The Pleasure Principle as a Tool for Scientific Forecasting of Human Self-Evolution

Authors

  • Victor Yu. Argonov Pacific Oceanological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55613/jeet.v24i2.22

Abstract

The pleasure principle (PP) may be a verifiable fundamental law of the living matter in the universe, and this law might then be used for forecasting human self-evolution. I do not pretend to “prove” PP, but argue that it must be regarded as a scientific hypothesis. Accordingly, I formulate verifiable and falsifiable postulates of PP. Their confirmation would allow the construction of a new scientific discipline, hedodynamics, that would be able to forecast the future development of human civilization and even the probable structure and psychology of other rational beings within the universe. I suggest basic hedodynamical scenarios for human (posthuman) civilization and argue that the discovery of the neural correlate of pleasure would provide more detailed forecasts. In particular, I demonstrate how the studies of pleasure mechanisms might predict the degree of aggression in future societies. I conclude that PP may become a scientific basis for fundamental, not phenomenological (based on extrapolations), future forecasting on large timescales.

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Published

2014-08-01

How to Cite

The Pleasure Principle as a Tool for Scientific Forecasting of Human Self-Evolution. (2014). Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 24(2), 63-78. https://doi.org/10.55613/jeet.v24i2.22