Across the Gulf of Species

Can you talk to a whale? Can you communicate with a gorilla? Can you describe your deepest hopes and fears to your cat, and expect it to understand and feel sympathy? There is a gulf, a chasm, that separates us from other species. Part of the gulf comes from the different evolutionary paths our respective brains have followed. Another part of the separation comes from the different experiences in the womb and after. Different upbringings don't you know, what?

Communicating with a next level human will not be as difficult. Neither will it be as easy as communicating with your identical twin, or other sibling. Part of the problem will be that we will not be communicating as equals.

Imagine a family where one of the siblings is bright, happy, and successful. Everything he does shines and prospers. Now imagine another sibling in the family whose mood is always dark, who stumbles in his thoughts when trying to solve most problems, who is never able to finish a task, who reaches for chemical solutions to his problems. Think of the two siblings sitting down and trying to relate to each other.

These two are not equal in their ability to earn a living, to have satisfying relationships with other people, to solve daily problems and plan exciting and enjoyable leisure time. They will live in different environments, drive different cars, dwell on problems of entirely different levels. Their range of travel will be different, their scope of thought will be different, their ultimate ambitions will be different. Yet they will both end in the same place. Is it really true that "all is vanity?"

What if the happy sibling lives 500 years, while the dark, brooding, addicted sibling lives only 80 years, and produces nothing much more than his own unhappiness, spread among a few friends? What if, on the other hand, the happy one sires dozens of children, happy like himself and intelligent? What if "happy" invents solutions to shortages of energy, solutions to hazardous environmental pollutants, cures for degenerative diseases, means to travel to outer space more economically and more safely? What if "happy" is survived by dozens of children, hundreds of grandchildren, and thousands of great-grandchildren--all of whom he had a chance to meet, know, and love? Would the lives of "happy" and "unhappy" be equally vain and pointless?

At the time "unhappy" is lying down on his deathbed, with great relief, "happy" is just getting started. Happy may attend his brother's funeral, if he is on Earth at the time. Or he may send flowers if he is too far away. Regardless, "happy" will quickly move on to his plans and goals, momentarily saddened at the wasted life of brother "unhappy," but soon busy with his life. Will "happy" ponder at the vast waste of millions, or billions of "unhappies?" Probably, from time to time. Not for long. There will be too many things to be done.

Is "happy" good or bad, for humanity as it is? A few "happies" could solve many of humankind's most difficult and intransigent proglems. Between level humans might tolerate a few, like they tolerate a few mega-billionaires among them. If "happy" started producing hundreds, or thousands of progeny "happies," a clash of cultures would be inevitable. Between-levels would feel threatened, for their own sake and for the sake of their children. "Happy" must realize this.

To be a "happy," will be to cross the gulf of species. To cross the gulf, but to never stop looking back and beckoning your cousins to cross with you.

Thanks to Sam Cardon.

When will they ever learn?

What would an effective educational system look like? What sort of curriculum would it teach, and what sort of person would be in demand as a teacher?

As far as curriculum, I was pleased to come across the works of John David Garcia, formerly of the Eugene, Oregon area. Here is a link to his curriculum for young children. I think you will be impressed at the possibilities. I was visiting friends in the US Pacific Northwest when I first discovered Garcia's writings, and was fortunate to visit with him before he died. He was a powerful personality and a wonderful teacher in spite of himself. For the truly curious, here is a link to John David Garcia's books that are online.

If you take the time to look over Garcia's curriculum, you will be struck by the same thing that struck me--very few instructors, even at the college level, are qualified to teach this curriculum for young children. Thinking back on my intellectual curiosity from my earliest memories, I am convinced that the curriculum would not have been too advanced, given a suitable instructor. That is the rub. A suitable instructor.

Factual knowledge is important for providing a grounding and point of reference for further discovery. Procedural knowledge, or learning to do things, is just as important if not more so. Knowing useful facts and being able to recognize patterns is crucial for a young mind. A sense of competence, though, comes more from being able to perform skill tasks well. Especially tasks that older folks might not expect the young one to be able to perform.

Children have an infinite capacity to surprise adults, but are too rarely allowed to exercise that capacity due to the stifling dumbing down of the typical upbringing of children. Moronic incompetency is the norm among teachers and professors. What do these fools know about real life, on average? What do these tenured clowns know about the real world? Almost nothing.

Children want to learn, they crave knowledge and skills. The adult world disappoints them with its banality, its lack of real challenge or excitement.

Who are the villains here? For the culture of security-craving and risk-averseness we can blame the trial attorneys and the lawsuit cabal. For the dumbing down of what should be an amazing intellectual journey, we can blame the "multicultural" and political correctness cliques, that try to force a "sameness" on all cultures and philosophies, while demonizing western culture--the most seminal and inclusive culture of them all. By trying to eliminate western culture from modern education these morons have made education impotent. Of course, the masculine metaphors describing the potency and power of western culture only make the badly sagging feminists all the more furious and determined to obliterate the traces of western culture from schools.

Today's posting has dwelled on more of the aspects of "living among morons" that I touched on last week. Next time I will try to be more positive.

Living Among Morons

Most of us have had the experience of attempting to explain a simple concept to someone who simply cannot comprehend. We may try several different approaches to the concept, using every metaphor that we think the person should reasonably be capable of following. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail.

Most everyday functions of modern life require an IQ of around 90. Driving a car, mailing a letter, paying bills, making a bank deposit. The more specialized the function, the more intricate, the higher the level of intelligence necessary. In general, persons self-select their occupation according to intelligence level. If the selection criteria for the job focus on ability to do the job competently, intelligence levels will stratify according to the job difficulty. If the selection criteria is biased away from the ability to perform the job well, intelligence levels will not correspond as closely to job difficulty.

Nepotism is the downfall of governments and societies. We see that nepotism has become the official policy of western governments and societies. Should we expect western civilisation to go the way of third world "nations" such as Zimbabwe or Cuba? Perhaps we should. Perhaps we would, if not for the tremendous momentum of western civilisation. It may be that the rare intelligent civil servant, journalist, or university professor is truly "living among morons" in the form of his co-workers, because of nepotistic hiring practices. Yes, probably. Somehow the necessary work gets done.

Students at university are holding professors more in disdain, although not in as high disdain as might be deserved. Likewise most citizens shape their lives so as to come under the stamp of a civil servant as rarely as possible. Do it over the web, the phone, or through the mail. The legal system is avoided at all costs by most ordinary citizens.

Most of us know what it is like to be at the mercy of someone who was promoted beyond her competence level. Such Peter Principle Promotion has become the law of the land. Living not only among morons, but at the mercy of morons. With the coming of muslim terrorism, dying at the mercy of morons.

Enter the next level human. How will next level humans deal with these people? First of all, compared to a next level human, even the brightest among us are quite dim. For next levels to get anything done, they will have to work with the materials at hand. That means you and me. Next levels will live among "morons" and work alongside "morons" to accomplish their goals.

That does not mean that next levels will tolerate the nepotism that endangers the very existence of western civilisation, and its next level successor. This institutionalised nepotism will be dealt with as firmly as islamic terrorism will be dealt with. At least for the next level society, this nepotism will be eliminated.

Jobs in the civil sector, media, and university, must not be used as substitutes for welfare, for persons who are incapable of succeeding on their own. Of course if large numbers of persons choose longevity technologies along with cognitive boosting technologies, but choose to continue in the dysfunctional nepotism of between levels existence, they will be free to form their own societies. They will simply be prevented from influencing or limiting the next level society.

Unless western civilisation is destroyed by the coalition of the nepotistic with the islamic terrorists, the technologies of longevity and cognitive enhancement will be developed. It is unlikely that most of the persons able to take advantage of many of these technologies will have the sophistication of a next level human. Not at first. The few who are next levels by temperament will act as the yeast in the wort or dough, to ferment the finest beverage or the most delicious bread.

If you find yourself living among morons, consider that a challenge. It will take the best efforts of the best among us to evolve the first of the next levels. Once that is done, it will require the support of the best among us to allow enough next levels to evolve so as to create an unstoppable movement of evolutionary development. Think of the task ahead and what it demands. Throw yourself into the work.

The only cure for the moronic nepotism and imbecilic religious fanaticism that threaten us, is the intelligence and longevity along with the wisdom, of the next level human.

Making the Cut

Next level humans will be smarter and live longer than modern day humans. That will not be enough. They have to know what to do with their intelligence and their long lives. This higher degree of savvy will separate next levels from those who are merely intelligent and long-lived.

It is not those with the highest IQ's who hold the greatest wealth, the greatest power, or the most profound happiness and satisfaction in life. Eventually it probably will be. The reason for this is that until now humans have not reached the critical threshold of intelligence, where rationality and emotionality work cooperatively toward a total life success.

Greater longevity requires adjustments to the human genome, as well as ongoing modifications through nanotechnology, endocrine treatments, stem cell therapies, immune support, and improved nutritional support along with better methods of achieving peak fitness. We must not neglect the emotional component to longevity, which works through endocrine and immune pathways. Once our rational brain learns to cooperate with our emotional brain, the way is open for true happiness and satisfaction in life, true success.

Higher intelligence will also require adjustment to the human genome. Nanotechnology can aid intelligence in many ways. Maintaining good endocrine balance and good balance of neuromodulatory compounds will be vital. Stimulation of neural tissue with electrical and magnetic signals, along with other senses such as visual, auditory, touch, smell, proprioception, and balance, are other ways to achieve neural growth. Meditation, visualization, hypnosis, will all be utilized for improving mental reach.

Knowing what to do with intelligence and long life will separate the pretenders from the contenders. For most modern humans, simply achieving prosperity along with physical and emotional health, with long life and healthy relationships, are sufficient goals for a human lifetime. For next levels, those things are merely the starting point for lives of achievement.

We see how easy it is to bribe most between level humans. A sinecured university post, a secure civil service position, good job benefits and pensions. Security. Work out your time and live out your life with guaranteed income and perquisites.
Persons who prize security above everything else will never contribute to human progress, instead simply mark time until they die.

There are many examples of great human striving. In the modern world we see sports figures as the most graphic pictures of the human will to overcome. The Olympic Games are particularly full of stories of individual effort to surpass the best that humans have ever achieved. Sports figures provide excellent examples of human energy and drive.

The same type of effort goes on behind the scenes in cutting edge technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology, microelectronics, information technology, neuroscience, tissue engineering, communications technology, energy research, and many other fields of science and technology. The payoffs for significant advances in these fields are tremendous, and motivate persons of higher drive and intelligence. The best of the best of these bright and driven people will extend the outer limits of human achievement.

Even in fields that are mature and even humdrum, finding better ways of doing the banal and everyday task can lead to riches and fame. Imaginative, intelligent, and driven individuals achieve prosperity through making the humdrum more efficient, every day, in opportunity societies. These persons may lack the brilliance of a top theoretical physicist, but they have the savvy and drive to do what they can with the situation in which they find themselves, and do well.

Next level humans will combine the energy of the world class athlete, with the brilliance of a top scientist or inventor, and the savvy and resourcefulness of a successful entrepreneur, to reshape the universe that humans inhabit. Brilliance, healthy long life, economic and social success, will not be enough. Next levels will always keep the big picture in mind, will always be thinking of ways to expand the sphere of human existence.

Growing Beyond the State

The Anglosphere is the set of English speaking Common Law nations. According to James C. Bennett, " To be part of the Anglosphere requires adherence to the fundamental customs and values that form the core of English-speaking cultures. These include individualism, rule of law, honoring contracts and covenants, and the elevation of freedom to the first rank of political and cultural values. " See Anglosphere Primer

The US and the UK, along with Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, form the greater part of the Anglosphere. Outliers might include South Africa, the English speaking population of India, and English speaking possessions and tributaries of the above nations.

These nations as a whole comprise the most desirable places to emigrate, for most of the world's population. They are acknowledged to have the best educational institutions, the most stable democracies, and the most advanced research centres in the world. Without the economies of the Anglosphere, the rest of the world would be in desperate deprivation. China is being pulled out of poverty by the Anglosphere, not by its own bootstraps.

Thus, naturally when we speak of the technological path toward humans gaining control of their own evolution, we expect this most advanced part of the advanced world, the Anglosphere, to display leadership in achieving this worthy goal. Yet, the Anglosphere is actively engaged in tying its own hands behind its own back, and placing blinders over its eyes, and sound mufflers over its ears. The Anglosphere is handicapping itself, making itself vulnerable to its enemies, just at the time when it is most needed to provide guidance, protection, and resources to the effort of humans to gain control of their evolution.

Does the Anglosphere have a suicide wish? Why does the Anglosphere wallow in self-defeating policies which can only hamper the effort to make humans more capable of providing long, healthy, and enjoyable lives for themselves?

The answers lie in the phenomena of labyrinths. Everything relating to modern human society can be related to the concept of a labyrinth, or maze. The best intentions might lead one to create a set of simple laws to govern a population. At first. But over time, special interests and special circumstances insert themselves into a body of law, again and again, until the convolutions and contradictions within that body of law require not one judge to interpret, but several levels of regional and provincial judicial committees, up to appeals committees and finally to the Supreme Committees of Law. Even the Supreme Committees are unable to fully comprehend the labyrinth of law, but they never admit that. Nothing must undermine the authority of the state and the state's representatives.

Consider tax law. Initially taxes might be locally based, and logically connected to some activity which is facilitated by the local government. But over time, more and more of human activity is taxed, until eventually a family's tax burden is its largest expense. More levels of government are created, all of which require operating expenses which are obtained from the population. Depending on the type of taxation involved, an individual or family must spend large amounts of time and money in order to insure that the state does not confiscate everything that makes life worthwhile, both during life and after death.

Most nations of the world are thoroughly strangled by labyrinthine bureaucracies and legal structures, often quite corrupt. Historically, the Anglosphere has largely avoided allowing its bureaucracies to choke as much human activity as almost all other developed and semi-developed nations. Recently, since the mid-20th century, that is becoming less the case.

How does this relate to the quest to become a next level human? Unfortunately, there is a direct connection between the choking out of the freedom of individual action by the state, even Anglospheric states, and the ability of humans to gain control of their own evolution. Reaching out to the next level of human existence will require all the resources at our command. Mentally, emotionally, physically, financially, socially, and politically, we will have to reach beyond ourselves to reach a place no one has reached till now.

It is increasingly clear that we will have to do this in spite of the states' exponential and labyrinthine growth, that threatens our freedom of action at every turn. Freedom is still greatest in the Anglosphere. I hope it will always be so, given the remarkable history of this tradition. But do not count on it. Aspiring next levels will need to learn to grow beyond the state.

Fortunately, just when the labyrinth of the state threatens to close all avenues of progress, new methods of organisation have been devised which will help provide us with alternative pathways of movement. The internet itself, based upon decentralised organisation of information transfer, provides a powerful metaphor for putting together a flexible system of accomplishing a goal, without a centralised overseeing entity.

While terrorists may use some of these ad hoc organising methods, it is likely that other groups with wholly productive goals will also organise along these lines. Individuals at many different research labs will carry out parallel research programs, off the books perhaps, while also doing their regular work. The results of this alternative research will be dispersed among researchers with special interest in these matters. Much of this work will be unpaid, just as computer experts often create open source software without being paid monetarily. Humans value many different types of rewards, besides money.

Regardless, just the activity of developing alternative means of organising human resources to reach goals, will be pro-evolutionary in itself. Sadly, however, a short lifespan of seventy years or so does not allow for very much evolution, and most evolution that does occur is not passed forward into the future, so it is often lost.

A longer lifespan will allow evolutionary advances to be recognised and passed on to newer generations. This longer lifespan must be presented to the state as a fait accompli. At that point, the state will have to decide if it wants to go along for the ride. Humans must grow beyond the state's power to choke off action and possibilities. That is the only way to move to the next level.

Wisdom

To be wise is not a state of mind but a state of action. Wisdom is acting in the best manner given all the information at hand. Some of the information may be unconscious, out of reach of verbal consciousness. Wisdom takes account of all information available.

Wisdom is contextual. In the current context, it may be wise for someone to accept the reality of death at age 75, or earlier. Even if all disease were conquered, death from trauma would occur. Accidents, warfare, terrorism, homicide. Many of these trauma deaths occur through lack of wisdom on the part of at least one of the persons involved.

Wisdom is not the same as knowing facts. A person may be the repository of a surfeit of factual information, but be a fool. Many of the most intelligent persons living between levels are complete fools. Masters of acquiring and manipulating information, they achieve high levels of monetary and social success. Still their children despise them, their spouses cheat on them, their lives are too often hollow and pointless.

The waste of natural resources is often decried, while the waste of information is generally ignored. To political partisans, information is meant to be wasted and suppressed if it does not automatically provide partisan advantage. This is clear from our news media, which after all are run by between level humans with many faults, including partisan dishonesty.

New tools of information manipulation and correlation have been developed to help with the problem of information overload in modern between level civilisation. Many of these tools are expensive, some are prototypes, with outputs only available to persons of high rank in government or commerce.

These complex software programs are not intelligent, nor are they wise. But they do fill an evolutionary gap in the human capacity to comprehend large amounts of information. They may yet facilitate wisdom in those who are so disposed.

Bill Joy warned against nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology. For that, some futurists have tagged him "Kill Joy." Aspiring next levels will merely smile and get on with the difficult work of optimising information acquisition and use. We will need everything that nanotechnology, information technology, and genetic and bio-engineering can give us, if we are to learn wisdom in the larger context of the next level.

500 Year Lifespan

Next level humans will live at least 500 years, which by itself would give them a different psychological approach to life. Being responsible will become second nature.

If you know you will live for 500 years or longer, you will take a different approach to your life. You will expect to see multiple careers, and probably multiple marriages. You will have time to accumulate significant wealth and will probably live under several different political systems over time. Politicians will not be able to bullshit a next level human.

Space travel will be commonplace within the next 500 years, perhaps travel to other star systems, but certainly travel to habitable settlements on other planets and planetoids in the solar system. You will expect travel to be quite safe, and trauma support in case of accident to be prompt and expert, perhaps provided by robodoc under some circumstances.

Why would people have children if they are living 500 years? There will be no real need to live through your children if you yourself are living so long. The danger of overpopulation will be significant unless new frontiers are opened beyond the surface of earth.

If people are living 500 years or more, they will have to be completely responsible for the children they create. It is unlikely that people who are irresponsible or incompetent will ever become next level humans.

Victim thinking will not exist among next levels. This must seem threatening to individuals who make their living exploiting victim thinking among large groups of people. TS.

How Do You Make a Next Level Human?

Realistically, changing present day humans to next level humans is going to require genetic manipulation. Some genetic sequences that are active will need to be turned off, some sequences that are dormant will have to be turned on, and other sequences will probably have to be cycled on and off over certain intervals of time. Living a long time will be a fine balancing act if we do not want to initiate malignant tumors on a frequent basis.

Nanotechnology may provide us with temporary measures, in terms of keeping blood vessels clear, delivering selective toxins to tumors, cleaning out metabolic waste products that interfere with normal cell metabolism, and other cellular housekeeping chores.

Neither genetic therapy nor nanotechnology are at a stage that will allow transitioning to the next level. There will be stopgaps, such as stem cell therapies, which may be available much sooner. These therapies should allow organ transplants and crude regenerative treatments for many body tissues. Scientists will also learn much more about tissue growth factors and various low level hormones that affect health on a cellular level. Standard pharmaceuticals will become safer and better targeted to the body systems that need treatment. Nutritional science will learn better means of tissue support.

If you are over the age of forty, particularly if you smoke and are sedentary and obese, you probably won't see many of the advances listed above in time to be of help. If you are thirty or under, and take very good care of your body, the chances of excellent that you will see most or all of those advances, and will probably benefit from at least tissue growth factors and some cell therapies.

Within the next fifty years, geneticists will probably be able to design an embryo's genetics using gene segments from several different humans, choosing among them for the very best combination. Embryos will likely be grown in artificial wombs. This may happen on a lab in international waters, or in an orbiting lab outside any national jurisdiction. Or it may become commonplace in your neighborhood genetics lab.

Humans have long wished for freedom from death and disease, for more strength, more intelligence. That wish is within our sight if not our grasp. For it to become real, we have to do our jobs.

Civilisation itself is under threat from stone aged religious and ideological reactionaries. These enemies of the future cannot be allowed to prevent humanity from making that transition to the next level. Perhaps we can make it that far, but if not, our children surely can. We have to hold off the enemy long enough to allow our scientists and engineers to create the pathway to the next level. We do not want to fail.

On racial and gender differences in IQ

There has been a lot written on differences in mean IQ scores between different ethnicities and nationalities. Murray and Hernstein's "Bell Curve", and Lynn and Vanhanen's "IQ and the Wealth of Nations", are two scholarly discussions of the topic. Gender differences in IQ and aptitude are also controversial, typified by the excellent debate at edge.org between a somewhat ditzy and reactionary psychologist from Berkeley and a progressive linguist from MIT(now Harvard).

When it comes to next level humans, these differences will not be significant. Compared to the difference between modern humans and next level humans, these small differences between gender and ethnicity will not matter.

More in the next post.

Evolution by Indirection

How would you get from here, between levels, to the next level? How do short-lived bipeds of mediocre intelligence, gossip-mongers, delusional mob thinkers and actors--how do we get there from here?

Virtually nothing in nature travels by straight line. The same is true for evolution. Evolution twists and turns like a lazy river. Watching a slow moving river on a quiet day you would never guess at all the floods, torrents, and deluges. Observe a branching evolutionary tree. Cover the top half with a sheet of paper and ask someone to predict which of the lower branches will survive to the top level. You are tempted to say that one cannot get there from here, going from the root to the uppermost branch. But you can indeed trace the maze-like connection, once you see to the top.

A man drives along a rainy street at night, trying to see through the thick falling drops to the street where he must turn. He sees that he is almost to the street and begins his turn-but something makes him pause. Suddenly a motorcycle with dim headlights surprises the man and bursts through the rain. The motorcycle passes through the space the man's car would have occupied if he had proceeded to turn. Why did the man pause his turn?

Another man puzzles over a scientific problem. He cannot make head nor tail of the problem no matter how he thinks about it. Then, while the man is sleeping before a fire, in a dream, the solution comes to him. What caused the answer to suddenly appear in a dream?

A third man struggles to climb a sheer cliff, hundreds of feet off the ground. He is tired and in a precarious position. He has to move and as he moves suddenly he feels himself start to fall. He tries to compensate but his imbalance gets worse. Suddenly he relaxes and his body moves, as if on its own, precisely to the position that allows him to recover and move on. Why did he relax when he was in danger of falling, and why did letting go of his rigid mental grip allow his "mindless body" to recover?

We can try to picture the path we need to follow in becoming next level humans. But we cannot see enough of the maze to see through to the end. Perhaps we are holding on too rigidly to our present concepts, preventing us from making the transition to concepts that would facilitate growth. Our evolution may not be smooth. Like a river, we may have to live through the floods and deluges. Ice dams may have to break to release enough hydraulic power to shape our future selves.

Some of the answers may come to us in our sleep. We will forget most of them in our "waking" to everyday life. Some of us may remember a few things. What we do with the things we remember will determine how smoothly we can make the change.

Imagine someone such as Stalin or Kim making the transition to long life and super intelligence. Imagine the suffering of most humans under such an unending regime of horror and death. Such a thing is not likely.

Next level humans will arrive via lateral thinking and indirection. Edward de Bono has written several books on the lateral thinking methods of problem solving. As we learn more about how the human brain actually works we will learn better ways of using it. Then, as we learn how the human genome shapes the human brain in concert with the larger environment, we will learn better ways of making smarter humans. That frightens a lot of people.

That is because most humans are easily frightened. Most humans will not be capable of stepping beyond themselves. The habit of thinking with the group, of seeking reassurance from the group, will hold them back. Next level humans will be fiercely independent. Next levels will be too independent to want to use their potency to control masses of primitives and between-levels. They have places to go, things to do, and much to learn.

Humans are not rational in the way computers are rational. Humans are much more. Human minds function in an indirect manner. Emotions are at the heart of the human mind. Deep within the human mind, apparently another mind resides, a mind capable of solving problems that the superficial mind has difficulty solving directly. The deeper, more indirect, mind has trouble communicating with the superficial mind. Bridging that communications gap is just one problem that independent and intelligent between-levels need to solve, to evolve.

Will Next Levels Homeschool their Kids?

The answer is yes and no.

Yes, Next level humans will be the primary teachers for their children, in the early years. But no, the learning will not take place mostly at home. Next levels will travel extensively, and their children will go with them, learning from what they see and do. World travel, interacting with persons of all backgrounds and proficiencies. Travel outside the world, further out with time.

Children love to imitate adults. The can only do this constructively when they are in direct contact, and under direct supervision of learned adults. Adults who genuinely care about them, and are not distracted by the antics of twenty or thirty undisciplined children. Children do learn from each other, but too often in schools children learn dysfuncionality from each other.

Remember, by the time they arrive next level humans will have gained control of their health and aging. Next level humans know how to improve intelligence both before birth and after birth. Children of next level humans will have a lot more to learn than any child today. Their education will be taken seriously, unlike "modern" education, which is a great waste of time and resources all around.

The "modern" classroom environment is artificial. Young children should not be confined for hours on end in a classroom. Tax supported schools and other conventional schools are based on social experiments from the 19th century. Confine children to cramped classrooms for hours a day with only their age peers for companions. Do this for many years and what do you have? Loafers, delinquents, teen pregnancies, welfare mothers, gang-bangers, drug dealers, alcoholics, addicts, over-aged children. A disaster for the parent society.

From this dysfunctional society we now have, we are supposed to create next level human society? How is that possible?

Very carefully, very deliberately, and somewhat secretively. Most primitive level and between level humans are suspicious of change, of growth beyond the "normal." To these humans must be given cable television, video games, and the shallower side of the internet. For these primitive and between level humans, school will go on just as it does now. Indoctrination into dysfuncionality and inanity.

Next level humans will take the education of their children extremely seriously. They will not blithely hand over the future of their offspring to a failed experiment in social engineering. Too much is at stake.

Islam, and the new Dark Age

Imagine a world ruled by fanatical theocrats. Gone is the right of women to self-determination. Gone is the woman's right to educate herself, or to choose her own life's companion. Gone is the freedom to choose one's religion. Gone is any freedom of scientific research, or freedom of the press. You may as well close all the libraries, burn the books. Take a wrecking ball to all places of popular entertainment, to all the watering holes, movie theatres, nightclubs.

Islamic fanatics are willing to kill anyone in the world who stands in the way of the creation of such a world. They will kill atheists, christians, jews, hindus, or fellow muslims. Whoever stands in their way.

Next level humans will not be tuned to murder or war. A society of intelligent and long-lived people would find such actions abhorrent. One can easily see that the world of the Islamic fanatic and the world of the next level human cannot easily coexist. Next level humans will not be killers by nature. Yet they will be quite potent, quite powerful, due to their broadly reaching minds and strong wills.

Human history is full of examples of barbarian peoples conquering more civilised peoples. Often the civilised people cannot imagine the barbarity that some are capable of, and surrender to the barbarians without thinking the situation through clearly.

Our present between-levels human leadership is capable of surrendering to the barbarians. This is something that cannot be allowed to happen.

It is not enough to become more self sufficient in energy production, although that would be wise. The people who wish to destroy the secular west and replace it with a theocratic dictatorship must understand that civilised people are no more prone to surrender than barbarians. The barbarians must be faced with the utter ruin of their societies, even their religion. Total devastation of their own tribe, clan, family, and faith must fill their minds whenever they contemplate acting on their violent boasts toward the west. The prospect of devastation must seem very real to them, for that is the only way to avoid being forced to destroy them in reality.

Next level humans have not arrived on the scene. In order for them to have the chance to carry the banner of evolving humanity, it is up to us in the secular west to prevent the new dark age from falling on us.

Transhumanists vs. Extropians vs. Next Level Humans

Anyone with an interest in the continuing evolution of humans who has surfed the web for very long will probably be passingly familiar with the terms "extropians" and "transhumanists." There is a great deal of overlap between the two groups, and superficially one would expect their interests to overlap the interests of an aspiring next level human.

The World Transhumanist Association seems to be a more general organisation containing persons from the full spectrum of the ideological world. Currently there is a move on by the more socialist cliques to purge the organisation of the more libertarian members. I doubt that this movement will succeed, given the general independence of mind among most people drawn to transhumanism. Extropians apparently contain more libertarians, and focus on technological "fixes," including consciousness downloading and technological augments.

Both of these groups help to draw public attention to the need for continued human evolutionary growth. They also perform a service by providing forums for people who enjoy talking about such ideas, without actually having to get their hands dirty doing anything. Those who cannot do, talk. These people need a place to go to talk.

To the extent that any members of these groups actually accomplish anything, these particular members form subsets of the superset of next level humans. Next level humans are humans who embrace their humanity while having the courage to become more. Courage is more than talking, more than writing a book or teaching a class. Courage is willingness to lead into unknown territory.

A next level human cannot really be a socialist or a libertarian. Those ideologies are suited for between level existence. Both make false promises, lacking the substance to fulfill them.

Next level humans accept technological change, make use of the changes, and often create the innovations that allow further change. Next level humans focus on evolving humanity, however, not technology. Next level humans do not waste time on lines of research that have been seen to be blind alleys. Certainly the focus is on life extension and intelligence increase. Those are necessary, but not sufficient, foundations for next level existence. Between levels may very well achieve both of those ends, and still crash their civilisation.

Next levels will live longer and be more intelligent. They will focus on passing the gains on to the next generation. Between level humans focus on material prosperity and "power", and try to pass these things on to their progeny. Next level humans see prosperity and power as mere means to accomplishing further evolutionary growth. It is the growth that next levels wish to pass on to all humans, not simply their own offspring or clan.

If you want to know transhumanists or extropians, you can easily join one of their organisations. Getting to know potential next level humans will be more difficult. Probably the first step is becoming one yourself.

Rugged Transition

Getting to the next level from here is going to be very hard. Our tax supported schools are turning out morons. Our news and popular media are geared to a second grade level of understanding of the world. Our pension plans are financial time bombs guaranteed to destroy our economies within twenty years. We are letting in immigrants who have sworn to destroy our civilisation. A self hating multiculturalism is in control of our universities and most government agencies. When most people think of economics, they think of government spending and redistributing wealth--never about creating wealth in the first place.

Getting to the next level from here is going to be very hard. But not impossible. The reason I say that is that not everybody needs to go on to the next level for the transition to count. It is estimated that one tenth of the population does 95% of the thinking and producing for the other 90% of the population. When it comes to transitioning to next level existence, the ratio may be closer to 5:95, or less. Never mind. Next level humans will be incredibly potent.

Modern welfare state mentality has taken over western civilisation, even the USA. Western people have taken the lazy way, the way of the functionary, the wage slave, the sedentary. Obesity is not a disease, it is a symptom of the disease. Drug addiction is not a disease, it is another symptom of the same disease. Alcoholism, juvenile delinquency, poverty. The disease is being stuck between primitive, subsistence level humanity, and the next level of human existence. The big mistake that most people make is believing that since a few humans are able to design sophisticated machines, medicines, and financial systems, that they themselves by virtue of profiting from the ingenuity of these other people are more than primitive level humans. Even most people with college educations and professional training are little more than primitive level humans. That is exactly where most of them will stay for the rest of their lives until they die.

Ten percent support the other ninety percent. That will continue to work for our modern between level civilisation until it doesn't work anymore. Then the future will depend upon how hard our between level civilisation falls, and how soon it happens. If more than 1% or 2% have made the transition to the next level, it may be enough. Enough of the financial and scientific infrastructure has to survive to let the next levels bootstrap large numbers of between levels up. Already there are thousands of potential next levels, lacking only the biotechnological breakthroughs needed to retard their bodies' aging process. They have already matured mentally, emotionally, and financially. Unfortunately they often do not have time to procreate, or to teach very many others the things they have learned. In other words the line of progress stops with them, in 70 years or less. What a waste.

The next level is not inevitable. Most people cannot even imagine what it would mean. The billionaire Ted Turner thinks that the world would be fine if only he could make nearly six billion people disappear. He and people who think like him think that would cure the world's problems. Cretins.

Extropians talk about the singularity and downloading of consciousness into computers. That type of thinking is basically magical in nature, much like the divine skyhook rescue envisioned by many religious people.

I will be content for a self-sustaining number of humans to achieve the next level in the next 60 or 70 years, in my lifetime.

What are Next Level Humans?

You might be wondering what I mean by the term, "next level humans." A next level human society will mark a dramatic turning point for human history.

I consider the present human living in a western society as being a "between levels human." No longer primitive, but not really fully functional. A primitive human saw himself as constantly at the mercy of the gods, or the elements. Only a few primitive humans sought to master their own fates, and they generally did so by enslaving everyone around them and forcing them to work to make the few masters rich at the expense of the many. This is the pattern one sees in primitive nations such as Zimbabwe, Cuba, and Burma.

Modern people believe in self-government, in taking some responsibility for oneself, to varying degrees. They pay lip service to science and human ingenuity and personal responsibility, while the less emancipated demand that governments take care of their needs from the cradle to the grave.

Intelligence is clearly related to genetic factors, but the most intelligent persons fail to reproduce to replacement levels and the least intelligent persons often procreate to double or triple replacement levels. This is dysgenic. What is worse, it is frequently being financed with public funding. All that is justified by an appeal to compassion. It is irrational in the sense that it is guaranteed to create far more hardship in the future.

Next level humans will better understand how to increase intelligence levels in themselves and in the next generations. Next level humans will have to make many hard decisions based upon goals with a longer time scale than between-level humans are accustomed to. Next level humans will not expect a government to take constant care of them, nor will they expect some divine skyhook to drop from the sky to rescue them from a tight spot.

One Way to Increase Intelligence

Ashkenazi Jews have a higher average IQ than Europeans, by between one half to one standard deviation. The reason for this difference has recently been examined by Cochrane et al, with the conclusion that certain gene allele combinations achieved higher frequency among Ashkenazis due to selective pressures. These alleles produced both higher intelligence and a higher likelihood for certain genetic diseases. Their scientific paper can be obtained at:
this link .

Unfortunately the nature of the threats that humanity currently faces is such that any attempt to increase intelligence through selective pressures would take too long. A lot more needs to be learned about the nature of hereditary intelligence, in all populations. I suspect that genetic disease is not necessarily coupled to allele clusters that lead to higher intelligence.

Genes that lead to higher intelligence, longer lifespan, and radiation resistance/resistance to cancerous transformation, are among the many ingredients needed for the genome of next level humans.

The End of Stupidity?

Humans are goal oriented creatures. We pursue goals of short, medium, and long term. Driving down the road we closely eye the upcoming stoplight, trying to mentally influence the color shown to us as we arrive. Even in something so trivial we are goal oriented.

On a larger scale we see the grand achievements of modern science and technology juxtaposed with the barbarianism of wanton killing, with the promise of an extended new dark age if the death cults are allowed to prevail. How can humans be so intelligent and creative, and at the same time so brutish and shortsighted? This is an interesting puzzle.

The variability within the human race is remarkable, but should not be unexpected for anyone with even a slight knowledge of biology and genetics. Many humans are simply too stupid to consider the consequences of their actions. In a society where the stupid are allowed to be influenced by violence prone fanatics and instigators, you will find a great deal of wanton violence. It is not the stupidity perse that leads to violence. It is the combination of a cultural tendency to fanaticism and instigation, with an ample society of stupid people.

How stupid is stupid? We know that if the average IQ of a population is below 90, that population cannot support a technological infrastructure, and in addition the rule of law in that country will probably fall to corrupt clannism and tribalism. Such a society is stupid, and will likely have a birthrate well above average to boot. There are many such societies in the world, and when combined with ideological fanaticism and culturally accepted instigaters of violence, these societies will export violence and stupidity in large measure.

How does one protect himself from being overwhelmed by a tsunami of stupidity and violence? That will be the subject of future postings.