Speaking of which, look who's become a bodhisattva:
http://hplusmagazine.com/2014/08/20/transhumanist-bodhisattvas/ ------------- The Transhumanist Bodhisattvas are group of transhumanists who seek to obtain the goals of transhumanism for the benefit of other sentient beings. Rather than solely for themselves, the Transhumanist Bodhisattvas work to benefit everyone and establish a world of universal and beneficial abundance. . .
The Transhumanist Bodhisattvas can be found around the fringes of the effective altruism movement, and they are as likely to be found reading Dogen as Kurzweil. Their interests include quantifying altruism, life extension and enhancement technologies, creating abundance, and technological systems which enhance well being and eliminate suffering. They seek to harness the singularity for the benefit of everyone and all beings. The two best known bodhisattvas in the Transhumanist Movement today are David Pearce and the IEET’s James Hughes but they are not alone. . . ====
It is amusing the way the transhumanoids oscillate between performances of steely hyper-rational reductionists (not that I agree there is anything actually rational about reductionism, quite the contrary) and performances of New Age of Aquarius boutique spiritualism. The former yields their pseudo-science pseudo-policy existential risk alarmism and evopsycho eugenic douchebaggery, the latter yields this blissed-out everybody must get stoned dood what if we're all in a computer simulation nonsense. I suppose such correlations play out in many of the quasi-scientized cults, from Freemasons to Mormons to Raelians to Scientologists when it comes to it...
> It is amusing the way the transhumanoids oscillate between > performances of steely hyper-rational reductionists. . . > and performances of New Age of Aquarius boutique spiritualism.
http://multiverseaccordingtoben.blogspot.com/ ---------------- Monday, June 16, 2014 The Bullshit at the Heart of Humanity Posted by Benjamin Goertzel
. . .
Each modern human feels great pressure to be both self-focused and group-focused; and to balance self and group in a tribal way, and in a civilized way.
What’s the simplest way for a person to fulfill all these contradictory requirements? . . .
That’s easy: **To bullshit themselves**! . . .
The harder way. . . is to effectively rewire our mind-brains to NOT be reflexively caused unhappiness when we act against our goals/desires, disappoint others, violate social expectations, or balance self and group in tribally inappropriate ways. Having done this, the need for an inaccurate, self-deluding self-model disappears. But performing this kind of rewiring is very difficult. . . The only reasonably reliable methods. . . involve years or decades of concentrated effort via meditation or other similar techniques.
And what would a human mind be like without a dishonesty-infused, systematically inaccurate self-model? Some hints. . . may be found in the mind-states of spiritually advanced individuals. . .
So much for the complexly conflicted present. Let's think a bit about the possibly better future. . .
The prototypical spiritually advanced human is not generally concerned with pursuing pragmatic goals, because they are in a sense beyond the typical human motives that cause people to become attached to pursuit of such goals. This makes one wonder if the legacy self – with all its associated self-deception -- is somehow required in order for humans to work hard toward the achievement of wildly ambitious goals, in the manner for instance of the scientists and entrepreneurs who are currently bringing the Singularity within reach. . .
[I]t’s not clear that the contemporary or historical spiritual guru is a good model for a post-Singularity, post-legacy-self human mind. I suspect that in a community of post-delusory-self minds, avid pragmatic goal-pursuit may well emerge for different reasons, mostly unrelated to legacy human motives. . . ====
"Are you -- are you sad?"
--No.
"But your -- your songs are sad."
--My songs are of time and distance. The sadness is in you. . .
[A]nd she watched the perfect globes of her tears spin out to join the forgotten human memories in the dome of the boxmaker.
> The Sound of the Ocean
ReplyDeleteVery Zen.
Speaking of which, look who's become a bodhisattva:
http://hplusmagazine.com/2014/08/20/transhumanist-bodhisattvas/
-------------
The Transhumanist Bodhisattvas are group of transhumanists who
seek to obtain the goals of transhumanism for the benefit of
other sentient beings. Rather than solely for themselves, the
Transhumanist Bodhisattvas work to benefit everyone and
establish a world of universal and beneficial abundance. . .
The Transhumanist Bodhisattvas can be found around the fringes
of the effective altruism movement, and they are as likely to
be found reading Dogen as Kurzweil. Their interests include quantifying
altruism, life extension and enhancement technologies,
creating abundance, and technological systems which enhance
well being and eliminate suffering. They seek to harness the
singularity for the benefit of everyone and all beings.
The two best known bodhisattvas in the Transhumanist Movement
today are David Pearce and the IEET’s James Hughes
but they are not alone. . .
====
Man, that's fringe.
It is amusing the way the transhumanoids oscillate between performances of steely hyper-rational reductionists (not that I agree there is anything actually rational about reductionism, quite the contrary) and performances of New Age of Aquarius boutique spiritualism. The former yields their pseudo-science pseudo-policy existential risk alarmism and evopsycho eugenic douchebaggery, the latter yields this blissed-out everybody must get stoned dood what if we're all in a computer simulation nonsense. I suppose such correlations play out in many of the quasi-scientized cults, from Freemasons to Mormons to Raelians to Scientologists when it comes to it...
ReplyDelete> It is amusing the way the transhumanoids oscillate between
ReplyDelete> performances of steely hyper-rational reductionists. . .
> and performances of New Age of Aquarius boutique spiritualism.
http://multiverseaccordingtoben.blogspot.com/
----------------
Monday, June 16, 2014
The Bullshit at the Heart of Humanity
Posted by Benjamin Goertzel
. . .
Each modern human feels great pressure to be both self-focused
and group-focused; and to balance self and group in a tribal way,
and in a civilized way.
What’s the simplest way for a person to fulfill all these
contradictory requirements? . . .
That’s easy: **To bullshit themselves**! . . .
The harder way. . . is to effectively rewire our mind-brains
to NOT be reflexively caused unhappiness when we act against
our goals/desires, disappoint others, violate social expectations,
or balance self and group in tribally inappropriate ways.
Having done this, the need for an inaccurate, self-deluding
self-model disappears. But performing this kind of rewiring
is very difficult. . . The only reasonably reliable methods. . .
involve years or decades of concentrated effort via meditation
or other similar techniques.
And what would a human mind be like without a dishonesty-infused,
systematically inaccurate self-model? Some hints. . .
may be found in the mind-states of spiritually advanced individuals. . .
So much for the complexly conflicted present. Let's think
a bit about the possibly better future. . .
The prototypical spiritually advanced human is not generally concerned
with pursuing pragmatic goals, because they are in a sense beyond
the typical human motives that cause people to become attached
to pursuit of such goals. This makes one wonder if the legacy
self – with all its associated self-deception -- is somehow required
in order for humans to work hard toward the achievement of wildly
ambitious goals, in the manner for instance of the scientists
and entrepreneurs who are currently bringing the Singularity
within reach. . .
[I]t’s not clear that the contemporary or historical spiritual guru
is a good model for a post-Singularity, post-legacy-self human mind.
I suspect that in a community of post-delusory-self minds,
avid pragmatic goal-pursuit may well emerge for different reasons,
mostly unrelated to legacy human motives. . .
====
"Are you -- are you sad?"
--No.
"But your -- your songs are sad."
--My songs are of time and distance. The sadness
is in you. . .
[A]nd she watched the perfect globes of her tears
spin out to join the forgotten human memories in
the dome of the boxmaker.
-- William Gibson, _Count Zero_
That sounds to me rather like a cry for help.
ReplyDelete