Humanity and Beyond: The Third Life
The symbolic acquisition acquired by our species is at the basis of the ongoing and future evolution of life forms. The idea – or definition – of life is indeed very challenging, and we don’t really know what exactly it is, also from a scientific viewpoint. After a very long period in which life on Earth only evolved inside the organic realm, from a few decades life has been expanded by some disciplines, like artificial life and robotics among others. In a near future we could assist to an extension of the idea of life and of life forms from the barely organic realm to an articulated panorama with organic, inorganic as well as intermingled (organic/inorganic) life forms.
It seems that nature and evolution are devising a way to evolve on, starting up an evolution which overcomes the mere biological roots, which expands and surpasses the biological realm. An evolution which originates from one species, from our species, and relies on the symbolic ability. An evolution with many alternatives, in order to maintain a certain degree of flexibility and adaptability and so more chances and probabilities of being successful.