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Integration and freedom
We are living at a time when we can see the basic contradiction of
the constructive evolution of mankind very clearly: it is
the contradiction between human integration and human
freedom. Integration is an evolutionary necessity. If humanity sets itself
goals which are incompatible with integration the result will be
an evolutionary dead end: further creative development
will become impossible. Then we shall not survive. In the
evolving Universe there is no standstill: all that does not
develop perishes. On the other hand, freedom is precious for the human being;
it is the essence of life. The creative freedom of individuals is
the fundamental engine of evolution in the era of Reason. If it
is suppressed by integration, as in totalitarianism,
we shall find ourselves again in an evolutionary dead end. This
contradiction is real, but not insoluble. After all,
the same contradiction has been successfully solved on other
levels of organization in the process of evolution. When cells
integrate into multicellular organisms, they continue to perform
their biological functions--metabolism and fission. The new quality,
the life of the organism, does not appear despite the
biological functions of the individual cells but because of them
and through them. The creative act of free will is
the ``biological function'' of the human being.
In an integrated super-being it must be preserved as an inviolable
foundation, and the new qualities must appear through it and because of it.
Thus the fundamental challenge that the humanity faces now
is to achieve an organic synthesis of integration and freedom.
Copyright© 1993 Principia Cybernetica -
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