KEN RUEGG
VICTIMIZED BY MILLIONS
morality over time: the issue of moral progress!
INDIVIDUALS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS:                                                                                                                                                                                                            Individuals learn and grow by interaction with their physical environments and other people, and so does the Human Race at any point in time, because it consists of all humans alive at that point in history. Everyone knows that there is technological advancement, and advancement in ideas, but moral improvement over time is doubted. That's because there hasn't been enough time for moral improvement of the race to occur. Civilization is too recent. Moral improvement of the Human Race, expressed differently, is the proliferation of the "civilized" species of mind over time, and that requires the environment which we call "Civilization".                People, whatever you believe about eternity, are not reborn on Earth as the same people. And newborns have to learn everything, and pass through successive stages of development by interaction with their world, especially other humans. Man puts his world here. He builds Civilization. And Civilization requires moral rules, or, if you prefer, laws, in order to work. This produces a mental selection pressure, favoring the achievement over time, by increasingly larger percentages of those alive, of a species of mind which doesn't victimize others. This process of mental evolution requires long periods of time, just as physical evolution does, and Civilization is a relatively recent phenomenon.                  THE ACHIEVEMENT BY THE HUMAN RACE OF HIGHER SPECIES OF MIND, REQUIRES LONG PERIODS OF TIME, AND WILL CONTINUE UNTIL EXTINCTION OF THE RACE. Hunter-gatherers were animals mentally, not very different from apes. Civilized stages of mind require Civilization in which to develop.                 Mankind's moral development requires longer periods of time than Man has had so far, as Man living in Civilization, and is an on-going process.                                                                                                                                                       HIGHER SPECIES OF MIND REQUIRE THE ENVIRONMENT KNOWN AS CIVILIZATION. IF CIVILIZATION IS RESPONSIBLE FOR INCREASE IN NUMBERS, THAT INCREASE IN NUMBERS IN TURN REQUIRES THE FURTHERANCE OF CIVILIZATION. MIND ADVANCES THROUGH THIS PROCESS.                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Man grows, or evolves mentally, by using his mind to build and improve his world, which includes his mental environment, meaning the various stages of mental development achieved by the members of the population at any given point in time:                                                                                                                                                                   Successive generations are born surrounded by such an improved environment, and develop by interacting with it. This ongoing process results in the achievement of higher stages of mind, by increasingly larger percentages of the human population.                                                                                                                                                               HIGHER SPECIES OF HUMAN MIND EVOLVING FROM THE GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT OF CIVILIZATION ARE MORE "CIVILIZED". THIS MEANS PROGRESS, INCLUDING REAL MORAL PROGRESS, FOR HUMANITY, GIVEN ENOUGH TIME. The INTERNET connects the world mentally as never before! This process which I've described is real, and happening right now!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Note the progression in technologies, as a part of Mankind's consciously designed environment, from those supplying the physical necessities of life, to the addition of those satisfying mental needs: this progression is seen in the transition from steamboats, trains, cars, trucks, and aircraft, to the inclusion of the telegraph, the telephone, the phonograph, motion pictures, radio, television, CDs, DVDs, computers, satellites, cell phones, and the internet. The evolution of mind depends upon an environment rich in ideas. Man will continue to use technology to advance his mental evolution, by improving the environment necessary to his mental progress.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Note the population shift from rural agrarian environments, to those of densely populated cities and surrounding suburbs. I state in "variation in species", under "contact", that speciation of human mind results due to the communication of ideas, which in part depends upon population density. See "Advancement as Intrinsic to Evolution", under "contact", for an overview of these processes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             See "SEVEN PROBLEM CHILDREN", under "home".                                                                                                                                                           See "A NOTE ON ANTI-MATTER", and "TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES", under "home"; and "FALLING ON YOUR SWORDS TOGETHER - THE MATHEMATICS OF THE EXTINCTION PROBLEM", under "about".                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Also see the **** footnote on GLOBAL WARMING at the bottom of "variation in species", under "contact".