The Fantastic Potential of Main-Stream Science and Technology   

Lately, people are noticing how technology is becoming more and more empowering, specifically nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science (NBIC). NBIC technologies are focused on improving human performance. They are also converging technologies, meaning they are considered to be interrelated fields of study that often overlap and impact each other yielding accelerating improvements. For over a decade now the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Commerce have looked at combining these four fields in order to improve the application of technology to human cognition, human health, and even community and social applications. Each type of technology involved in NBIC plays a role in the bigger picture: 

• Nanotechnology is important because organic structures develop from the nanoscale.
• Biotechnology involves the application of advanced technology to biological organisms.
• Information technology represents a specific sector of these types of applications.
• Cognitive science applies in various ways to IT-related research and the pursuit of items such as technologies that map the brain.

Using converging technologies, or NBIC principles, we enable the human populations of the future to be stronger, healthier and more capable overall. (1)

Christian Transhumanism

We are now consciously evolving. Humanity has acquired the ability to choose what the species Homo sapiens becomes in the future (2) and we are calling it transhumanism. (3) Let’s take this directed evolution, or transhumanism to the limit: Over the ages a natural trend of growing in understanding and creative powers will yield a supernatural looking state of being. The very most optimistic outcome for life, the supreme state of being, is to become eternally self-sustaining and universally creative. That is what God is. This eternal state of being is shared. Do not let anyone talk you out of that. This state of being promises everyone an eternal healthy life. We stay interested and engaged. We create and we diminish hardships forever.

The most intelligent thing we can do now is focus on consciously evolving to the one and only state of aseity, the property by which a being exists of and from itself. It will be easily understood that this property belongs, and can belong only, to the immortal, all-knowing God, a selfless and universal state of being which is in us all.  It is provocative for sure, arrogant sounding for sure. But essentially this goal is the source of life:

• It gives meaning to life and motivates us to live on. 
• Figuring out who God is in this way is actually the most authentic worship, 
• It is a moral responsibility, the surest way to unlock the abundance in this world necessary to feed and educate the growing masses. 

I call this Christian Transhumanism because it is conscious evolution to Christ. It is the tendency and desire of the spirit towards an intimate union with the Divinity. Through contemplation and love, a direct and immediate intuition of the Infinite (7) will be actualized... with NBIC technologies.

This is a dangerously narrow path, especially using technology. If you are meek, just have faith. You will inherit the good earth. But, if you are a pioneer with the Holy Spirit strive on with confidence; from a transcendent view your tower stands tall because it:

• is built with perfect love, 
• was built with perfect love, 
• and will be built with perfect love. (4) 

It takes a healthy balance of faith and work to grow to be not only like Christ, but to accomplish the task set forth in the New Testament to actuate Christ: (Man and God, merged) and actually participating in the creation. Wisdom of the ages says we stay out of the stagnating trap of idolatry laid by many egotistical church leaders, politicians, and corporations by:

• Never being satisfied with anything less than the one true omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God. 
• Proceeding carefully with unwavering humility and selfless love. 
• Recognizing ignorance in yourself and others, forgive it, and grow from it.

The Nationalism Factor

(In God and Technology We Trust)

Without a vision a people will perish, says Proverbs. Why? Howard Bloom says it well; "Because a vision of a goal, a destination, a promised land, a view of a destiny that can uplift all of human kind, opens a vast reserve of energies. Not the energies that come from solar panels, wind farms, or oil. The energies of the human spirit. The energies of your spirit and mine. It is a matter of Biology". We are weak without inspiration.

A new race is on akin to the nuclear era and the space race. The new race is for the cognitive high ground where intelligence will rule all aspects of life. Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Mathematician Vernor Vinge predicts that superhuman intelligences, however created, will be able to enhance their own minds faster than the humans that created them. "When greater-than-human intelligence drives progress," Vinge writes, "that progress will be much more rapid." This feedback loop of self-improving intelligence, he predicts, will cause large amounts of technological progress within a short period.

Early signs of the crisis are emerging today. The Internet security company report that approximately 120 countries have been developing ways to use the Internet as a weapon and target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities. In activities reminiscent of the Cold War, which caused countries to engage in clandestine activities, intelligence agencies are routinely testing networks looking for weaknesses. These techniques for probing weaknesses in the internet and global networks are growing more sophisticated every year.

Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Avert Labs, was quoted as saying "Cybercrime is now a global issue. It has evolved significantly and is no longer just a threat to industry and individuals but increasingly to national security." They predicted that future attacks will be even more sophisticated. "Attacks have progressed from initial curiosity probes to well-funded and well-organized operations for political, military, economic and technical espionage,"


The danger will come suddenly but so will opportunities. The Lifeboat Foundation explains; "An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense "intuitive linear" view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). The "returns", such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There's even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity; technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light."

We need a leader to rally us to a goal of conscious evolution as Kennedy did with the space race in the sixties. Here is an excerpt from JFKs Moon Speech;

"If we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space (replace space with conscious evolution) which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take. Now it is time to take longer strides-time for a great new American enterprise-time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement (conscious evolution), which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth." John F. Kennedy

50 YEARS LATER... manned space flight is suffering from lack of tangible returns on investment. It seems real space travel requires further evolution.

How should we evolve? It seems that Mind Space is the new land of opportunity. A very important point to realize is: consciousness is substrate independent. When your dynamic "self" is placed in the right order you can be conscious in any media, or combination of media. 

Nationalism is just one force motivating growth in understanding and creative powers. In this Christian Transhumanist's view, the cognitive high ground could be no other than Christ. His love is the winning strategy where ignorance is a disconnection that weakens and love empowers because it provides the highest form of understanding. Could this be God's Plan? If it is, America would be in the best position to gain the high ground, the Holy Grail of the information age, because of its curious mix of God and Technology. In God and Technology we trust.

What God?

1. God the Father is a timeless and transcendent state of being: (Revelation 1:8) “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." The beginning and the end come together in this timeless and eternal aspect of God, creator-sustainer and goal, in one supreme state of being.
2. God the Son is also present in time, and within us: In-between the alpha and omega there is the presence of the lord God in “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). We are this body of Christ living and growing in time... and we become that “which is to come”: timeless, eternal, Almighty, because that is our true love.(5)
3. God the Holy Spirit is acts of love: The process of connecting everything, timeless and present. God loves mankind, mankind loves God. Luke 10:27 says it best: 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" This is where science comes in. The product of this kind of love is true understanding, and the creative power that goes with true understanding. If love is efficient and sustained, true understanding increases exponentially. Humility and selfless peace allows unwavering devotion so that your love can establish a clear connection. Forgiveness is important to your growth because it establishes an exhaust for misunderstanding and disorder. With this truth we transcend. John (4:8) He that loves not knows not God; for God is love... Love rules, ignorance dies.

Love is the winning strategy. Ultimately there is only one way, life, and truth because of the forces of convergent evolution. (6) Convergent evolution would say the laws of nature dictate what the requirements are for eternal self-sustaining life. Imagine the evolutionary branches in the kingdom continuing to flourish, yet all life forms, whichever way they seek to grow, will converge on that one essential state of being. It all converges on the Christian Divine Nature (Godhead). That state of being is the center of unification (precisely to fulfill its motive, collective and self-sustaining function). The end is the means. Because of the very nature of space-time we know that the “Supreme State of Being” we seek is pre-existing and transcendent. Because of the very nature of space-time we are connected to the Divine Nature.

The meaning of love in the information age. Besides the Christian concept of love, what could love mean in the context of transhumanist science and technology? I see a grainy and rough “love process” going on in the technical world, and it is resolving daily into a finer construct. Just like Christianity this technical trend is aimed at achieving the same optimum point of life: eternally self-sustaining, universally creative... and fun. Whether Christian, or Transhuman, love is the winning strategy in the “game” of life.

The power of life: “We can only love what we know, and we can never know completely what we do not love. Love is a mode of knowledge, and when the love is sufficiently disinterested and sufficiently intense, the knowledge becomes unitive knowledge and so takes on the quality of infallibility.”(8) Eternal and infallible works: We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. We inherit the good works of evolving species, scientific progress, and spiritual growth. This idea is the catalyst for a Christian-transhumanism synthesis.

With NBIC Technologies we have discovered the science of the love process. As it should, the process of connecting is emerging as a fundamental law of nature ready for our technical and spiritual application. There are peer reviewed papers out (9) linking consciousness to connection of information in a system. That connection is measurable. Its strength and growth is obviously trending to The Great I Am (if you have an optimistic outlook on life). The more integrated the system is, the more synergy it has, the more conscious it is. The latest theory of consciousness is precisely expressed in the language of mathematics using notions from information theory such as entropy. Given a particular brain, with its neurons and axons, dendrites and synapses, one can, in principle, accurately compute the extent to which this brain is integrated and so the level of consciousness. From this calculation, the theory derives a single number. Measured in bits, this number denotes the size of the conscious repertoire associated with any network of causally interacting parts. Think of number as the synergy of the system. The more integrated the system is, the more synergy it has, the more conscious it is. This system can be established in a brain, a silicon based computer, electromagnetic fields in space-time, a society...or across all such systems at once. There is obviously much room to grow... This is where we grow. Now think Christian-Transhumanism, it is so grandly synergizing it has emergent properties... real transcendent properties...a new level of consciousness that is hard to relate back. 

With Christian Transhumanism Belief in God 

is Warranted, Justified, and True Belief.

The Christian Gospel is essentially that we participate in an eternally self-sustaining, universally creative state of being, and that takes perfect love. What evidence is there? The miracle of being, and this dynamic evolutionary trend: emergence of life, emergence of consciousness, and conscious evolution aimed at an eternally self-sustaining, universally creative state of being... that can only be achieved with perfect love.

Physicist John Wheeler and many others(14) say the physical universe is a gigantic information processing system (read: Word of God, and Logos here). Every particle, field of force, even space-time itself is ultimately manifested to us through information. This is called the participatory universe where observers are central to the nature of physical reality and matter is ultimately relegated to mind. Frank tippler of Tulane University in New Orleans sees intelligence spreading throughout the cosmos participating more and more in the workings of nature until it becomes nature. The dominion mandate calls for life to gain control of larger and larger domains just as God said we should with the very first words spoken to mankind in Genesis 1:28 (11) . It is the Jesuit Pierre Tielhard Chardin’s omega point (12) but with technology as the actuator. I take it further and say the creation is a strange loop where “the processor” boots itself up and sustains itself through block-time. When the universe is seen as logos we can dismiss the notion of a ghost in the machine not because there is no ghost but because there is no machine. (10)

Life is an information gathering and utilizing system (13) that maintains order upon itself. Life replicates, and modifies itself through feedback loop of doing-learning-modifying-doing... This definition is directly influenced by Cybernetics and Information Theory. Life learns adapts and changes its behavior. This "circular causal" relationship is necessary and sufficient for a cybernetic perspective. Life is special because of its signaling and self-sustaining processes.

Assuming we meet the dominion mandate and take control of the whole creation, it follows that the creation can be understood as a vast homeostatic super organism that actively produces the conditions necessary for its survival. It is a closed loop of Creation-Evolution-Creation. Plot this over time like a Stephen Hawking space-time diagram but actually plot information in the Claude Shannon sense, instead of space, because we know that matter and life at its deepest level are information.

What might the creation look like when we focus on a continuum of understanding (data- information-knowledge-wisdom and creation)? This is where Cutting edge Physics, Greek Philosophy, and Early Christianity come in. Using peer reviewed references, I need to model Creation- Evolution-Recapitulation (in the sense of salvation to get us back) to Creation. I found over the years that this model is best approached using the concept of block time. With block time we must remember General Relativity, where time is a dimension not a dynamic. "The hardest thing to realize about this type of diagram is that they represent the past, present, and future all in one diagram. The evolution of physical systems is represented by looking at successive horizontal slices in the diagram at successive times. Space-time diagrams represent evolution, but they don't evolve themselves."

Moving up to the central point of this torus is what Christians know as the Rapture, some Transhumanist call it the Singularity, and those on the fringe call it the Rapture of The Nerds. The central point is where Shannon entropy is at its lowest with information compressed to a SIMPLE phrase like; "I Am". I stress simple because here God is not composed or divisible by any physical or metaphysical means. I have called this point The Critical Point of Understanding and the Supreme State of Being. This point is It is singular not plural.

If the central point of this torus is I Am then what proceeds above that point is the answer to the question; Now What? The upper portion of the torus represents the creation; big bang let there be light. There is cosmic inflation and noisy chaos as far as information is concerned. He made a difference.

From the radius of the torus down to the bottom represents the compression of information into the elements and the appearance of life. Here it is critical to define life in terms of information. Again, with life, significant information processing starts at the immanent or local level. The Nobel Prize winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann defines life in terms of information most elegantly in his book the Quark and The Jaguar. He calls life an Information and gathering and utilizing system.

At the bottom nearing the center is where we are today growing in understanding. This part of the Torus represents the learning strategies in the evolution of life and the Christian concept of worship. With my model above, life looks for a winning strategy and finds it! Sustained forever as in the "infinite continuum of life". Like anything else you do for fun and as a form of expression...You get to do it again a different way.

A Universe from Nothing... But Not By Nothing

We live is a participatory universe according to John Archibald Wheeler, colleague of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, mentor to many of today's leading physicists. He devised the figure here, whose caption is:

“Symbolic representation of the Universe as a self-excited system brought into being by ‘self-reference’. The universe gives birth to communicating participators (us). Communicating participators give meaning to the universe … With such a concept goes the endless series of receding reflections one sees in a pair of facing mirrors.” All things are gathered up in Christ. Ephesians 1:10

How is this Christian? In Christology, the concept that the Christ is the Logos (Greek: for "word", "discourse" or "reason") has been important in establishing the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus. Christian theologians consider John 1:1 to be a central text in Christian belief.

The concept of Logos derives from the opening of the Gospel of John, which is often simply translated into English as: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Logos has an analog in physics, and that would be information. Many physicist see the universe and life, is at heart information, and is therefore reason, rational, Logos. The universe can be conceived of as a conscious self-referential I AM made from, and by, abstract Logos. You are living proof that this can be, when you realize I Am. No one can ever deny or take away the eternal miracle of being, something from nothing... material.

• “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

• “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” Albert Einstein

(1)   Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Cognitive Science (NBIC)

(2)   Conscious Evolution

(3)   Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential: A Cosmic Vision of Our Future Evolution

(4)   Constructivist learning How to avoid another tower of Babel

(5)   Hebrews 13:14

(6)   Convergent Evolution

(7)   Catholic Mysticism

(8)   Aldous Huxley "The Perennial Philosophy".

(9)   Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness.

(10) Paul Davies "The Matter Myth"

(11) Bless You, Subdue the World

(12) Tulane University Omega Point Theory

(13) Murry Gell-Mann Life is a Information gathering and utilization system

(14) Digital Philosophy a List of Scientists

Technical Jesus

Trying to build or even become God is the right thing to do...

Tower of Babel

We all see how technology is becoming more and more empowering. Read the news, it looks like we are heading for the absolute worst and possibly the absolute best in mankind.To avoid the worst work for the best. Let's take our optimistic progress to the limit: the ultimate long range goal is to become immortal, self sustainng, all-knowing, and universally creative. That is our God. And, our God does not limit us in any way, God encourages us to grow in understanding through love. 

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

I submit that with a healthy balance of faith and work, Christians can actually grow to be just like Christ, stay out of the dangerous traps along the way, by never being satisfied with anything less than the one true omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God.: proceeding carefully with unwavering humility and selfless peace. Trying to build or become God in this way is an act of adoration, worship, and a moral responsibility; it’s the quickest way to unlock the abundance in this world necessary to feed and educate the growing masses. Plus, it gives meaning to life.

What God are we trying to build or become?

1. God is a timeless and transcendent state of being: Revelation {1:8} “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." The beginning and the end come together in this timeless and eternal aspect of God.
2. God is present and within us: In-between the alpha and omega there is the presence of the lord God in “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). We are this body of Christ living and growing in time... and we become that “which is to come”: timeless, eternal, Almighty, because that is our true love.
3. God is love, the process of connecting the timeless and the present. The product of love is understanding, and the creative power that goes with understanding. If love is efficient and sustained, understanding increases exponentially. Humility and selfless peace allows unwavering devotion so that love can establish a clear connection. Forgiveness is important to growth because it establishes an exhaust for misunderstanding and disorder. With this truth we transcend. John (4:8) He that loves not knows not God; for God is love... Love rules, ignorance dies.

Trying to build or become God is the authentic manifestation of God in time, always evolving, improving self-sustenance, and growing in creative powers. Ultimately there is only one way, life, and truth because of the forces of convergent evolution. Convergent evolution says the laws of nature dictate what the requirements are for eternal self-sustaining life. Imagine the evolutionary branches in the kingdom continuing to flourish, yet all life forms, whatever way they seek to grow, will converge on that one winning state of being. It all converges on the Christian Divine Nature (Godhead). That state of being is the center of unification (precisely to fulfill its motive, collective and self-sustaining function). It’s pre-existing and transcendent. Souls living in time are effectively “one with the Divine Nature. This state is not  obtained by identification (God becoming all) but by the differentiating and communicating action of love (God all in everyone). And that is essentially orthodox and Christian: mankind worshipping and the Holy Spirit calling... God made/makes a difference.

It is interesting to note that in Genesis (1:22), the first thing God said to us was “Bless you. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” This request is sometimes called the Dominion Mandate.

The Dominion Mandate gave us a goal:  to explore, develop, and enhance the world.   They were to construct a culture, build a civilization, and build a holy City to the glory of God.  They were to do these works by faith through grace.

The task, would require them to become scientists, artisans, mechanics, inventors, scholars, writers, musicians, and more.  They would have to become proficient in agriculture, animal husbandry, the culinary arts, mining, metallurgy, shipbuilding, navigation, commerce, and storytelling.  The mastery of these skills would require a deep understanding of physics, chemistry, geology, botany and psychology.

The mastery of these sciences in turn would require an ever-growing mastery of mathematics. In short, godly dominion would necessarily produce an intricate and complex culture with roots in mathematics and the sciences and fruit in literature and the arts.

Be fruitful and multiply still applies?

Science and technology have lagged behind the “be fruitful and multiply” thing, causing much poverty and wars. I place the responsibility of that lag squarely in the lap of grace-alone fundamentalists of all kinds. By trying to force-fit reality to their dogma, they have slowed scientific progress, given rise to a growing atheism, and a mostly ignorant privileged class.

Now, with a healthy balance of faith and works we can meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. Exponentially growing technologies are converging on satisfying the needs of the growing masses.  Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it can be closed fast. There are infinite possibilities for doing good when we tap into our own empathy and wisdom. 

• In the beginning we were told to subdue the world. 
• Later Jesus Christ as the fully developed human aspect of God, said to his disciples; “I have overcome the world.” 
• Then in the book of Revelations close to the end of times it is the same “overcomer” who asks us to follow him in the continuum of life...There is plenty of reason for techno-optimism!

http://www.technical-jesus.com/

http://www.hyper-evolution.com/

http://www.offthegridnews.com/2014/03/30/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-dominion-mandate-life-universe-happiness-and-all-that/

http://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Future-Better-Than-Think/dp/1451614217

A Universe From Nothing... But Not By Nothing

“Symbolic representation of the Universe as a self-excited system brought into being by ‘self-reference’

As a Christian Transhumanist, I like Lawrence Krauss’ idea that you can create a universe from nothing. I mean actual nothingness, The Void... no laws of nature. Honestly, it would have to be that way, right?   If a universe pops into existence from nothing (no space, no time, no laws), goes on to become conscious then evolves further into a self-sustaining super-intelligence, what does that make it? God, These atheist just can’t win...ever. We are proof that the universe can grow conscious of itself, even boot-strap itself into existence. "I Am that I Am" is a self-consistent Strange Loop. "I Am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and end" connected, is a self-consistent strange loop.  It's an elegant and profound idea. 

• But, are not the claims that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" and "For by him [Christ, Col 1:16] all things were created ... through him and for him," basic Christian beliefs? If so, then there was "something" before creation, and if not, then what is Christianity? (David C Winyard Sr)

The answer to this is illuminating. The "something before the creation" David refers to is our very same selves growing in understanding and creative powers. As Christians, we are gathered up in Christ, through which all things are made, according to the Nicene Creed.. Secularists are coming to realize the real possibility of this in the advent of super-intelligence and the simulation hypothesis. Scientists are also coming to understand that our lives matter greatly in the grand scheme of things. We live in a participatory universe according to John Archibald Wheeler, colleague of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, mentor to many of today's leading physicists. He devised the figure above, whose caption is:

• “Symbolic representation of the Universe as a self-excited system brought into being by ‘self-reference’. The universe gives birth to communicating participators (us). Communicating participators give meaning to the universe … With such a concept goes the endless series of receding reflections one sees in a pair of facing mirrors.” All things are gathered up in Christ.  Ephesians 1:10

Now, to further answer David; how is this Christian?  In Christology, the concept that the Christ is the Logos (Greek: for "word", "discourse" or "reason") has been important in establishing the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus. Christian theologians consider John 1:1 to be a central text in Christian belief.

The concept of Logos derives from the opening of the Gospel of John, which is often simply translated into English as: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Logos has an analog in physics, and that would be information. Many physicist see the universe and life, is at heart information, and is therefore reason, rational, Logos. The universe can be conceived of as a conscious self-referential I AM made from, and by, abstract Logos. You followers are living proof that this can be, when you realize I Am.  No one can ever deny or take away the eternal miracle of being, something from nothing... material.

• “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

•  “Christ is like waking up in the morning, but on a cosmic scale.” J.M.L.

Reference: J.A. Wheeler in Isham et al., eds, Quantum Gravity (Clarendon, Oxford, 1975), pg. 564-565.
Christian Transhumanism
Singularity Religion

LOVE MAKES SENSE

There is an important connection between religion and technology that I would like to point out. It has to do with the concept of love. Besides the religious concept of love, what could love mean in the context of the technical world? I see a grainy and rough “love process” going on in the technical world, and it is resolving daily into a finer construct. Just like all religions this technical trend is aimed at achieving the same optimum point of life: eternally self-sustaining, universally creative... and fun.  Whether spiritual, or technical, love is the winning strategy in the “game” of life. [1]

The love process is based in information and communication theory: Technically, love can be seen as the process of connecting data, information, and knowledge. The product of the love process is understanding. If the process is efficient and sustained, understanding increases exponentially.  Peace allows unwavering attention so that the love process can establish a clear connection. At the heart of the process; symbols, words, and feelings are ordered into meaning. But meaning is not static, it grows. A type of “forgiveness” is important to the process because it establishes an exhaust for misunderstanding and disorder. (Here I would apply the love process to computers, the internet, telecommunications, social networking, as well as sensory and kinesthetic enhancement. We are actually coming together, living better, and becoming more conscious of the world.)

The Love Process has the power of life behind it: “We can only love what we know, and we can never know completely what we do not love. Love is a mode of knowledge, and when the love is sufficiently disinterested and sufficiently intense, the knowledge becomes unitive knowledge and so takes on the quality of infallibility.”[2] Eternal and infallible works: We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. We inherit the good works of evolving species, scientific progress, and spiritual growth. This idea is the catalyst for a Christian-transhumanism synthesis.

We enter the age conscious evolution: Now it seems we have discovered the science of the love process. As it should, the process of connecting is emerging as a fundamental law of nature ready for our technical and spiritual application. There is a peer reviewed paper [3] just out linking consciousness to connection of information in a system. That connection is measurable.  Its strength and growth is obviously trending to The Great I Am (if you have an optimistic outlook on life). The more integrated the system is, the more synergy it has, the more conscious it is. The latest theory of consciousness is precisely expressed in the language of mathematics using notions from information theory such as entropy. Given a particular brain, with its neurons and axons, dendrites and synapses, one can, in principle, accurately compute the extent to which this brain is integrated and so the level of consciousness. From this calculation, the theory derives a single number. Measured in bits, this number denotes the size of the conscious repertoire associated with any network of causally interacting parts. Think of number as the synergy of the system. The more integrated the system is, the more synergy it has, the more conscious it is. This system can be established in a brain, a silicon based computer, electromagnetic fields in space-time, a society...or across all such systems at once. There is obviously much room to grow... This is where we grow. Now think Christian-Transhumanism, it is so grandly synergizing it has emergent properties... real transcendent properties...a new level of consciousness that is hard to relate back.

1: RELIGIOUS VIEWS ON LOVE

2: THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY

3: THE THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS 

Johnny Depp heads off to the Supreme State of Being, and the western world is Christian/Transhuman.

This new Johnny Depp movie “Transcendence” should spark popular interest in the spiritual goals of our increasingly technological society, and clarify that the western world is Christian/Transhuman... Yes, I dare say this is the definitive movie for western culture because it touches our Christian roots and our technological branches.

In the movie, Depp makes a computer-to-mind interface, he transcends into the “cloud”, and grows beyond.  It’s a new type of pioneer story with uncharted territory to discover. The grass is much greener here: The collective intelligence of everything ever known, with the full range of human emotions is concentrated in the mind of our hero. Of course if he overcomes all the dangers in the movie plot, it will be because of his western/Christian sensibilities.

    

     Why do I say the west is still Christian? Like it or not the gospel is ingrained deep in our culture. Jesus is the biggest name in human history. Ever. It is a matter of fact Jesus is the indisputable leader of influential ideas: Reference here.

Why do I say we are Transhumanists? Transhumanism is about learning, and overcoming our human condition: "In the end, all technology is prosthesis, the extension and augmentation of existing biological and informational capabilities. We put eyeglasses in front of our eyes to bring the world into focus, telescopes and microscopes to see those realms which our unaided eyes cannot fathom. We use remote sensors to explore the planets, and these are all extensions of the senses we have. All of our systems of writing and of calculation are similarly extensions of memory systems and logical operations that we can perform in our minds. Similarly the technological implements that carry us from one place to the next, or that grow our food for us, or that keep us warm are but extensions of our own bodies' effectors." - Peter Cariani ... Transhumanism goes all the way down to the essence of life:

• A living thing is conditioned to exist and grow.
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• Understanding the laws of nature increases a living thing's chance to exist and grow.
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• Science is the systematic process of understanding nature.

• Technology is the application of our understanding of nature to better adapt to our environment.

•      Why do I say we are Christian Transhumanists? The two converge hand-in-hand on the way to the Supreme State of Being. The early Christian church was clearly closer to the spirit of life with the idea of transcendent humanism; where it was taught not only mankind but the whole cosmos finds its fulfillment in Christ. Through the grace of God we grow to be like Christ. Paul Tillich calls this original meaning "The profound doctrine of a transcendent humanism, a humanism which says that Christ is the fulfillment of essential humanity." "And we can become fully human through participation in this which has appeared in Christ, including eternal life, and similitude with God with respect to participation in infinity."  Then Tillich says, "I am always surprised how much better the theology of the ancient church was than the popular theology which developed in the nineteenth century, how much profounder and more adequate to the paradox of Christianity, without becoming irrational, nonsensical, or absurd." Know Transhumanism is part of God’s plan, the spirit of life.  Because the reality is, through computer and sensor evolution our technological tools are turning into a place where we can extend our senses to better understand where to grow. Technology is a place to expand your mind, and find truth, for those who wish it. There is talk of uploading our minds into this environment and living forever. Technology is opening the door to a new ecological niche to grow. This is not a plastic virtual reality. It is God's creation in high resolution and amplified. The doors of perception are opening.

It seems like transcendence really is at hand. Check out the Transhumanism movement to see how some folks are speculating on, and actually trying out possible transcending paths. Then check out the various Singularity Watch Internet sites to see what futurist think is happening with technological growth.

Is this really a place for a Christian?? Let’s say we transcend our flesh body using the technology of the near future. What about our soul? There isn't much being said about the spiritual aspects of this exponential technological growth. Every movie or book I have read on this subject is rather scary. Scary sells. So let me provide a comforting metaphor for what I think is really happening. You could look at it this way: engineers build a church as a place of worship. They build roads to the church. They design modern modes of transportation for getting to the church. Then it is up to us to get to the church and use it in the spirit of love. This technology is just another church, a place to get together and worship. Personally, the kingdom of God, and the Temple, is within us all and these technologies are extending our influence. So, be careful there will be challenges, if you go this path, Go in the Spirit of Love. You can do no wrong when the spirit of love, the Holy Spirit is with you. And, it is said; "If you are trying to save your life for any other reason than love, you will lose it." There is one way to life and truth. This wisdom is eternal. It takes love... Love is the winning life-strategy in the end. To survive even the meanest brute will grow to understand! This really is a place for a Christian. You see, Christianity is Transhumanism!

Life After Death Is Likely

Physics Supports the Possibility of an Afterlife

The life we live stands forever in space-time and can be extracted at any point.  It can move to a completely new matrix/substrate. This is possible because mainstream science sees time and three-dimensional space as a fused four-dimensional continuum. Your Soul (I Am-ness) exists eternally as a "worldline" in space-time.

I have included this space-time diagram illustrating two dimensions of space and one of time to help us distinguish between two different ways of viewing our external physical reality: there is the outside view or "divine" perspective of someone studying the interacting  structure, and there is the inside view of a human living in space-time. 

From divine perspective of four-dimensional space-time your world line trajectories resemble a tangle of spaghetti. If the human sees something moving with constant velocity, the divine sees a straight strand of action moving through space-time.(1) The particles from which you are made trace a complex path in space-time. The highly complex intertwining seen from the divine perspective corresponds to a cluster of particles that store and process information. In essence you are a coherent bundle of information drawn by flesh and blood in space-time.  A good metaphor is to think of space-time as the perfect digital information storage media, much better than a compact disk or a computer hard drive in that it has eternal life and it contains the details of our activities and thoughts from beginning to end. You can convert this "file" and "play" this information in any media format you can imagine.

Even now scientists can construct experimental systems with a toy universe and a "divine" transcendent observer. The experimenter is a “super-observer” that exists outside of the universe, and so measures the quantum state of the toy universe as a whole. From that vantage point the experimenter can extract, resurrect, or uplift, information from the static universe.(7)

So this is how your I Am-ness (Soul) can carry on in Spirit. 

• Resurrection by the divine is made possible through perfect reanimation of your information. 
• Matter, energy, and information are equivalent.(6) 
• Information can be converted to energy and energy can be converted into matter.(6)

In this perfect resurrection the limits of human abilities can be overcome. All sickness and disability can be removed and sins "washed clean".

EVOLUTION

(1)  External Reality Max Tegmark MIT

(2)  Physics of Immortality Frank Tipler; Tulane

(3) http://www.te chnologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25814/

(4)  Brane Cosmology

(5)  The Multiverse is a Solid Scientific Idea

(6)  Information Converted to Energy

(7) New Scientist Toy Universe

A response to "Another 50 Renowned (Atheistic) Academics Speaking About God"

Yikes! At first this seems to be an impressive blow to believers. But I'm taking a look at each short clip and so far none of this stuff is of concern. It seems most of this footage is at least 10 years old or so. That explains why none of these fine gentlemen have touched on Lincoln Cannon's New God Argument, or Christian Transhumanism. Here is the news on the religious front; Given the recent shift towards digital physics and technoprogressive transhumanism, it is perfectly reasonable now to assume that Life just keeps on evolving, gaining more understanding and developing greater creative powers. Life on earth or somewhere in this vast universe develops into The Supreme State of Being (a universal with all the aspects we attribute to God). Here is a brief on the new God argument; if we will not go extinct before becoming “posthumans,” then given assumptions about contemporary science and technological trends, it is actually logical that posthumans already exist, are more benevolent than we are, and created us.

Sound bites can be misleading. I have seen the full interview of  Frank Wilczek. In the first interview; Frank eventually says " Is there a God? Not yet"... he believes life eventually evolves into God. And, that our concept of God has evolved past ancient conceptions... Which is a good thing. 

To VS Ramachandran a neuroscientist who believes it's all in our heads;  There IS an external reality, and we are modeling it internally better and better every day.

To Bruce C. Murray; It seems he is cut off before he is allowed to continue his thought that we Grow the concept of God. I ask when do we cease to have ultimate ideals?

Sir Raymond Firth; Sees religion as a product of humanity, and it is left at that. I say; we are so beat down to believe there is no such thing as progress, that it is hard for us to conceive that we might move forward along the lines of understanding and creative power, consciously evolving..  and with that so will our concept of  "God".  Some day in the future  we will look at our powers of love, forgiveness,  intellect, and creativity and say;" I am the God that was conceived in the 21st century",  just as we are the Gods of war, fire, air, and cosmos, as conceived by the ancients.

To Alva Noe and Alan Dundes; In those sound bites they are just railing against outmoded concepts of God, and with one comment they throw out the diamonds with the sand. To all this I say; Get over it take what you can from those who have gone before and build on it. Subtly, that IS what we are doing socially. The ancient texts chronicle our growth in understanding they contain essential grains of truth. Don't  throw out the diamonds with the sand.

To Massimo Pigliucci on wondering what spiritual faith is;  Here is a coherent summary of spiritual faith;  In human context  Spirit is what powers action (inspiration). For 85% of humanity God is a pro-life ideal. Taken in total this ideal ultimately converges on a supreme state of being within the set of all things living. As a source of inspiration we  hope, pray, and develop a strong belief and faith in a positive outcome for life.. which is God.  Holy Spirit is the mutual love along this line of development (love the efforts of those who have gone before and forgive their ignorance, and love the possibilities of our future) . Divinity is an extension along this path.

To Bede Rundle on a God powerless to change things; Wrong. It seems to me that God loves things just the way they are...wouldn't change it for the world. The divine has a power of persuasion rather than coercion.

To Sir Richard Friend who scoffs at supernatural causes; Aurthur C. Clarke would say;  "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Science and the supernatural are resolved every day we make a technological advance.

To George Lakoff who questions the existence of the soul; Wrong. The soul (I Am) is your world line in space-time. Given the scientifically established concept of block time, that world line stands forever in timeless eternity.

To Sir John Sulston ;  No, atheism does not make coherent sense because it leaves out the possibility of a supreme state of being for life (taking all of the attributes we assign to God) . Like postmodernism nothing really changes in life, no progress.  Nihilism is the outcome of atheism certainly not coherence. And his argument of religious disagreement holds no water. Ultimately there is agreement. Aldous Huxley's anthology of the great religions shows that there is a convergence of ideas in the Divine Ground of Being.

To Mr. Shelly Kagan;  Moral truth is truth weather we come up with it or we ascribe it to God.  It seems he has he not been exposed to the concepts of information and entropy as they apply to life processes.   We exhaust entropy so as to maintain order upon ourselves. According to many physicists (like Murry Gell-Mann for one); We are information gathering and utilizing systems. From our self identity to DNA and further down to our subatomic structure; we are information. In order to maintain coherence we exhaust chaos and disorder.  The moral code sets a value on this "complex code of information" upon which we and our society are made. A sin can be seen as an act against this (think of burning down every library and destroying every digital trace of the material, or killing all the aborigines and erasing all traces of their culture).  Laws of morality are our vehicle for growth and may even be the means for which the universe is sustained. John Wheeler describes the universe as a self-excited circuit. He uses an illustration in which one side of an uppercase U, standing for Universe, is endowed with a large and rather intelligent-looking eye intently regarding the other side, which it acquires through observation as sensory information. The eye stands for the sensory or cognitive aspect of reality, perhaps even a human spectator within the universe, while the eye’s perceptual target represents the informational aspect of reality. By virtue of these complementary aspects, it seems that the universe can in some sense, but not necessarily that of common usage, be described as “conscious” and “introspective” even “infocognitive”. From this perspective immoral acts are noise in the signal that is minimized as much a possible.

Roy J. Glauber; There is not enough context to tell what he trying to say. Seems to be against intelligent design.  If so, you can always counter with the well constructed Simulation Argument; At least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. Given the recent shift towards digital physics and technoprogressive transhumanism, it seems perfectly reasonable now that Life just keeps on evolving. Optimistically life somewhere in this vast universe develops into the supreme state of being (a universal with all the aspects we attribute to God).

Lewis Wolpert ; is not against religion. He says it helps a great deal. He is against hurtful fundamentalism as am I. I believe atheism is the most fundamental of all belief systems and is hurtful. It risks draining mankind's essential source of inspiration.

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong; Sees a logical fallacy with an omnipotent God unable to act in the world; God is within us all. Perfection is grown within a universe and provides an experience of growth, beauty and accomplishment. Otherwise, there is no reason to be. It seems to me that God loves things just the way they are...wouldn't change it for the world.

Richard Dawkins; In this short clip he wants us to think that scientists could not honestly believe in God. This is the easiest one! Actually agnosticism is the most intellectually honest stance to take. it is wrong to claim something as truth if you cannot prove it by providing evidence that logically justifies it. While an atheist does not believe in God, an agnostic believes that it is not possible to prove or disprove the existence of God. Atheism is the most fundamental of all religions and they have put themselves in an immovable position; There is absolutely no way, now how, God.

I am going to compose a response to the rest of these clips as my time permits. I realize that given the narrow scope of their comments in these clips, it is almost unfair to pick them apart in this way.