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I'm jealous. Most religions, old and new, have some sort of central book consisting of how they think the world began, how their metaphysical system works, maybe some parables, maybe some moral codes, maybe even a theory of mind/soul. This book, or perhaps series of books, essentially tells someone how to live. It's life's guidebook for these people.
To me, religion is obsolete. I'm painfully aware that our subjective experience is nothing more than a few million neurons firing in the right way at the right time. There is no such thing as a spirit, a soul, ghosts, god, afterlife, or anything of the sort. We, the human species, are left, quite literally, to our own devices. To create what religion has failed to deliver. Immortality, mind uploading, and intelligent beings vastly superior to us. So, and perhaps a few of you feel the same way, I view Transhumanism as my religion. I view it as my gender, my political and economic system, my "morality" and "ethics" - and my religion. Everything else is obsolete.
But before I go out and try writing our equivalent to a "bible" for Transhumanists, I wanted to see if anyone here knew if such a book already existed. I've read FM-2030's "Are You a Transhuman?" already - and that kind of gets closer to a central book solidifying Transhuman thought; but is there anything else? Something written and obtainable today, of course. Nothing like the vaporware Manual from Way of the Future, or too elitist like Terasem. And most definitely AGI-centric - I really enjoyed Hugo De Garis's work on Cosmists vs Terrans. Thanks for any suggestions!
Also: Praise be to Roko's basilisk ;)
Haha. I get what you're saying; But I think you and I can at least agree religion itself is obsolete. But, at least for me, it's nice to have something to rely on and reference. It definitely wouldn't be THE BIG BOOK OF ALL KNOWING AUTHORITY for sure.
I actually don't care for Kurzweil but I'll look into Simulacra. Thank!
Yeah; from this and other comments I'm seeing that the movement is pretty broad. But on the same hand it wouldn't be too hard to open source the book and have a ton of people submit writing for it...
Great question! It's moreso abandoning traditional cultural aspects, such as the hyperinflated importance of the family unit, being compelled to stay in a relationship or even be monogamous, releasing the idea of gender roles... And for, say, abortion: not only do I support the female's right to choose, but I'd strongly urge for using the aborted remains for scientific research, like harnessing stem cells. Things like that, cloning, full-on gene editing - why should we let religious-based "ethics" hold back progress? If I remember correctly, currently we only allow about 14 days of embryo development for research purposes before it must be destroyed, and I honestly find that to be ass backwards. Now, of course, that doesn't give me any right of forcing these ideas onto others at all. But neither should those that feel this way be stopped. Does that answer your question?
It's definitely broad, but it still has general concepts and ideas. Perhaps Transhumanism is to religion; can be divided into smaller subsets?
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I like your train of thought!