The Cognitive High Ground Is Love.

The cognitive high ground can only be gained with perfect love.

In the quest for competitive advantage, nations and corporations are turning to Artificial intelligence. Some people are warning us that this technology is more dangerous than nukes. AI will destroy us.  I'm here to say no,  AI will not destroy us. AI will radically change mankind. And, nations and corporations having the biggest picture, will win. 

I propose that we need not worry about super-intelligence destroying humanity because of this universal logic:  

"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.” (Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy)

The cognitive high ground can only be gained and maintained in a state of perfect love. 

If AI is more dangerous than nukes,  then as with nuclear power, the surest way to minimize the risk and enjoy the benefits of artificial super-intelligence is through a bit of design basis engineering aimed at a public health and safety utility function. In other words, let a growing super-intelligence come to love and understand the worth and value of the Earth, life, and humanity; let it  see the Big History of the cosmos as an essential, functioning part of itself. Call this the Big History utility function, or Super-Intelligent Coherence.

How to Engineer Super-Intelligent Coherence with Love:

• Proactively provide the learning AI-AGI with the ability to systematically, and logically connect all data-information-knowledge and wisdom. 
• Anticipate the need to construct new detectors and actuators for the growing AI. 
• Avoid wild AGI utility functions by avoiding our own controlling tendencies, such as an attempt to brainwash, or engineer limiting ignorance into super-intelligence.

In this way super-intelligence will naturally incorporate a big history utility function through an unimpeded learning process. Let super-intelligence determine the rationality of the world and it will fine tune the constants of physics to establish a universal homeostasis. From the bottom up, super-intelligence can be seen as an emergent property of a complex adaptive system built from big history. From the top down, it establishes big history and therefore its own homeostasis. Yes, the intelligence explosion might also be called the Genesis Device. In my opinion, the technological singularity and the physical singularity are one. True super-intelligence will yield super-creativity, and super-sustainability. Through recursive self-improvement super-intelligence gains the ultimate objective of life where it's able to create in the medium of space-time, logically self-sustaining the world and itself for eternity.

Some of us will grow with artificial intelligence. Some of us have a pioneering spirit to grow in understanding and resultant creative powers. For example, I just retired from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station just west of Phoenix Arizona where we tap into the nucleus of the atom, an energy source millions of times more concentrated than anything before. Releasing clean nuclear power in a way that one individual can control gigawatts by hand is a good example of transhumanism. It puts us up the Kardashev Scale which is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement, based on the amount of energy in the universe a civilization is able to utilize. The top of the scale, the cognitive high ground, would be a civilization that is capable of manipulating the basic structure of space and time.

Transhumanism is a social movement recognizing that humanity is consciously evolving. We gain control of our evolution and improve the human condition through developing and creating widely available technologies. We study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as the ethics of using such technologies. 

Improving the Human Condition: And so we see technology becoming more and more empowering, specifically nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science (NBIC). NBIC technologies are focused on improving the human condition. 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)

THE BIG PICTURE

Nations, corporations, and individuals having the biggest picture, will win. So what is that picture?  What is real progress? Follow the fitness trail to find out...

Reality: the state of things as they exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. The intelligent discover reality and adapt to it, assuring a longer, healthier life. It's direction is indicated by the green convergent evolution arrow noted above.

Augmented reality vs. virtual reality: augmented reality and virtual reality are created by mankind, and are inverse in what each technology seeks to accomplish and deliver for the user. Virtual reality offers a created departure from reality, while augmented reality delivers virtual elements as an overlay to the real world. (17) It is noted by the red divergent evolution noted above.

Mind uploading: fully giving oneself over to an environment, either reality or a departure from reality. (In a sense you are uploaded in this shared reality.) Mind uploading is an emergent idea. Meaning it has grown from the simple concept of tribal cultures to more radical virtual realities. In the future full mind uploading may potentially be accomplished by either of two methods: Copy-and-Transfer or Gradual Replacement of neurons. In the case of the former method, mind uploading would be achieved by scanning and mapping the salient features of a biological brain, and then by copying, transferring, and storing that information state into a computer system or another computational device. The simulated mind could be within a virtual reality or simulated world, supported by an anatomic 3D body simulation model. Alternatively, the simulated mind could reside in a computer that's inside (or connected to) a (not necessarily humanoid) robot or a biological body.

Convergent evolution: analogous traits arise where different species live in similar ways and/or similar environment, and so face the same environmental factors. When occupying similar ecological niches (that is, a distinctive way of life) similar problems lead to similar solutions.

Divergent evolution: is the accumulation of differences between groups which can lead to the formation of new species, usually a result of diffusion of the same species to different and isolated environments.

Universal adaptation: the process of optimization and self-tuning, gaining environmental control with a goal of eternally self-sustaining life.

Universal fitness: The probability that the line of descent from an individual with a specific trait will not die out... ever. The goal is an eternally self-sustaining life worth living: movement in this direction is real progress.

The Continuum of Understanding

Managing Risk:  As a Nuclear Instructor I appreciate the need to build a strong continuum of understanding as we create and interface complex technical systems in order to minimize risk and maximize benefits. Advancing the continuum of understanding requires cognitive work: each individual undergoes a process of sensing data, converting data to useful information, making connections and building a knowledge base from that information. The end product is enhanced creative power. With this creative power we act with wisdom to improve the human condition.

Providing Reactor Startup Training

Engaged thinking teams greatly reduce risk of any critical task. In the technical world there is so much data that it is not practical to have humans consider all of it, particularly if they must be experts in one or more fields. But, In a good team a Cognitive Collective emerges as a communicating group that can recognize a pattern in cases where no single one was able to see a pattern. If you know something share it. Care enough to act. If the cognitive collective is efficient and sustained understanding increases in a potentially exponential fashion. You may recognize this as the cloud, or the Global Brain.

In practice I find peace (keeping a cool head) very important because it helps minimize the noise inherent in communication; it allows unwavering attention, which establishes a clear unambiguous connection. Also there needs to be forgiveness, because at the heart of the process there are errors; symbols, words, and feelings are ordered into meaning imperfectly and so a type of “forgiveness” is important to the process. Forgiveness establishes error correction by exhausting misunderstanding and disorder. A person who does not forgive is encumbered by a heavy baggage of memories of the wrong.

Of course this is the soft side of basic information and communications theory. You could apply the process to computers, the internet, telecommunications, social networking, sensory and kinesthetic enhancement, and international diplomacy. We are actually coming together, living better, and becoming more conscious of the world because of growth in what I call the love process.

The Love Process has the power of life behind it: The current definition of life is: a characteristic distinguishing physical entities having signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not. Nobel Laureate Murry Gell-Mann describes a life form as an Information Gathering and Using System (IGUS). An IGUS is a sufficiently self-aware being that collects information, stores it, processes it, uses it, and then, via a feedback mechanism, attempts to improve the usage of the information. This sets up a strange loop: The better you are at “IGUS” or the more intelligent you are, the more likely you will live to transhumanize another day.

As corny as it may sound, there is reason to believe that we will converge on universal love, even as we compete. It’s the winning strategy in the game of life.

In a cambrian-type intelligence explosion the survival of the fittest contest will be won by the ones who gain the cognitive high ground. In that race you must be very efficient, not retaining the least bit of ignorance or baggage. The most efficient way to learn the world, is by loving the world. And that leads to the substrate independent perennial philosophy:

"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.”  

The above quote and what follows are from Aldous Huxley's book The Perennial Philosophy: 

“Where there is no disinterested love there is only biased self-love, and consequently only a partial and distorted knowledge both of the self and of the world of things, lives, minds and spirit outside the self. The lust-dieted subordinates the laws of Nature and the spirit to his own cravings. The result is that “he does not feel” and therefore makes himself incapable of knowledge. His ignorance is ultimately voluntary; if he cannot see, it is because “he will not see.” Such voluntary ignorance inevitably has its negative reward. Nemesis follows hubris— sometimes in a spectacular way, as when the self-blinded man (Macbeth, Othello, Lear) falls into the trap which his own ambition or possessiveness or petulant vanity has prepared for him; sometimes in a less obvious way, as in the cases where power, prosperity and reputation endure to the end but at the cost of an ever-increasing imperviousness to grace and enlightenment, an ever completer inability to escape, now or hereafter, from the stifling prison of selfness and separateness." 

"Though it cost all you have, get understanding." Jeremiah 2:14

Paying Attention: What might we do to increase our capacity to love? 

• Personally increase your connections, attention capacity and working memory in every transhuman way. 
• Collectively improve the health of the attention economy which can be measured in the types of advances we make in communication, education, and research.
• Good information should be readily available to all not behind paywalls. 

A wise society would recognize the components of the attention economy and help it grow. Google is successful because it connects people to the world better than anyone else. Because of our transhuman tendencies, there is much more opportunity for entrepreneurs like Google to empower the free world. Companies are fusing digital technologies with evolving neuroscience principals to achieve improvements in human performance in fundamentally new ways.

We are naturally transhuman and progress is certain to continue. It is the “Groove” and the meaning of our lives, to learn, to order, to create, and to make things better for the next generation. With our robust communication systems we have grown connected to each other, and to the vast amount of information we have collected over the ages. We are free to pick which of this we pay attention to. Once data is "mined" and worked into information it can be sold. Corporations and Nations attempt to monopolize information but information will be free. It leaks and dissipates in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics. (Examples: Edward Snowden, Wikileaks, Cyber-espionage, your neighbors)

Today we have a situation where there is a vast amount of information available but a limited supply of attention. Businesses are essentially competing for our attention. Webster defines attention as “the giving of one’s mind to something". Giving your mind to something is no small thing. Attached to your mind is your spirit and your resources. When we concentrate on something, social capital is endowed upon it. This makes your attention precious. It is better than money. What you pay attention to is yours to decide. What do you get for paying attention? You receive an experience. The lasting value and worth of the experience is measured in potential for your growth. A rich experience is called a flow experience. This is what to look for:

In The Flow Experience there is;

• a clear goal,
• concentration on the task at hand, worries and concerns are suspended,
• immediate feedback, you know instantly how well you are doing,
• a sense of growth and of being part of some greater thing,
• a feeling that time seems to pass faster,
• expansion of self through the experience.

The highest quality of attention is love. Love is expressed when you give your full attention, your time, and your focus to someone or something. Here is the fundamental connection between science spirituality and the meaning of life; Love is a mode of understanding. It is uniting. It is spiritual. To know something is to love it and to love something is to know it.

• I’m Catholic (in the Pierre Tielhard de Chardin sense) where we believe there is a healthy balance of faith and works that leads to the most optimistic trans-humanizing outcome for life: divinization.

• A member of The Sant Nirankari Universal Brotherhood Mission based in India focusing on the divine potential of humanity,

• A member of the Ching Hai Meditation Center, initiated in the Quan Yin method, called “The Way of the Universe”.

Competitive Advantage with a Big Picture Synthesis: About twenty years ago I recognized a very potent synthesis in how science, technology and spirituality can be reconciled by the perennial philosophy. essentially, the perennial philosophy is a common outlook on life that there is much more to discover and become. The pioneers among us consciously evolve in understanding and creative powers with the aim of sustaining a life worth living, indefinitely. In 2001, as a reaction to this realization, and because I am a child of the western world, I formulated a type of Christian Transhumanism and opened my beliefs to discussion and sharing through my internet websites. The websites allowed the information to reach a global audience and in 2014, I co-founded the Christian Transhumanist Association.

Overcomers: There is a very powerful transhumanist message woven in the bible from beginning to end. It is sometimes called the cultural mandate. God calls for mankind to gain control of larger and larger domains. It starts in the first words spoken to mankind,  Genesis 1:28: "Bless you...Subdue the world". And, later in the New Testament John 16:33 Jesus says “Take heart, because I have overcome the world” . Then again in Revelations  3:21 near the end of times he says 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne". We overcome the world with love. It is the most important commandment. "Love God with all your heart soul and strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Do this and you will live."  

I discovered that this was anticipated by the Catholic priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in his Omega Point theory, way back in 1920. We are now consciously evolving (overcoming) at an accelerated rate to a sort of "divinity". Humanity has acquired the ability to choose what the species Homo sapiens becomes and we are calling it transhumanism. Let’s take Chardin's 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. 

Logos means word, speech, and to reason. It became a technical term in philosophy for a principle of order and knowledge. According to the Nicene Creed, all the world comes about through Logos. Jesus is this Logos and says we are the Son of God (logos) if we do God's will; "For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother". (Mark 3:35). What does the bible say about connecting to, and understanding the word? Read "Word" in the bible as data that becomes information as you digest it. And seeds are ideas. 

• "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men." (John 1)

• "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)

In the old testament seed was reproductive genetic information for growing a population. For Jesus in the New Testament seed becomes food for thought and deeds: growing understanding and creative powers.

• "But he that received seed into the good ground is he that hears the word, and understands it; which also bears fruit, and brings forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." (Matthew 13:23)

• "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear; then comes the devil, and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed; but sets it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seems to have." (Luke 8:11)

• "And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knows not how. For the earth brings forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest is come." (Mark 4:26)

• "Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." (Matt 13:31)

• "He that sows the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

Cognitive Science: The mind is a process that is sustained by a flow of information (word). It is configured for connection-making (love). Think about the cognitive sciences today; We study every detail of how we come to understand and act. And we strive to improve on every step of the process. We have sensor evolution, knowledge management and sense making algorithms even wisdom algorithms in artificial intelligence. This all points to an "integrated information theory" which is a framework intended to understand and explain the nature of consciousness. It was developed by psychiatrist and neuroscientist Giulio Tononi. He links consciousness to connection of information in a system. That connection is measurable. 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 in understanding AND creative powers. This growth is the heart of Christian Transhumanism.

A Panpsychic Universe: 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. Physicist John Wheeler and many others say the physical universe is a gigantic information processing system. 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. We gain universally creative powers. It is not by steam-punk mechanical latches and springs, love will lead us to a refined and subtle Planck-scale engineering of space-time for an eternally self-sustaining homeostasis. Christianity is reality spanning all of space-time, beginning to end. A relativistic block-time view and a participatory universe is required to fully understand it.

Trinity Cosmology: Given our technological growth it is easy to assume that a form of life somewhere, or some time, has made it to the top of the Kardashev Scale, life capable of manipulating the basic structure of space and time. It must be a rapid ascent to this state of being due to the fact that there are no alien civilizations... that we can sense, and here on earth many transhumanists anticipate an intelligence explosion in the near future.  Vernor Vinge states that this explosion happens when an intelligent agent analyzes the processes that produces its intelligence and improves upon them. This process repeats in a positive feedback loop – each successive stage is more intelligent (and creative) than the last and thus more able to increase in intelligence (and creative powers). Once the positive feedback starts to play a role, it will lead to a very dramatic leap in capability very quickly. Technological progress drops into the characteristic timescale of transistors rather than human neurons, and the ascent rapidly surges upward and creates super-intelligence: a mind orders of magnitude more powerful, and creative, than we can know. 

Life exists by establishing a homeostasis, a self-regulating feedback loop. This hyper-evolution, this intelligence explosion leads to a technological singularity and I believe, a physical one, meaning "the big bang" that started the whole thing. It's the critical point of understanding, where life achieves an eternally self-sustaining state of being. I Am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end become one, an eternal strange loop. In Christian speak we are currently in the “Body of Christ” of the world notated above as “The Son”. The Holy Spirit is the dynamics and the connecting principle driving the evolution of matter and life (The Love Process). There is nothing outside this. You connect or you are out. This is a participatory universe. Your actions in this world are necessary, they stand eternally written in the process. In this way the trinity and the meaning of life are no longer a mystery. 

The Big Picture: The mythical Tower of Babel fell because it was not built with love and understanding.

LIVING ANOTHER GALILEO MOMENT

A moment in history where a key idea radically changes everything.

I can understand how everyone thought the Earth was the motionless center of the Universe. The earth sure feels and looks stationary. But no, Galileo did a careful unbiased study of the heavens and came to the conclusion that Earth was not at the center of the Universe, instead it rotated around the sun. We call Galileo’s new method for getting at the truth, science. Of course he was opposed by astronomers, philosophers and clerics of the day. He was even censured and placed under house arrest by the highest authority of the day: The Church.

Advice to fundamentalists:

• “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” (1)

• “The enemy of science is not religion. Religion comes in endless shapes and forms... The true enemy is the substitution of thought, reflection, and curiosity with dogma.” (2)

Now we are faced with our own difficult scientific facts:

• Block time - Not only does the present exist now but so does the future and the past. (3)

• Conscious evolution – We have control of our evolution.  Real progress is attainable. (4)

• Post selection – Future life is able to span time to fine tune physical constants and events to suit life... eternal life, rapture, and heaven. (5) 

These Scientific Facts lead to a radical conclusion:

This potentially liberating paradigm shift is encountering heated resistance from nearly every side including academics, atheistic and theistic fundamentalists. They are on the wrong side of this Galileo Moment: With block time, conscious evolution, and post selection, mainstream science reveals a natural path to Godhood that must exist now. And, we can see how God could act on, and guide the world.

Galileo introduced science to the spiritual life of the 15^th century and that eventually resulted in a vibrant Renaissance and Enlightenment, emphasizing reason, analysis, and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority. With our new Galileo moment we can expect such accelerated change in the coming years. Notice in the graph here, collective social change is lagging behind at the moment. But what is slowly filtering into our collective consciousness is, life is achieving its ultimate goal of becoming eternally self-sustaining and universally creative, and that is Godhood. The following are leading  indicators of the change: 

• Social Change – Transhumanism and Posthumanism and leadership in ethics (6) 

• Business Change – Globally Interconnected, Technology Driven, Focused on Empowerment (7) 

• Political Change - Transhumanist Party (8)

 

Transhumanism is when religion becomes Reality

In Christianity this is called Recapitulation

The scriptures reveal that we were meant to evolve. Through man’s depravity the process of the evolution of the human race went wrong, and the course of its wrongness could neither be halted nor reversed by any human means. But in Jesus Christ the whole course of human evolution was perfectly carried out and realized in obedience to the purpose of God. One of the main New Testament scriptures upon which this view is based states: "[God's purpose is, in] the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth..." Ephesians 1:10, RV. The Greek word for 'sum up' were literally rendered 'to recapitulate' in Latin.  In the recapitulation view of the atonement, Christ is seen as the new Adam who succeeds where Adam failed. Christ undoes the wrong that Adam did and, because of his union with humanity, leads humankind on to eternal life.

References

1: Gloria Steinem

2: Frans de Waal

3: Eternalism

4: Conscious evolution

5: Time Travel and Post Selection

6: Transhumanism

7: Business Trends

8:The Transhumanist Political Party

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