Cosmic Evolution, Reciprocity, and Interstellar Tit for Tat

Abstract

Drawing on many fields in the physical, biological and social sciences, the present book explores altruism and related topics such as predation, conflict, and reciprocity within the broadest possible context: the cosmos. This introductory chapter compares two opposing themes in discussions of how societies achieve great age. The paranoid theme holds that authoritarian, egotistical, self-serving societies that rely on threat, bluff and force in interstate relations will prevail. The pronoid theme holds that democratic, inclusive, and cooperative societies that are reluctant to use force achieve greater longevity. Research shows that over time, societies on Earth have accorded increasingly larger groups of people favored insider status; that authoritarian governments are giving way to liberal democracies; that democracies do not go to war with one another but rather enter into effective defensive pacts; and that across many different timescales and locations, violence of all kinds, including warfare, is on the decline. Reciprocity and win-win thinking form powerful social glue that binds diverse societies and people together. These results, which are more consistent with pronoid than paranoid expectations, hint that our own civilization may be working its way through a period of “technological adolescence” where the availability of dangerous technology outpaces cultural adaptations to use such technology with wisdom and restraint. After considering a few possible implications of these discoveries for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, this chapter concludes with an overview of the rest of this book.