Humans evolved from previous hominids in the primate group. Over the course of our history we have, according to some domesticated ourselves - decreasing aggression within groups and increasing levels of co-operation and pro-social feelings.
With the development of larger settlements, in which family and tribal loyalties lost their ability to police behaviour, humans used various different strategies to enhance peace and co-operation within the community. Religion played a role - the eyes of God watching everything that individuals did - but the creation of customs and laws were also important.
Later, trade, exploration and printing were important in widening the scope of co-operation and expanding circles of moral concern. Education, democracy and the civil rights movements have continued the process of moral enhancement.
Physical enhancements have been secured through science, medicine and technology, with education also playing a part. Human life span has increased dramatically. Conditions that would have been life-threatening no longer are. Smallpox has been eradicated. Many infectious diseases have been combated through sanitation or vaccination and surgeries and medicines assist in the treatment of various conditions.
Cognitively, education and literacy have dramatically enhanced the ability of humans to reason, conceptualise and work through abstract ideas.
Cumulative culture is essentially the backbone to all this enhancement: we can pass on learning to future generations; future generations can build on past achievements.
It is clear that humans have dramatically changed from the state we were in when we first became anatomically human. And it is far from clear that we have reached any kind of limit or pinnacle.
We can still become more altruistic and less self-seeking; we can become less tribal. We can limit the effects of aging by decreasing the incidence of 'life-style' diseases and perhaps by further life-extending technologies. We can also perhaps increase cognitive abilities - memory, processing speed and the like.
I have not addressed mood. It seems likely that increases in health and decreases in violent deaths and oppression (though such things still happen) must surely have made people happier. Yet the high levels of depression and anxiety suggest there's much enhancement here that would increase the well-being of humans and humanity in general.
We could enhance using drugs or biotechnology. But we could also work with what we already have: decreasing inequality (both globally and nationally), strengthening democracies, limiting the powers of the internet, changing the focus of the news media's offerings - or educating people in resilience to negative messaging and so on. Health improvements could be made by improving public health rather than developing new drugs.
Actually, it's not an either/or - it's a first/and then....
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