Teilhard argues that responsibility isn’t just a social rule but a cosmic imperative. The universe, he claims, is hurtling toward unity—collapsing matter into life, life into consciousness. Today, planetary compression—population growth, tech, and globalization—fuels interdependence. Each choice ripples across humanity: a pilot’s error, a scientist’s discovery, a leader’s word. This isn’t mere ethics; it’s evolution’s demand. As humanity merges into a thinking superorganism, responsibility becomes biological—a binding thread in Earth’s living tapestry, transcending laws to reflect our shared cosmic destiny.
Published in the July–August 1951 edition of Psyché, and later in Activation of Energy.