Transmat World: Lag in Sociological Evolution Has Become an Existential Problem

Technology has evolved from the invention of the tool to the machine to the automated machine. From stone spearheads to autonomous cars in 5,000 years. The evolution of our society has not been able to keep pace.

Sociological studies of primates show that their societal structures are very stable. For instance, the gorilla formed the societal artifice of a single male with a harem about 16 million years ago and it has evolved little, if any, since. Humans are primates but are not as socially rigid as the gorilla. At some point we went from individual mating couples to banding together in mixed sex groups in a short period of time, apparently to take advantage of strength in numbers. Out of tribes came the ancient civilizations.

The ancient world was a very fluid and free time for humanity. One could travel unfettered all over the world if you had the means and sufficient bodyguards. There was very little restriction. Restrictions on travel did not occur until the third and fourth centuries of the Roman Empire when serfdom came into being. Serfs were not allowed to travel and had to accept their lord’s conditions of existence. The Romans even invented the “passport” to control travel. Shortly afterward, during the Renaissance, the idea of nation states took hold, allowing rulers to control valuable labor and get rid of unwanted ethnic and religious minorities simply be importing or exporting them across borders.

This is pretty much where we are stuck now. The nation state system has been in effect since the Renaissance 700 years ago, although superficially changed by colonialism and two world wars. Our society has gone from mating pairs to tribalism to nation states over the past 800,000 years. Our technological advances make our sociological advances look quaint. Technologically, we have gone from fire to nuclear fusion. Sociologically, we have gone from mating pairs to large, combative groups of mating pairs—not that great of an advancement. One could argue it is a regression.

Societies were originally invented to protect all the members of that society. The accumulation of wealth, power, and technology by a few in these societies has allowed the original intent of protection for all members to be perverted into protection of those members with wealth and power. The extent of this varies a lot from country to country. For a dichotomy look at Scandinavian countries with their social democracy versus the U.S. with its blatant plutocracy. Quality of life in America is plunging. Lifespans are shortening. Infant and maternal death rates are rising. Four in ten people in the U.S. would not be able to come up with a $400 emergency expense. People die without healthcare. Two-thirds of bankruptcies are for medical reasons. Scandinavians, on the other hand, regularly survey as being some of the happiest people on Earth. They have little inequality of income and universal single payer healthcare.

This article is not about the vagaries of American society. America is just an example of what can go wrong in the current sociological setting. There are other countries just as bad or worse than the United States, and that is the point.

No country on Earth takes the stand that the world’s resources are for everybody, not just those that figure out how to wheedle them out of everybody else. And that is the end game of capitalism. One person ends up with everything. The only game worse is communism where everybody ends up with nothing. Capitalism being the economic mechanism du jour for the world does not mean that, as a species, we are well and totally fucked. It seems to be working in countries where money is not allowed to buy votes or legislation. It is not working in America. American needs to come up with a way to control capitalism so that it reflects a benefit for all parties involved instead of only a few. We still all collectively need clean air and water, food, health care, shelter, and education. We need a climate that is not going to morph into a man killer or destroyer of homes.

The Scandinavian countries have managed a balancing act of free market capitalism and a comprehensive welfare state using a parliamentary democracy. We would do well to look at and, perhaps borrow, some of their methods.

Climate change has added an urgency to the mix. What we need now is a world organization that has the power to control nations similar to what nations now have in controlling their individual states or prefectures—a United Nations on steroids or everything Lance Armstrong took to win Tour de France seven times.

We cannot keep letting our sociological evolution slip backwards while our technical evolution soars. Technology is giving tools to individuals that allow them to take advantage of others to an extent that was never possible in pre-technology. And the rate at which that is happening is increasing geometrically. We have become thinly veneered reptilian brains with nukes and lasers and military grade psychological warfare techniques.

Is it hopeless? Are we doomed? Will we succumb, as a species, to the baser instincts DNA has provided to survive a landscape of dire wolves, cave lions, and giant bears? I think it depends on those other facilities nature gave us. Our capacity for empathy and love and understanding must be developed on an individual basis to be able, as a group, to decide how to go forward into a better future. It is dependent on us … no, it is dependent on you to love your neighbor as yourself. It is dependent on you to understand we are all human beings with the same wants and desires for well-being and happiness no matter which side of whatever border we come from. Once that happens on an individual basis then no, we are not doomed. It is not hopeless. We can then decide through the mechanism of our democratic society the correct path forward. And when that happens we will know that our social evolution is back on track to catch up with our technological evolution after seven hundred years of stagnation.