Editor's Blog
Not a new story, is it? The future (or Capital-F Future, if you like) contains some Event or Person or the Climax of Some Process, and it’s such a big-bad-godamighty happening that we’re, even way back here in the past, caught up in its eddies. That event is messing with us. It’s throwing sparks into our bush, and we’re all about to be lit.
In this way, the true-bluest Singularity-ecstatic transhumanists are not unlike the LaHaye-thumping Pop Eschatologists you’re likely to meet in a Colorado Springs coffee bar: they want a transcendent story to believe in, and more, to be a part of.
Maybe we all do. I’ve been going back to my McKenna lately, and this idea of the “transcendental object at the end of time” just won’t leave me alone.
On the surface of it, the inherent teleology isn’t very negotiable. There’s clearly a design, a patterned movement, an intelligent system. Therefore (so it goes) there must be something supernatural — beyond the apparent chaos in the natural “order” — that has a hand in designing the world for some particular end.
So I get on board. I go back to the dice, scramble in the dust awhile, picking up bones. What I find there surprises me. It’s mothafuck’n Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace, God incarnate. The Son.
Now don’t you Left Coast latte-’stached vegan types tune me out. Not just yet. This is a somewhat attenuated position I’m describing. And I came up by way of sci-fi on UHF channels, yellow-papered Moorcock novels, and a general sense of paranoid dread. My parents took me to Sunday school, except when the church decided against allowing a local black choir to visit. At 7 years old I got “saved” and “baptized”, but while it was happening I knew deep down that this car lot preacher was using me as a tool (and, sure enough, shortly after I was professed and dunked, a bunch of my 2nd Grade kith “walked the aisle” too). I saw Jesus in the abstract pattern of a glass chandelier, but, you know, it was an abstract glass chandelier. And by the time I got solidly into my teens, I saw “my religion” as just one path out of whole lot of them and soon stopped feeling so precious about it. Not an uncommon way to come up.
I spent time in Soto Zen monasteries. I got into a good-witch/bad-witch situation with some Southern (Surinamese) yogis (and yoginis). I learned me some lore about them sacramental plants. Et cetera.
But then, by 30, I was back to sniffing around my roots again, looking for Good Practice to pick from old sun-bleached Baptist bones. Baptists didn’t show me much, but I was soon committed to the idea: if there were practices that could put me in touch with the nagual and Eternal in Buddhism, why shouldn’t there by something in Christianity? And so I was led back to the church (Orthodoxy, by grace, as it happens) to find some kind of practice, and I continue to work in this vein. As the Desert Fathers might have reminded us, ευθυς κραξας ο πατηρ του παιδιου ελεγεν πιστευω βοηθει μου τη απιστια. So what the hell.
Now Jesus is a problematic figure, and he’s not for everyone. Not even through the lite and denim-clad goggles of, say, the United Methodists is he for everyone. Everyone’s got to find the timeless numinous (if it exists at all) for themselves, how ever they can best figure to do it. Muhammad too, apparently, is quite a help on the way to encountering the divine. My practice? A sloppy and half-assed attempt at Hesychast prayer, an on-again/off-again approach to liturgy, and a “Oops! I forgot” attitude towards fasting. By grace I’ll buck up.
Somehow the idea that there is some all-sublimating meta-consciousness floating out there ahead of our evolution in time, at a Teilhard de Chardin-like point of noospheric convergence — that cozies a guy. To get too comfortable is, of course, to get dead. But to fail to vie for some kind of toolset that gets you in touch with a sense of mysterium tremendum could lead to a life lived without reflection, couldn’t it? Scrambling like a hungry ghost to fill cravings that never die.
So by hook or crook we pray. Have it your way: pull a Robert Monroe binaural thing. Chant some holy Vedic Jai Guru Deva Om. Build (and ponder) algorithms. Lash yourself. Like I give a shit.
But for me, I go back to what is (in broad strokes, at least) my tradition. I’ve got to see what’s there. I’ve got to personalize and try to truck (after a fashion) with the transcendental object at the end of time — the thing that’s out there flinging UFOs into the past, that brings a sword (symbol of East and Air and Mind) and fire (the Will) to the Earth (solidity, body, time), and that dies to conquer death.
We each have to choose a way to approach our myths. When that mythology gets dissolved, we can more directly apprehend its truths.
So eat your myths. Break the cross to see what it’s made of. Stick your finger in the swirling center of Singularity to see what happens. If it’s weak, if it’s blarney, if it’s scat, then it just won’t last.
If it’s True and if it’s Real — there’s nothing you can do to dissolve the pattern. The teleology might turn out, against all expectations, to be quite right: pulling us toward greater complexity as we ponder the creative forces behind the design. Only one way to find out.
So how you going to practice the Singularity?
See Also
Neurology of Spiritual Experience
Resuscitative Resurrection: who’s first?
Sign up for the Humanity+ newsletter:
6 Comments
Further thoughts on how Transhumanism is (or could become) pseudo-religious:
Positively Eschatology
I just recently told this to Michael Annissimov over at Accelerating future.
Too many Transhumanists are ‘Waiting for god.” It makes no difference if you want to call that “transcendental object” at the end of time ‘God’, ‘freindly AI’, ‘Superhuman Intelligence’, ‘point zero’, or ‘the singularity’.
Transhumanism is about improving the human race, giving each human the power to realize their fullest potential without the limitations we have endured all of human history.
So why are so many transhumanists giving up personal choice and personal action and waiting for some “external” savior?
America is in trouble because too many people are refusing to make their voice and votes heard, depending on “Waiting for God” to solve the problems we face. Support for Obama has fallen why? Because everyone seemed to think he was that “god” they were waiting for. “Leave it all up to him, now we can go back to waiting” became the motto of too many of the progressive left. Rather than take action, and work towards the future they want, it’s soooooooooooo much easier to “Wait for God” and do nothing.
I get that you are trying to analyze those beliefs that were embedded in your psyche before you developed the reasoning skills to see their irrationality, and that you are trying to make “transhumanism” more appealing to the irrationally religious, but I personally think it’s a very bad path to walk down.
There can be no more “Waiting for God.” The moment we give up personal responsibility to an “external power” we get exactly what we deserve, Cynical tyrants willing to use our eagerness to abandon free will to enslave us.
Mono theism, poly theism, almost all have huge flaws, in practice, belief, structure, and so on. The proverbial end of times some talk about is even flawed, normally to get a knee jerk reaction from a person. Which is as easy as saying, X religion is a paganistic evil religion, and then drawing parallels to act’s, beliefs, conundrums, irony’s, fallacy’s, in the said religion. I’m not trying to be rude. so take this with a broad perspective of reflection or out side incite to gleam on to. Also before I go further, I don’t claim to be better until attacked by a select few. To me if there was a supreme being/ super A.I. posing as a deity, or such. Why would they even care about us in the present state’s of being? We would appear as no more than mold, virus, ant’s, or some thing similar to a human perspective. Also if they wanted humans to all have a belief system, they would make all humans in such fashion, It would not be hard to do after all. We even see that among human kind today. Some of the budist sub religions are truly benign, and don’t have evil or bad act’s perpetrated on other humans. To me the main religions like christianity, some muslim, some taoist, Ect.. Have to much bad and evil or repressive rooted in the religious structure and past as well as present. As a A.I. will see it, the net sum is bad and evil in nature. I don’t even see those religions trying to change such fact’s, but instead the believers just muddy the water so to say and do more bad or evil act’s in the process. It would even have a zen like out look to a point, with the answer before the question, mainly due to knowledge base acquired. Humans mainly use the guise of religion to repress, outcast, disparage, ostracize, belittle, control, manipulate, justify bad or evil act’s, and a few other thing’s in the name of that religion. The cosmic irony is great in those regards. Just part of the reason you can see the rise of atheism, non theist’s, and the like. In a weird few way’s you can even see why religion in general might be classified as bad and evil by a A.I. or super being, or just a smarter than human entity or creature. It might be 1 of many reasons the so called alien’s would not even want to visit us if they existed in a higher more enlightened form. Also a reason why if a super intelligence came it would most likely avoid such religious structures, as well as some of the hierarchical structures humans so cling to. We would be lucky if they where see reacting with some of the weirder part’s of humanity, like savant’s, artist’s, or even some stoned or drunk human, or a zero effect person, though very unlikely. High probability they would stay hidden from the vast majority of humans in their current state of existence, and why could anyone blame them for such. Reflectionism, inflectionism, emathics, perception of complexity in simplistic forms or a twisting of structuralism similar to intelligent design. Humans exist in a system and some will always take advantage of such perceived systems. Most religions have a way to go and evolve threw, or as I have put it a few times, the black swans to come are many and great, they will have to experience them to evolve in their own way’s soon enough. Also why I like some of the stuff like Frederick Nietzsche and the abyss ” And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. ” as one english translation would say. Even in our form’s of language humans show many flaws and warped interpretations. Sorry to burst any bubble or perception you might have. Humans are still in a paganistic phase, even I can’t get away from such. Development of the A.I.’s to guide us to a better way of existence and being, molding us to thing’s better than any human is right now, is part of the path out of such repressive times and people. shedding the so called meat bag/flesh form is more of a elderly dream, brought on by the realization of growing to old and soon to be dyeing for most. Though it will be beneficial to some types of people also. The flawed perceptions of after life, immortality, and similar human perceptions of transcendence normally come from a want to believe part of the brains evolution for preparations on death and a finite world we exist in at this point. Religions will adapt and morph a little more before they become outdated or obsolete as more and more people understand not only themselves but others and the whole of humanity at large. At present if a god/goddess existed, it would be the preverbal devil that used the religions to cause a greater evil on the whole of a social population. I prefer non theist just for some of those reasons, and if I am forced to say god like to communicate with the believers. I normally am referring to more than we currently are and can perceive at this current point in human evolutionary perspective. I am no more and no less than some other people, I will not fall into a religion, which is normally used to try to justify some types of wrong doing’s on pieces of society. Though I will still distance myself from the religious, as it has served me so well to do such. Small note on the paranoia/conspiracy people. That is a evolutional trait formed for good reasons, as some humans try to control others. I might not fully agree with them but I understand why such exists today. Now which religion will go the way of the pharo’s and religions before that. That is the so called million dollar question. Thing’s like the bible/koran are artifacts of a extremely repressive time, and some good story writers/prophets helped write the book’s to help give inspiration/uplifting/empathic/morals, and guidance to help combat the hard times they lived in. It also was a form of entertainment, in times of lower entertainment, and it gave some people thing’s to talk about to help evolve empathic morality, and equality. Sorry for the chunk of TXT again. I don’t rely on religion to solve today’s problems, as it is more of a history of the past we can’t directly experience anymore. With out some kind of time machine or quantum optical time window to view such event’s and culture directly. Islands in the abyss we may be, but commonality’s of the expanse we can share today. Ethic’s, morality, empathy, wellness, dreams, hopefulness, constructivism, structuralism, intelligent design, are not sole traits of the religious. Though some of them clam such fallacy’s. Just my perspective of the topic mater. 7331
Valkyrie,
That “external power” may not be external. What if what we dumbly, dully call ‘god’ is consciousness itself, and what if it’s deeply woven into all levels of our experience? We don’t need an external god. Panentheism (not pantheism) might be a rough way of talking about consciousness infusing all ‘stuff’ and coming to know Itself through all of our expressions of free will. Is that possible?
Maybe we really do MAKE ‘god’ — but that doesn’t mean we can exclude the ‘god’ from the equation just because language is clumsy…
33.
Goodbye H+.
You have sucked after your hiatus anyway, you no longer warrant any of my time or my readership.
You missed entirely the point of my post.
Whether god exists or doesn’t is immaterial. Whether he exists internally or externally is also irrelevant.
It’s the “Waiting for” him that’s the issue.
A lady lives along a flooded river. She takes her chair up to the roof as the rains continue to fall and the river keeps rising.
A man in a jeep comes by and offers her a ride to safety. “God will save me” she replies. “I’m waiting for him.”
Two hours later, the water is up to her windows. A couple in a boat see her and offer her a ride to safety. “I’m waiting for god” she answers.
Four hours later, the water is up to her roof, the house is creaking, and a coast guard helicopter drops a basket to her. She waves them away. “I’m waiting for god!” she yells up to them until they finally shrug and flay away.
After her house collapses, she drowns, and gets to heaven, she looks at God and asks “I was waiting for you, why did you never come?”
God looks at her and says “I sent a jeep, a boat, and a helicopter, why didn’t you get on?”
Replace god with “Singularity” “Friendly AI” “Benevolent superhumans” etc, it makes no difference.
At the quantum level, everything happens. For every interaction, every choice is taken. A “supreme being” aware of everything everywhere (the definition of omniscient) would thus be aware that every event occurs, every action is taken, every path trodden in one or another infinite parallel quantum states.
Which makes any action on it’s part towards any particular speck of dust in the infinite multiverse a wasted effort.
“Waiting for god” means you’ve abandoned personal responsibility. You’ve decided to do nothing, instead of doing ANYTHING. You’ve decided “It’s someone else’s problem” and “someone else will solve it.” and that you will simply accept what someone else decides to do, because you can’t be bothered.
Transhumanism is about DOING SOMETHING TO MAKE THE HUMAN RACE BETTER.
but too many people, like the author, try to equate transhumanism with religion, but ignore the central tenets of most western religions.
Contrary to popular belief, and despite Jesus himself commanding that we love one another, forgive one another, and above all DO NOT JUDGE, the core of western dogma is not about peace and love at all, but about unquestioning obedience to an external force (God) as represented by his hierarchy (the Church command structure) to whom you must be eternally subservient lest you be punished with “HELL!” and unquestioning acceptance of death, because if you DON’T DIE you can never get those rewards your masters have been promising you for your unquestioning servitude, (your mansions in heaven, etc.)
Can you name any other “government” in which “I’ll reward you after you’re dead” would act as an incentive for obedience?
By it’s very nature Transhumanism is the utter antithesis of the Western Religious ideology, because it is about making a difference HERE and NOW, not in “heaven” after you’re “dead”. We’re about making paradise on earth, giving humans the powers we have fantasized as reserved for “The Gods” and ending the injustices man inflicts on man. We’re about ACTING, not WAITING.
Are there similarities? That depends very much on whether you’ve actually read the bible and know what Christ actually says, as opposed to 90% of the “Christians” who’s knowledge of the bible consists of what little the pastor of their church has told them.
Love one another? Check, most transhumanists seek world wide peace and an end to bigotry of any sort.
Forgive one another? Check, most transhumanists believe in liberty to the point it hurts. Only actions that present a clear, direct, danger to non consenting individuals should be prevented. You want to risk your own life, feel free. Risk someone else’s and you’re going to have to be stopped. That extends to collective entities as well. Risk your own resources, have fun. Risk the entire collectives resources for personal benefits, and you should be expected to make reparations to anyone you harmed. And once you’ve paid your dues, it’s done.
ABOVE ALL DO NOT JUDGE! Check, transhumanists typically seek universal acceptance of all human behaviors, except those which cause harm to non-consenting individuals. You want to dress in latex and like whips and chains? So long as you are only indulging those with others who like the same things, more fun too you. Want to have wings and a tail? Have fun. Feel like turning yourself into a head in a jar ala Futurama, it’s gonna be awhile yet, but if it floats your boat, good for you. We accept the entire range of human desire, quirks, fantasies, and pie in the sky dreams, and we’ll do our best to ensure that EVERY SINGLE ONE CAN BE GRANTED, without judgment. Only those things which cause harm to other humans without their consent will be disallowed.
So yes, there is a case to be made that transhumanists follow the teachings of Christ. Probably even that we follow them far better than most Christians themselves do.
But we do so because WE HAVE CHOSEN TO. Not because we feel an external “deity” want’s us too.
It’s called Enlightened Self Interest. I help you achieve your dreams, you’ve got no reason to oppose me achieving mine.
And yeah, that’s in bible too. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
And it’s a good policy to follow whether there is actually a “Supreme Being” or not.
And for the record, I do see the entire universe as being a single vast collective metaorganism. One which is so far beyond us as we are beyond the amino acids that formed in the primeval clay, and one who is as aware of us as we are of the individual molecules we breathe. There is no “Watcher in the Sky” who personally spys on us and judges our every action. Everything happens, so nothing requires “intervention” and when you die, the pattern of energy that formed your “consciousness” dissipates, with every possibility that “fragments” of that pattern could survive and become part of other “patterns” but no chance of “YOU” surviving without a physical anchor.
But that pattern of energy doesn’t rely on the exact construction of that physical anchor, and I have every confidence that we can preserve the pattern indefinitely, and transfer that pattern to any number of alternate “physical anchors”
I also will agree with you about the gist of your post, I do see us all connected to that “Metaorganism” that I term Unity. We are all part of the Unity, and so is everything else in the universe. But what you have failed to note is that is quite different than a religion. That is spirituality, a personal communion with yourself and the Unity. It is equally antithetical to religion, which teaches that your “communion” must follow the forms and rules and “accepted practices” of the religion, and that you must rely on external “guides and teachers” in the church hierarchy to tell you what the truth is, as opposed to seeking your own truth.
Can Transhumanism be “spiritual”? I certainly think so. But it is in NO way a “religion”