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American Philosophical Society poster from the 1920s promoting eugenics as a means of ‘‘self-direction’’ and ‘‘human evolution.’’ Courtesy: Library of Congress.
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... Disasters often spark prosocial behavior among members of affected communities (Stallings and Quarantelli 1985;Rodríguez, Trainor, and Quarantelli 2006;Kitazawa 2010;Koch 2014;Zaki 2020;den Broeder et al. 2021;Uekusa, Matthewman, and Lorenz 2022). A new shared identity among a community of survivors, a heightened sense of empathy, and a growing belief that one can make a difference in other people's lives are at the root of disasterrelated solidarity; the result is often a greater readiness to help others in need during crises (Zaki, 2020). ...
... A new shared identity among a community of survivors, a heightened sense of empathy, and a growing belief that one can make a difference in other people's lives are at the root of disasterrelated solidarity; the result is often a greater readiness to help others in need during crises (Zaki, 2020). Solidarity in action is often referred to as mutual aid, following Pëtr Kropotkin's thesis that mutual aid among members of social species is a fundamental component of evolutionary processes and species survival amid environmental hardship (Kropotkin 1902;Koch 2014). ...
New York City was one of the hardest-hit areas in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 and strategies to prevent and respond to outbreaks were incipient. Social distancing created additional challenges. As such, people turned to digital technologies to find creative ways, not only to keep in touch with their loved ones, but also to find help and to assist strangers in need. In this essay, we describe how individuals and organizations in New York City used digital technologies to monitor and share information on COVID-19, to provide support for vulnerable people, and to get medical devices to those in need. Using the concepts of citizen science, mutual aid, and digital sociotechnical systems, we make three arguments. First, digital sociotechnical systems have a unique capacity to enroll and connect people—including strangers—over long distances, therefore enabling participation in mutual aid initiatives despite strict social-distancing limitations. Second, pre-existing mutual aid initiatives supported by digital sociotechnical systems demonstrated high adaptability and were quickly repurposed for COVID-19 mutual aid. Lastly, mutual aid initiatives, confronted with certain limitations of digital sociotechnical systems, engendered innovations and calls for transformations toward more inclusive systems. Time will tell whether these emerging transformations outlast the disaster itself and enhance long-term community resilience.
... Individual characteristic or social context: This 'riddle of relevant circumstances', as Zohny calls it, 6 replays an older debate between two differing views of evolution and society. 7 On the one hand was a simple (and ultimately simplistic) Darwinian insistence on competition between individuals as the critical determinant of individual success and species development. 8 Any singular advantage in appearance, cognition, strength, speed or vision thus was to be preserved and promoted. ...
This paper's title is Disabling disability. It's focus is a critique on the transhumanist promise to improve the human race through some form of biotechnical revolution. It argues the result is improbable--the science isn't there--and dystopian in its failure to recognize the diversity of our populations. Those seeking to better the human condition have recourse to a variety of social programs improving health, education and welfare, the hard work transhumanists do not consider.
... Individual characteristic or social context: this 'riddle of relevant circumstances', as Zohny calls it, 6 replays an older debate between two differing views of evolution and society. 7 On the one hand was a simple (and ultimately simplistic) Darwinian insistence on competition between individuals as the critical determinant of individual success and species development. 8 Any singular advantage in appearance, cognition, strength, speed or vision thus was to be preserved and promoted. ...
This paper critiques current arguments advancing the potential for transhumanism and a range of biological and pharmacological enhancements to better human flourishing. It does so from a historical perspective weighing the individualistic and competitive evolutionary theories of Darwin with the cooperative and communal theories of Prince Peter Kropotkin a generation later. In doing so it proposes the transhumanist and enhancement enthusiasts operate within a paradigm similar to Darwin’s, one that is atomist and individualistic. The critique, which considers the status of those with cognitive, sensory and physical limits, advances a vision of society as a cooperative and communal rather than individualistic and competitive. Within this framework the argument is not one of either/or but on the lexicographical superiority of the communal and social over the individualistic and competitive ethos underlying both Darwin and most contemporary transhumanist literature. This reordering of priorities, it is argued, reflects advances in contemporary biology and evolutionary thinking.
... 16 Although predating Anarchism, the Friendlies, locally organized, freely federated, based on self-help and mutual aid and, importantly, independent of the state, followed closely the basic tenets of Anarchism. 21,22 The idea of 'The Servile State' 23 deliberately inducing dependence through its control of employment, health and other provisions was central to working class opposition to the 1911 Act: not only from the Friendlies, but also from working class Syndicalists and their associated national daily. 24 It was an argument that was to resurface again in opposition to the introduction of the NHS and universal state welfare provision after WW2. ...
... 9 In the Editorial for this December's issue of the IJE, Tom Koch expands on this theme to provide an interesting and compelling exploration of the ideas presented in Kroptokin's Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, 10 finding the evidence and concepts Kropotkin describes fundamental to the promotion of public health. 11 Mutual Aid, published in 1902, is probably Kropotkin's most famous work. Rarely out of print and often thought of as an anarchist classic, it actually comprises a series of articles Kropotkin wrote in reply to Thomas Huxley's The Struggle for Existence in Human Society, published in the journal The Nineteenth Century. ...
... Similar political agendas had underlined the earlier argument between Thomas Malthus and William Godwin, with Malthus recognized as a significant influence on Darwin and Darwinian thinking. 11,12 Adopting the view presented in standard courses on evolutionary biology, Stephen J Gould similarly had always dismissed Kropotkin as daftly idiosyncratic. However, his view was challenged by the work of Daniel Todes published in a paper in the journal Isis in 1988 and in a book the following year. ...