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RE: The Evolution of Consciousness
I think it's inevitable. In terms of explaining consciousness, I think the Integrated Information Theory is the best contender so far. There is are some publications of how Information Integration helps during evolution as well, e.g. the following:
"We suggest that the correlation of fitness with information integration and with processing measures implies that high fitness requires both information processing as well as integration, but that information integration may be a better measure when the task requires memory." - Integrated Information Increases with Fitness
I am definitely going to check that. I have some books from Ervin Lászlo in the queue, seems related.
I checked the paper, seems to be quite heavy reading, but I might go back to it eventually. But actually the question of inevitability is the least interesting from my perspective. I take it as inevitable unless we don't mind destroying the planet and keeping killing each other in meaningless wars :-) I was more like wondering how people feel about it personally and what they are doing. But it doesn't need to be answered here, it's already important to ask. But sharing can be beneficial for others, to get new ideas. Having said that, I haven't really shared my viewpoint yet, so... :-)
The attitude of inevitability is to keep fostering the "let go, let go," as you said in the other post, and not worrying about having to do anything or about destroying the planet. These are often some of the most difficult things for the mind to let go. Of course, asteroids can destroy us at any moment as well, so we can't take anything for granted. But still to be able to trust in the process is at least for me a personal revolution in how to view things, otherwise it would be all up to "me" to fix the situation and make what happens happen after some specification i have in mind. But ultimately I don't know, I don't know, and that's the truth of it..
What really fascinates me is that as far as my experience goes, you sometimes achieve certain things on the path by doing something seemingly unrelated. It's not linear in any way. On the other hand, trying to go directly doesn't have to work. People are told not to kill, it's against the law, yet they kill each other. That is because they don't know what is happening on a deeper level. I like the vipassana way and for me it pretty nicely illustrates the whole process. When practicing vipassna, you don't stop doing stupid things in your life because you are told so. You stop because you feel that you are harming yourself. So simple and so clear. Who can say anything against? For similar reason you don't need to tell people that reached certain level that ecology is important. They just feel it naturally, it's an obvious thing.
For some reason finding your true self makes you realise everything important for life. That is my experience and experience of many others. So the task is simple. Find your true self, everything else comes out during the process or it just happens as a side-effect. True, you have to believe that it actually works that way :-)