The Christian Transhumanist Podcast

Ep 30: Robert Wright & the Purpose of Evolution

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Can evolution have a purpose? Are we living in an alien zoo? Does the cosmos evolve? Why did Christianity emerge when it did? What is the direction of human society—and are we at a crisis point in history? Best-selling author Robert Wright explores all these questions and more.

Robert Wright is a journalist, scholar, and prize-winning author of best-selling books about science, evolutionary psychology, history, religion, and game theory.

  • Zero Sum and Non-Zero-Sum Games
    • Example: the economy is a non-zero-sum game
    • Both conflict and cooperation can lead to non-zero-sum games
    • External zero-sum games can drive internal non-zero-sum
    • Is there such a thing as progress? Evolutionary, Technological, Cultural?
      • The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress, by Peter Singer
      • When faced with external threats, the Greek city states went from seeing each other as non-human, to seeing each other as human, and only outsiders as non-human.
      • A similar process has proceeded at larger and larger scales throughout history.
      • Are we at a crisis point in history?
        • The Fermi Paradox & the Danger of Tribalism
        • Christianity’s unique relationship with cosmopolitanism
          • The Bible claims that Christianity emerged “at just the right time”
          • When Christianity emerged, it was in an age of multi-ethnic cosmopolitanism across the Roman Empire. And it emerged as a faith that was explicit about its multi-ethnic nature.
          • If Christianity hadn’t happened, would another similar religion have necessarily emerged? How similar might it have been?
          • Can evolution have a higher purpose?—Robert Wright’s controversial article for the NY Times
            • Three myths about evolution and higher purpose:
              1. To say that there’s in some sense a “higher purpose” means there are “spooky forces” at work.
              2. To say that evolution has a purpose is to say that it is driven by something other than natural selection.
              3. Evolution couldn’t have a purpose, because it doesn’t have a direction.
              4. If evolution has a purpose, the purpose must have been imbued by an intelligent being.
              5. Are we living in an alien evolution zoo?
              6. What does purpose mean?
              7. The one thing Richard Dawkins and William Paley agreed on
              8. Cosmological Natural Selection
                • Lee Smolin's original black-hole centric formulation
                • Black holes as reproductive organs of the universe
                • Does life play a role? Louis Crane’s expansion, centering the role of intelligent beings
                • The Anthropic Principle & Fine-tuning
                • “A shared path to the future” — Micah’s argument for the role of intelligence in the universe, based on Richard Dawkins’ distinction between Symbiosis and Parasitism 
                • The Simulation Argument, as presented by Elon Musk, and in theological and religious forms
                • Non-supernatural miracles
                • The fear of purpose
                  • Are popular scientists committing a slippery slope fallacy?
                  • Why did early biologists, including Darwin's friends, talk about purpose in evolution?
                  • Is ruling out purpose driving people away from thoughtful naturalism and into reactionary supernaturalism? Will it hurt science education?
                  • Robert Wright’s books:
                    • NonZero: the logic of human destiny
                    • The Moral Animal
                    • The Evolution of God
                    • Robert Wright on the Fermi Paradox
                    • Robert Wright on The Colbert Report
                    • Robert Wright on Twitter
                    • Robert Wright’s video network: MeaningOfLife.tv
                      • ...more
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                      The Christian Transhumanist PodcastBy Micah Redding
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