Friday, July 3, 2015

The Transhumanist Spirituality, or How Religious Bunkum Knows No Bounds

Terasem Faith is the clearest manifestation of, "Scientology", yet for transhumanists, though offered as an "add-on" faith, that would be expected to compete with the previous existing core-beliefs of adherents. As such, it may not be far from what transhumanists actually believe, but what they believe, even though, "sciency", may not be reasonable at all.

Terasem/Transhumanist idea I. LIFE IS PURPOSEFUL.

Life has as many purposes as there are species. Only a few of these collaborate exceptionally well together, among these humans. Nevertheless, all of these 'purpose-machines' contribute more than biomass to their purpose and to who we are. Creative individuals can, "pick their poison," of course, resulting historically in vastly different purposes among humans and human groups. This fact alone, seems to mandate that the individual alone must be willing and responsible to choose and define his own purpose, not any organization, movement, or religion.

Terasem/Transhumanist idea II. DEATH IS OPTIONAL.

It's not: Even the sweetest sounding science fiction book you might take to bed, will only tell of artificial life delays, extensions, and 'uploads'. An upload could signify a democratization of death in a sense, in which one would have the possibility to contribute 'infinitely' to human capacities, without having to write a work of literature or art, innovate a technique or technology, or be remembered in some other way available to us now.  - However, any such 'upload' would still need to be controlled and filtered (even if that filtering is determined commercially, and not by merit). "Infinite life", is an easy out, a simple and bland path for the future of people who think their lives will be inconsequential, and/or wish to have no intention of achieving consequence, of never having to accomplish any of the things that have made immortality reasonable in the past.   

Terasem/Transhumanist idea III. GOD IS TECHNOLOGICAL.

Correct me if I've said this before, but gods are mythical creations, though useful at times, even as a personal bucket (where we can hide away all of our "good stuff", as we go along with our "normal business"). Why would someone want to make technology mythical? Technologies are the things that are appropriate and useful for a purpose. This is the part where you really need to start looking around for the usual suspects.

Terasem/Transhumanist idea IV. LOVE IS ESSENTIA
L.

As far as I can tell, love is a congruence of an emotion and concomitant concern for others reflected in behavior. Humans have many competing emotions, which they reflect 24/7, including negative emotions reflected in behavior towards others in significant relationships, not only "love". Regardless of one's emotional composure and psychological makeup, each of us has bagfuls of concerns that range everywhere, most often edging out that "most perfect" quality a very few poets have aspired towards. The essential takeaway from this is that in our caring about the world, it is our intelligence, taken broadly (not as an emotion), that drives our many purposes positively forward, and not a single confluence of attachments.

Does anyone want a bad religion? Pick a card, any card, I've got lots of them...