From the Unknown into Uncertainty: Essays and Commentary on the Origin, Evolution and
Future of Humankind
Future of Humankind
by
James E. Lassiter
(2020)
To purchase this book click the image or title above, or here.
From the Unknown into Uncertainty is a compilation of my
essays and commentaries from 2010 to the present. Most of the material is from
my blogs, Facebook (before I jumped ship), and published articles. I revised or
rewrote all of the original writings. Much of the material in the essays and
commentaries is new. Some essays contain extracts from written communications I
have had with a few of you - presented in the book anonymously, of course. Revisions
include eliminating run-on sentences and unnecessary jargon, adverbs, and
adjectives, curses of my speaking and writing style.
This
book is not the breezy, catchy read I somewhere in my mind wish it was. There are breezy,
sometimes funny passages in it. But it is really a thinker’s book, of sorts.
Something to study, criticize, and learn from. It provokes thought and
persuades a reconsideration of a person’s ideas and values.
From the Introduction and Preface:
The origin,
evolution, and future of our species is part of the process of change over time
in the universe, one of billions of stories of matter and energy in motion -
ever changing, ever responding, often unpredictable; sometimes successfully
adaptive, sometimes not. Most important for humankind in this evolution of the universe’s
matter and energy has been emergence and agency.
Evolutionary
change defines and circumscribes certain contexts and options for all matter
and life. The evolved contexts and options currently facing human beings arose
from the origin and transformation of the universe, and the evolutionary
history of Earth.
Ours is a story
of where our ancestors came from, how they came into being, what has happened
to them, and what their responses have been to the various contexts they were
in and the occurrences they experienced. It is a story of the emergence of
novel entities and processes including tool reliance and refinement, and human
individual agency. Without these expressions of emergence and agency there
would have been no humankind as we now know ourselves.
The human story
is also a description of the implications of these contexts, options, and
responses for our present and future survival or extinction. Without change,
emergence, and agency there would be no possibility of humankind ever gaining control
over the morality, direction, and fate of human civilization.
Our story is one
of a deep and long connection with the universe, including Earth. Our
understandings, interpretations, explanations, and depictions of that story
have come and continue to come in many versions – mythic and secular, absolute
and provisional, closed and open. Some versions of the story of humankind, more
than others, are more consistent with and truthful to the contexts, options,
and responses we arose from and those we now face; and more useful for
surviving and flourishing in the contexts and options we will face in the
future.
Through a series of essays and commentaries, this book
presents a case for one version of humankind’s past, present and future – a
truth that continues to evolve and increase in its explanatory power. A
provisional truth that provides the foundation for what I and many others
believe to have the greatest probability of finding a sustainable path toward a
viable, prosperous and survivable future for ourselves and Earth. That truth is
provided by science, humanism, and secularism.
~ ~ ~
As an independent scholar, rather than parroting
the experts within and outside academia, though I read many of them deeply and respectfully,
and rely on them, I don’t hesitate to occasionally disagree with them. I have
tried my best to think as independently, critically, and objectively to the
degree my learned biases and inherent subjectivity have allowed. The result of
this approach is what’s in this book.
