Advancing Humanity: The Need to Make Our Own Future

This book examines some of the conditions necessary for our advancement both as a species and as individuals. It is a work of practical philosophy concerned with getting things done that will benefit us all in the future. The main theme is that of advancing humanity as against many of the trends, imbalances, distortions and other flaws that stand in the way of our progress as a unified species. It is concerned with what will bring us all together to make a better future for us as well as for life in general. This is not preaching some infallible doctrine but showing what can be done if we really care about our future. It is argued here that humanity does not deserve to have a future on this planet unless we make our own future. If we do nothing, our fate will depend on events beyond our control. Economic collapse, needless wars, environmental catastrophe, or any number of such triggers could plunge us into backwardness. History shows that we regress as easily as we make progress as a species. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. 2 It happened in the Dark Ages and it could easily happen today. Nations are arming themselves defensively while threatening each other politically. The financial system is overloaded with debt throughout the world and could collapse at any time. We are ruining the climate and the environment with our unbridled activities. We are busy constructing robots that could take over and render us extinct. Clearly, the world is accelerating out of our control and we are doing little or nothing to regain control of it.