Culture, technology, and the future body

[Sri Aurobindo and Evolution: A Critical Perspective : 2008 (occult slippages and cultural considerations) by Rich on Fri 08 Feb 2008 12:04 PM PST Permanent Link
Sri Aurobindo and Evolution (occult slippages and cultural considerations) by Richard Carlson

In this paper I begin by interrogating Sri Aurobindo's ideas of progressive evolution and the future body he envisages emerging from it. In so doing, I examine the occult mechanism he argues to be the main driver behind the evolution of consciousness and the body. I then suggest that what we now know indicates that the primary impetus behind the evolution of human consciousness is culture. I also argue that complexity science through its framing of autocatalytic processes and cybernetic principles may now provide satisfactory explanations of what was previous thought of as occult. But, this is not to discount Sri Aurobindo view of the future body nor his larger message for humanity...

On matters of evolution Sri Aurobindo can not avoid being in dialog with certain prominent Western scientist and philosophers, most notably Darwin (1), and Nietzsche, (2). To some extent he is also in an extended conversation with historical theorist such as Georg Hegel, social thinkers such as Herbert Spencer, and intuitive philosophers like Henri Bergson, all whose view of evolution was progressive (3)...

To be fair to Sri Aurobindo when describing metaphysical realities he is not merely engaging in rational argument but is relating his vision and experience of these realms. The path he is following is defined not by its similarity to western scientific inquiry, but by its radical alterity from it. The verification of the authenticity of his experience can not be discerned through logical argument but rather by undertaking the processes of yoga which will open the individual to these same mystical experiences. Therefore, one can not simply subject Sri Aurobindo’s descriptions of reality to western practices of empirical verification that is on third person descriptions of reality...

Such a science is in its first stages but a promising beginnings have been elucidated in the works of Bateson, Varela, Maturana, Bohm, Zajonc, Wallace; often in dialog with the Dalai Lama. On evolution however, because he is in dialog with such thinkers as Hegel, Nietzsche, Darwin, Bergson, we are on more solid ground in interrogating the future (at least in the near term) Sri Aurobindo envisages. That said, I find it heartening that Sri Aurobindo presents us with an alternative account of future evolution in which embodiment is the central narrative even if it appears to be science and culture which is driving the creation of an evolutionary body. Because the manner the body is evolving through scientific facilitation maybe disappearing into technology or at least speaks to a future in which the body will become inextricably mediated by technology...

Notes: 1) A fresh reading of Sri Aurobindo’s writing on evolution shows that it holds up rather well in the light of what we have come to know of the phenomena through science. In his chapters entitled Evolution (p 225 Vol 16) in the Supramental Manifestation he demonstrates a remarkable sensibility and understanding of issues which have only come to light recently in our scientific understanding of evolution. For example, in the following passage he seems to largely accept the genetic theory (hereditary) as a solution to the question of physical evolution. In doing so he does not seem to envisage this as necessarily reductive and refers instead to a cryptic psychical potentiality in matter, which we would now probably call genetic mutation. Moreover, he is astute enough to also comment on the demise of Lamarckian theory of acquired traits which contrasts genetic inheritance.]

If Richard Carlson’s emphasis is on the body, then it is difficult to understand why The Mother’s Yoga of the Cells was not brought into the picture. It is also important to remember the context in which Supramental Manifestation - from which Carlson cites a passage - was written by Sri Aurobindo, and the interesting correspondence that ensued with Dilip. [11:09 AM]

A profoundly atheistic interpretation of the natural world is in fact more useful for theological reflection [10:02 AM] and God, or the Body without Organs by Steven Shaviro [11:58 AM] elucidating Whitehead is a very helpful attempt. Dialogue between Larval Subjects and Wildly Parenthetical involving Lacan, Deleuze, and Merleau-Ponty [11:05 AM], likewise, carries forward the discourse. [TNM]