readymade escape route that non-aquatic species might well be uncomfortable in using. The beaver has evolved a successful set of behaviors, as judged by natural selection, which require a specialized and somewhat complex environment. They need rather stable bodies of water in which to live, to find food and to construct their nests. Such environments are not naturally occurring in large numbers across wide ranges of geography. By developing a facility for constructing the necessary environment, beavers have created a means to control their physical ecosystem. One can certainly argue that the beaver dam, and its resulting facilities, constitutes one of the more complex systems encountered outside the human species’ control of its environment. Considering the behaviors necessary to construct and maintain this complex physical and social environment, we see a significant precursor to the human need for, and pursuit of, transcendence.

In the case of the human species, if we consider the extension of the social fabric that is projected by computers and computer networks, then it would seem that our needs, being higher in the ontogenetic and phylogenetic scales, would provide impetus for a tool or system that better conveys human cognitive functions into this extension of human social ecosystems. So, our interpretation of the concept for this tool or system is that of a computational entity that enables humans to sate their full range of needs through interactions within various sizes of groups as effected through widespread computer networks. As instantiated within cyberspace, we suggest the need for a computer through which humans can project themselves into and through cyberspace just as their physical presence can be projected into and through the social ecosystems that have enabled the species to achieve eminence. Our model for such a tool, the manifestation of this new species of computer, derives from a blending of current systems with new capabilities and with additional characteristics that facilitate the cognitive connection of the computer to the person. This model is grounded in the form and function of current personal electronic devices, although technological advances might well transcend these currently envisioned forms and functions. As must always be noted in such situations, where the evaluation through market forces may take a different path than we envision, “Your mileage may vary.”

For purposes of our discussion, we have termed this new species the transcendent personal device to reflect the highest level of need considered in the pretergenesis table. What then is our model for the transcendent personal device? What new characteristics should it possess and how will it relate to the human cognition system in order to constructively augment or reinforce that system, particular insofar as it facilitates an extension of human social ecosystems to encompass cyberspace? In essence, this brings us to the heart and soul of our examination of human and computer characteristics.

In the pretergenesis table, we mapped the association between evolutionary characteristics of the human species to the needs hierarchy that provides the stimulus for human interactions. Through the expanding characteristics provided by the evolution of the body and mind of the individual human, the needs of that individual expanded apace. We suggest that in a like fashion, the desired characteristics of the transcendent personal device should be migrating toward better support for the human species in meeting its full range of needs and specifically should facilitate the social grouping mechanisms that have proven so important to human preeminence.

Following the progression of the growth of the human needs hierarchy that we considered in Chapter 5, suggest that a reasonable way to consider the characteristics of the transcendent personal device is to elaborate about them in a parallel to human needs. As we develop the capabilities desired to support the higher level needs, they will in turn reflect on increasingly specific technological facilities elaborated in response to the lower level needs. We note that Maslow presented human needs as a hierarchy, not just a list. The computer system analogue to

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