New Dominant Life Form

The New Dominant Life Form is a carefully designed phrase referring to the modern corporation and its allies. Specifically we mean large for-profit corporations. We are not concerned with small corporations or non-profits, because they are relatively benign.

This concept is one small part of the Niche Succession Simulation Model presented in the Dueling Loops of the Political Powerplace book. The model proposes that there is an intense, prolonged battle for control of the biosphere between Homo sapiens and the modern corporation. The modern corporation is winning the battle, and is now the undisputed master of the human system. This has already occurred in the United States, where corporate influence has allowed election of corporate proxies to most of congress and, in 2001, the white house.

Because humans are a genetic life form and corporations are a memetic life form, the modern corporation is now the New Dominant Life Form. This perspective can be a great help in determining how to turn the tables and make Homo sapiens the master of his own destiny once again. This may no longer be possible, however, because of the power of the Competitive Exclusion Principle. The first time Homo sapiens gained control of it niche (the biosphere), there was no competitor. But for the second time there is. It is extremely difficult to drive a well adapted life form out of its niche. It may be impossible if that life form can adapt much faster than the one trying to displace it, which is the case here. Memetic evolution occurs several orders of magnitude faster than genetic evolution, which gives the New Dominant Life Form a large and potentially insurmountable competitive advantage.

How insurmountable may be seen in the table below. 17 attributes are listed. In the first attribute people have the advantage over corporations. In the second they are equal. In all the rest corporations have the overwhelming competitive advantage. Poor Homo sapiens doesn’t stand a chance. Unless, of course, we redesign the modern corporation to be a trusted servant whose goals are aligned with those of its master, Homo sapiens.