God, Spirtuality, and the Singularity
A while back, Phil Bowermaster of The Speculist posted an interesting piece titled God and the Singularity. This generated an even more interesting discussion, which I linked to at the time and even led to a followup post on The Speculist.
So, more recently, Phil decided to survey his readers on the subject. The questions and answers are summarized three separate posts here, here, and here.
Now, all this is a lot of reading, but if you are at all interested in the Singularity (or in faith) I suggest you wade through all the links above. Even a quick skim is going to give you a lot to think about. Not everyone responding to the survey understood what they were talking about, but intelligence and perspicacity was demonstrated far more often that you might expect.
Myself? I've studied a little and thought a lot about these things over the last thirty years, enough so that I have formed some strong opinions and even found my own philosophical center (cold, dry, and teleological as it might be); as a Techno-Rationalist and Deist. These beliefs informed my own answers to the survey. (See if you can recognize my contributions. Hint; the written answers seem to be in reverse chronological order, and I was one of the first few to complete the survey.)
To quote one of my answers:Spirtuality is a human condition. If we assume humans survive a Technological Singularity, then their humanity will remain part of the equation; a human raised to any power is still a human at some level. Of course, if we assume humans don't survive then please change my answer to 'false'...
And another: Paul's epistles refers to a 'Transmogrification' of believers when the kingdom of God has come; a kind of magical transformation into something greater and more heavenly. For a transhumanist, I think this sounds pretty much like the Technological Singularity.
Many years ago I wrote a Science Fiction short story that took this subject head on. I've also written a couple of posts here at Antigravitas on similar subjects, both in a humorous vein and more seriously.
So, more recently, Phil decided to survey his readers on the subject. The questions and answers are summarized three separate posts here, here, and here.
Now, all this is a lot of reading, but if you are at all interested in the Singularity (or in faith) I suggest you wade through all the links above. Even a quick skim is going to give you a lot to think about. Not everyone responding to the survey understood what they were talking about, but intelligence and perspicacity was demonstrated far more often that you might expect.
Myself? I've studied a little and thought a lot about these things over the last thirty years, enough so that I have formed some strong opinions and even found my own philosophical center (cold, dry, and teleological as it might be); as a Techno-Rationalist and Deist. These beliefs informed my own answers to the survey. (See if you can recognize my contributions. Hint; the written answers seem to be in reverse chronological order, and I was one of the first few to complete the survey.)
To quote one of my answers:Spirtuality is a human condition. If we assume humans survive a Technological Singularity, then their humanity will remain part of the equation; a human raised to any power is still a human at some level. Of course, if we assume humans don't survive then please change my answer to 'false'...
And another: Paul's epistles refers to a 'Transmogrification' of believers when the kingdom of God has come; a kind of magical transformation into something greater and more heavenly. For a transhumanist, I think this sounds pretty much like the Technological Singularity.
Many years ago I wrote a Science Fiction short story that took this subject head on. I've also written a couple of posts here at Antigravitas on similar subjects, both in a humorous vein and more seriously.