Egotism isn't quite the half of it. Speculative whim wired directly to transhumanist utopianism might be, with no stopover in the real problems thereof. You tell me because the terms keep changing.Electrodynamic wrote:I believe you may be confusing ingenuity and curiosity with your use of the term perfectability implying egotism.
(Since you eventually raise it again, it's fallacious to defend from criticisms not in evidence, although the core tenet of spiritual belief and discipline actually is the abolition of self and ego, not to be too technical. And ironically, those traditions actually do say you were created in the likeness of deity, but that's an aside.)Electrodynamic wrote:I would call Atheism anti-egotism, I never claimed I was created in the likeness of a deity, I never claimed I was chosen or special, I never claimed I was a deity in myself who could never die and live forever in a magical place where my every wish is fulfilled... I just an ordinary very skeptical guy.
The humility is appreciated, if a little out of place where we're factually informed that the topic is how the Laniakea lends itself to electricity and it to supercomputing omniscience. Although granted, the thing will take a lot of power.
As rudimentary as that misdirection is, I tend to think we probably already do. And I think it's perfectly acceptable to connect the paradox of existence - including in ways not contradictory to the EU mindset - to everything from the sub-microscopic to the Laniakean macroscopic.Electrodynamic wrote:Of course we do believe a lot of stuff... just not hook, line and sinker as you implied. I think it's important to understand the difference between believing a "scientific theory" has some credibility and worshiping a deity.
You're welcome to itemize them, because I only iterated a few of the classic philosophical conundrums of conceiving what reality might be. I didn't write them so kindly present your criticism to the spiritual minds predating all of us by thousands of years. They should know about their fallacies.Electrodynamic wrote:I believe you have used more logical fallacies than I can possibly keep up with.
I didn't even think of atheism, and by materialism I mean the intermediate step conceived by mind bounded on the small end by the atom and on the big end by the supercluster, with origins - to your original assertion - being as out of bounds as the nature of existence itself. See the difference?Electrodynamic wrote:For example you have misrepresented Atheism with materialism, a lack of empathy and a dictatorship which could not be further from the truth. The Atheists were never concerned with what you were thinking every minute of every day and what you were doing inside your house, more so while naked... it was the theists. However I have heard all your arguments a hundred times over and they become less impressive on each repetition.
Your hooking an element of that sliver known as materialism directly to utopian altruism is as much a stretch as those words are a contradiction in terms. Again, tell the Buddhists and the Hindus because my arguments, such as you seem to find them, haven't been presented, just conjectured. I'm just recapping prior thoughts on the unproved and nebulous, faulty as apparently you find them.
I didn't misunderstand it, it was inadequately conceived and presented, although it is gratifying that neither of us see transhumanism as god-like.Electrodynamic wrote:Maybe you misunderstood my point which was not to deify science or mankind. My point was that in many respects what people have called mystical, magical or even impossible in the past have become a reality in the present. This is true because mankind is always making progress and acquiring new knowledge and understanding. Thus it seems reasonable that in the future many things people in the past perceived as god like could become completely normal.
You just haven't said how. It remains a mystery how the folks who want to spare themselves the headache of actually considering that folly will usher in a magical transformation straight to quasi-omniscience, requiring only standing aside while a cosmic supercomputer, drawing only from their history and experiences, does it for them.Electrodynamic wrote:Let's face it mankind is a misguided train wreck but we do some pretty cool stuff in between all the mayhem. I just think were better than this, this thing we have been doing to ourselves and the planet in the past.