A post at Discover Magazine's Science Not Fiction blog offers a novel theory of the evolution of consciousness.
Is human intelligence possibly a once-in-infinity event, the "glorious accident" of the title -- or is the evolution of consciousness an inevitable outcome of physical complexity and thus possibly common throughout the universe?
Issues related to anthroposophy have been at the centre of most critiques of Waldorf schools, and Steiner's writings about the racial organization of culture and the evolution of consciousness have led to charges that racism is inherent in anthroposophy and in the Waldorf educational method.
In his second book, "The Feeling of What Happens," Dr. Damasio speculated that emotions and feelings were crucial to the evolution of consciousness and, along with it, a sense of self.
In that film, the human adventure beyond Earth — to the Moon and toward Jupiter — brought about a whole new stage in the evolution of consciousness, a fulfillment, transcendence and wholesale alteration of human possibility.
His work explores the possibility and necessity of ongoing psychological transformation in adulthood; the fit between adult capacities and the hidden demands of modern life; and the evolution of consciousness in adulthood and its implications for supporting adult learning, professional development, and adult education.
Our intention is to participate in the evolution of consciousness and support a quantum paradigm shift to global interconnectedness.
The noosphere is the culmination of the evolution of consciousness (which is a continuation of biological evolution).
This has prompted him to suggest that "we could make some progress on understanding the problem of the evolution of consciousness if we supposed that consciousnesses alters (albeit perhaps very slightly and subtly) quantum probabilities". It does not, in this view, exactly determine "what is real".
One metaphysical question that is more directly relevant for the question of the phylogenetic distribution and evolution of consciousness is whether possessing it (i.e. being conscious) is binary (i.e. on/off, all-or-nothing), or admits of degrees.
