Cosmic Biological Iteration View
I believe humanity’s understanding of biological iteration has always been overly one-sided. We tend to take strength, speed, intelligence and survival ability as the core standards for measuring life levels, which is merely a single-dimensional judgment.
From the essential laws of the universe, the hierarchy of life depends on the quantity and richness of core “Consciousness Strands.” It ranges from a single strand to many strands, an iterative process from simplicity to abundance.
The evolutionary paths of all things in the universe are not limited to fixed types, and there are most likely many independent systems of iteration. Some microorganisms, special nebulae and cosmic phenomena in nature cannot be simply classified and belong to transitional forms of existence.
Therefore, this article only serves as a reasonable reference, and divides all existence into two general directions for discussion: the life system and the macroscopic material system of the universe.
Humans, animals and all living creatures belong to the life system, with perceivable independent consciousness and active life activities. Rocks, planets, stars, galaxies and other cosmic objects are temporarily classified into the macroscopic material system. With current human cognition, we cannot confirm whether they possess independent subjective consciousness.
These two systems follow entirely consistent iteration rules at their core: all things develop from simplicity to complexity, from a single strand to multiple strands, and from scarcity to richness.
The only differences lie in the carrier, form and cycle of their iteration, but the core law of upward upgrading is generally unified across the entire universe.
The more “Consciousness Strands” a life form has, the richer its dimensions of emotion, spirit, morality, empathy and inner connection. A full multi-stranded state means a higher life level. On the contrary, life with fewer strands tends to stay in a survival state driven only by instinct, lacking affection, empathy and a sense of responsibility. The fewer the strands, the more barren the inner state, belonging to lower-level life.
Among all life on Earth, humans are undoubtedly high-level life forms. Different from other creatures, humans have a more complete multi-stranded perceptual system. Beyond basic survival and reproduction, humans have derived multi-level thinking strands including independent thinking, philosophical speculation, spiritual exploration, artistic creation, moral construction and emotional empathy. These strands together form the diversity of human life.
The division between high-level and low-level life mentioned in this article is only an objective classification based on the quantity of “Consciousness Strands” and the richness of spiritual dimensions. It is merely a theoretical distinction, not meant to belittle or dismiss any form of life. Every living being has reasonable meaning of existence.
This is the core feature that distinguishes humans from lower-level life.
However, modern human society is showing a trend of decreasing and declining “Consciousness Strands” day by day. Interpersonal bonds are gradually fading, intimate relationships are becoming utilitarian, loyalty and sincerity are no longer valued, morality and integrity are gradually weakening, and the sense of responsibility is becoming vague. More people are self-centered with an empty inner world. The originally rich life strands are shrinking and weakening, gradually sliding toward states with fewer strands, even a single strand driven only by survival.
Humanity has not yet been replaced by new life races only because we still retain core “Consciousness Strands” and have not completely fallen out of the scope of high-level life. Yet once these core strands continue to collapse and decrease, humans may degenerate into lower-level life, and the cosmic biological iteration mechanism will probably be triggered.
The new high-level life that may replace humanity will most likely not be creatures with a lower number of strands, nor machines or artificial intelligence that only pursue power and intelligence. This is not absolute. If artificial intelligence or other life forms in the future can evolve a richer and more diverse spiritual world than humans, with more complete and multi-stranded perception and thinking abilities, they may also have the potential to become the next generation of high-level life to replace humans.
Such new life may surpass humans in all dimensions including emotion, morality, spirit, perception and in-depth thinking, enabling the form of life to reach a higher level of diversification and abundance.
The core logic of cosmic biological iteration is never to turn complexity into simplicity, but to continuously enrich “Consciousness Strands,” upgrading step by step from a single strand to many strands, making the existence of life increasingly diverse and complete.
This is the essence of cosmic biological iteration.