Studying evolution is my passion. I believe that a deep knowledge of evolution holds the key to understanding everything about how we humans came to exist and where we are going. Such knowledge is necessary to fully unlock all the possibilities of future life, including the enormous potential of artificial intelligence that is now emerging. And it holds the promise of revealing life’s ultimate destiny — a style of life that is perfect in the eyes of nature.

I started seriously studying evolution when I was in my early 20s after reading a book given to me by my father, titled The Dragons of Eden. It was written by celebrity scientist Carl Sagan who gained his fame by making science interesting. His talent for doing so seems to have worked in a big way on me. I’ve been fascinated by evolution ever since.

In a lot of ways, I owe this book to the influence that Carl Sagan has had on my life, but even more so to the work of his first wife, Lynn Petra Alexander, who — after her two marriages — is now more widely known as Lynn Margulis. She is something of an unsung hero in our understanding of how complex forms of life such as plants and animals came into existence. Her influence on evolution is immeasurable, yet goes largely unrecognized.

— Mark Aaron Martin

Table of Contents

  • The History of What We Know about Evolution
  • Re-Interpreting How Evolution Works
  • The Source of All Goodness and Betterment
  • The Coming Transformation
  • The Pupa Stage of Planetary Life
  • The Future of Life on Earth
  • Nature’s Perspective
  • Sparkling Space-Time
  • Evolution as an Algorithm
  • The Evolution of Culture
  • The Things that Actually Evolve
  • Kin Selection
  • The Replicator-Centric Viewpoint
  • Patterns Aiding Replicas of Themselves in Other Bodies
  • Pattern Synergy
  • The Synergy-Centric Viewpoint
  • What Cooperation Fundamentally Means
  • Cooperation toward Mutual Proliferation
  • Natural Selection by Differential Proliferation
  • Group Selection
  • Natural Morality
  • Natural Value — Synergy that Reinforces Its Own Existence
  • The Inevitability of Natural Destiny
  • Universal Darwinism
  • Evolution’s Abstract Directionality
  • Absolute Fitness — The Synergy of Mobility and Intelligence
  • Three Distinct Stages of Life’s Natural Ascendance
  • From Competition to Cooperation
  • From Independent Species to an Aggregate System
  • Nature's Apparent Intentions
  • The Natural Purpose of Humanity
  • A Serial Style of Evolution
  • Gaia and the Evolution of Aggregate Life
  • Optimal Resource Allocation
  • Evolution Fully Generalized
  • The Natural Development of Everything
  • Ever-Increasing Diversity in Aggregate Life
  • The Creative Human Brain and its Bound Will
  • The Reasons for Human Feelings of Consciousness
  • The Mechanistic Basis for Human Feelings
  • The Human Ability to Accumulate Knowledge
  • Cultural Absolutism
  • The Future of Culture
  • All Human Activities are Completely Natural
  • The Inevitable Stages of Biological Life
  • The Inevitable Stages of Modern Machine-Based Life
  • The Natural Origins of Wealth and Prosperity
  • Resource Sharing among Humans
  • Humans as Proxies for Natural Selection
  • The Natural Origin of Humor
  • Needs versus Wants
  • Technology is Accelerating toward its Natural Destiny
  • The Patterns Proliferating Most Rapidly Today
  • Economics of the Future
  • The Fate of Humanity
  • The Inevitable Competition over Resources
  • Simulated Competition
  • Climate Change
  • The Urgent Race to Trans-Human Machines
  • Perfect Life
  • The Last Laugh

"As a longtime student of evolution, I never thought cooperation would supplant competition. Now I think it is inevitable."

— Kirk Tennent