Python Liberation Front

Think Big: the God Concept, our Past, and our Future...

What do we mean by the use of the word "God"? The word has been used so long, and in so many ways, that it is difficult to encompass. Some have argued that it has been used and misused in so many ways as to become almost meaningless and obsolete. Do we all have different ideas and connotations when we think about the meaning of the word "God"? Are there other words which might be more serviceable in describing the divine? Is the word a sort of empty set?

On the contrary, I believe that the concept of God represents, in an admirably data-compressed way, the highest goals, ideas, and aspirations of the human race. The God concept represents the ultimate goals of transcendence, of reaching beyond, of striving for the true meanings of human existence. If God did not exist, we would be left muddling around in the mud of meaningless, goal-less, hopeless nihilism. God represents the ultimate beyond, that which our hearts and our innermost minds whisper to us in our dreams at night; that which we secretly know is true, even though we know equally well that we can not comprehend it, cannot encompass it, can not intellectually approach it with our limited linguistic skills. God is beyond any human language, but He whispers to our hearts in the still of the night.

God represents the most noble idea or meme of which humans are capable. It is the glory of humankind to be able to even sense the presence of the divine. Without the sense of the divine which lies entirely beyond our capabilities, we would be the most limited of creatures. To be blessed with rational thought, consciousness, and self awareness, but denied the aspirations of following the God concept would leave us limited, proscribed from the reality which would make our awareness meaningful.

God is unknowable, completely. We can not circumscribe Him. He is, however, the lodestar of our existence, our minds, and our inspiration.

Yes, I believe that the potential to recognize the God concept is somehow built into our mental machinery, in the genetic records of our evolutionary history. And I believe that the fact that so noble a concept is hard or soft wired into our mental makeup is magnificent, and ultimately true. For evolution does not build in such complex designs and concepts unless there is a reality about them, and a utility. I believe that in some mysterious and unknown way, the necessity to evolve a mental mechanism for such an ultimately true concept, such an underlying ground concept, as the God Concept, was somehow necessary in the evolutionary creation of high intelligence; necessary for the human spirit to survive and to create and even to transcend.

So I believe that we have an inherent religious instinct in human nature that repeatedly expresses itself in human cultures. I believe that the religious instinct has positive survival value and pragmatic benefits. There is no downside to striving high.

I believe the inbuilt religious instinct, that leads to our ability to formulate the God concept, ultimately forms the basis for our ability to have morality. Thus it is essential to our very humanity.

If dogs and other social animals instinctually form natural hierarchies, with an alpha dog emerging as the leader of the pack, then who is to lead the human social pack? It is better to be led by a transcendent God concept in the sky, or ultimately in another and better world, than to be led by individual egotistical humans.

Amongst humans, there is no Other, except that Other Who positively transcends everything which we can know, feel, and be. Yes, we are better off to think big, not small, and to follow the best lights of the God concept into the transcendent future.

And so, my dear readers, when you set out to build something, think big. Build big. For humanity is not placed on this earth and in this universe to accomplish small tasks, nor to build small concepts, structures, and organizations. A humanity which can conceive of God should dream big dreams, and then see them through to reality.

God will be what He will be. We will be what we will become. In some mysterious way, the two are intertwined.

Three things I ask, and three things I say..

Where was God, where is God, and where will God be?

Where was God when the ship went down in the storm at sea? Where was God when the children died and cried without mercy? Where was God when the cities burned beyond repair, beyond despair?

Who knew these things?

And who knows what we will build? Who can say that we will not build something grand beyond anything we can imagine?

And who knows what lies beyond consciousness? Who can say that there does not lie beyond consciousness some emergent property more wonderful than we can imagine, more wonderful than that consciousness itself, which we could not know nor believe could lie hidden in that primordial slime from which we sprang?

Impending Apocalypse

When quakes shall root out foundings to the core,
When bold Abora shakes with cholic roar,
Then let the one in Abyssinia weep
That man so rashly lays him down to sleep.

How small a loss it were to lose a race
Of mighty mind and self assur-ed face,
Who write their songs with fingers in the sand
And like Sir Spens, go walking on the strand.

But what a pity should we lose our hope!
Little time, questing, so much sorrow;
Before the solemn eyes of ag-ed Pope
Man holds the last spectacular at bay,
No more we weep; the moon is full again
Today; Eternity is then tomorrow.

Future Evolution of Humans, Intelligence, and Machines

Given that the human species has evolved over such a long time, under such varied circumstances, and given that we embrace within ourselves the lessons, successes, and creations of a deep set of evolutionary breakthroughs; I think that the foreseeable future of evolutionary development of intelligent life on earth will almost assuredly include the human species co-evolving with our computerized tools and bio-engineered partners as a connected, all embracing greater whole.

While our computerized tools will undoubtedly advance far beyond our wildest dreams, they will not leave behind the human component, which contains so much depth of evolutionary potentialities. The human spirit is safe from obsolescence for a long, long, while. Consider that human beings are the most mentally developed of all the known species. I think, that for the foreseeable future, say at least a few hundred years, the leading edge of "spiritual" evolution will contain humans as a part, or sub-unit. We may join forces symbiotically with our tools, and our new genetic creations, but I doubt we will throw away the current leading edge of evolutionary development: ourselves.

It might be natural, given the history of biological evolution on the planet, to assume that we humans would split apart into many different species as we direct our own evolution, with each species adopting a unique mode of advancement, and with the totality of the species thus spawned competing with each other in a Darwinian struggle for survival of the fittest.

But, in my opinion, we are one human race and should strive together. And this makes sense if we recall that, for the first time, evolution will be advancing using thought and intelligence and *planning*. While we might suppose that humans and indeed all primates and even other animals have been using intelligent thought for evolutionary gain for some time, it is undoubtedly true that we now face the first *planned* evolutionary development.

We may need to ultimately replace ourselves with robots or cyborgs, in order to properly continue the appropriate advancement of civilization. Without a unity imposed by our conscious design, then robotic life would surely not retain the crucial contents of our millions of years of biological evolution. Superior intelligence and abilities are not enough. We must program our values, our loves, our ethics, our morals and our spiritual and religious principles into the very constitutions of our robotic and cyborgian successors.

As we create a new race of robots, cyborgs, or species, we should first of all make sure that we instill our values, our love, our spiritual heritage; and not just focus on intelligence and abilities. May the most valuable parts of our heritage become the initial and eternal constitution for our successors.

Once intelligence and consciousness have manifested themselves in the universe, they should not only be retained, preserved and enhanced, but kept unified.

What do you think?

Correction:

To follow the discussion on Ars Technica about the post below concerning "Artificial Intelligence has a long, long way to go to catch up with Natural Intelligence..."""

link to :

Link Dicsussion on Ars Technica link

For some reason, it was moved from the Battelfield to the Soap Box; anyway, it is a good discussion with many thoughtful participants.

The link in the post below will no longer work.

Follow Up Discussion to the essay below titled "Artificial Intelligence has a long, long way to go to catch up with Natural Intelligence..."

I posted the essay below about Digital Computers and their prospects for intelligence, on the Ars Technica Battelfield Forum. It has fostered a very good discussion. I will offer this link to anyone who wants to follow this discussion:

Link Cosmic Discussion on Ars Technica link

My pseudonym on Ars Technica is Ursus Maximus.

There are many intellgent posts from folks conversant with biology, DNA, cellular biology, neural networks, AI, brain science, and other intiguing subjects...

It is elaborate and from many different people with diverse points of view, some quite knowledgable. If the link above ceases to operate, go to Ars Technica, at Ars Technica then click on "Ars OpenForum" on the left hand side of the page, and then on "Battlefield" half way down the page under "Operating Systems" and then look for the thread beginning with the words "Digital Computers"...

You can also contribute to this discusion yourself.