Thoughts on Chardin's Presumed Evolution of Human Consciousness: Part 1
In response to Teilhard de Chardin's essay "Does Mankind Move Biologically Upon Itself?" in Revue Des Questions Scientifiques, October 20, 1949
In the final paragraph of his essay Does Mankind Move Biologically Upon Itself, Teilhard de Chardin says,
"...it requires no great gift of prophecy to affirm that, within two or three generations, the notion of the psychic infolding of the earth upon itself...will be as generally accepted and utilized by our successors as the idea of the earth's mechanical movement round the sun...is accepted by ourselves."
It is clear such a generation has either not yet matured or not yet come to be. So the question remains, is Chardin wrong to assume that we will soon be on the cusp of accepting as truth that some psychic infolding of the earth upon itself is occurring? In this series of posts, which I have entitled Thoughts on Chardin's Presumed Evolution of Human Consciousness, I aim to explore this question and suppose what—or, perhaps if—any corresponding answers would portend for our current society.
I will assume most people are not familiar with Chardin's notion of a, "psychic infolding of the earth upon itself". Let me try and elucidate this notion. Broadly speaking, Chardin believes that the Human species has reached a new point of evolution: one that has never before been actualized on this earth, and maybe one that has never before been actualized anywhere in the universe. The progression towards this new point of evolution began when Humans ceased to conform to the phylogenic pattern usually produced by biological species (imagine the branches of a tree growing new offshoots, followed by those offshoots producing other offshoots, etc.). Humans are unique in that, instead of branching out and becoming more heterogeneous organisms, we have remained singularly unique as a species since we reached our current form. Chardin believes that it is once we reached this point that we entered a new evolutionary stage.
This new evolutionary stage consists of an ever-heightening degree of our consciousness. The consciousness possessed by both Humans (as the universal) and humans (as singular entities) continues to grow. Or, perhaps it would be more precise to say that the Human consciousness is increasingly becoming heightened because of the growing level of consciousness that each human is developing his or her self. Chardin relates that this was not always the case, as Human thought has not been stagnant, but has steadily advanced over time as can be seen if we use as a starting block when we completed our anthropological genesis. As individuals interact more with one another, we deepen our understanding of our own consciousness while also increasing our understanding of other individuals through this mutual interaction. Our interactions may be through the exchange of ideas, the relating of emotion(s), or some other such thing.
Chardin proposes that this phenomenon (arising from, yet all the while still maintaining, the individuality that each discrete consciousness possess) is progressing toward the Human consciousness unifying into one whole. Simply put, this unified consciousness is what he calls the Noosphere. The Noosphere is what Chardin often refers to as the thinking envelop or psychic layer that envelops the Earth. Relating the concept of the Noosphere back to the statement under consideration, this act of progressive consciousness-evolution is what Chardin has in mind when he is referencing a "psychic infolding of the earth upon itself". With the notion now clarified, let me move to evaluating Chardin's view that some ongoing psychic infolding of the earth upon itself will soon be as universally accepted as the belief of heliocentrism.
Where in society may some inkling of this notion be present? Two places come to my mind: (1) the reality of an increasingly Internet-based global culture and (2) the recent inroads into the realm of artificial intelligence (AI). I will begin with examining how our global Internet-culture may act as a catalyst for accepting some notion of global psychic infolding. Afterward, I will move to examine potential reasons for how and why advances in the development of AI could signal an emerging paradigm shift concerning societal notions of some united consciousness.
I will begin this discussion in the next post, Thoughts on Chardin's Presumed Evolution of Human Consciousness: Part 2.
I will assume most people are not familiar with Chardin's notion of a, "psychic infolding of the earth upon itself". Let me try and elucidate this notion. Broadly speaking, Chardin believes that the Human species has reached a new point of evolution: one that has never before been actualized on this earth, and maybe one that has never before been actualized anywhere in the universe. The progression towards this new point of evolution began when Humans ceased to conform to the phylogenic pattern usually produced by biological species (imagine the branches of a tree growing new offshoots, followed by those offshoots producing other offshoots, etc.). Humans are unique in that, instead of branching out and becoming more heterogeneous organisms, we have remained singularly unique as a species since we reached our current form. Chardin believes that it is once we reached this point that we entered a new evolutionary stage.
This new evolutionary stage consists of an ever-heightening degree of our consciousness. The consciousness possessed by both Humans (as the universal) and humans (as singular entities) continues to grow. Or, perhaps it would be more precise to say that the Human consciousness is increasingly becoming heightened because of the growing level of consciousness that each human is developing his or her self. Chardin relates that this was not always the case, as Human thought has not been stagnant, but has steadily advanced over time as can be seen if we use as a starting block when we completed our anthropological genesis. As individuals interact more with one another, we deepen our understanding of our own consciousness while also increasing our understanding of other individuals through this mutual interaction. Our interactions may be through the exchange of ideas, the relating of emotion(s), or some other such thing.
Chardin proposes that this phenomenon (arising from, yet all the while still maintaining, the individuality that each discrete consciousness possess) is progressing toward the Human consciousness unifying into one whole. Simply put, this unified consciousness is what he calls the Noosphere. The Noosphere is what Chardin often refers to as the thinking envelop or psychic layer that envelops the Earth. Relating the concept of the Noosphere back to the statement under consideration, this act of progressive consciousness-evolution is what Chardin has in mind when he is referencing a "psychic infolding of the earth upon itself". With the notion now clarified, let me move to evaluating Chardin's view that some ongoing psychic infolding of the earth upon itself will soon be as universally accepted as the belief of heliocentrism.
Where in society may some inkling of this notion be present? Two places come to my mind: (1) the reality of an increasingly Internet-based global culture and (2) the recent inroads into the realm of artificial intelligence (AI). I will begin with examining how our global Internet-culture may act as a catalyst for accepting some notion of global psychic infolding. Afterward, I will move to examine potential reasons for how and why advances in the development of AI could signal an emerging paradigm shift concerning societal notions of some united consciousness.
I will begin this discussion in the next post, Thoughts on Chardin's Presumed Evolution of Human Consciousness: Part 2.
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