Star Trek, I don't expect intelligence to be an inevitable result of evolution on other worlds. Since the beginning of life on Earth, as many as 50 billion species have arisen, and only one of them has acquired technology. If intelligence has such has high survival value, why are so few creatures intelligent? Mammals are not the most successful or plentiful of animals. Ninety-five percent of all animal species are invertebrates. Most of the worm species on our planet have not even been discovered yet, and there are a billion insects wandering the Earth.” > **— Clifford Pickover**, *2000, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Today's Most Important Unreported Story?”* [[reminders/Evolution/The Immortalization of Humanity by Clifford Pickover|The Immortalization of Humanity by Clifford Pickover]] > “The publication in 2015 of a new paper from Leicester University, "The Anthropocene Biosphere," provides more evidence that the changes wrought upon the climate by human civilization are set to bring down a sixth mass extinction. According to the paper’s co-author, geologist Peter Haff, we have already entered a period of fundamental changes to the planetary system that may continue to change the world beyond our imagination, a fear echoed by Adelaide University’s John Long in the New Scientist last month. All of us can provide anecdotal evidence of the shifts that are changing our environment. Today I received a call from a friend in Engadin, Switzerland, where Nietzsche wrote Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In late December, at an altitude of 2,000 metres, there is no snow. In Hyde Park, the daffodils are in bloom.” > **— Hans Ulrich Obrist**, *2016, Edge Annual Question, “What Do You Consider The Most Interesting Recent [Scientific] News? What Makes It Important?”* [[reminders/Existential Risk/The Sixth Mass Extinction Demands Immediate Action by Hans Ulrich Obrist|The Sixth Mass Extinction Demands Immediate Action by Hans Ulrich Obrist]] > “The truth is that we simply don't know enough about the potential biotechnology, nanotechonology, or future iterations of artificial intelligence to calculate what their risks are, compelling arguments have been made that in principle any of the three could lead to human extinction. These risks may prove manageable, but I don't think we can manage them if we don't take them seriously. In the long run, biotech, nanotech and AI are probably significantly more likely to help the species, by increasing productivity and limiting disease, than they are to destroy it. But we need to invest more in figuring out exactly what the risks are, and to better prepare for then. Right now, the US spends more than $2.5 billion dollars a year studying climate change, but (by my informal reckoning) less than 1% of that total studying the risk of biotech, nanotech, and AI.” > **— Gary Marcus**, *2013, Edge Annual Question, “What *should* We Be Worried About?”* [[reminders/Existential Risk/We Cannot Calculate the Risks of Future AI by Gary Marcus|We Cannot Calculate the Risks of Future AI by Gary Marcus]] > “In 2001 the "Survival" series died. It was a year when conservation efforts lagged across the board, along with other failures to take the long view. Survival programs may have told people what they could no longer bear to hear (that the human species is soiling its own den) without demonstrating constructive solutions. For example, there are precious few incentives to develop alternate energy sources despite the profound vulnerabilities that our dependence on foreign energy revealed yet again. We have no "Vision Thing," despite the many clues. "It's global warming, dude," a 28 year-old auto mechanic told The New York Times as he fished in the Hudson River; "I don't care if the whole planet burns up in a hundred years. If I can get me a fish today, it's cool by me."” > **— Delta Willis**, *2002, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Question? ... Why?”* [[reminders/Civilization/Why Conservation Fails to Command Attention by Delta Willis|Why Conservation Fails to Command Attention by Delta Willis]] > “Cynics would go further, and say that anything that is scientifically and technically possible will be done — somewhere, sometime — despite ethical and prudential objections, and whatever the regulatory regime. Whether this idea is true or false, it's an exceedingly dangerous one, because it's engenders despairing pessimism, and demotivates efforts to secure a safer and fairer world. The future will best be safeguarded — and science has the best chance of being applied optimally — through the efforts of people who are less fatalistic.” > **— Martin Rees**, *2006, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?”* [[reminders/Existential Risk/Anything Technically Possible May Be Done Somewhere Sometime by Martin Rees|Anything Technically Possible May Be Done Somewhere Sometime by Martin Rees]] > “Is it ultimately possible for life to bend the shape of the universe to fit life's purposes, as we are now bending the shape of our environment here on earth?” > **— Freeman Dyson**, *2018, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS THE LAST QUESTION?”* [[reminders/Deep Time/Can Life Bend the Universe to Fit Its Purposes by Freeman Dyson|Can Life Bend the Universe to Fit Its Purposes by Freeman Dyson]] > “Will the creation of a super-human class from a combination of genome editing and direct biological-machine interfaces lead to the collapse of civilization?” > **— J. Craig Venter**, *2018, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS THE LAST QUESTION?”* [[reminders/Existential Risk/Could Genome Editing and Brain Interfaces Create a Superhuman Class by J. Craig Venter|Could Genome Editing and Brain Interfaces Create a Superhuman Class by J. Craig Venter]] > “How do we create and maintain backup options for humanity to quickly rebuild an advanced civilization after a catastrophic human extinction event?” > **— Albert Wenger**, *2018, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS THE LAST QUESTION?”* [[reminders/Preservation/How Do We Back Up Civilization Against Human Extinction by Albert Wenger|How Do We Back Up Civilization Against Human Extinction by Albert Wenger]] > “How do ideas about biological evolution change once one species has control over the origin and extinction of all other species?” > **— Scott Sampson**, *2018, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS THE LAST QUESTION?”* [[reminders/Civilization/One Species Now Controls the Origin and Extinction of Others by Scott Sampson|One Species Now Controls the Origin and Extinction of Others by Scott Sampson]] > “The problem with all this is that we cannot excel our way out of modern problems. Within the same century, we have unlocked the twin nuclei of both cell and atom and created the conditions for synthetic biological and even digital life with computer programs that can spawn with both descent and variation on which selection can now act. We are in genuinely novel territory which we have little reason to think we can control; only the excellent would compare these recent achievements to harmless variations on the invention of the compass or steam engine. So surviving our newfound god-like powers will require modes that lie well outside expertise, excellence, and mastery.” > **— Eric R. Weinstein**, *2013, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT *SHOULD* WE BE WORRIED ABOUT?”* [[reminders/Existential Risk/Synthetic Biological and Digital Life Put Humanity in Genuinely Novel Territory by Eric R. Weinstein|Synthetic Biological and Digital Life Put Humanity in Genuinely Novel Territory by Eric R. Weinstein]] > “What can humanity do right now that will make the biggest difference over the next billion years?” > **— Toby Ord**, *2018, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS THE LAST QUESTION?”* [[reminders/Deep Time/What Can Humanity Do Now for the Next Billion Years by Toby Ord|What Can Humanity Do Now for the Next Billion Years by Toby Ord]] > “The history of human technological civilization is measured in centuries—and it may be only one or two more centuries before humans are overtaken or transcended by inorganic intelligence, which will then persist and continue to evolve for billions of years.” > **— Martin Rees**, *2016, Edge Annual Question: “”* [[reminders/Machine Succession/Inorganic Intelligence Will Evolve for Billions of Years by Martin Rees|Inorganic Intelligence Will Evolve for Billions of Years by Martin Rees]] > “The most dangerous idea is the genetic breakthrough that made people capable of ideas themselves. The idea of ideas is nice enough in principle; and ideas certainly have had their impact for good. But one of these days one of those nice ideas is likely to have the unintended consequence of destroying everything we know.” > **— Seth Lloyd**, *2006, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?”* [[reminders/Existential Risk/The Most Dangerous Idea Was the Capacity for Ideas by Seth Lloyd|The Most Dangerous Idea Was the Capacity for Ideas by Seth Lloyd]] > “Intelligent life forms must inevitably expand out from their planets of origin, and convert the entire universe into a biosphere.” > **— Frank Tipler**, *2004, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT'S YOUR LAW?”* [[reminders/Deep Time/Intelligent Life Must Convert the Universe Into a Biosphere by Frank Tipler|Intelligent Life Must Convert the Universe Into a Biosphere by Frank Tipler]] > “For the first time in history — as far as we know! — we humans live in a world that we could completely destroy.” > **— Howard Gardner**, *2006, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?”* [[reminders/Existential Risk/We Are the First Humans Who Could Destroy the Whole World by Howard Gardner|We Are the First Humans Who Could Destroy the Whole World by Howard Gardner]] > “But someday, "escaping the gravity well" will mean not that of Earth, but that of our star, and then humankind's ship will at last have...gone out.” > **— David Dalrymple**, *2009, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING?”* [[reminders/Space Survival/Someday the Gravity Well We Escape Will Be the Sun by David Dalrymple|Someday the Gravity Well We Escape Will Be the Sun by David Dalrymple]] > “Can an increasingly powerful species survive (and overcome) the actions of its most extreme individuals?” > **— Bruce Schneier**, *2018 Edge Annual Question, question* [[reminders/Civilization/Can a Powerful Species Survive Its Most Extreme Members by Bruce Schneier|Can a Powerful Species Survive Its Most Extreme Members by Bruce Schneier]] > “Will we ever be replaced by another earthly species capable of evolving to a similar degree of social and technical sophistication that effectively fills the biocultural niche we vacated?” > **— David Edelman**, *2018 Edge Annual Question, question* [[reminders/Machine Succession/Could Another Earthly Species Succeed Humanity by David Edelman|Could Another Earthly Species Succeed Humanity by David Edelman]] > “I am afraid the answer I find compelling is a rather trivial one. The two most important inventions in the past two thousand years are the computer and the atomic bomb. The computer will bring about the greatest change to human life since the neolithic revolution, unless the bomb destroys human life altogether.” > **— Dan Sperber**, *1999 Edge Annual Question, response passage* [[reminders/Existential Risk/The Computer or the Bomb Could Change Human Life Most by Dan Sperber|The Computer or the Bomb Could Change Human Life Most by Dan Sperber]] > “Then there's the motivational problem. Evolution shaped the human brain to help our ancestors survive in an era when the salient threats were predators. Our perceptual system was not tuned to the macro and micro changes that signal threats to the planetary support system. When it comes to these threats we suffer from system blindness.” > **— Daniel Goleman**, *2014 Edge Annual Question, response passage* [[reminders/Existential Risk/Ancient Brains Are Blind to Planetary Threats by Daniel Goleman|Ancient Brains Are Blind to Planetary Threats by Daniel Goleman]]