Principles of Geoethics: A Synthesis of Geography and Bioethics
About this book
Geoethics is a moral philosophy for the management of technology that transcends geography. Geoethics declares that life proceeds most successfully when any material impingements due to technology are first shaped in advance by the consent of those involved, and subsequently monitored independently to ensure adherence to such consent. Geoethics is a scientific philosophy because its principles are based upon observations of empirical reality and are disprovable. Geoethics is also a prescriptive philosophy because it tells society how to best organize itself.The superiority of geoethics as an operational philosophy is measured in a Darwinian, utilitarian fashion – that which becomes most prevalent in (sustainable) joy is most successful. The success speaks for itself, as is the case with evolution. It is not that other philosophies don’t work; they just won’t work as well for as long as geoethics.Geoethics has discerned that the social formula for success is to balance diversity with unity in a quest for ever more durable joy. This formula is implemented automatically by encouraging the autonomy of innovators (diversity) subject to the consent of those likely to be impacted by their innovations (unity). Geoethics discourages the destructive, dysfunctional consequences of oppression, while also motivating the outward expansion of disruptive technologies into virgin domains. Geoethics encourages the optimizing of technologies to meet diverse needs, without suffocating technology out of irrational or selfish fears. Geoethics encodes Alfred North Whitehead’s observation that “the art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.”Geoethics is a natural philosophy enabling humanity to simultaneously respect the individuality of their singular connectomes and the collectivity of their joined fate in common spaces. It is a philosophy of transcendence because it is at once both singular and plural; it provides a boundary within which the bordered interests of the one and the bounded interests of the many – even all – are simultaneously satisfied at a level of greater joy. Geoethics is dynamic because it describes a vector of socio-technological interaction that has no endpoint short of enduring joy for all.Geoethics is a master narrative, a world model, for modernity and technology. We have built it together over the millennia, and we now live it each day. We are here to show initiative with transcendence, to celebrate our individuality, and we understand that happens best when we work in unity, limiting our impact upon others to the scope of their consent. Objective third parties, even with the help of AIs, are needed to parse what kinds of impacts require what kinds of consent, and to ensure those consents are viably respected over time. It is our purpose to create ever more diversity, and the need for unity is a platform and a launching pad to disperse ever deeper into the universal geography surrounding us.