Religion and the Human Adventure In Perspective.
These are a few personal views and projections of where I see humans evolving and where religion will go. It is a departure from the usual religious debates and an opportunity to consider a wider picture of humanity and our long term future.
Death.
People die; you’ve probably noticed, and we don’t seem to have much choice in the matter, but then most things we call life die on this planet. Some say this is natural, but not all things die, at least not from aging. Bacteria doesn’t die unless it is starved, theoretically bacteria that began life some 4 billion years ago might still be alive now if it has found sufficient nutrients. And there are giant trees in South America that are over 3000 years old. And there is a particular cactus that also doesn’t age. So there seems to be exceptions to the alleged natural order of death.
Promises Promises.
A common link between all the major religions is that they promise life after death. It is curious that not much else is found in common. It has been noted that if there was only one true god and he had revealed himself to all the peoples of the world then all religions would look the same. But we don’t find that. What we find is that death of course seems to be universal and every religion promises a solution. In fact life after death is the major ingredient in all major religions. The promise is of immortality and paradise, at least for the theist types, and a permanent cycle of life and death and enlightenment for the Buddhist types.
The End of Religion.
If we didn’t die what would happen to religion? It is the life after death where we are generally punished, either through a hell scenario or a less than nice reincarnation. But while we are alive is there any real punishment? Not really. If death by aging and disease are resolved then what type of punishment would be effective? I don’t see anything, boredom perhaps? So if we were to solve the death issue then I strongly suspect that religions would fade away pretty quickly since gods don’t seem to exert themselves by using earthly punishment and hence there would be nothing to fear.
Immortal Life.
So can we solve the problem of death and if we do what then do we do with our lives?
Assume for the moment that we become immortal, and I’ll describe how that is not so unlikely in a moment. Why would this be good? We are so conditioned to the idea that we only live a few decades and are so busy surviving that we never have a chance to think of much else. But there are aspects to the universe that need long lived entities. We are but a tiny insignificant speck of a planet in an insignificant part of the universe that is unimaginably vast. How do we set about exploring what must be a fabulous set of diverse planets, star systems and nebulae, and perhaps other life?
How Far can we go.
Interstellar travel is going to take time. Dreams of warp drives and wormholes give the best solutions to how short lived humans could move around a vast galaxy, but these are fantasies designed to overcome the limitations of our short lives. While technology is likely to generate faster engines it also seems likely that there will be practical limits set by the laws of physics and we must accept those. Common sense indicates that we are likely doomed to wait long periods of many years while journeying between the stars, and between galaxies. This is all pretty much hopeless while we are short lived. There is cryogenics of course. But I have been reminded many times that reaching a destination is not always the only goal of a journey, the enjoyment of the journey often plays a major part if not the best part of life.
Where can we go.
But what types of places can we visit and live once we survive such long journeys of perhaps hundreds or thousands of years. Our biological bodies are uniquely suited to the environment in which we evolved and they are dependent on certain gases and nutrients, the gravity and the rotation of the Earth that has resulted in our inconvenient awake/sleep cycles. Evidence suggests that most planets are not going to have these ideal characteristics. This will severely limit the places where we could live and visit in comfort. But I doubt this will ever be an issue since realistically there seems little likelihood of our continuing to retain our biological bodies for much longer.
Biological Limitations.
Genetic engineering, anti-aging research, etc are all great things, and all point to the likelihood of increasing the quality of our life and our life spans. But while we will be able to genetically alter ourselves over time to have greater and improved abilities there will be practical limits on how fast such progress can be made. Evolution took millions of years to produce us in our current form and while we can now intelligently direct our future biological evolution it will still take time. For example; to increase our intelligence will almost certainly involve an increase in brain size and hence skull size. But this will take generations to perfect and develop. That’s fine and perhaps there is no need to rush. But improving our fragile biological bodies still leaves us with fragile bodies dependent on an environment in which we evolved. If we want to break into the next frontier in earnest then we need to seriously consider alternatives to our biological formats.
Technology Solutions.
Computing power has been doubling approximately every 18 months since the 1940s. In the 1950s there was a great deal of excitement over the potential of creating computer based artificial intelligence. It never happened because those early pioneers massively underestimated the computer power required plus the complexity of the software required. But the excitement is beginning to grow again and there is every sign that over-optimism won’t happen this time. There seems little doubt that computing power in terms of raw cycle rates will match and exceed the human brain in the next few years. AI software development is lagging but that is likely to change once the early learning seeds are perfected. The growth rate will then be exponential and will vastly outpace any biological genetic engineering approaches to increased intelligence.
But what happens when we have machines that have equal and greater intelligence than humans? There are two major expectations. (1) The machines will find ways to take control and if they are benevolent then we as biological humans are likely to live in some degree of increased luxury. If they are not so nice and see us as a threat then we will simply cease to exist. (2) We learn to adapt ourselves to use the same technology as the machines and compete with them on an equal basis. It is this last approach that we should recognize as our best hope for survival and a way to rid ourselves of our fragile biological bodies and a way to achieve effective immortality.
The next Stage in Human Evolution.
The transition from bio forms to artificial forms enables us to separate ourselves from a dependency on Earthlike environments, e.g. no need for bio food, drink, defecation, oxygen, or special gravity, no need to sleep, etc. We become free to live on almost any type of planet and otherwise hostile environments, to travel at speeds and accelerations far beyond what bio beings could endure, to live in high or low gravity environments with no long term side effects, to experience senses like a wider band of the electromagnetic spectrum, to experience ultra sound, and other enhancements impossible or difficult while we were biological.
Where next.
I suspect that the universe is going to offer us fabulous opportunities for adventure and exploration that will far exceed anything that a religious like heaven could ever offer. Our artificial brains will continue to be upgraded and enhanced and take us to levels of intelligence far beyond what we can currently imagine. If we are currently made in God’s image then I feel sorry for God because we have the potential of being so much more and unrecognizable compared to what we are now.
The fantasies of religion are primitive, short sighted, and severely limited. Humans are capable of so much more.
These are a few personal views and projections of where I see humans evolving and where religion will go. It is a departure from the usual religious debates and an opportunity to consider a wider picture of humanity and our long term future.
Death.
People die; you’ve probably noticed, and we don’t seem to have much choice in the matter, but then most things we call life die on this planet. Some say this is natural, but not all things die, at least not from aging. Bacteria doesn’t die unless it is starved, theoretically bacteria that began life some 4 billion years ago might still be alive now if it has found sufficient nutrients. And there are giant trees in South America that are over 3000 years old. And there is a particular cactus that also doesn’t age. So there seems to be exceptions to the alleged natural order of death.
Promises Promises.
A common link between all the major religions is that they promise life after death. It is curious that not much else is found in common. It has been noted that if there was only one true god and he had revealed himself to all the peoples of the world then all religions would look the same. But we don’t find that. What we find is that death of course seems to be universal and every religion promises a solution. In fact life after death is the major ingredient in all major religions. The promise is of immortality and paradise, at least for the theist types, and a permanent cycle of life and death and enlightenment for the Buddhist types.
The End of Religion.
If we didn’t die what would happen to religion? It is the life after death where we are generally punished, either through a hell scenario or a less than nice reincarnation. But while we are alive is there any real punishment? Not really. If death by aging and disease are resolved then what type of punishment would be effective? I don’t see anything, boredom perhaps? So if we were to solve the death issue then I strongly suspect that religions would fade away pretty quickly since gods don’t seem to exert themselves by using earthly punishment and hence there would be nothing to fear.
Immortal Life.
So can we solve the problem of death and if we do what then do we do with our lives?
Assume for the moment that we become immortal, and I’ll describe how that is not so unlikely in a moment. Why would this be good? We are so conditioned to the idea that we only live a few decades and are so busy surviving that we never have a chance to think of much else. But there are aspects to the universe that need long lived entities. We are but a tiny insignificant speck of a planet in an insignificant part of the universe that is unimaginably vast. How do we set about exploring what must be a fabulous set of diverse planets, star systems and nebulae, and perhaps other life?
How Far can we go.
Interstellar travel is going to take time. Dreams of warp drives and wormholes give the best solutions to how short lived humans could move around a vast galaxy, but these are fantasies designed to overcome the limitations of our short lives. While technology is likely to generate faster engines it also seems likely that there will be practical limits set by the laws of physics and we must accept those. Common sense indicates that we are likely doomed to wait long periods of many years while journeying between the stars, and between galaxies. This is all pretty much hopeless while we are short lived. There is cryogenics of course. But I have been reminded many times that reaching a destination is not always the only goal of a journey, the enjoyment of the journey often plays a major part if not the best part of life.
Where can we go.
But what types of places can we visit and live once we survive such long journeys of perhaps hundreds or thousands of years. Our biological bodies are uniquely suited to the environment in which we evolved and they are dependent on certain gases and nutrients, the gravity and the rotation of the Earth that has resulted in our inconvenient awake/sleep cycles. Evidence suggests that most planets are not going to have these ideal characteristics. This will severely limit the places where we could live and visit in comfort. But I doubt this will ever be an issue since realistically there seems little likelihood of our continuing to retain our biological bodies for much longer.
Biological Limitations.
Genetic engineering, anti-aging research, etc are all great things, and all point to the likelihood of increasing the quality of our life and our life spans. But while we will be able to genetically alter ourselves over time to have greater and improved abilities there will be practical limits on how fast such progress can be made. Evolution took millions of years to produce us in our current form and while we can now intelligently direct our future biological evolution it will still take time. For example; to increase our intelligence will almost certainly involve an increase in brain size and hence skull size. But this will take generations to perfect and develop. That’s fine and perhaps there is no need to rush. But improving our fragile biological bodies still leaves us with fragile bodies dependent on an environment in which we evolved. If we want to break into the next frontier in earnest then we need to seriously consider alternatives to our biological formats.
Technology Solutions.
Computing power has been doubling approximately every 18 months since the 1940s. In the 1950s there was a great deal of excitement over the potential of creating computer based artificial intelligence. It never happened because those early pioneers massively underestimated the computer power required plus the complexity of the software required. But the excitement is beginning to grow again and there is every sign that over-optimism won’t happen this time. There seems little doubt that computing power in terms of raw cycle rates will match and exceed the human brain in the next few years. AI software development is lagging but that is likely to change once the early learning seeds are perfected. The growth rate will then be exponential and will vastly outpace any biological genetic engineering approaches to increased intelligence.
But what happens when we have machines that have equal and greater intelligence than humans? There are two major expectations. (1) The machines will find ways to take control and if they are benevolent then we as biological humans are likely to live in some degree of increased luxury. If they are not so nice and see us as a threat then we will simply cease to exist. (2) We learn to adapt ourselves to use the same technology as the machines and compete with them on an equal basis. It is this last approach that we should recognize as our best hope for survival and a way to rid ourselves of our fragile biological bodies and a way to achieve effective immortality.
The next Stage in Human Evolution.
The transition from bio forms to artificial forms enables us to separate ourselves from a dependency on Earthlike environments, e.g. no need for bio food, drink, defecation, oxygen, or special gravity, no need to sleep, etc. We become free to live on almost any type of planet and otherwise hostile environments, to travel at speeds and accelerations far beyond what bio beings could endure, to live in high or low gravity environments with no long term side effects, to experience senses like a wider band of the electromagnetic spectrum, to experience ultra sound, and other enhancements impossible or difficult while we were biological.
Where next.
I suspect that the universe is going to offer us fabulous opportunities for adventure and exploration that will far exceed anything that a religious like heaven could ever offer. Our artificial brains will continue to be upgraded and enhanced and take us to levels of intelligence far beyond what we can currently imagine. If we are currently made in God’s image then I feel sorry for God because we have the potential of being so much more and unrecognizable compared to what we are now.
The fantasies of religion are primitive, short sighted, and severely limited. Humans are capable of so much more.
