I remember when I sat and meditated four years ago, while in Kutztown, Pennslyvania.
A smoldering pipe was gently taken from my hands and smoke billowed into the air in front of me. The world was spinning and I was standing still as I focused on reality. I stared into the forest in front of me and sensed a being – a faceless intelligent entity of some sort. Almost immediately I realized that I was face to face with Nature and upon this insight She revealed to me what was in store for mankind…
To say that evolution has no teleological end is a safe assumption, for we do not have objective data to support a certain teleology. Though it seems clear that evolution has created beings of a higher and higher orders of complexity, still the simplest of creatures - single and multicelled organisms - live on where their more complex forbearers have not. Could there be a purpose to evolution or could we develop one? These thoughts occur to me now, but they were nowhere near my consciousness before I met Nature.
I
was shown by this intelligence the past, present and future of evolution. The landscape before me became some sort of chart full of pulsing images and glyphs. The spirit of Nature, living in this forest in front of me-from which emerged the protohumans (who were conveniently standing to my right) – spoke to me in a way no language can do justice to. As my friends and fellow explorers morphed backwards in time into loin wearing, spear holding, pygmie tribals, my own consciousness was launched forward into time. Soon these pygmies would evolve beyond their humble beginnings. Man would meld with the machines – embodied in the silent highway construction machinery that lay to my left. The miracle of human consciousness and creativity merged with the flexibility and efficiency of the machine.
Technology is not standing in opposition to nature, as many like to believe. Technology is the product of nature and we shall merge with our children, the technological devices we create, and transcend the bounds of our minds and bodies, while retaining the spirit imbued in our consciousness. The teleological end of evolution is coming soon. It will happen when the human species can invoke the spirit of Nature, take conscious control of our genetic source code, and engineer a limitless future.
Welcome to my latest blog: Hardcore Dynamic. This blog will explore a number of topics ranging from technology and transhumanism to spirituality and consciousness. I’ve been thinking about and researching these subjects for a number of years, and I feel ready to share my findings with the world at large – so that we can develop a discourse to examine these ideas and secure our futures.
A multitude of changes are taking place around the world. As we approach Technological Singularity, we are seeing great advances in communication and transportation technology. Ideas are spreading ever faster and the benefits are clear. Individuals around the world are becoming smarter, healthier, more educated and wealthier. Members of the human species are finding themselves more and more empowered to affect change. Meanwhile, as Globalization is increasing and the world improving effects of free trade become apparent, the power and the authority of the nation state is eroding – leading some states to take desperate actions.
Not all the changes taking place are positive. As individual powers increase, groups in power are increasingly cracking down on civil rights, imposing ideals and reality definitions and seeking to manipulate status quo culture to further entrench their positions of influence. Likewise, as Globalization expands the boundaries of various cultures, we see an increase in the territorial spread of status quo culture and politics. Around the world, freedom is being suppressed in the name of security and gross violations to human rights are being overlooked because of economic benefits. The corruption amongst political agents of power is allowing science, law and ethics to be determined by the highest bidder.
Of course, these complex problems are met with a response by the public, but often times these responses are misguided and rarely are aimed at the causal factors. Globalization and market based economies are purely a positive force but are met with opposition that should be aimed at legislative bodies and the corruption that takes place within those institutions. Issues of security are met with a crack down on the freedoms of those who are supposed to be protected thus empowering those who wish to harm us and our way of life. In reality, security issues could be resolved with better foreign policy and fewer subsidies to support incompetent industries. We cannot artificially lower the price of a commodity – like oil – of which the very use destroys the environment and promotes death. We cannot reward nations with investment capital – like China and Saudi Arabia- unless those nations are supporting basic human rights such as life, liberty and property. Yet we reward those very same governments that are antithetical to what we stand for as we import from countries that shit on human rights and let them finance our deficit spending. We are buying barrels upon barrels of oil from the very people who fund terror. Climate change is now a scientific fact and while reporters play the blame game and scientists collect their interest group funding, no one is talking about what to do – certainly not our political leaders. When the choice of who we want to represent us comes down to choosing between the lesser of two evils, something is wrong.
In the midst of all this there is hope. The landscape is changing ever faster and stronger as we approach the infinity point of technological Singularity and unlimited novelty. We are truly on the brink of a radical affirmation of life or abandonment to death. The decisions we make now and the vision we set for our futures will determine which way we go. We can no longer make plays for the short term at the expense of the long term. We cannot continue to nihilistically disregard consequences we won’t be alive to see when we have a responsibility to the human species. (Not to mention that current advances in life sciences are making it likely that extended life spans will transform our notion of what the short-term really is). If we want to make it past the Brink then we must stick to our principles and what we Know is Right. Life, Liberty, Property are the principles we must stand for. Uninhibited scientific research, a full embrace of individual autonomy, and Markets free from political influence are what will embody those principles. If our resolve falters, it is only the void of death that will catch our fall.
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