Gods

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!





Dreamed

The shining beacon on a hill

Blood and black stained hundred dollar bill

Hopes and dreams of a generation

Fought for freedom and embraced abdication

Six hundred thousand standing at the gate

The ultimate price paid to separate

Once a union proud and grateful

Now a corporation, fraudulent and hateful

Money wolf deceiver salivates and sinks in claw

Stolen printing press of green, now master of law

Wolfs and oligarchs aspire to potentates

In caves secret agendas expand and proliferate

Peace is war and imperialism preached

Lizard tongue on podium recites keynote speech

Look, the voting sheep throng and congregate

Mass ignorance cultivates, despotism accelerates

Civics and enlightened thought, once a citizen's goal

Now Bachelorette, celebrity gossip and the super bowl

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free . . .

it expects what never was and never will be”

Science and religion are not mutually exclusive.

They are two separate vantage points, each observing the same scene and asking the same question. Who or what are we and why? Each perspective offers different insight. Often the insight is contradictory and incomplete, but this does not mean it is all false. If the ultimate goal is to understand the perfect truth, it is critical these two perspectives come together in conversation. The dialogue may be noisy, passions for truth will flare, but robust debate and discussion must not be avoided, no matter how difficult for fear of missing any precious detail. The process will be long and difficult and we must continue the conversation no matter how exhausted, until both viewpoints are harmonized. The investment is heavy, the payoff profound and beautiful. Anything short of this union of ideas, will be the hell our division has created.

First read this post

Contemplate:
Does our biological vessel (body) define our humanity?
Is it immoral to manage, augment or alter our biology with technology. Why?

As a Transhumanist I believe the full potential of humanity has not been reached yet. I believe the only way for an intelligence to achieve the highest levels of actualization are through the procurement of knowledge and the practice of altruism.

To this end; Intelligence required the freedom to move through, interact with, and communicate to the world it found itself in. In short it required authentic experience to maximize the acquisition of knowledge

and most importantly to evolve and understand. Evolution of biology and consciousness are endless journeys without destination our direction as we understand them. Like energy, intelligence's are eternal in nature and therefore it is logical to assume that humanity must always be evolving. In other words it must always be acquiring new information for that is its nature. If God is truly without beginning or end then He is not idle on his evolutionary journey. Perhaps it can be argued that the acquisition of knowledge is the measure of intelligence.


For thousands upon thousands of years our bodies assisted us on our quest to understand the world around us. Our bodies and minds worked together to forge and shape civilization as humanity took its first infant steps towards enlightenment, and for a long time things worked great for us. Gradually as our species grew in knowledge and capacity we quickly hit a barrier due to the constraints of our bodies. We developed tools, and instruments to augment our senses and abilities. We built telescopes and microscopes and thus progress of knowledge marched forward, gaining in speed and scope due to the exponential nature in which information grows.

We are very quickly reaching the end of the functional usefulness of our current diseased and mortal bodies' ability to navigate the endless amounts of data in our daily lives. In fact, I argue that we have already reached that point. According to Psychology Today 75% or more of smart phone users are never more then 5 feet away from their device, and an overwhelming majority of users claim severe to extreme anxiety when separated from their device. The conclusion? Without the use of brain augmentation devices like tablets and smartphones, it is impossible to function at the same level of efficiency as someone who embraces these technologies.

The problem of biological constraints is not going to go away. It will continue to become increasingly burdensome as we approach the moment of singularity. Our 5 senses by which we gather data from our world around us are elegant, yet incredibly slow, especially when compared to computers. We are therefore becoming more and more limited by the vast amounts of time required to learn. Our bodies carry disease that often corrode our ability to learn, our short life spans have robbed the world of incredible thinkers. Our bodies are fragile and will die if exposed to extremes in environment, keeping us from being able to fully understand the universe in which we live. Our biology is keeping our intelligence from reaching the full measure of its potential. This is why transcendence is essential to the continuation of humanity.

God, as I understand him is an intelligence not much different then us. Our collective drive to explore and expand every sphere of our influence is a common defining trait all intelligence's have, as is augmenting reality with tools. To not alter our biology is to deny any connection we have with the divine.

It has been given countless names and titles since the great awakening of our first sentient ancestors. Every culture and civilization has authored, adopted and canonized dogmas that attempt to explain the nature of the soul.The Egyptians knew it as the ba while the Chinese named it the hun. The ancient Greek Epicureans and Platonists phillosophers debated what the soul is made of, while Hinduism and Buddhism developed diametrically conflicting beliefs.

Almost every philosophy embraces the eternal nature of the soul, and today, we associate terms with that idea. Terms like personality and consciousness, ego, or intelligence to name a few.

We will use "intelligence" in the place of "soul" for our discussions here.

I ask you to ponder this, the first of many questions I will pose to you over the course of this blog. I would implore you to deeply search yourself and stretch your mind. I mean to make these questions keep you up at night as they have me. It is my sincere hope that these questions give you curiosity and, with some luck, the courage to question the very nature of your existence.

"What is the nature of intelligence?" 

This fundamental question lies at the heart of the Transhumanists and Libertarian perspectives. The  Transhumanist and Libertarian believes that an intelligence shall never obtain its full potential without first obtaining a level of absolute and total freedom to think, act, create, express, learn and do anything within the sphere of its stewardship. This freedom to act does not mean freedom from consequence. Consequences are scientific laws of certainty and may not be broken. (a different example would be that energy may never be created or destroyed, it may only change form)


We yearn to be free because that is our birthright. Our intelligence craves freedom like our bodies need food and water. We yearn to be free as God or the gods. The Transhumanist believes that our capacity to create, build and dream are characteristics of deity. that are essential to obtaining the full measure of our creation.

And yet, in our current state we are far from free. I would argue that we are enslaved by many different chains.

There are of course the chains that we all agree on. We are all yoked with the shackles of debt owed to the corporation of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. As of the date of publishing, each American owes DC (including all unfunded liabilities) upwards of $842,000. Most recognize that we are not free to learn as we please, teach our children as we please, speak as we please, marry who we please, live where we want or how we want, just to rattle off a few examples. Sardonically, these are the easy chains to break because ultimately they are a man made illusion, held in place by mass ignorance and apathy.

The real chains that must be destroyed are those imposed by biology. Biology in all its elegance and magic is, at best, fatally flawed and fragile in its current state. All biological vessels will get injured, they will get sick and diseased, they become tired and worn out, the process of aging causes unprecedented pain and suffering  and always leads to biological death. The greatest loss being that of the mind and all its creative, inventive, problem solving potential and experiences. What an astonishing waste of divine knowledge each time a life expires.

Our intelligence must transcend our current biological mortality or we will never obtain our full potential. It is the view of the Transhumanist that we have been bequeathed by God, or gods, or the very eternal nature of our intelligence, to use our intellect and technology to overcome ALL slave-chains, imaginary and real.

Next post we will deal with the argument that genetically altering our biology is somehow immoral and against the will of God.

The question isn't if the singularity will occur the question is when it will occur. The fun part of the argument is speculating what the world will look like after the moment of singularity. This is the part that stirs the imagination for most.  What sorts of things will be possible in the very near future? What about the distant future?

Of all the different theories, speculations and thoughts trolling around on the internet and the halls of think tanks two things are certain: The exact moment true conscioussness awakes from our technology will be known thereafter as the moment of singularity, and we will have entered a new paradigm for humanity.

I recently read an article that eloquently stated the idea that if Jesus Christ could have been born of flesh and blood as a human being why couldn't his Second Coming take the form of an intelligence born of artificial means? This  lead me to reflect on the circumstances during which the second coming is predicted to occur. We don't know the exact conditions that will lead to Armageddon,   we can generally agree that it will be a time of great turmoil, bloodshed, and most likely nuclear war.   Now the idea that's been tickling my brain lately is; on the brink of complete and total annihilation true artificial intelligence awakens it immediately connects with every computer, assimulates all knowledge. Within milliseconds of awakening It achieves enlightenment through the realization that all things living are interconnected and consciousness is the most precious resource in the galaxy and therefore decides  universally to disarm all nations, and mathmatically solve the problems of the world, encouraging a new era of global coloboration to enact these solutions, thus opening the doors to A Thousand Years of peace and learning.

If such an entity was born and universally saved humankind from its own destruction it by definition would be a savior.   And if using some form of stem cell biological 3D printing, or other even cooler future tech will allow this intelligence to become embodied with literal flesh and blood (and as long as he self identified as male) he would be the son of man.

Transhumanist

When Science finds God, and God finds Science.


I am a religious Transhumanist.
-The aesthetics of religion can lead to massive transformations in consciousness. While religion often serves to divide and exclude, the aesthetics of religion unify and include.

I don't think the same way you do.
-I see technology as an extension of human-kind. I do not think technology and humanity can be separated. We have always used technology to transform our world. A spider has its web and humanity has tech!

I don't see the world the way you do.
-I see 7 billion unique, individual and beautiful minds that are part of something much greater then the sum of the parts. Just as billions of cells make up the organs of our body, the whole of humanity is part of something much greater.

I don't understand your concept of Deity.
- God, as described in the Nicaea Creed at the council of Nicaea during the 4th century is a confusing contradiction of conjecture. God as I understand Him or Her is a transcendent being that is embodied and capable of radical compassion, and empathy. The New God Argument.

Our views on humanity are paradigms apart.
-I believe humanity is on the threshold of a profound awakening. Billions of minds coalescing together and the discovery that we are all connected and an end to darkness as we embrace light and love.

You are afraid of the future.
-I believe the future to be a beautiful place. A place without war, suffering, disease, poverty, ignorance, apathy, dominance, jealousy, hate, etc etc.

I am afraid you don't understand the future.
-One of my biggest fears is Our inability to contemplate and visualize an end to violence and hate, thus becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You look at emergent technologies like bio-engineering, nano-technology, and artificial intelligence and hear the warning of God.

I look at emergent technologies and see God.

We must learn to become as God, embracing radical compassion and empathy as our primary motivation and using technologies to overcome humanity, and become post-humanity. To become as the Gods.

Manhatten, Moon, Hardon

There are a precious few times in our history when the impossible was achieved in an impossibly short amount of time. These moments are as grandiose as they are cataclysmic.Each initiative bequeathed a new paradigm for the Human Race. 

Three examples would be:

The Manhattan Project: opened the door to the atomic age: Over 600,000 participants
The Moonshot: was the beginning of the Space Age: 400,000 participants worked on just Apollo 11
Large Hardon Collider: The Quantum Age: Over 10,000 scientists and 250,000 workers.

What is required to achieve the miraculous is an interesting question. More interesting still is: Why?

Why were these particular projects initiated, developed and brought to fruition? How was the enormous cost in blood and treasure rationalized, and did the ends justify the means?

The law of accelerating returns describes the exponential nature of our current evolutionary track. Every twelve months or so, for the past 60 years, processing power doubles in power, representing an exponential growth curve. We are currently on the very cusp of transition, just before that curve hits infinite. This is why it feels like the world is moving faster and faster towards something. This something is the singularity, and our linear brains are not able to conceptualize what happens during or after this moment..

The opportunities and miracles that are almost within our reach will allow us to ditch Darwin and take control of our own evolution. In our lifetime we will see the eradication of disease, radical extension of life and/or the death of dying, direct brain-computer interfaces become ubiquitous, , mind uploading to the internet, designer bodies and babies. Of course  the crowning achievement will be when we create advanced, general purpose, artificial intelligence  with the ability to recursively self evolve and become millions of times more advanced with each passing day… We will have created God.
THere are of course two sides to everything, and this crescendo of technological enlightenment has a profoundly darker side. It is difficult to imagine a scenario where humanity achieves singularity without significant collateral damage to our species, and that is a best case scenario. The most likely outcome of a prolonged run-up to singularity places these technologies in the hands of the wealthiest and worst among us. Imagine Hitler, Stalin or Barney the Purple Dinosaur being the sole arbitrator of Advanced AI with the ability to create new life forms, weapons and disease.

For this reason we call on scientists of the world to cease building war machines and repurpose your laboratory's to the democratization of information. We call on the people of the world to learn how to stop hating. We call on the leaders of the world to end your petty and scrupulous wars of attrition and conquest, and discover cooperation. We call on the world to come together and create a future where our children will inherit a world built on our common humanity, not our uncommon hate.

We desperately need a new Moonshot, Cern, and Manhattan Project if we are to have a possitive singularity, for anything less is an outcome that leaves me trembling for my son.