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Chapter 6 Importance of Natural Selection (4) There has been an evolution of intelligence toward increasingly complex states that has occurred non-linearly through natural selection, resulting in greater information storage and more complex organisms. Where did intelligence come from? It either pre-existed our current inflationary expansion of the universe, originated at the moment of onset of expansion, or evolved afterward from some potential proto-intelligence. Any conclusion that we might draw at this moment of existence would be speculative; however, I would tend to believe that intelligence has probably always existed in some form. The least difficult explanation of its origin for me to accept, whether correct or not, is based on a cyclical oscillating universe without beginning or ending limits. Nevertheless, I cannot reject the possibility that the current expansion has been a one-time phenomenon. What does seem rather definite is that there must be some positive force which is pushing the upward movement of intelligence to higher and higher states of consciousness as it relates to material existence. Natural selection has been important as an editor of this process but cannot by itself account for it. One well-established physical principle indicates that a continually constant force applied to an object results in the latter's continued acceleration. Once that force no longer exists, the object will travel at a constant velocity without acceleration. Since there can be no doubt that the process of evolution, and more specifically the evolution of intelligence, is continuously moving upward at an accelerated rate, this would imply that some positive force must be present. The evolution of increasingly complex organisms has occurred non-linearly, but it has yet to be established whether the curve reflecting the upward evolution of intelligence is quadratic, cubic, quartic, exponential or of some other function. The rising end of the curve is now steeply oriented, reflecting the continued relatively rapid increase of intelligence. Even now there is evidence, which will be presented below, that intelligence continues to evolve in an upward direction. This theory predicts that this evolution of increasing intelligence will continue even though we have successfully reduced those factors that traditionally have been viewed as being naturally selective for humankind. Through better medicine and greatly improved technology we have been able to care for those imperfect humans who otherwise would have died because of natural selection factors, but who now can reproduce and keep the gene pool alive with substandard genetic material. Even though the forces of natural selection have been rather dramatically modified, so that in many countries the less intelligent individuals may be out-reproducing the more intelligent people, this theory predicts that the mean intelligence level will still continue to rise worldwide. To support this conclusion there is substantial evidence already in existence, and it will be presented later in another section. However, it should also become increasingly clear that this continuing upward movement of intelligence is in fact happening as more time passes.
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