“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.
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.
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.
Understanding the laws of nature increases a living thing's
chance to exist and grow.
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!
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".
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.
Joseph's challenge; "All you seem to be doing is redefining terms. Bandwidth = the Grail. Jesus = Simulation Programmer. And none of your redefinitions seems to proceed from a convincing argument. And what "infinite continuum of life" are you talking about? Please, try to make your case without throwing out a cascade of ill-defined terms. Start with a defense of the reality of contemporary Christianity. Because if you're trying to convince that majority of Transhumanists who are Atheists or Agnostics, that's the first hurdle you'll need to overcome. And thusfar, I see no reason to put any more credence in your Christianity than I do in classical Roman paganism.
So I the Christian Transhumanist respond; Thanks Joseph! Let me give that a try. I had better have the Holy Grail for you, and I think I do :) It has everything to do with your concern with ill-defined terms. Synthesis of terms is paramount. But it takes lots of work on both sides...the transmitter and the receiver. A lifetime of work!
Let's proceed with the definition of life, using the most advanced concepts in information theory: Life is an information gathering and utilizing system 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.
Then imagine a living universe; 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 this living universe look like? 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."
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. This is often called the Miracle of Being. btw, Have you ever apprehended the Miracle of Being? anyway, I have called this point The Critical Point of Understanding and the Supreme State of Being. It is singular not plural, not PAGAN..sorry :)
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. 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.
The bright blue region at the bottom 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.
From here you can handle the rest if you got an education and pay attention to the world. But here is my challenge to you and any other readers; read the bible, take a quote, or a concept and ask me to reconcile it in terms of Christian Transhumanism. I need the exercise.
Christian Transhumanism A View That Unites Common Ambitions
We Would Be Creators
Christianity is the religion of the Logos. It is faith in the in the Creator Spirit, from which comes everything that exists, according to Pope Benedict the XVI. Church Fathers see humanity becoming full participators in this through Christ. In the process of theosis, the messiah leads us up to heavenly participation in the creation. Now, secular Transhumanist think of becoming "Posthuman" creators. According to leading Transhumanists like Oxford Philosopher Nick Bostrom, we are most likely living in a world created by super-intelligent Posthumans who will use advanced super-computers to run ancestor-simulations. Posthumans eventually learn to create their own virtual space-time like we would set up an aquarium today. Science supports this possibility. Many physicists believe our universe and the matter in which we are made is at its deepest level, information. Logos is at the heart of physics, just as information is at the heart of a computer. Some go so far as to conclude intelligence controls the information-processing system we call the universe.
For the evangelist, this puts a foot in the secular door. If I am living in a simulation then Jesus is a posthuman programmer capable of all sorts of miracles. You could further argue that Adams fall was a glitch in the beta test of the software, corrected by a Jesus tweak in the program. The New Testament Gospel becomes revised computer code.
If the thought of living in a "simulation" wrecks your notion of freedom, Christianity offers hope. With the Grace of God and by doing the will of God, living not by bread alone, but by every word of God, we will step out of the "simulation" and into new degrees of freedom. (Transhumanists call this a biological uplift.) Learn the code that is used to create. The Christian message is to overcome the world through love and understanding. It is interesting to note that in Genesis, the first thing God said to us was “Bless you. Now go 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 says he will guide us into our next form in the continuum of life. The gospel teaches Christians to be like Christ; "Whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister and mother".
Redeemed We Would Be Transformed Into Perfect Lovers
Love is important to Christianity, just as connectivity is important to Transhumanism. Aldous Huxley makes the connection beautifully in his book the Perennial Philosophy. Huxley says; "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." A techie would say. For this I need a fast processor with a noiseless fast connection. I need large bandwidth, and many gigabytes of stable memory. This is the geeks holy grail. God bless them. In a spiritual sense the pure attention of selfless love provides this flow-of-word-to-understanding. Worship leads to the Holy Grail.
In the way of the Holy Spirit, I want to understand you and to share your experience. I want to fully apprehend the world. And, I want to be all that I can be. No one on earth today has the capacity to do this perfectly, but we have the potential. What hope do we have of ever understanding each other with the limited time we have? Or what hope do we have of ever understanding the infinite, extra dimensions, or timelessness if our minds are just not able to grasp these concepts? We are living in a time when it is becoming more and more apparent that technologies are converging on the wish of the Holy Spirit. Christian Transhumanists would use transformative technologies in the way of the Holy Spirit. They look at love this way: Technically, love can be seen as the process of connecting. 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. Forgiveness is important to spiritual growth because it establishes an exhaust for misunderstanding and disorder. Put this all together and you have The Perfect State of Mind.
A broader understanding of love can unite secular and religious social capital upon the same ambition. When these great efforts converge you can expect accelerating returns. 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."
Paul Tillich; "Early in the Christian movement Irenaeus of Lyons called salvation recapitulation. He was pointing to Ephesians 1.10 which speaks of all things in heaven and earth being gathered up in Christ." "It means that the development which was broken in Adam is resumed by Christ and fulfilled in him. In Christ the new mankind has started. That which mankind was to become... However, not only mankind but the whole cosmos finds its fulfillment in Christ." Paul Tillich calls this idea "The profound doctrine of a transcendent humanism, a humanism which says that Christ is the fulfillment of essential man, of the Adamic nature." "And we can become fully human through participation in this full humanity which has appeared in Christ. This includes 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 irrationalistic, nonsensical, or absurd." Rather than a pointless existence, we are inspired to consciously continue the path of evolution that transhumanists aspire to. We overcome the world with "technos" to the point of Christ. Christ becomes a Critical Point of Understanding in communion with the infinite continuum of life. This is where life creates and sustains itself through communion with God The Father. Life becomes "I Am" like our own mind is an I Am. This is the all encompassing Douglass Hofstadter strange loop which arises by moving up or down through a universal hierarchical system of (creation, evolution, and rapture) and finding our self back where we started. Stepping out of this aquarium of living water space-time we can see that faith and works necessarily coexist...The end is the means.
The Apotheosis of Washington in the eye of the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol
The word "apotheosis" in the title means literally the raising of a person to the rank of a god, or the glorification of a person as an ideal.
It's 2010. What happened to the American Spirit? The Space Race is over. Our unrivaled military invades over-matched third world countries chasing bands of terrorists. Other countries are taking the industrial and technological lead. The economic recession reveals there is no safe place to put money. There is talk all over the world that America is in decline and will eventually collapse like all the empires in the past. 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, nuclear plants, coal, 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 crisis is looming packed with danger and opportunity. 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 McAfee stated in their 2007 annual 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."
IT'S A RACE TO THE COGNITIVE HIGH GROUND
Just like every other race to achieve technological advantage, the race to super-intelligence is a do-or-die competition. 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 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, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth." 50 YEARS LATER... manned space flight is suffering from lack of tangible returns on investment. It seems space is no place for flesh and blood. But can and we will evolve.
How should we evolve? Yes we can evolve consciously..It seems that Mind Space is the new land of opportunity. How would Christians treat this Transhuman opportunity? In the way of the Holy Spirit, I want to understand you and to share your experience. I want to fully apprehend the world. And, I want to be all that I can be. No one on earth today has the capacity to do this perfectly, but we have the potential. What hope do we have of ever understanding each other with the limited time we have? Or what hope do we have of ever understanding the infinite, extra dimensions, or timelessness if our minds are just not able to grasp these concepts? We are living in a time when it is becoming more and more apparent that technologies are converging on the wish of the Holy Spirit. Christian Transhumanists would use transformative technologies in the way of the Holy Spirit. They look at love this way: Technically, love can be seen as the process of connecting. 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. Forgiveness is important to spiritual growth because it establishes an exhaust for misunderstanding and disorder. Put this all together and you have The Perfect State of Mind.
In the 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 because of its curious mix of God and Technology. In God and Technology we trust.
