Momentous Decisions

What do I hope to get out of my thinking about ethics and my proposal of a universal ethical model?  Some guidance, some ways of asking the right questions as we go forward.  Yes, there are still important concerns about birth control, euthanasia, crime and punishment, homosexual unions, racial and sexual equality, role of government and taxation, hypocrisy in religion and politics, which are both personal and policy issues that we need to think about.  But these are trivial when compared to some of the momentous decisions that we as a life form face.

1. Neuroscientists have been able to draw the diagram of brain wiring in mice and will soon do so in humans just as biologists have with DNA.  Neuro-implants are being designed not only to make up for deficiencies, but to magnify capacities.  Shall we march toward the “Singularity” in which we extend life and power indefinitely through biological engineering and mechanical technology as described by Ray Kurzweil? 

2. How do we respond to the new “totalitarianism” which, unlike governmental controlled 20^th century fascism, bolshevism, and populism, is established in our centralizing systems of finance and commerce and our culture of economic and technological growth as described by Morris Berman and the stark, growing division between rich and poor as described by Joseph Stiglitz? 

3. How shall we deal with (or prevent) the economic and ecological collapse predicted by the World3 modelers?  

4. How do we structure our living spaces to promote what is best in us while preserving the very conditions of our survival as told by Jeb Brugmann?  

5. How do we prevent the decline of stagnant political institutions (which we are now witnessing in our polarized politics and weakened governance structures) as analyzed by Francis Fukuyama?  

6. And is there any room for transcendence or openness to spirit in our fast-expanding entropic, informational, holographic universe?  

Tomorrow I start with #1, the approaching Singularity.