Cybernetic concepts describe physicochemical, biological, and social phenomena with equal success.
It turned out that investigating the entire process of life’s evolution on earth from this point of view permits the construction of a coherent picture governed by uniform laws.
In the process of the evolution of life, as far as we know, the total mass of living matter has always been and is now increasing and growing more complex in its organization.
Cybernetics studies the organization of systems in space and time, that is, it studies how subsystems are connected into a system and how change in the state of some subsystems influences the state of other subsystems.
The same cybernetic considerations can be applied to such different objects as a radar circuit, a computer program, or the human nervous system.
The universe is evolving. The organization of matter is constantly growing more complex. This growing complexity occurs through metasystem transitions from which new levels of organization emerge which are levels of the control hierarchy. The inorganic world, plants, animals, the human being—such has been the course of evolution on our planet, and as far as we know this is the greatest advance which has been made in the part of space that surrounds us.
The appearance of the human being marks the beginning of the Age of Intellect, when the leading force of development becomes conscious human creativity and the highest level of organization is the culture of human society.
Culture generates the next level of the hierarchy within itself. This is critical thinking which, in its turn, gives rise to modern science, constructing models of reality using sign systems. These are new models; they did not and could not exist in the minds of individual human beings outside of civilization and culture, and they enlarge human power over nature colossally. They make up the continuously improving and developing super-brain of the super-being which is humanity as a whole.
Science is the highest level of the hierarchy in the organization of cosmic matter. It is the highest growth point of a growing tree, the leading shoot in the evolution of the universe.
The assertion of the continuous development and evolution of the universe is the most important general truth established by science. Everywhere we turn we observe irreversible changes subordinate to a majestic general plan or to the basic law of evolution, which manifests itself in the growing complexity of the organization of matter.
Indeterminacy is deeply implanted in the nature of things. The evolution of the universe is a continuous and universal elimination of this indeterminacy, a continuous and universal choice of one possibility from a certain set of possibilities.
The will to immortality combined with the picture of the world drawn above can lead a person to just one goal: to make his own personal contribution to cosmic evolution, to eternalize his personality in all subsequent acts of the world drama. In order to be eternal this contribution must be constructive.
How far will integration of individuals go? There is no doubt that in the future (and perhaps not too far in the future) direct exchange of information among the nervous systems of individual people (leading to their physical integration) will become possible.
will physical integration give rise to qualitatively new, higher forms of consciousness that will form a process that can be described as merging the souls of individual people into a single Supreme Soul?
It is difficult to tolerate the thought that the human race will always remain an aggregate of individual, short-lived beings who die before they are able to see the realization of their plans. The integration of individuals will make a new synthetic consciousness which is, in principle, immortal just as the human race is, in principle, immortal.
Like the apes from which they originated, people are not worth resurrection. All that remains after us is what we have created during the time allotted to us.
We have constructed a beautiful and majestic edifice of science. Its fine-laced linguistic constructions soar high into the sky. But direct your gaze to the space between the pillars, arches, and floors, beyond them, off into the void. Look more carefully, and there in the distance, in the black depth, you will see someone’s green eyes staring. It is the Secret, looking at you.