Review of The Physics of Christianity, by Frank Tipler

Most readers know that I am very interested in the ideas of Frank Tipler. I consider myself a Soft Tiplerianist in the sense that I relate deeply to Tipler’s high level concept that future technology may be able to resurrect the dead of past ages by some kind of “copying them to the future" and, in the spirit of “There are more things in Heaven and Earth...”, allow myself to contemplate such possibilities. There may be a point where consciousness becomes a important factor in the destiny of the universe, where conscious beings develop the capability to choose and build the universe they _want_ to inhabit, and invite the dead of past ages to join the party by copying them to the future. I have used “Soft Tiplerianism” to indicate this soft rationalist, high level and not detailed concept that will, I hope, be detailed and realized by future scientists and engineers.

In The Physics of Immortality, Tipler proposed that intelligent beings of a far future epoch close to the gravitational collapse of the universe (the so called Big Crunch) may develop the capability to steer the dynamics of the collapsing universe in such a way as to make unlimited subjective time, energy, and computational power available to them before reaching the final singularity. Having done so, they may wish to restore to consciousness all sentient beings of the past, perhaps through a “brute force” computational emulation of the past history of the universe. So after death we may wake up in a simulated environment with many of the features assigned to the afterlife world by the major religions. (from my Interview with Frank J. Tipler of November 2002).

I don't think we know enough physics to guess the specifics of how our descendants in the far future may do spacetime engineering, and I don't think we can guess the motivation of beings very different from us. In other words we cannot know _how_ they will be able to engineer spacetime, and we cannot know _why_ they may choose to resurrect sentient beings of past ages. But I think in The Physics of Immortality Tipler makes a good case to show _that_ future sentient beings may be capable of spacetime engineering at the grandest scale. He shows that some high level visions of religions, such as the cosmic role of life and consciousness and the possibility of the resurrection of the dead, may be basically compatible with science.

Tipler has been criticized, by both sides, for mixing religion with science. He has also been criticized for making wrong scientific assumptions. For example, it appears that the expansion of the universe is accelerating and that the universe, left to itself, will never enter the gravitational collapse phase which is a prerequisite for the Omega Point scenario to happen (see below for Tipler's proposed workaround). As a Stone Age (20th and 21st centuries) scientist, Tipler is certainly wrong on many points that will be corrected by future scientists. But dismissing him as a crank is really like dismissing Leonardo as a crank because his aircraft sketches wouldn’t fly, which is just stupid. Leonardo was a genius who got the _concepts_ right, and later engineers equipped with more detailed knowledge have realized his visions.

I have read the new book of Frank Tipler, The Physics of Christianity, only recently, because it has received some very bad reviews from very smart people like John Walker. In his new book, Tipler tries to zoom much below the higher level concepts described in the first book and show that some specific myths of a specific religion, Christianity, may be basically compatible with science.

The first part of the book is a concise summary of fundamental physics as it is understood today. Tipler does not use mathematics, but I don't think the book is really understandable to people with no background in theoretical physics. To those who do have a background in physics, I recommend reading also the professional versions of his summary: The structure of the world from pure numbers and Feynman-Weinberg Quantum Gravity and the Extended Standard Model as a Theory of Everything. Tipler assumes Everett's Many World Interpretation of quantum physics as the only viable and valid interpretation, and claims that, contrary to the opinion of most theoretical physicists, Feynman and Weinberg developed in the 60s a basic skeleton of a valid theory of quantum gravity. Intrigued by this claim, I am reading the Feynman Lectures on Gravitation. I am unable to judge the validity of Tipler's claim at the moment -- I was trained in theoretical physics and, with some effort, I am still able to read and understand Tipler's maths and physics, but alas not fluently enough.

After his summary of modern physics, Tipler refines his Omega Point model of the far future history of the universe and suggests that, by purposefully annihilating baryons, sentient life will be able to stop the accelerating expansion of the universe and start its gravitational collapse, which is a necessary prerequisite for his Omega Point scenario. I don't know if our descendants will choose or need to do that, but I am very keen of the "fix what you don't like" transhumanist attitude attitude supported by Ray Kurzweil‘s last sentence in The Age of Spiritual Machines: “So will the Universe end in a big crunch, or in an infinite expansion of dead stars, or in some other manner? In my view, the primary issue is not the mass of the Universe, or the possible existence of antigravity, or of Einstein’s so-called cosmological constant. Rather, the fate of the Universe is a decision yet to be made, one which we will intelligently consider when the time is right”. According to Tipler, life will choose a big crunch in order to achieve an Omega Point, and resurrect sentient beings of past ages in appropriate computational realities fueled by the unlimited computing power available.

The diagram above, which is the heart of Tipler's cosmology, has time on the vertical axis and the radius of the universe on the horizontal axes. Reality is really a multiverse in Everett's MWI sense, and different branches of the multiverse (universes) are shown as different curves in the diagram. All universe begin and end as singularities. Another singularity (the vertical line) is found "at the edge of the multiverse" and can be defined as the limit of all paths across universes, at a constant time and heading to smaller sizes. It can be seen that Tipler thinks that intelligent life will be able to trigger a gravitational collapse (perhaps through baryon annihilation) in all universes.

In the second part of the book, Tipler tries show that some specific myths of a specific religion, Christianity, may be basically compatible with science. He identifies the three singularities in the diagram with the three persons of the Trinity. The Son, Jesus, can be identified with the singularity at the edge of the multiverse. The virgin birth of Jesus, his incarnation, his resurrection, and several specific miracles are discussed and "explained" in terms of modern physics in the framework of Tipler's cosmology. Well...

With his extensive knowledge of physics and religion, Tipler tries to show that his conclusions are plausible and even proposes falsifiable experiments to prove them. But I think the second part of the book is "not in the same universe" as the first one, and much less interesting. I find it off-topic like, say, describing in detail the provincial geography of the Earth in a cosmology essay on the large scale structure of the universe. I am very interested in Tipler's cosmic vision and interpretation of the fabric of reality, but I just don't find "details" like the virgin birth interesting enough.

Of course, most Christians do find them very important. But when I hear hoof beats I think horse not zebra. So, regardless of the validity of Tipler's speculations in the second part of the book, I still think of Jesus the son of Joseph as a great _man_, one of the greatest of our history. The Mind near the Omega Point may well choose to consider Jesus, among the countless sentient inhabitants of spacetime, as especially worth of attention and encouragement, but I don't think it will need to mess with the details of human biology, or with the chemistry of water and wine. I think the first part of The Physics of Christianity is a great book, a revised and streamlined version of The Physics of Immortality with some new very interesting insights and more intuitive metaphors. But I don't care much for the second part.

My resignation from the WTA / H+ Board

I have resigned today from the Board of Directors of the World Transhumanist Association, soon to be better known by its new name Humanity+.

I can see that a majority of the Board intend to take Humanity+ to new directions, more moderate and mainstream, perhaps more thoughtful, ethical and socially responsible, but also less radical and visionary. Humanity+ may become a nice, soft-spoken, moderate, ethical, responsible and politically correct quasi-mainstream social club, with only vestigial ties to hardcore transhumanism. I respect the opinion of the majority, and wish Humanity+ all the best. At the same time, by resigning I have expressed my very strong personal disagreement.

Note that, while I denounce what I perceive as watering down the transhumanist message of the late lamented WTA, and regret changing the nature of one of the few global transhumanist organizations, I am fully persuaded that Humanity+ can play an important positive role in today's world. As a moderate, mainstream organization with some ties to transhumanism, Humanity+ may eventually make moderate versions of transhumanist ideas more easily accessible and acceptable to the world of mainstream science, culture and policy making, and to the public at large. So I will support Humanity+ and do my best to collaborate on ad-hoc basis. But I don't think I have much more to offer. Like everyone, I only have limited time available, and I will dedicate it to promoting a more radical and visionary interpretation of transhumanism.

Almost two years ago (even Cassandras can be right at times) I wrote a blog article on Transhumanism, young whores and old bigots. I still subscribe to each and every word I wrote in this article, which can explain my position in more detail.

Le mie dimissioni dal Board della WTA / H+

Come ho appena finito di scrivere nella versione in inglese, oggi mi sono dimesso dal Board della WTA, o Humanity+.

Qualche spiegazione (questa versione non è una traduzione, ed è più esplicita dell' originale):

Una chiara maggioranza nel Board ha intenzione di snaturare l' organizzazione, riducendo il peso della sua componente transumanista e accentuando l' impegno sociale e politico "mainstream", l' etica, la protezione degli uccellini, aiutare le vecchiette ad attraversare la strada, e cose di questo tipo. Contro le quali, siamo chiari, non ho assolutamente nulla (anzi). Credo fermamente nell' importanza dell' impegno sociale, l' attività politica, la cultura, il reddito minimo garantito, i diritti civili, la protezione della natura, l' analisi e prevenzione dei rischi, il diritto alla salute e all' educazione, eccetera eccetera eccetera, e non mi limito a crederci ma cerco anche di fare qualcosa di utile quando e come posso.

Ma tutte queste cose non c' entrano un CAZZO con l' ipotetica necessità di rinunciare al transumanismo. È perfettamente possibile essere transumanista e impegnato politicamente, transumanista e attivista sociale, transumanista e intellettuale d' area, transumanista e filosofo, transumanista e professore, transumanista e scrittore serio, transumanista e femminista, transumanista e membro di Greenpeace... Non solo il transumanismo non è incompatibile con l' impegno nel mondo "reale" ma, al contrario, può rafforzarlo permettendo di inquadrare le attività quotidiane in una visione "cosmica" che, per alcuni, può costituire un importante aiuto psicologico e offrire grandi riserve di energia, speranza e pace interiore.

Rinunciare alle proprie convinzioni filosofiche per inquadrarsi meglio nel mondo della gente mediocre non è una dimostrazione di serietà e maturità, ma una dimostrazione di perbenismo, meschinità, ipocrisia, mancanza di autostima, paura e, finalmente, stupidaggine. La WTA, o Humanity+ o come si chiama, ha smesso di interessarmi. Dedicherò il mio impegno transumanista a gruppi più radicali e visioni più interessanti e divertenti.

Dove va la biopolitica?

Riprendo a scrivere articoli in Italiano dopo vari mesi, con la promessa di farlo più spesso. Stefano Vaj, Segretario dell' Associazione Italiana Transumanisti, mi ha gentilmente inviato una copia del libretto - intervista Dove va la biopolitica?, a cura di Adriano Scianca: "Dove va la biopolitica? Perché tecnoscienza, genetica, ecologia, bioetica sono sempre più al centro dello scontro ideologico? Qual è, quale può essere l’avvenire della nostra specie e del nostro ambiente? Siamo davvero di fronte ad una trasformazione postumana? Stefano Vaj esamina le questioni essenziali del nuovo secolo alla luce della ricerca scientifica e del dibattito filosofico più recenti, proponendo risposte originali e concrete che si riallacciano all’eredità del futurismo e del sovrumanismo europeo.".

Il libretto, di appena 60 pagine di domande e risposte, si legge in un' ora e costituisce un utile riassunto dell' opera Biopolitica. Il nuovo paradigma, dello stesso autore, della quale ho scritto a suo tempo una breve recensione in inglese. Come (spero che) tutti sapranno il futurismo è stato un movimento artistico e culturale, chiaramente precursore di varie interpretazioni del transumanismo, del quale l' esponente più conosciuto è stato Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, l' autore del Manifesto del Futurismo della cui pubblicazione si avvicina il centenario. Che il movimento futurista sia stato a volte considerato, se non un alleato, almeno un precursore del fascismo, è un errore storico e filosofico. Bruce Sterling, che certo fascista non è, ha recentemente pubblicato su Wired il Manifesto del Futurismo in inglese, e ha parlato di futurismo (attraverso David Orban) in occasione di un recente convegno a Torino (versione in inglese - video in blip.tv - parte del video in Youtube).

Che cosa è il sovrumanismo? Secondo alcuni critici (vedasi anche la critica in inglese), si tratta di una pericolosa componente fascista, o neofascista, del pensiero transumanista, vicina allo spirito della Nouvelle Droite francese. Nelle parole di Vaj, invece: "La versione "fondamentalista", sovrumanista e postumanista, che io propongo rappresenta in ultima analisi lo sbocco obbligato di qualsiasi transumanismo coerente.". E alla fine del libretto, riecheggiando il linguaggio "eroico" di Marinetti: : "La nostra inquieta esplorazione del mondo, le tecniche che ne discendono, ci condannano a delle scelte, ci offrono dei poteri, ma non possono dirci cosa farne. Questo non appartiene agli ingegneri o agli scienziati o ai giuristi, ma ai poeti, agli "eroi fondatori" ed alle aristocrazie che sanno tradurre in atto l' oscura volontà collettiva della comunità popolare da cui emanano.".

Questo non mi sembra fascismo, almeno non come lo definisco io. Se questo è fascismo, allora sono fascista. Ma mi sembra più vicino al transumanismo eroicamente radicale, e radicalmente eroico, espresso ad esempio da Max More: "Cara Madre Natura... abbiamo deciso che è giunto il momento di modificare la costituzione umana..." e William Sims Bainbridge: "Abbiamo bisogno di un nuovo movimento sociale dedicato alla conquista dello spazio e capace di dare un senso di proposito trascendente ai settori dominanti della società... la condizione umana è estremamente assurda se non viene vista in un contesto cosmico capace di darle significato...". Preferisco il sovrumanismo e il sovversivo eroismo marinettiano ad alcune interpretazioni moderne del transumanismo, troppo asettiche e politicamente corrette, troppo caute e socialmente responsabili e, infine, troppo annacquate e mortalmente noiose.

Transhumanist spirituality, again

I have been accused, for example by Wesley J. Smith, of interpreting transhumanism like a religion. While I am only proud of being flamed by anti-progress luddites, I have been displeased by seeing Smith's flames echoed by persons closer to the transhumanist community. I wish to repeat here that, if religion is defined as "seeking to find transcendence and truth, meaning and purpose", then I am ready and willing to accept the label "religious". I want to find meaning and transcendence through scientific means and, if I don't find it, I want to build it. My scientific worldview and my belief in our potential for boundless expansion make me appreciate the plausibility of, for example, omega-point-like scenarios where science and spacetime engineering permit to resurrect the dead. This is very hard to swallow for many transhumanists. Perhaps the communication problem lies in using the world “religion” which has a very negative connotation for some. Maybe “spirituality” would work better. Of course, these ideas generate even stronger debates in conventional religious circles.

I am a full member of the Society for Universal Immortalism and one of the founding members of the Order of Cosmic Engineers, a new group of radical, hardcore transhumanists, also open to spiritual sensibilities, who propose a UNreligion of science with a cosmic engineering plan for tomorrow's scientists and engineers as well as a memetic engineering plan for today's world: let's offer everyone a beautiful cosmic vision of wonder, hope and happiness, firmly based on science and transhumanism.

I am also a full member of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. This may seem a strange place to be for someone who does not believe in any "traditional" God, lives in Europe, has never been in Utah and probably has never met a Mormon face to face, and whose mental image of Mormons, derived from movies, is one of overly serious and zealous people in white shirts, black ties and stiff dresses. To make it even stranger I will disclose that the basic beliefs of Mormons The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), outlined for example here, do not make more sense to me than the articles of faith of other Christian denominations and religions.

But the Mormon Transhumanist Affirmation makes a lot of sense to me:
(1) We seek the spiritual and physical exaltation of individuals and their anatomies, as well as communities and their environments, according to their wills, desires and laws, to the extent they are not oppressive.
(2) We believe that scientific knowledge and technological power are among the means ordained of God to enable such exaltation, including realization of diverse prophetic visions of transfiguration, immortality, resurrection, renewal of this world, and the discovery and creation of worlds without end.
(3) We feel a duty to use science and technology according to wisdom and inspiration, to identify and prepare for risks and responsibilities associated with future advances, and to persuade others to do likewise.
And readers of my blog will know that I am very fond of the spiritual and cosmic visions of Lincoln Cannon and other people in the MTA. Mormon Transhumanists represent the best synthesis of transhumanism and spirituality that I have found. They are also very nice persons who care for each other and for other people on our planet, and the MTA website is by far the best transhumanist community site in terms of both IT implementation and content.

On March 30 Lincoln gave a presentation in Second Life, and explained that Mormonism is more compatible with transhumanism than other Christian denominations and religions because the LDS doctrine is open to the idea of a God evolving in and with the universe and achieving Godhead by means of a technology enabled evolutionary process. Of course not all Mormon would agree (see this interesting discussion). I was quite pleased with Lincoln’s answer to one of my questions, about the possibility that some future civilization may find a way, by extracting all relevant information from the past, to resurrect us by “copying us to the future”. Lincoln answered that this technological resurrection option is an element of his faith, and also mentioned alternative scenarios based on Nick Bostrom’s simulation theory: perhaps those who are running us as simulations may choose to continue running us after our physical death. This answer is in this video clip.

More recently, the MTA has presented The New God Argument at Sunstone 2008: we should "trust that an advanced civilization more benevolent than us probably created our world”. Not supernatural creation, but engineering work: the authors make many references to the fact that, as we advance toward the capability to create synthetic worlds populated by sentient beings, more and more thinkers are beginning to seriously consider the possibility that we, ourselves, may be sentient beings in a reality computationally created by a higher level of reality (see more comments here). And in a few months there will be an interesting conference on Parallels and Convergences: Mormon Thought and Engineering Vision: "An assumption can be made that, according to LDS understanding, God is the architect of the Creation and the engineer of our bodies and spirits. Man, on the other hand, is believed to be capable of growing to become like God. The theological question is: where does engineering fit in the convergence of these two realms?". The list of topics looks like the program of a radical transhumanist conference.

I have been flamed (see above) for writing "I want our ideas to reach as many people as possible, in a clear and understandable way. Why? Because our worldview can give a sense of meaning of life, a vision of our place in the universe, peace and happiness. This has been the historic function of the world’s great religions, which are now finally beginning to show some fatigue and soon will be completely unable to persuade people more and more culturally sophisticated and used to the scientific worldview... I am very interested in the current experimental activities to create “transhumanist religions”, based on science, but still able to offer hope in “another life” even for those who are already dead. Some information on these experiments, links and my own toughts can be found in my article Engineering Transcendence". This is why I am so interested in the MTA's very ambitious project to present transhumanism as a natural consequence of the basic tenets of an established religion and our wildest dreams, transcending biology, eliminating death and achieving Godhead, as part of God's plan for humankind. I am persuaded that "infecting" established religion with our beautiful and powerful transhumanist memes can only result in a better world and more happiness for more people.

The MTA is a good start, but we should not stop there. The LDS doctrine seems to offer a somewhat easier entry point for transhumanist memes, but what about other Christian denomination and major religions like Islam? I am persuaded that the transhumanist message can be presented in such a way as to be acceptable, while remaining true to its essence, for most religious persons.

And we see more and more people abandoning traditional religions and embarking on their own personal quest for meaning, often joining one or another New Age cult. They leave the beaten path and wander through energy pyramids, crystals, gurus, alternative medicine, meditation, karma, ESP, reincarnation... often falling prey of greedy sharks in the (big) business of spirituality who smoothly steal their money by telling them what they want to hear. Transhumanists are used to making fun of New Agers as naive and gullible people. But I think their honest search for transcendence and purpose is something good and I am sure that, if they were equipped with sharper intellectual tools, they would search meaning in the beautiful cosmic visions of transhumanist thinkers like Moravec, Kurzweil, More, Bainbridge and Gardner. They would not find dogmas and certainties, but reasons for hope. I think the New Age galaxy could represent a very fertile new ground for transhumanist outreach.

CTRL-ALT-R: Another Life

I am reading Extropia DaSilva's CTRL-ALT-R essays and look forward to discussing them with the author at the Next Cosmic Engineers meeting in Second Life: Discussion of CTRL-ALT-R: REBAKE YOUR REALITY. Parts of the essays deal with CA based digital physics and the possibility that we may live in a simulated reality computed by means of digital physics by another level of reality. The short movie below illustrates resurrection in such a scenario.

Extropia describes cellular automata (CA) and Conway's Game of Life, the best known example of CA, and writes: "Working independently of Wolfram, Ed Fredkin believes that the fabric of reality, the very stuff of which matter/energy is made, emerges from the information produced by a 3D CA whose logic units confine their activity to being ‘on’ or ‘off’ at each point in time. ‘I don’t believe that there are objects like electrons and photons and things which are themselves and nothing else. What I believe is that there’s an information process, and the bits, when they’re in certain configurations, behave like the thing we call the electron, or whatever’. The phenomenon of ‘gliders’ demonstrates the ability of a CA to organize itself into localized structures that appear to move through space. If, fundamentally, something like a CA is computing the fabric of reality, particles like electrons may simply be stubbornly persistant tangles of connections. Fredkin calls this the theory of ‘digital physics’, the core principle of which is the belief that the Universe ultimately consists of bits governed by a programming rule. The complexity we see around us results from recursive algorithms tirelessly taking information it has transformed and transforming it further. ‘What I’m saying is that at the most basic level of complexity an information process runs what we think of as the law of physics’... [digital physics] adopts the position that our very thought processes are just one of the things to emerge from the calculations performed by the CA running the Universe.".

And in another essay: "If the freely-compounding robot intelligences ultimately restructure space into an expanding bubble of cyberspace consuming all in its path, and if the post-biological entities inherit a curiosity for their past from the animals that helped create them, the 10^86 bits available would provide a powerful tool for post-human historians. They would have the computational power to run highly-detailed simulations of past histories- so detailed that the simulated people in those simulated histories think their reality is…well…’real’... Such conjectures have stunning implications for our own reality. Any freely-compounding intelligence restructuring our Solar System into sublime thinking substrates could run quadrillions of detailed historical simulations. That being the case, surely we must conclude that any given moment of human history- now for instance- is astronomically more likely to be a virtual reality formed in the vast computational space of Mind, rather than the physical reality we believe it to be.".

If we live in a simulated reality computed by means of digital physics by another level of reality, which may be the primary reality of our computronium based AI mind children in a future time, then we live in a universe with a conceptually simple, and scientifically sound, practical engineering mechanism for our own resurrection, by copying sentient beings living in the simulated reality (us) to another simulated reality (or even the primary reality itself). Of course we probably cannot even imagine the motivations of computronium superintelligences, but it seems plausible that they would copy and store interesting patterns to run them again. At least, this is what CA and Alife researchers do today. This is illustrated by the short movie CA Resurrection, which I just made with a Game of Life program. The protagonist pattern is doomed to certain death by interaction with an environment that, except in very carefully controlled conditions, is very unfriendly to the stability of patterns (sounds familiar?), but is copied before death and restored to life in a friendlier environment.

Video (Youtube)
Video (blip.tv)

From the Cosming Engineers meeting place one can see the ever changing beautiful futuristic architecture of Port Moravec, and Extropia DaSilva is a fan of Hans Moravec, whose work is discussed in the essays. What does Moravec think about resurrection?

The first published account of his early ideas on mind uploading etc. may be Today's Computers, Intelligent Machines and Our Future (1978) - "The machine society can, and for its own benefit probably should, take along with it everything we consider important, up to and including the information in our minds and genes. Real live human beings, and a whole human community, could then be reconstituted if an appropriate circumstance ever arose".

Resurrection is mentioned in his books Mind Children and Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind: "In Chapter 6 robots sweep into space in a colonizing wave, but then disappear in a wake of increasingly pure thinking stuff. A "Mind Fire" burns across the universe in Chapter 7. Physical law loses its primacy to purposes, goals, interpretations and God knows what else.". In the last page of Robot he writes: "When we die, the rules surely change... Perhaps we are most likely to find ourselves reconstituted in the minds of superintelligent successors, or perhaps in dreamlike worlds (or AI programs) where psychological rather than physical rules dominate. Our mind children will probably be able to navigate the alternatives with increasing facility. For us, now, barely conscious, it remains a leap in the dark.", and concludes with Shakespeare's immortal words "To sleep, perchance to dream...".

From a 1995 message of Charles Platt to the Cryonel list: "The question has been asked, is robotics researcher Hans Moravec serious about the possibility of reconstructing a human being from "clues" left behind on an atomic level? The answer is "yes."... I recently did a long interview on this and other topics with Hans, which will appear in the October issue of Wired. He derives a genuine feeling of comfort from his "resurrection by AI" scenario.".

From the Interview with Hans Moravec by Charles Platt:

I'm a little less hard-core in my atheism than I used to be. And my ideas about resurrection in some ways are not so different from those of early theologians, or from the Greek thought that fed into that.
Moravec foresees a kind of happy ending, though, because the cyberspace entities should find human activity interesting from a historical perspective.
We will be remembered as their ancestors, the creators who enabled them to exist.
As Moravec puts it, "We are their past, and they will be interested in us for the same reason that today we are interested in the origins of our own life on Earth."
Assuming the artificial intelligences now have truly overwhelming processing power, they should be able to reconstruct human society in every detail by tracing atomic events backward in time. "It will cost them very little to preserve us this way," he points out. "They will, in fact, be able to re-create a model of our entire civilization, with everything and everyone in it, down to the atomic level, simulating our atoms with machinery that's vastly subatomic. Also," he says with amusement, "they'll be able to use data compression to remove the redundant stuff that isn't important."
But by this logic, our current "reality" could be nothing more than a simulation produced by information entities.
"Of course." Moravec shrugs and waves his hand as if the idea is too obvious. "In fact, the robots will re-create us any number of times, whereas the original version of our world exists, at most, only once. Therefore, statistically speaking, it's much more likely we're living in a vast simulation than in the original version. To me, the whole concept of reality is rather absurd. But while you're inside the scenario, you can't help but play by the rules. So we might as well pretend this is real - even though the chance things are as they seem is essentially negligible."
And so, according to Hans Moravec, the human race is almost certainly extinct, while the world around us is just an advanced version of SimCity.

This interview also appeared on Wired.

Review of Stefano Vaj's Biopolitica

I became aware of Stefano Vaj's writings, and in particular his book Biopolitica (http://www.biopolitica.it/), in the summer of 2006 lurking on Italian transhumanist lists. I did not have much time and did not really read posts carefully, but could not help noticing that there was a flame war triggered by Stefano's book, with some posters enthusiastically endorsing it and others attacking it as fascism. The same discussion has more recently taken place on the global transhumanist lists. Since the book is not available in English I am often asked to provide information, and this is why I am posting here this review adapted from a post to a transhumanist mailing list.

I am as far from fascism as one can be, but am not afraid to consider ideas different from my own. Moreover, I am acutely aware that history is always written by the winners. So I decided to actually read the book with my own eyes and brain. I discussed it at length with Riccardo Campa, the founder of the Italian Transhumanist Association and a former WTA Board member who writes on left-wing magazines and cannot be accused of fascist leanings, and asked many questions to Stefano.

Here are the conclusions that I reached:

1) The "flavor" of the book, as defined by the choice of words and quotes and the general "atmosphere", does indeed show that the author was strongly influenced by sensibilities that belong, as well, to some components of European neo-fascism.

2) The book does not contain a single endorsement of anything that I would consider as a fascist policy. No exhortations to burn people and attack cities and states, no proposals to enforce social order by means of a police state, no support for repressing deviance, no hate for or proposed actions against "inferior races", etc.

3) The main ideas are:

a) A radical flavor of transhumanism where achieving superhumanity is seen as what our species _must_ do at this stage of its evolution. Check. Note: the word "superman" has been, indeed, used by nazis. But they also used the word "potato" I believe. And don't forget that your favorite cartoon hero was "Superman".

b) A strong endorsement of the self-determination of communities and the preservation of their own culture and chosen way of life against global pressure. Check. This is, I believe, a necessary condition for the transition to posthumanity. Do we want to let a fundamentalist administration in a superpower impose a ban on human enhancement upon the rest of the world? Or is it better to leave other communities free to choose their own approach?

c) "Rights" are recognized as a cultural product. Check. This is, I believe, the only mature way to talk of rights. Unless, of course, we prefer to believe in "God´s given", "natural" rights.

4) There are many references to Nietsche and the Italian Futurist movement of the early 20th century. Both have been accused to be precursors of fascism, which is historically and philosophically not correct. Both support striving to transcend current limits with no reverence for God's or Nature's will. Check. This bold approach to taking control of our lives as individuals and as a species, with a certain sense of a cosmic destiny is, I think, exactly what the transhumanist movement needs at this moment.

Chat with R. Geraci on transhumanism, religion and cosmic engineers in VR

I had the honor and the pleasure of being interviewed by Robert Geraci for his new book about the ways in which Virtual Worlds operate as sacred spaces for many people (a growing number), also dealing with various religious ideas and groups operative in Second Life to discuss how those might affect conventional religious life. Robert is the author of a Survey on Second Life and Religious Thought/Practice. I invited him to the beautiful Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi in Second Life, which provided an inspiring setting for an inspiring chat. Seeing the frescos, Robert pointed me to the book Pearly gates of cyberspace, which I definitely must read.

We talked of transhumanism, religion, the relevance and impact of virtual worlds for both, the many transhumanist organizations (too many? No. I am for let many flowers bloom, small is beautiful, and I am very much against all kinds of centralization, so I certainly do not think there are too many transhumanist organizations). We discussed many transhumanist organizations and in particular the Society for Universal Immortalism, the Mormon Transhumanist Association and, of course, the Order of Cosmic Engineers, and discussed our plans for the growth of the Order of Cosmic Engineers once it goes out of stealth mode in a few weeks. I told him that, in my opinion, the Order's program makes a lot of sense as a cosmic engineering program for the future, but also as a memetic engineering program for here and now: showing people how to find again a sense of wonder, a feeling of happiness and a vision of one's own place in a universe-wide cosmic engineering project, that used to be offered by traditional religions, but without renouncing reason and science.

The New God Argument at Sunstone 2008

I am awed by The New God Argument at Sunstone 2008 by Lincoln Cannon and Joseph West of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. Mormon Transhumanists, and to some extent all Mormons, don't insist on a supernatural God outside the universe and are quite open to the possibility of a natural God existing and evolving within the physical universe described by science. Mormon transhumanists demonstrate the possibility of peaceful coexistence of science and religion, and I only wish some of those who come from the science camp would show a similar openness of mind.

Don't miss the Document, the Handouts and the Slides. Lincoln and Joseph argue that we should "trust that an advanced civilization more benevolent than us probably created our world". Not supernatural creation, but engineering work: the authors make many references to the fact that, as we advance toward the capability to create synthetic worlds populated by sentient beings, more and more thinkers are beginning to seriously consider the possibility that we, ourselves, may be sentient beings in a reality computationally created by a higher level of reality.

Their argument is basically similar to the argument given by Nick Bostrom in Are You Living In a Computer Simulation?, with more assumptions on the motivations of our "creators", for example: "If any advanced civilization probably creates many worlds like those in its past then any advanced civilization that created our world probably acts toward us with at least as much benevolence as it expects any advanced civilization that created its world should act toward it". Note: "creates many worlds like those in its past" is used mainly the sense of computational simulations of past history, with sentient inhabitants, but also in a more general sense, including for example Jurassic Park -like recreations of past history in physical reality. In both cases, the sysops would have godlike powers over our reality, and perhaps they would remember to make periodic backups.

I don't relate well to arguments based on guessing the motivations of unknown and perhaps unguessable others, but I think the really strong argument is this: "As the computing power available to us continues to advance exponentially, it seems reasonable to suppose that one of the things we might do is run increasingly detailed simulations of our world and worlds like it. As the level of detail increases and the user interface improves, it would become ever more difficult to discern any difference between our world and the simulated worlds, to the point that, for all practical purposes, “simulation” or “virtual” would no longer accurately describe those worlds or the apparently sentient persons in them. Furthermore, if an advanced civilization simulates many such worlds, indistinguishable in degree of detail from its own world, then the advanced civilization itself is much more likely to be one of many simulated worlds than it is to be the only hypothetical non- simulated world. In other words, an advanced civilization that simulates many worlds like those in its past is almost certainly not the first or only to do so, and thus is probably simulated itself".

Perhaps the argument can be made even simpler: let's assume that physical reality is one, and that physical reality permits the creation of synthetic worlds populated by sentient beings. There is no reason to assume that there can be only one synthetic world, so the number of synthetic worlds can be higher, perhaps much higher, than the number of "real" worlds (one, by assumptions). It seems reasonable to think that the number of simulated sentient beings can be (much) larger than the number of "real" sentient beings, hence you and I are probably living in a simulation (but the conclusion, or assumption, on the benevolence of our creators is lost. Or something like that. However, I suspect that there is no fundamental difference between physical and simulated realities: our matter and energy may be "their" bits and cellular automata.

My talk at the Conference: The Future of Religions - Religions of the Future

This is the full text of my talk at the Conference: The Future of Religions - Religions of the Future - June 4, 5, 2008. The Future of Religions/Religions of the Future has been a two-day conference examining how two of the 21st Century's driving forces, religion and technology, will continue to re-shape each other and, in the process, re-cast our understanding of "humanity" in the Third Millennium. Centered on, but not limited to, virtual worlds and social networking technologies, speakers and panelists also examined changes precipitated by the biotechnology revolution, cognitive science, information technologies and robotics. Speakers included William Sims Bainbridge, James Hughes, Giulio Prisco, Lincoln Cannon and Robert Geraci.

First, I wish to thank the "Extropia" and "Al-Andalus Caliphate Project" communities for the masterful organization of this great event dedicated to very important issues. Today I have this strange feeling that we are watching history in the making, and I don't mean only history of VR worlds.

A personal note. I am Giulio Prisco, also known as Giulio Perhaps in Second Life. I do not keep my RL and SL identities separate, and I am more of an "augmentationist" than an "immersionist". SL is still a very primitive VR world compared to future VR worlds, and I cannot take seriously this PC screen with toons as an alternate reality. Yet.

But I see that different identities and personas can inhabit the same skull and should be given more elbow room and more freedom from each other. I think transhumanism is about offering more options to choose from, and have decided to take advantage of the option of having multiple avatars in SL and separate my mainstream business identity from my creative and "exotic" identity. This avatar will get all the fun. I wish to ask all those who have my other avatar in their friends list to add also this one.

This is the first public appearance of Eschatoon Magic, and I could not have chosen a better audience. My other avatar looks more or less like Giulio Prisco: old, fat and plain. But _I_ look like Giulio would like to look. Future technologies may give us options to choose our physical bodies, or migrate to VR and live in virtual bodies as conscious software. Future generations may roam the universe as immortal uploads, or "souls", and perhaps _create and become_ "gods". This brings me to...

Transhumanist Religions

Science and religion are occasionally seen as enemies of each other, but I think this is mainly due to communication problems between the two communities. I don't think science and religion are born enemies. On the contrary I believe _good_ religion without bigotry and dogmatic irrational fundamentalism, and _good_ science without bigotry and dogmatic ultra-rationalist fundamentalism, can not only coexist peacefully but also mutually reinforce.

Lincoln Cannon of the Mormon Transhumanist Association said at last year's Seminar on H+ and Religion in SL: “We believe that scientific knowledge and technological power are among the means ordained of God to enable such exaltation, including realization of diverse prophetic visions of transfiguration, immortality, resurrection, renewal of this world, and the discovery and creation of worlds without end”.

This is, I believe, a perfect explanation of why, despite what fundamentalists may say, transhumanism is not at all incompatible with religion but, on the contrary, each of the two sets of sensibilities can boost the other in a positive feedback loop.

I have started using the label “Cosmic Transhumanism” to indicate a broad strand of transhumanism inspired by (among others) Ray Kurzweil‘s radically optimist "the fate of the Universe is a decision yet to be made, one which we will intelligently consider when the time is right", the cosmic visions of Frank Tipler and James Gardner, Sir Arthur C. Clarke‘s “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and, of course, Shakespeare’s “there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”.

I am persuaded that Cosmic Transhumanism, the idea that consciousness and intelligent life may become key factors in the future evolution of the physical universe (transcending biology, filling the universe, steering spacetime topology, spawning baby universes, “becoming gods” etc.), once developed and communicated as a strong memetic package, can provide an alternative to religion suitable for the forthcoming phase of our evolution as a species.

Good religion provides beautiful visions of the universe and our place in it, a sense of meaning, purpose and connectedness, the feeling of being part of a community with a cosmic destiny, and happiness. Good science can provide the same benefits and _may_ also provide _some degree of_ hope, grounded in the scientific method, in some of the promises of traditional religions. Including, perhaps, the possibility that some future civilization may resurrect the dead by "copying them to the future". But without the irrational faith, rigid dogmatism and intolerance that have plagued traditional religions.

Of course I am perfectly aware that mixing science and religion may sound like a dangerous heresy to many believers in both conventional religion and the new religion of atheism and scientific ultra-rationalism. It may also disturb some politically correct intellectuals of the new left, who condemn imaginative thinking as a distraction from serious social work.

They condemn transhumanism because to them it sounds like a religion. But if religion is defined as “seeking to find transcendence and truth, meaning and purpose”, then I am ready and willing to accept the label “religious”. And I want to find what I seek through scientific means, or at least through means compatible with the scientific method and worldview. If I don’t _find_ them, I want to _build_ them by following the best methods developed by our civilization. Science and engineering have taken us from caves to where we are now, and there is no reason to think that this process should stop here.

While religion has led to sad extremes, it has also fueled many worth initiatives and provided peace of mind and sense of wonder to countless believers. The key question if how to keep the good things of religion (sense of community, happiness, and a hopeful vision of our place and purpose in the universe) without the bad things (bigotry, fundamentalism, intolerance, holy wars, burning heretics and infidels).

Here I think transhumanism, and especially its “cosmic” face aimed at achieving superhumanity and spreading to the stars and beyond, may provide a modern, energizing but tolerant alternative to religion rooted in the scientific worldview.

It is through science and practical engineering, by rolling up our sleeves and tightening one screw at a time in the fabric of reality, that our descendants will achieve superhumanity and godhead. Religions could only address our aspiration to transcendence by resorting to a mystical worldview based on supernatural concepts. But the scientific and engineering approach, based on a materialist worldview with no place for supernatural entities, will ultimately turn many promises of religion into reality. Science and engineering are not the enemies of transcendence, but the very tools that will permit achieving it.

I am assuming that everything under and beyond the stars is a physical object that must obey the laws of physics, however weird they may prove to be, and can in principle be reverse-engineered and improved upon once we have mastered the engineering applications of these laws.

In the next few decades or couple of centuries, we will apply this principle to the human body and the human mind: we will reverse-engineer them, and build better ones. As Sir Arthur C. Clarke would say, “as soon as our machines will better than our bodies, it will be time to move. First our brains, and then our thoughts alone, we will transfer into shining new homes of metal and of plastic”.

Sir Arthur wrote similar words (referred to the ETs who built the monolith on the Moon) in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Today, using the terminology of modern science fiction, we would probably say something like “computronium” instead of “metal and plastic”, but the concept is the same. We would also be kinder to poor HAL: in the same timeframe (a few decades to a couple of centuries) we will build artificial intelligences that will first equal, then outperform, and then partly merge with our human intelligences. As uploaded minds with indefinite lifespans, humans will spread to the stars.

Note: I am using “will” to indicate a possibility and an intention, not a certainty of a future that might also not happen (it certainly will not happen, for example, if the human species destroys itself before - not a big deal from a cosmic point of view as the same dreams will be also pursued by other intelligences in the universe, but a very big deal from our point of view). I am using “will” to say that I hope this future will happen, that I think it will happen, that it should happen, that I intend to contribute to make it happen, and that you should also contribute to make it happen.

We are attending this conference in the virtual reality world of Second Life, which must be seen as a first baby step in VR and is _very_ primitive compared to the VR worlds that we will see in only a few years. Video-realism, accurate simulated physics and high bandwidth neural interfacing technology will permit fully immersive VR worlds, with total sensorial stimulation indistinguishable from physical reality, in a few decades.

Mind uploading technology may at some point permit us migrating to our VR worlds and living there as software beings. These synthetic will also contain very advanced, sentient artificial intelligences. The ability to create synthetic worlds populated by sentient beings will mark a very important milestone in our evolution as cosmic makers. Could we _be_ conscious beings in a synthetic world simulated in and by a higher order reality? This possibility has been proposed and discussed by Nick Bostrom and others. There is no way to even estimate its plausibility at the moment. The scientific method says: have an open mind, and let future theories and experiments decide.

The Society for Universal Immortalism is a progressive religion that holds rationality, reason, and the scientific method as central tenets of its faith. I am a member if the Society, and wish to thank the other members for many stimulating ideas and discussions. In particular, I am indebted to R. Michael Perry for the beautiful declaration in his book ”Forever for All”: "To that end, we dedicate ourselves to finding a way one day to bring back all persons who have ever lived, so they can join in our eternal adventure".

This is a very strong idea, which may permit a full reconciliation between the scientific and religious worldviews. Universal immortalists do not propose any specific engineering approach to resurrection, but consider it as an objective that future technology may be able to achieve, someday, based on future scientific advances.

I see Universal Immortalism as Transhumanism “plus something”. This “something” is the resurrection idea: finding a way one day to bring back all persons who have ever lived. Even if Universal Immortalism is scientific speculation (we hope to resurrect the dead using “future magic” based on science and engineering), the resurrection idea is very hard to swallow even for many transhumanists. But in my view, Universal Immortalism is perfectly compatible with transhumanism, and constitutes its logical endpoint. The engineering challenge will be huge of course, but so it was for the development of agriculture.

Let's move on to the stars toward our cosmic destiny, and then we will see. President Kennedy said: “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too”. A few years later, watching the first men walking on the moon, it was easy to believe in humanity’s destiny in space.

Too bad space “did not happen”. Today’s world is a complex, interconnected and difficult place on its way to becoming even more so. We need grand visions for all humanity, that can energize all persons on our little blue planet and provide the drive to move onward as a whole. Cosmic transhumanist visions will not lead to holy wars against infidels, but rather to a Holy War against the limitations of being humans 1.0: disease, mortality, stupidity, unhappiness, lack of empathy and understanding, and being confined on our little planet.

Then, perhaps as uploaded minds with indefinite lifespans, humans will spread to the stars. What next? Borrowing again from Sir Arthur: "But the age of the Machine-entities will swiftly pass. In our ceaseless experimenting, we will learn to store knowledge in the structure of space itself, and to preserve our thoughts for eternity in frozen lattices of light. We will become creatures of radiation, free at last from the tyranny of matter".

As William Sims Bainbridge noted in a 1981 article titled ”Religions for a Galactic Civilization”, we need a sense of transcendent purpose at both personal and societal levels to embark in the grand journey to the universe. In Bainbridge’s words: “We need a new spaceflight social movement capable of giving a sense of transcendent purpose to dominant sectors of the society. It also should be capable of holding the society in an expansionist phase for the longest possible time, without permitting divergence from its great plan. In short, we need a galactic religion, a Church of God Galactic…”.

Let me make an announcement now.

DRAMATIC PAUSE...

On behalf of its founding team, a few members of which are virtually attending this conference, I have the honor and the pleasure to announce the foundation of the Order of Cosmic Engineers, humanity's First "UNreligion of Science", and warmly invite you to join its cosmic quest.

Adopting an engineering approach and attitude, the Order aims to turn this universe into a "magical" realm in the sense of Clarke's Third Law: a realm where sufficiently advanced technology turns daily reality into what would be considered by most today as a seemingly supernatural 'magical' realm.

We are, at the same time, a transhumanist association, a spiritual movement, a space advocacy group, a literary salon, a technology observatory, an idea factory, a virtual worlds development group, and a global community of persons willing to take an active role in building, in realizing a sunny future.

We will discuss the future of humanity during World of Warcraft quests, plan the future of technology in Second Life, and build futuristic virtual worlds in our labs. But most importantly, we will assist you -yes, we do mean you- in finding meaning and hope in your existence in this, your reality, your universe.

Whatever our formal training and professional affiliations, in a very profound sense we are all scientists and engineers. We develop technical skills and design principles that will enable us to create and explore new realities. Therefore, the Order will undertake various projects, selected because they are both revolutionary and feasible at the current cutting edge of science and technology.

The Order's website can be found at http://cosmeng.org/. Its first event will be hosted by the Science Guild in World of Warcraft on June 14 at noon EST.

The full SL chatlog (Thanks Bill!):

[9:48] Sophrosyne Stenvaag: Welcome, Eschatoon!
[9:48] Sophrosyne Stenvaag: Come on up to the central podium, please!
[9:51] Sophrosyne Stenvaag: Eschatoon is about to start - thank you for your patience!
[9:51] Eschatoon Magic: First, I wish to thank the “Extropia” and “Al-Andalus Caliphate Project” communities for the masterful organization of this great event dedicated to very important issues. Today I have this strange feeling that we are watching history in the making, and I don’t mean only history of VR worlds.
[9:52] Eschatoon Magic: A personal note. I am Giulio Prisco, also known as Giulio Perhaps in Second Life. I do not keep my RL and SL identities separate, and I am more of an “augmentationist” than an “immersionist”. SL is still a very primitive VR world compared to future VR worlds, and I cannot take seriously this PC screen with toons as an alternate reality. Yet.
[9:52] Eschatoon Magic: But I see that different identities and personas can inhabit the same skull and should be given more elbow room and more freedom from each other. I think transhumanism is about offering more options to choose from, and have decided to take advantage of the option of having multiple avatars in SL and separate my mainstream business identity from my creative and “exotic” identity. This avatar will get all the fun. I wish to ask all those who have my other avatar in their friends list to add also this one.
[9:52] Starfox Howl: I am not a toon!
[9:53] Sophrosyne Stenvaag grins at Starfox and nods
[9:53] Eschatoon Magic: ty starfox for confirming that you hear me, so I am sure my talk is not being eaten by lag ;-)
[9:54] Eschatoon Magic: This is the first public appearance of Eschatoon Magic, and I could not have chosen a better audience. My other avatar looks more or less like Giulio Prisco: old, fat and plain. But _I_ look like Giulio would like to look. Future technologies may give us options to choose our physical bodies, or migrate to VR and live in virtual bodies as conscious software. Future generations may roam the universe as immortal uploads, or “souls”, and perhaps _create and become_ “gods”. This brings me to…
[9:54] Eschatoon Magic: Transhumanist Religions
[9:54] Eschatoon Magic: Science and religion are occasionally seen as enemies of each other, but I think this is mainly due to communication problems between the two communities. I don't think science and religion are born enemies. On the contrary I believe _good_ religion without bigotry and dogmatic irrational fundamentalism, and _good_ science without bigotry and dogmatic ultra-rationalist fundamentalism, can not only coexist peacefully but also mutually reinforce.
[9:55] Eschatoon Magic: Lincoln Cannon of the Mormon Transhumanist Association said at last year's Seminar on H+ and Religion in SL: “We believe that scientific knowledge and technological power are among the means ordained of God to enable such exaltation, including realization of diverse prophetic visions of transfiguration, immortality, resurrection, renewal of this world, and the discovery and creation of worlds without end”.
[9:55] Eschatoon Magic: Lincoln said it much better yesterday
[9:56] Eschatoon Magic: by teh way can someone confirm that you hear me?
[9:56] Sophrosyne Stenvaag: you're fine!
[9:56] Ahman Hax: all is well
[9:56] Eschatoon Magic: once my DSL dropped that in the middle of a talk
[9:56] Tara Yeats: loud ^& clear, Esch!
[9:56] Eschatoon Magic: ty
[9:56] Eschatoon Magic: so...
[9:56] Eschatoon Magic: This is, I believe, a perfect explanation of why, despite what fundamentalists may say, transhumanism is not at all incompatible with religion but, on the contrary, each of the two sets of sensibilities can boost the other in a positive feedback loop.
[9:56] Ali Hermes: No problems hearing here.
[9:56] Prometheus Augenblik: I can't hear anything. But I can see your words.
[9:57] Eschatoon Magic: Max that is what I mean - I am not speaking (you will, on Sun)
[9:57] Prometheus Augenblik: OK
[9:57] Eschatoon Magic: I have started using the label “Cosmic Transhumanism” to indicate a broad strand of transhumanism inspired by (among others) Ray Kurzweil‘s radically optimist "the fate of the Universe is a decision yet to be made, one which we will intelligently consider when the time is right", the cosmic visions of Frank Tipler and James Gardner, Sir Arthur C. Clarke‘s “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and, of course, Shakespeare’s “there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”.
[9:58] Eschatoon Magic: I am persuaded that Cosmic Transhumanism, the idea that consciousness and intelligent life may become key factors in the future evolution of the physical universe (transcending biology, filling the universe, steering spacetime topology, spawning baby universes, “becoming gods” etc.), once developed and communicated as a strong memetic package, can provide an alternative to religion suitable for the forthcoming phase of our evolution as a species.
[9:58] Eschatoon Magic: Good religion provides beautiful visions of the universe and our place in it, a sense of meaning, purpose and connectedness, the feeling of being part of a community with a cosmic destiny, and happiness. Good science can provide the same benefits and _may_ also provide _some degree of_ hope, grounded in the scientific method, in some of the promises of traditional religions. Including, perhaps, the possibility that some future civilization may resurrect the dead by "copying them to the future". But without the irrational faith, rigid dogmatism and intolerance that have plagued traditional religions.
[9:59] Eschatoon Magic: Of course I am perfectly aware that mixing science and religion may sound like a dangerous heresy to many believers in both conventional religion and the new religion of atheism and scientific ultra-rationalism. It may also disturb some politically correct intellectuals of the new left, who condemn imaginative thinking as a distraction from serious social work.
[9:59] Eschatoon Magic: They condemn transhumanism because to them it sounds like a religion. But if religion is defined as “seeking to find transcendence and truth, meaning and purpose”, then I am ready and willing to accept the label “religious”. And I want to find what I seek through scientific means, or at least through means compatible with the scientific method and worldview. If I don’t _find_ them, I want to _build_ them by following the best methods developed by our civilization. Science and engineering have taken us from caves to where we are now, and there is no reason to think that this process should stop here.
[10:00] Eschatoon Magic: you guys still with me?
[10:00] Prometheus Augenblik: Yes
[10:00] Rissa Maidstone: Yes!
[10:00] Eschatoon Magic: While religion has led to sad extremes, it has also fueled many worth initiatives and provided peace of mind and sense of wonder to countless believers. The key question if how to keep the good things of religion (sense of community, happiness, and a hopeful vision of our place and purpose in the universe) without the bad things (bigotry, fundamentalism, intolerance, holy wars, burning heretics and infidels).
[10:00] Ali Hermes: Reading with rapt facination. :)
[10:00] Eschatoon Magic: Here I think transhumanism, and especially its “cosmic” face aimed at achieving superhumanity and spreading to the stars and beyond, may provide a modern, energizing but tolerant alternative to religion rooted in the scientific worldview.
[10:01] Eschatoon Magic: It is through science and practical engineering, by rolling up our sleeves and tightening one screw at a time in the fabric of reality, that our descendants will achieve superhumanity and godhead. Religions could only address our aspiration to transcendence by resorting to a mystical worldview based on supernatural concepts. But the scientific and engineering approach, based on a materialist worldview with no place for supernatural entities, will ultimately turn many promises of religion into reality. Science and engineering are not the enemies of transcendence, but the very tools that will permit achieving it.
[10:01] Eschatoon Magic: I am assuming that everything under and beyond the stars is a physical object that must obey the laws of physics, however weird they may prove to be, and can in principle be reverse-engineered and improved upon once we have mastered the engineering applications of these laws.
[10:02] Eschatoon Magic: In the next few decades or couple of centuries, we will apply this principle to the human body and the human mind: we will reverse-engineer them, and build better ones. As Sir Arthur C. Clarke would say, “as soon as our machines will better than our bodies, it will be time to move. First our brains, and then our thoughts alone, we will transfer into shining new homes of metal and of plastic”.
[10:02] Eschatoon Magic: Sir Arthur wrote similar words (referred to the ETs who built the monolith on the Moon) in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Today, using the terminology of modern science fiction, we would probably say something like “computronium” instead of “metal and plastic”, but the concept is the same. We would also be kinder to poor HAL: in the same timeframe (a few decades to a couple of centuries) we will build artificial intelligences that will first equal, then outperform, and then partly merge with our human intelligences. As uploaded minds with indefinite lifespans, humans will spread to the stars.
[10:03] Eschatoon Magic: (I move to check if I am still on, lag is bad)
[10:03] Prometheus Augenblik: Yep
[10:03] Eschatoon Magic: IMPORTANT SENTENCE COMING
[10:03] Soren Ferlinghetti: you're coming through very clearly from up here.
[10:03] Eschatoon Magic: Note: I am using “will” to indicate a possibility and an intention, not a certainty of a future that might also not happen (it certainly will not happen, for example, if the human species destroys itself before - not a big deal from a cosmic point of view as the same dreams will be also pursued by other intelligences in the universe, but a very big deal from our point of view). I am using “will” to say that I hope this future will happen, that I think it will happen, that it should happen, that I intend to contribute to make it happen, and that you should also contribute to make it happen.
[10:04] Eschatoon Magic: ... please read previous sentence carefully before writing unkind things...
[10:04] Eschatoon Magic: ... you know who you are ;-)....
[10:05] Rissa Maidstone grins.
[10:05] Eschatoon Magic: no, not you!
[10:05] Rissa Maidstone laughs!
[10:05] Eschatoon Magic: We are attending this conference in the virtual reality world of Second Life, which must be seen as a first baby step in VR and is _very_ primitive compared to the VR worlds that we will see in only a few years. Video-realism, accurate simulated physics and high bandwidth neural interfacing technology will permit fully immersive VR worlds, with total sensorial stimulation indistinguishable from physical reality, in a few decades.
[10:05] Sophrosyne Stenvaag laughs
[10:05] Eschatoon Magic: Mind uploading technology may at some point permit us migrating to our VR worlds and living there as software beings. These synthetic will also contain very advanced, sentient artificial intelligences. The ability to create synthetic worlds populated by sentient beings will mark a very important milestone in our evolution as cosmic makers. Could we _be_ conscious beings in a synthetic world simulated in and by a higher order reality? This possibility has been proposed and discussed by Nick Bostrom and others. There is no way to even estimate its plausibility at the moment. The scientific method says: have an open mind, and let future theories and experiments decide.
[10:06] Starfox Howl cringes at the though of being in a box running windows 2030.
[10:06] Eschatoon Magic: The Society for Universal Immortalism is a progressive religion that holds rationality, reason, and the scientific method as central tenets of its faith. I am a member if the Society, and wish to thank the other members for many stimulating ideas and discussions. In particular, I am indebted to R. Michael Perry for the beautiful declaration in his book ”Forever for All”: "To that end, we dedicate ourselves to finding a way one day to bring back all persons who have ever lived, so they can join in our eternal adventure".
[10:06] Soren Ferlinghetti: it was moravec i say! :)
[10:06] Eschatoon Magic: BTW is Gred of others of the SfUI here?
[10:06] Eschatoon Magic: Greg
[10:07] Eschatoon Magic: aka Arcturus in SL
[10:07] Eschatoon Magic: back to universal immortalism
[10:07] Eschatoon Magic: This is a very strong idea, which may permit a full reconciliation between the scientific and religious worldviews. Universal immortalists do not propose any specific engineering approach to resurrection, but consider it as an objective that future technology may be able to achieve, someday, based on future scientific advances.
[10:07] Eschatoon Magic: I see Universal Immortalism as Transhumanism “plus something”. This “something” is the resurrection idea: finding a way one day to bring back all persons who have ever lived. Even if Universal Immortalism is scientific speculation (we hope to resurrect the dead using “future magic” based on science and engineering), the resurrection idea is very hard to swallow even for many transhumanists. But in my view, Universal Immortalism is perfectly compatible with transhumanism, and constitutes its logical endpoint. The engineering challenge will be huge of course, but so it was for the development of agriculture.
[10:07] Eschatoon Magic: Let's move on to the stars toward our cosmic destiny, and then we will see. President Kennedy said: “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too”. A few years later, watching the first men walking on the moon, it was easy to believe in humanity’s destiny in space.
[10:08] Eschatoon Magic: Too bad space “did not happen”. Today’s world is a complex, interconnected and difficult place on its way to becoming even more so. We need grand visions for all humanity, that can energize all persons on our little blue planet and provide the drive to move onward as a whole. Cosmic transhumanist visions will not lead to holy wars against infidels, but rather to a Holy War against the limitations of being humans 1.0: disease, mortality, stupidity, unhappiness, lack of empathy and understanding, and being confined on our little planet.
[10:08] Eschatoon Magic: Then, perhaps as uploaded minds with indefinite lifespans, humans will spread to the stars. What next? Borrowing again from Sir Arthur: "But the age of the Machine-entities will swiftly pass. In our ceaseless experimenting, we will learn to store knowledge in the structure of space itself, and to preserve our thoughts for eternity in frozen lattices of light. We will become creatures of radiation, free at last from the tyranny of matter".
[10:09] Eschatoon Magic: As William Sims Bainbridge noted in a 1981 article titled ”Religions for a Galactic Civilization”, we need a sense of transcendent purpose at both personal and societal levels to embark in the grand journey to the universe. In Bainbridge’s words: “We need a new spaceflight social movement capable of giving a sense of transcendent purpose to dominant sectors of the society. It also should be capable of holding the society in an expansionist phase for the longest possible time, without permitting divergence from its great plan. In short, we need a galactic religion, a Church of God Galactic…”.
[10:09] Eschatoon Magic: still with me you guys?
[10:09] Rose Springvale: yes!!
[10:09] Prometheus Augenblik: Yes sir!
[10:09] Rose Springvale: mind boggled, but with you :)
[10:09] Eschatoon Magic: Let me make an announcement now.
[10:09] Zoe Connolly: absolutely!
[10:10] Eschatoon Magic: DRAMATIC PAUSE...
[10:10] Eschatoon Magic: ANOTHER DRAMATIC PAUSE...
[10:10] Sophrosyne Stenvaag laughs and sits on the edge of her seat
[10:10] Eschatoon Magic: On behalf of its founding team, a few members of which are virtually attending this conference, I have the honor and the pleasure to announce the foundation of the Order of Cosmic Engineers, humanity's First "UNreligion of Science", and warmly invite you to join its cosmic quest.
[10:10] Zoe Connolly: woohoo!
[10:10] Starfox Howl: Stupid will always be with us.
[10:10] Rose Springvale: wow!
[10:10] Eschatoon Magic: Adopting an engineering approach and attitude, the Order aims to turn this universe into a "magical" realm in the sense of Clarke's Third Law: a realm where sufficiently advanced technology turns daily reality into what would be considered by most today as a seemingly supernatural 'magical' realm.
[10:11] Eschatoon Magic: We are, at the same time, a transhumanist association, a spiritual movement, a space advocacy group, a literary salon, a technology observatory, an idea factory, a virtual worlds development group, and a global community of persons willing to take an active role in building, in realizing a sunny future.
[10:11] Eschatoon Magic: We will discuss the future of humanity during World of Warcraft quests, plan the future of technology in Second Life, and build futuristic virtual worlds in our labs. But most importantly, we will assist you -yes, we do mean you- in finding meaning and hope in your existence in this, your reality, your universe.
[10:12] Eschatoon Magic: Whatever our formal training and professional affiliations, in a very profound sense we are all scientists and engineers. We develop technical skills and design principles that will enable us to create and explore new realities. Therefore, the Order will undertake various projects, selected because they are both revolutionary and feasible at the current cutting edgeof science and technology.
[10:12] Eschatoon Magic: The Order's website can be found at http://cosmeng.org/.
[10:12] Eschatoon Magic: Its first event will be hosted by the Science Guild in World of Warcraft on June 14 at noon EST.
[10:13] Eschatoon Magic: Yes WoW - we are multimetaversal
[10:13] Eschatoon Magic: Bill Bainbridge is a Great Great Master of Wow, he iis teaching us all the tricks
[10:13] Eschatoon Magic: however
[10:13] Eschatoon Magic: that was it
[10:13] Eschatoon Magic: thank you all VERY much for your attention
[10:13] Prometheus Augenblik: Excellent, thank you!
[10:14] Ali Hermes: *chuckles at the logo*
[10:14] Rose Springvale: wow, wonderful
[10:14] Eureka Dejavu: thank you!!
[10:14] Eschatoon Magic: back to moderator and I will be happy to answer questions here, by email or whatever
[10:14] Grayson Redstar applauds
[10:14] Ahman Hax: applaudes
[10:14] Zoe Connolly: thank you!
[10:14] Eschatoon Magic: but I see that moderator has dropped offline
[10:14] Ali Hermes: Trying to steal my personal insignia? :)
[10:14] Rose Springvale: Soph is crashing so if you wouldn't mind
[10:14] xEureka:
[10:14] Eschatoon Magic: does another chair come or I take questions myself?
[10:14] Rose Springvale: please line up behind the podium
[10:14] Rose Springvale: so we can keep order
[10:15] Rose Springvale: you take them Esch :)
[10:15] Eureka Dejavu: smart way to do it
[10:15] Eschatoon Magic: k
[10:15] Eschatoon Magic: OK who is first?
[10:15] Rose Springvale: just line up, and the first person can ask. when their question is answered, we'll move on
[10:15] xEureka:
[10:15] Eschatoon Magic: Robert
[10:15] Eschatoon Magic: then Bill
[10:15] Rose Springvale: see them in line Esch?
[10:16] Rose Springvale: soren
[10:16] Eschatoon Magic: yes I do
[10:16] Rose Springvale: oh
[10:16] Soren Ferlinghetti: that was a great talk. very interesting. i wonder if you are familiar with auguste comte and his religion of humanity, in which he essentially puts engineers into the position of priests
[10:16] Rose Springvale: you guys mixing names lol
[10:16] Eschatoon Magic: third is Grayson
[10:16] Soren Ferlinghetti: do you see a connection between his line of thought and your own more modern religious beliefs?
[10:16] Eschatoon Magic: I am moderately familiar with Comte indeed
[10:17] Eschatoon Magic: The same kind of sensibility and basic approach is shared yes, but of course we are children of our times as he was child of his times, so hypothesized "mechanics" differ a lot
[10:18] Eschatoon Magic: Bill
[10:18] You: How can people best contribute to achieving the goals of the Cosmic Engineers?
[10:18] Eschatoon Magic: Well bi signip up for premium membership, and also donating a lot of money ;-)
[10:18] Eschatoon Magic: Seriously
[10:19] You: For example, would we stage scientific research studies that others would be too unimaginative to try?
[10:19] Eschatoon Magic: This is all in the making - we will be organizing great things in SL, WoW, on the Web, and in brickspace
[10:19] There is no suitable surface to sit on, try another spot.
[10:19] Eschatoon Magic: But we will always been looking for new and fresh ideas
[10:20] Eschatoon Magic: si I do encourage people to contribute
[10:20] Eschatoon Magic: There is a long document that will be online immediately after the WoW event on June 14
[10:20] Eschatoon Magic: last question of Bill - For example, would we stage scientific research studies that others would be too unimaginative to try? - Definitely yes
[10:21] Eschatoon Magic: For example, with Ben Goertzel's advanced AI in VR worlds
[10:21] Eschatoon Magic: and your own personality reconstruction scheme
[10:21] Eschatoon Magic: implemented for example by the CybeRev project of Terasem
[10:21] Eschatoon Magic: BTW there will be an event on Terasem island in SL in July
[10:22] Eschatoon Magic: Grayson
[10:22] Grayson Redstar: thank you - I have a lot of organizational questions, which I'll save for email - but -
[10:22] Eschatoon Magic: giulio@gmail.com
[10:23] Grayson Redstar: when an organization defines itself, an important element is who and what is *excluded* -
[10:23] Eschatoon Magic: Bigots of all persuasions
[10:23] Grayson Redstar: who do you see as *not* fitting with the goals of the group? Avowedcly religious people, any particular philosophical persuasions?
[10:24] Eschatoon Magic: Intolerant fundamentalists of all kinds, not necessarily religious
[10:24] Ali Hermes: Those who would rather tear down than build up, I would imagine.
[10:24] Eschatoon Magic: Everyone willing to consider with an open mind the kind of things that we like to discuss and do is welcome
[10:24] Amandeep Timeless: No tolerance for the intolerant!
[10:24] Grayson Redstar: thank you
[10:24] Eschatoon Magic: James
[10:25] Rose Springvale: no, amandeep next :)
[10:25] Eschatoon Magic: oops
[10:25] Conover's Flight-Helper 6.3.3 (WEAR ME!): Flight-helper is ready and operational.
[10:25] Eschatoon Magic: Amandeep
[10:25] Amandeep Timeless: thanks
[10:25] Amandeep Timeless: do you see a borg planet or a retro-rural or some other direction? and 'fear of want', for food, shelter, safety, etc. compete with Wall Street, how do we truly assuage these fears after the words of the speech have been spoken?
[10:26] Eschatoon Magic: well, I think this issue is a very important one
[10:26] Eschatoon Magic: And when I "wear another hat" I use to think about it a lot
[10:27] Eschatoon Magic: But I see today's social fairness and tomorrow's cosmic engineering as two equally important but basically independent things
[10:27] Moz Barthelmess: (question?)
[10:27] Eschatoon Magic: that should both be addressed
[10:27] Eschatoon Magic: Does this answer your question Amandeep?
[10:28] Amandeep Timeless: not really
[10:28] Eschatoon Magic: Please go on then
[10:29] Eschatoon Magic: Amandeep?
[10:29] Sophrosyne Stenvaag: Giulio, thank you very much!

Conference Report: The Future of Religions - Religions of the Future - Second Life, June 4, 5

The Conference: The Future of Religions - Religions of the Future - June 4, 5, 2008 has been a two-day conference examining how two of the 21st Century's driving forces, religion and technology, will continue to re-shape each other and, in the process, re-cast our understanding of "humanity" in the Third Millennium. Centered on, but not limited to, virtual worlds and social networking technologies, speakers and panelists also examined changes precipitated by the biotechnology revolution, cognitive science, information technologies and robotics. Speakers included William Sims Bainbridge, James Hughes, Giulio Prisco, Lincoln Cannon and Robert Geraci.

The "Extropia" and "Al-Andalus Caliphate Project" communities have masterfully organized of this great event dedicated to very important issues. I had this strange feeling that we were watching history in the making, and I don't mean only history of VR worlds. The first day of the conference was held in my favorite place in Second Life: the Extropia Core sim, which among many other things is the main meeting place of of SL-Transhumanists. The second day was held in the Al-Andalus Caliphate sim, a Second Life attempt to reconstruct 13th Century Moor Alhambra and build around this virtual space a community of individuals willing to explore the modalities of interaction between different languages, nationalities, religions and cultures shaped by authentic Islamic principles. See this page on the conference website for more info. I have been many times to the Alhambra in Granada, and the look&feel is very similar. The Al-Andalus Caliphate will also become one of my favorite sims in SL. Before starting the conference on the second day I have purchased in Al-Andalus some appropriate attire for my new avatar Eschatoon Magic.

I will not write a very detailed report, as I am sure many blogs and of course the main conference website will provide one, but focus on my main impressions. On the first day, after the introduction by Michel Manen and Sophrosyne Stenvaag, William Sims Bainbridge gave a very creative presentation with a magic hat producing random quotes from his 2007 books, Across the Secular Abyss and Nanoconvergence, and a magic belt producing random quotes from babylon 5. These random sentences, taken together, formed a very coherent and fascinating presentation on Immortality of Avatars: Deciding between the Paths of Science or Religion. My favorite part of Bill's presentation: "John Cage is dead... perhaps". Lincoln Cannon gave once again a superlative (double sense that most readers will understand) presentation of Mormonism, Transhumanism, and the positive synergy between them embodied in the Mormon Transhumanist Association of which I, though not a Mormon, am _very_ proud of being a member. Lincoln also outlined some features of Mormonism which make it more open to transhumanist thinking. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the last three very interesting presentations of the first day. I definitely looked forward to listening to Robert Geraci's talk.

Andrew Wallace started the second day with a thought provoking presentation of possible entangled evolutions of religion and society. Then I gave my talk on Transhumanist Religions. The full text of my talk is available here. I announced a new project that has been in the works for a few weeks: the Order of Cosmic Engineers (I will write _much_ more about this):

On behalf of its founding team, a few members of which are virtually attending this conference, I have the honor and the pleasure to announce the foundation of the Order of Cosmic Engineers, humanity’s First “UNreligion of Science”, and warmly invite you to join its cosmic quest. Adopting an engineering approach and attitude, the Order aims to turn this universe into a “magical” realm in the sense of Clarke’s Third Law: a realm where sufficiently advanced technology turns daily reality into what would be considered by most today as a seemingly supernatural ‘magical’ realm.

We are, at the same time, a transhumanist association, a spiritual movement, a space advocacy group, a literary salon, a technology observatory, an idea factory, a virtual worlds development group, and a global community of persons willing to take an active role in building, in realizing a sunny future. We will discuss the future of humanity during World of Warcraft quests, plan the future of technology in Second Life, and build futuristic virtual worlds in our labs. But most importantly, we will assist you -yes, we do mean you- in finding meaning and hope in your existence in this, your reality, your universe.

Whatever our formal training and professional affiliations, in a very profound sense we are all scientists and engineers. We develop technical skills and design principles that will enable us to create and explore new realities. Therefore, the Order will undertake various projects, selected because they are both revolutionary and feasible at the current cutting edge of science and technology. The Order’s website can be found at http://cosmeng.org/. Its first event will be hosted by the Science Guild in World of Warcraft on June 14 at noon EST.

James Hughes, always an excellent speaker even when he uses text chat (all speakers with the exception of Edward Lee Lamoreux used text chat), explored the impact of the coming wave of neurotechnology developments, including neural interfaces, on future developments of religious beliefs and practices in our changing society. I am grateful to the last speaker Ed Lamoreux who used voice, so I could listen to his great talk on the presence of religions online, and the sociology of online religions, while taking care of minor annoying things such as urgent business email. In summary, this was a great event, by far the best event I have attended in Second Life, with a professional organization comparable to the best events in brickspace and first rate content.