I The reason we exist

1 Meaning of meaning 13
2 Unraveling the Mystery of the Human Species 19
3 Evolution and Our Inner Conflict 31

II Unification of Knowledge

4 New Enlightenment Movement 41
5 Essential Humanities 59
6 Driving Forces of Social Evolution 69

III Other Worlds

7 Humanity Loses the Pheromone World 89
8 Superorganisms 103
9 Why Microbes Rule the Galaxy 115
10 Portraits of Aliens 125
11 Biodiversity Collapse 139

IV Idols of the Mind

12 Instincts 151
13 Religion 165
14 Free Will 179

V The Future of Humanity

15 Alone and Free in Space 195

Appendix 211
Acknowledgements 227
Search 228

Why do we exist?
Insights and Advice from Edward Wilson, the Scientist of Convergence

Human existence may be simpler than we think.
Life has no predetermined purpose, no endless mystery.
There are no demons or gods vying for our faith.
Instead, we are a species adapted to living in an independent, solitary, and fragile biological world.


Terrorism in the name of religion, the refugee crisis in Europe, and international conflicts surrounding the South China Sea darken the outlook for humanity's evolving future.
The tribal conflicts that humanity so easily becomes addicted to might be enjoyable in team sports, but they can be fatal when expressed in the real world as racial, religious, or ideological conflicts.
Anthropocentrism has contributed greatly to the survival of individuals and groups, but humanity, overly preoccupied with itself, fails to protect the rest of life.
The explosion of science and technology has given us greater freedom than ever before, but it has also brought with it heavier responsibilities.
The recently published book, "The Meaning of Human Existence: Towards Sustainable Freedom and Responsibility," by Science Books, is a collection of insights and suggestions on humanity presented by Edward Wilson, the founder of sociobiology and a scientist of integration.
Edward Wilson, who won the Pulitzer Prize twice for “On Human Nature” and “Ants,” continues to examine the past, present, and future of humanity without losing his love for life and faith in humanity.

What is the meaning of human existence? I believe it lies within the very epic of our species, from biological evolution and prehistoric times into the historical era, advancing ever more rapidly into an uncertain future, and within the process by which we choose what kind of beings we will become.


There's only one Earth, and only one chance for immortality.

We are all genetic chimeras, adults and sinners, defenders of truth and hypocrites.
This is not because humanity has failed to reach some predetermined religious or ideological ideal, but because this is the way our species originated through millions of years of biological evolution.

Comprised of five parts, "The Meaning of Human Existence" explores the ultimate questions of "Where are we going?" and "Why?" through a journey that crosses the natural sciences and the humanities.
As "Why We Exist" reveals, the answer to the question "What are we?" lies in the circumstances and processes that gave birth to our species.
The human condition is a product of history.
To understand the present human condition, we need to examine the biological evolution of a species and the environments that brought it into prehistoric times.
Exploring biological and cultural evolution over hundreds of thousands of years also holds the key to understanding how and why our species emerged and survived.

The most complex societies, from insects to mammals, emerged through “true” social conditions, or eusociality.
Biologists have discovered that highly developed human social behavior originated in a similar way to social behaviors observed in other members of the animal kingdom.
We will remain part of the Earth's flora and fauna, intertwined through emotions, physiology, and especially through deep history.
If we were to give ourselves completely over to the instinctive impulses that arise from individual selection, society would disintegrate.
If we give in to the impulses of group selection, we will become angelic robots, giant ants.
Our eternal conflict is neither a test from God nor a plot from the devil.
It was just like that from the beginning.
This conflict may be the only way in which human-level intelligence and social organization can evolve throughout the universe.
We will eventually live with our innate anxiety, and perhaps find ways to derive joy from it, viewing it as a primary source of creativity.

We have now entered a new cycle of exploration.
It is an exploration that is infinitely richer, correspondingly more challenging, and increasingly humanistic.


If Part 1 examined the biological origins of human nature and derived the notion that human creativity largely emerges through the conflict between the individual and group levels of natural selection, Part II: The Unity of Knowledge leads to the notion that science and the humanities stand on the same foundation.
From the Enlightenment in Western society to the present, science and humanities have each gone their own way, but now is the time for a new Enlightenment.
The first Enlightenment movement was brought about by Western Europe pioneering the world's shipping routes.
As the world became one again, humanity reached a historic turning point that fostered knowledge and invention.
Now science and technology are increasingly revealing humanity's position, not only on Earth but also in the universe beyond.
The explosive growth of scientific knowledge has implications for the humanities in every respect.
As robots increasingly take over decision-making and work, what will be left for humans to do? Will we want to compete with robots using implanted brain chips and genetically enhanced intelligence? Such a choice would represent a radical departure from our inherited human nature and a fundamental shift in the human condition.
The author argues that the humanities are what make us human and can prevent science from being used to destroy the absolute and unique source of humanity's future, and he supports existential conservatism, which advocates protecting biological human nature as a sacred trust.

The meaning of human existence is best understood by comparing our species to other imaginable life forms, and by inference to life forms that might exist outside our solar system.

In "III Other Worlds," we look back at the human world from a new perspective, from ants to aliens.
The evolutionary innovation of pointing our heads to the sky and communicating with our senses of sight and hearing instead of pheromones has given us an advantage over other creatures, but it has also left us sensory-impaired.
So humans have been indiscriminately destroying the biosphere, largely without even realizing it, and almost all living things in it.
When populations were small and resources were abundant, there was plenty of time and space to recover, but now, to save that environment, we need to observe the world of pheromones.
Ants, the most efficient living and reproducing superorganisms with brains only one-millionth the size of a human brain, awe us today with their sophisticated complexity.
However, describing human society as a superorganism is an over-interpretation.
It is true that we build our society on cooperation, division of labor, and frequent altruistic acts.
But while social insects are almost entirely governed by instinct, we rely on the transmission of culture.

As a biodiversity researcher and a natural optimist, the author also describes extraterrestrial life.
Of course, any alien capable of traveling from a destroyed planet to Earth would have developed the ability to avoid planetary destruction in the first place.
Furthermore, the author warns against the complacent idea that humanity will be able to migrate to other planets after consuming Earth.
There is only one habitable planet for each species, and therefore only one chance for immortality.

Humanity's impact on the environment will reach a bottleneck.
We have a responsibility to move ourselves and the rest of life beyond that bottleneck as much as possible toward a sustainable world.
Of all species, we alone have understood the reality of the biological world, seen the beauty of nature, and attributed value to individuals.
We alone have measured the quality of compassion toward our fellow human beings.
Now we must extend that compassion to the living world that gave birth to us.


Meet the new era of integration
A Sustainable Future for Humanity

“All human problems stem from the fact that we do not know who we are and that we disagree about what we want to be.” ― Jean Brûlére (aka Vercors)

In "IV Idols of the Mind," the discussion expands to include ways in which biology can help us solve the riddle of human existence, which is rooted in instinct, religion, and free will.
What we call human nature is the whole of our emotions and the readiness for learning that those emotions govern.
Researchers have discovered that human nature is not built into the genes that determine emotions and readiness to learn.
Nor are they contained in universal cultural traits that are the end product of genes.
Human nature is a set of genetic regularities in mental development that bias cultural evolution in one direction rather than the other, thereby linking genes to culture in the brains of all people.

Meanwhile, religion has much more than its biological roots.
The history of religion is as deep as, or very close to, the history of humanity itself.
The attempt to solve the riddles of religion is at the heart of philosophy.
The great religions are also tragic sources of constant and unnecessary suffering.
They are obstacles that prevent us from understanding the reality needed to solve the most social problems of the real world.
The exquisitely human flaw of religion is tribalism, and it is tribalism that makes good people do bad things, not the moral doctrines and humanistic thinking of pure religion.
The problem lies not in the nature or existence of God, but in the biological origins of human existence and the nature of the human mind, which is what has made us the pinnacle of biospheric evolution.
Capturing the ghost of conscious thought is perhaps the most important scientific pursuit for humanity.
Scientists, philosophers, and religious believers alike agree, as neurobiologist Gerald Edelman puts it, “Consciousness guarantees us that we are all human and noble beings.”
Permanent loss of consciousness, even if the body's vital signs are maintained, is considered as good as dead." Free will is necessary for maintaining sanity, at least in an operational sense, and thus for the perpetuation of the human species.

Man is completely alone and completely free.
New alternatives lie before us that were scarcely dreamed of in previous eras.


In the final chapter, “V The Future of Humanity”/“Alone and Free in the Universe,” the author emphasizes that human existence is not the creation of a supernatural being, but rather one of millions of species in the Earth’s biosphere that emerged through chance and necessity.
A prerequisite for achieving the goal of unity of the human species is accurate self-understanding.
Humanity emerged as an event in evolution, a product of random mutation and natural selection.
Evolution is a fundamental process of the universe that occurs not only in living things but at all levels and everywhere.
The analysis of evolution is central to biology, including medicine, microbiology, and agriculture.
Moreover, the history of psychology, anthropology, and even religion itself would be meaningless without the core component of evolution over time.

Talking about human existence also brings into sharper focus the differences between the humanities and science.
Although science and the humanities are fundamentally different, their origins are complementary, emerging from the same creative processes of the human brain.
If the heuristic and analytical power of science were combined with the introspective creativity of the humanities, human existence would become infinitely more productive and interesting.

A selfish individual may beat an altruistic individual, but a selfish group will lose to an altruistic group.
Through the history of evolution, where such things are repeated, humans have developed a contradictory attitude of tightrope walking between selfish and altruistic behavior.
Edward Wilson says that contradiction has been and will continue to be the driving force behind human progress.


This little book is packed with powerful power.
― Bill McKibben (environmental activist, author)

World-renowned biologist Wilson transcends academic boundaries to reveal who we are and the choices we face.
― Al Gore (environmental activist, former U.S. Vice President)