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As our collective and individual ability to generate and use extra-biological force has expanded far beyond our biological boundaries yet we still culturally conceive of the purpose of this boundary transcending force as serving primarily an exclusively private individual purpose. I propose that we must develop a purpose that matches our degree of extra-biological forcefulness, existence as part of the biological life of this planet, and the fact that we are conscious and that the boundaries forming our sense of individuality are semi-permeable. I propose a starting point for development of a human purpose as being to expand the scope of human consciousness and, to the degree that extra-biological force exceeds human biological bounds, apply that force for benefit of the entire body of life.
The traditional ways of deriving purpose have been built on the three failed models of relationship, competitor, divine province, or mother, between humanity and nature. The degree to which extra-biological power exceeds our individual and collective bounds has made these views and their associated purposes too limited to adequately address the power we have unleashed across the boundaries of all life and life sustaining properties of our planet. Any action can be judged as positive, neutral, or negative in terms of its effect on the scope of consciousness and its effect on the body of life in total. Without a purpose that matches, more closely, our actual relationship to other people and the natural world we will continue to navigate a course and use extra-biological power in the service of a mismatched purpose, like infinite individual capital accumulation, which does not acknowledge and value the interconnectedness of all life as an intrinsic good that must be preserved and enhanced. Imagining our individuality as if we were cells in the executive function region of the living planets central nervous system, we need to continually expand our scope of consciousness so that we can become more aware of the needs of the whole life system, humans as a species, and our selves as individuals. Imagining our social structures as being structures within the central nervous system of the planet that have control of large amounts of extra-biological power of various kinds and responsibilities to manage that power to the maximum benefit of our species and all of life is a way of shifting our collective self image and orienting it toward a biologically centered, but trans individual, purpose of the power human social organization. The ability to expand the scope of our consciousness and to make choices and take action based on our expanded awareness has been the primary mechanism responsible for the creation of extra-biological power. This capacity must now be used to develop self replenishing systems, as opposed to our current self exhausting systems, that correct the biologically destructive aspects of our collective application of power over the last 200+ years.
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Living Earth 
