Center for World Philosophy and Religion

= "to evolve the source code of consciousness and culture as the primary response to the looming threat of existential and catastrophic risk. Core to evolving the source code is the articulation of a universal grammar of value".

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Description

David J. Temple:

"A think tank co-founded and led by two old and dear friends, Marc Gafni and Zak Stein, together with Ken Wilber. Its mission has been to evolve the source code of consciousness and culture as the primary response to the looming threat of existential and catastrophic risk. Core to evolving the source code is the articulation of a universal grammar of value, rooted in First Principles and First Values, which themselves are embedded in a cosmic story of value."

Source: draft document of the Center, June 2023

Discussion

David J. Temple:

"A response is needed to the likely self-induced extinction of our species (the “second shock” of existence), and it must be found in the context of cascading and interrelated crises across all major sectors of civilization (the “meta-crisis”). A profound return to reality is at hand, as humanity is once again brought back in touch with how the universe works, for better and for worse.

For now, suffice to say that we understand from complexity theory and evolutionary biology that a simple, limited set of First Principles can generate an emergent self-organization of highly complex systems with a virtually unimaginable number of parts. Basic patterns establish the possibility space into which chaotic emergence evolves, as seen in everything from cellular automata to game theory. In other words, we realized many years ago that just as simple First Principles and First Values organize exterior realities into complex and coherent wholes, so too do interior First Principles and First Values organize the realities of value and consciousness into complex and coherent wholes.

In effect, First Principles and First Values are the plotlines of evolution’s conscious unfolding. Conscious evolution, as we have reframed it, is not when evolution becomes conscious of itself through us. There is much scientific data that ascribe intelligence and consciousness to evolution, well before humanity. Rather, conscious evolution is when a species becomes aware that evolutionary processes live in it, as it, and through it — and can then choose to align with the inherent First Principles and First Values embedded in the larger evolutionary story of value. This new understanding of conscious evolution serves as the key to our CosmoErotic Humanism."