Transhumanism
So, I think most of my friends by now are familiar with my suggested path to a utopia. My chosen path to transhumanism does not involve virtual reality in the conventional sense, although it would place everyone inside a virtual envelope of their choosing.
The first step along the path is to build a working singularity – that is to say a neural network that is smarter than we are – and tie it’s survival to ours. (This shouldn’t be difficult, given the power it will take with the current technology will be something similar to bitcoin mining levels of energy). This will be tricky – partially because we want to avoid building skynet – and we also want to avoid building something that’s both much smarter than we are and completely miserable. We then get this singularity to help us understand the nature of our own minds and how to create neurological software (interties between neurons) that enable us to do things like having a hypervisor (multiple mental threads isolated, with one set of threads ensuring that our body stays alive and fed etc while another thread gives us the immersive experience)
The second step along the path is to build some *really* good memetics – possibly with the help of said singularity. A religion based on actual observable truth that gives the adherents the maximum freedom possible without interfering with the freedom of others. Ideally even the ability to make fundamental changes to the structure of the adherent’s mind – a end to depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, etc.
Now, I know there will be a bunch of people who are in love with their (easily demonstratable to be false) religions who will not want to participate, so we may need to figure out how we’re going to separate the transhumanists from those who want to stay behind. Given a lack of other inhabitable planets, I am not sure what the solution will be. One possibility is that the singularity will be able to talk some sense into folks.
More later.
June 1st, 2022 at 11:28 am
While I personally would be happy to have a more reliable memory and a more consciously controlled mental focus, I would rather have a full separation and complete control of the switch between reality and an immersive experience.
That last paragraph… I mean, with the singularity, we become somewhat merged with our technology and have the tools to use the maximum of our resources: we leave the planet, creating our own environments using the resources out there…
That leaves those who chose not to be a part of progress on the planet. This sounds an awful lot like the Christian “rapture” event prophecy, the meek inheriting the Earth while a vast number of people leave, going into the sky. I also remember something about a thousand years of peace, which also kinda fits.
I don’t know how the fulfilment of prophecy makes me feel, or how it should fit into my picture of the structure of reality, but I find it a little funny that those that are the most against much of this progress claim to be following teachings of those that prophesized it.