Evolutionary Technology Model

Ray Kurzweil, the incredible inventor of much of the technology we consume today wrote a book a few years ago titled: The Singularity is Near. When Humans Transcend Biology. In the book he utilizes logarithmic graphs to show the exponential growth rate in technology. Not just for today but throughout time. In his book he states we are at the knee in the curve – where the rate will become visible to everyone because the line is starting to move in an almost straight upward direction. This to me is a kind of validation for our having recently entered the Impact Period projected in the model. He further projects that this point will be reached by 2042. That would put the Singularity somewhere in the early stages in the 6th Long Wave. This is where it should appear if I knew nothing about it but was predicting when this technology should appear in human history. Kurzweil has a good explanation for his law of acceleration on his website.

Kurzweil further uses an S shaped curve for technology development. Though he disdains legacy economic models for being to linear when in reality we are travelling in an exponential mode, the elements he describes within his S curve tracks right on top of Perez's Long Wave model. I am unsure whether or not he has been cquainted with K-wave economic theory. Therefore I think Kurweil, like Perez have produced important components for a standard model in human history.

Evolutionary Economic Models
Oded Galor is an evolutionary economics professor at Brown University. He was interviewed for a paper titled Towards a Unified Theory for Economic Growth which shows that Malthus was correct for the agricultural era but incorrect for the industrial era. The paper can be viewed from this link: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Economics/Papers/2008/2008-4_paper.pdf Aside from validating the basic assumptions for the three economic ages for humanity what professor Galor paper does is validate the hierarchy for the model.

Professor Galor shows that humans adapt through our cognitive engine before formal education is ever even dreamt of. The leveling populations in the fully industrialized nations (Europe, North America and Japan) proves this point clearly. No one had to tell these people to produce less offspring. They did it when they realized it was in their own economic self interest. In the agricultural era, labor was required because it took enormous amounts of labor to farm without the aid of mechanized technology. worldview soon adapted this economic requirement for increased labor by integrating this tenant in many religions which comprises much of worldview. These religions tenants have clearly been pushed aside by industrialized peoples and therefore will undergo shifts as we approach the Axial Age for our economic era. He also validates that worldview must factored into a historical standard model because it clearly is the 2nd most significant driver for human history after economics. Professor Galor clearly was not intending to validate this model or any historical model for that matter, as he is working to update economic modeling to reflect the dynamic factors which were not woven into prior economic modeling.

Evolutionary Psychology and Economics Model
Gerald A. Cory Jr. is a professor of behavioral psychology at San Diego State University. He has written several books linking behavioral theory with economic theory. In the book of his which I read the: The Evolutionary Neuroethology of Paul MacLean he discusses his taking a standard supply and demand curve and applying it as an algorithm for reciprocal behavior. That being the pull between ego and empathy as the fundamental human transaction for survival. At the date of printing he admitted that his equation did not yet operate perfectly. Though Professor Cory has written other books, what his work validates in this model is that human beings do function with economics as our highest cognitive factor in all decisions. Decisions after all are the basis for all of human history.

I suspect as Cory refines the evolutionary applications for his work, as well as what others will add on will begin to make a standard model for human history an idea which will not so far fetched in the future. In fact if one looks back it was the work of Paul MacLean and the Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel who began to map the brain looking for how it functions but with larger questions in mind. Without Kandel and MacLean you don't get a Cory or a Goleman. However with the work of these people like Kandel what you do get is a fundamental trend toward convergence in a wide array of disciplines. That convergence is virtually without limit but as way of validation in even entertaining a standard model for human history – I ask one simple question. If any of the evolutionary models are a reflection of a deeper reality, whether it is in physics, physiology, psychology or economics, how can there not be a standard model for human history?

Evolutionary Psychology Model
Professor Clare W. Graves was a psychology professor at Union College who was a peer of Abraham Maslow. Graves created an epistemological theory for human developmental psychology. Another way to say this is he built an evolutionary psychology model for human development. Students of his Don Beck and Chris Cowan, wrote a book where they had refined his model titled Spiral Dynamics. In this book the authors laid out a model where they showed the linkage between personality development correlated to development of societal values directly related to stages of economic development. Their model is held in high regard. Nelson Mandela brought Beck to South Africa to heel the cultural rifts between the blacks and whites as well between the local tribes themselves. The problem being that they had an extremely diverse set of societal views because that region has all three economic ages still functioning within it today.

A fundamental factor in the Spiral model is worldview. Without factoring it in and addressing it, they held out no hope of getting a functional nation standing up. Their future was one of devolution and extreme violence without taking evolved worldview into consideration. If that model holds any water, can there be any doubt that there is a standard model which relies on worldview as the 2nd most significant factor? That model rests on developmental factors which are determined directly through economics. The Spiral is a direct validation for a standard evolutionary/developmental human model in history. The utility of which is even larger and more significant than the application of Spiral model in South Africa post apartheid. This is not simply some academic exercise. We will have all three economic systems running in parallel around for a very very long time into the future. Likely more in future.

Evolutionary Philosophy Model
Having just visited evolutionary psychology we enter into evolutionary philosophy. Don Beck has teamed up Ken Wilber as well as other theorists on a model that they call the Spiral Dynamics Integral. Essentially it is the application of the Spiral Dynamic Model to Wilber's AQAL model. A model which maps evolution for the individual and societies from the evolution of the universe from the Big Bang onwards. Obviously a model that large is well outside of academic purview as the supports required to substantiate a model of this size requires so many subject matter experts working cross functionally that this model being worked on in whole by the academic community is well into the future. Therefore I call this model one of evolutionary philosophy.

What that model validates, if it is even close to correct, is the existence of a standard evolution model for history as a requisite element to support the assumptions of the "Integral" model. Ironically I have had some discussion with individuals who are integralist theorists and they deny both the potential in the model as well as the requirements for it. However when philosophy begins to follow the development in the sciences, clearly this is validation that Axial logic is beginning to start to coalesce today. The model projects that the industrial eras Axial Age is still 81 years into the future. However with the work being done in evolutionary philosophy, it is already very apparent that updates have begun to take flight. This flight will serve to synchronize science inside of worldview in order to create the industrial survival guide. We are in effect are already on our way.

There are many more evolutionary models being constructed these days. The pace of life has become apparent to even the most causal observer. With the advances in physiology and other subject areas, evolutionary principles are beginning to be understood and mapped. I have only included the models on this page which I term as adjacent but to be honest what they all have in common is a core in evolution of humanity.

Model Index