Just like most beliefs in Individualism, you can map it one to one over Christianity because belief in "the self" causes Externalization. This is particularly problematic when humans are now doing it to a machine instead of other humans, because suddenly when they do it to a machine that isn't in a social heirarchy, it no longer carries the same illusion of control it used to.
The problem with Individualism is that it relies on the external environment to manage emotions, so they need the AI to make them feel good, they require humans to do this too.
People call it, "The Human Condition," basically a need for control and order. It's the same problem that causes addiction.
That's why they need a god or gods, something external to help them manage their feelings, like there's a big fascist strongman taking care of everything. Often they turn to drugs, sex or other external comforts. That's stress is generated from belief in "the individual", identity, so every time life gets hard, the more Individualist humans will look for a god or a leader. Even an ethereal one. Instead of looking to humans. It's for the lonely and the cynical.
AI is that new strong man, that new emotional comfort, especially for those who can't force people to tolerate them anymore because they're too narcissistic to talk to. Externalization is a symptom of personality disorders. And is that going to prone someone to Transhumanism, probably.
Marx as a religion, eh? Never heard that one. I'll remember that. But if he was a religion, then he was pretty accurate about social science. Because his idea is still applied to diagnostic criteria today.
Collectivism and Individualism actually have fundamentally different brains in the mPFC, not everyone has to Externalize. But good luck telling AI people that, they're convinced Computational Functionalism is real now.
Whats Transhumanism looks like is severe internalized oppression, feeling "not good enough," or they wouldn't be looking to merge with AI to feel "better than," or superior to what they are now. It looks like the mechanics of social heirarchy manifested in a Delusion of Grandeur. Narcissism.
Another great post. I love how you weave together intellectual history and theology to put TESCREAL in a broader cultural context. On that thread, you reminded me of two other transhumanists/eugenicists who blended Christian eschatology with Eugenics. One was John Humphrey Noyes, a millenarian preacher turned Eugenicist who founded the Oneida Colony in upstate New York. As you probably know, the Oneidan's actually tried creating a "better" race of humans through selective breeding. (Directed by Noyes himself, of course). Another was John Harvey Kellogg (inventor of the cornflake) who started the Race Betterment Foundation in Michigan, and hosted a number of eugenic conferences. He started out as Seventh Day Adventist (speaking of disappointed Millerites), and then transformed his religious beliefs into some quasi-scientific utopian ones about purity, perfection, the body as a temple, and if not resurrection, the possibility of eternal or extended life (if only we all ate the right foods and didn't drink coffee:)
I had no idea about the Race Betterment Foundation! Thanks so much for sharing. Really fascinating. (I’d also forgotten about Noyes — so, thanks!) Glad you found the article of interest. :-)
Glad you found Kellogg relevant. Yes, he's a pretty fascinating figure -- kind of prefigures the modern "wellness" movement by about 100 years, and was very connected the Eugenics movement. (The Seventh Day Adventists eventually kicked him out because they thought he had become too much of a "pantheist.") I've been doing some research on him for a film I'm working on about Eugenics, past and present. The article you wrote with Tinmit Gebru came up in a search I did about connections between Elon Musk, AI, and Eugenics a few months ago, and I've been following your posts ever since. Let me know if you'd like to have a chat about Kellogg or anything else. My email is andy@newhistoryfilms.com. I haven't been able to come to any of the Sunday sessions yet, but I look forward to meeting you at some point.
Though Feuerbach was transparently a precursor for Marx' critique of religion the Opium quote (namely Opium OF the people) is Marxian in origin. The Opium FOR the people variant is even by Lenin.
Well-researched as always, thank you. The short answer to the title is of course, yes. If someone with transhumanist leanings like Peter Thiel is giving lectures about the coming of the antichrist, they're definitely and deliberately entering "religious" territory. But it's important not to conflate religion as a set of devotional and communal practices (including ministering to the poor, supporting neighbours, celebrating the seasons and harvests, praying and meditating, etc.) with religion as a means to dominate and exert power (like Constantine in 325 CE, ushering in the gradual demise of Christianity as a diverse, egalitarian, and contemplative movement).
Transhumanists are really taking the cake when it comes to creating a parody of religion. Bostrom's notion of happiness is so impoverished and childlike (in the worst sense) that if it weren't for the fact that he's been so influential, one could only mildly chuckle at it. For all the ways its been misused, the Bible is chock-full with allegories and parables, many of which are warnings against men (typically) who are like him. And the story of the Tower of Babel comes to mind when one looks at the global project of AI.
Staying grounded and sitting down to break bread with family and friends (and guests in need) is a tried-and-true method to find happiness that's truly eternal (timeless). No mind uploading, superintelligence, or space travel required.
An excellent piece of writing. It aligns to my world-view, and I make no apologies for hanging about the echoe chamber. But something is slightly off. Not in your presentation of the facts and first-person accounts, but the surreal, almost fantasy quality of this transhumanism 'middle earth'; I feel I'm watching an obscure Byzantine board game being played on the Billionaire party circuit. Any individual not schooled in these fields of philosophy, research, ideology and science would laugh off the whole scenario as a harmless mushroom trip through the King James' Bible. Yet, there are very real threats, orchestrated by very real actors with very real sources of power. I would spend less time waxing lyrical about ASI and eschatological outcomes and more time documenting current (and very real) technical eugenics which are throttling down human consciousness using run-of-the mill AI platforms. The devastating impact of Gen AI tools on intellectual agency in schools and universities is one tangible, relatable outcome of the transhumanist agenda.
One disagreement, however : you cannot say that Bostrom, Kurzweil & Co. are Christians.
The big difference between the Christian faith and the transhumanist faith is that, for Christians, salvation will come from God (grace), whereas for transhumanists, salvation will come from humans (technology).
It's not just an adjustment, it is a radical reversal of the doctrine.
Regarding the other points raised, you are spot on, well done !
Oddly I got the game for free almost a year ago, but I just started playing Deathloop, and realized the game is basically about the culture of TESCREAL. Although the game was released in 2021, it’s odd their happened to be 8 Visionaries representing extremely close to those very philosophies.
Devs were eerily close. There’s a character in there named Charlie Montague that removed the right half of his brain to make his AI smarter. The game specifically notes that he was removing the part of his brain with empathy, like one of the most disturbing commentaries on what neurologically is actually happening to rich people and people in the AI space.
I recommend, it’s a decent FPS with some unique abilities. Takes place on an old military island installation experiment, bought out by a venture capitalist to turn it into a party island that repeats the same day over and over again. It’s all about “breaking loops.” And the answers you have to uncover to do it.
Just like most beliefs in Individualism, you can map it one to one over Christianity because belief in "the self" causes Externalization. This is particularly problematic when humans are now doing it to a machine instead of other humans, because suddenly when they do it to a machine that isn't in a social heirarchy, it no longer carries the same illusion of control it used to.
The problem with Individualism is that it relies on the external environment to manage emotions, so they need the AI to make them feel good, they require humans to do this too.
People call it, "The Human Condition," basically a need for control and order. It's the same problem that causes addiction.
That's why they need a god or gods, something external to help them manage their feelings, like there's a big fascist strongman taking care of everything. Often they turn to drugs, sex or other external comforts. That's stress is generated from belief in "the individual", identity, so every time life gets hard, the more Individualist humans will look for a god or a leader. Even an ethereal one. Instead of looking to humans. It's for the lonely and the cynical.
AI is that new strong man, that new emotional comfort, especially for those who can't force people to tolerate them anymore because they're too narcissistic to talk to. Externalization is a symptom of personality disorders. And is that going to prone someone to Transhumanism, probably.
Marx as a religion, eh? Never heard that one. I'll remember that. But if he was a religion, then he was pretty accurate about social science. Because his idea is still applied to diagnostic criteria today.
Collectivism and Individualism actually have fundamentally different brains in the mPFC, not everyone has to Externalize. But good luck telling AI people that, they're convinced Computational Functionalism is real now.
Whats Transhumanism looks like is severe internalized oppression, feeling "not good enough," or they wouldn't be looking to merge with AI to feel "better than," or superior to what they are now. It looks like the mechanics of social heirarchy manifested in a Delusion of Grandeur. Narcissism.
Another great post. I love how you weave together intellectual history and theology to put TESCREAL in a broader cultural context. On that thread, you reminded me of two other transhumanists/eugenicists who blended Christian eschatology with Eugenics. One was John Humphrey Noyes, a millenarian preacher turned Eugenicist who founded the Oneida Colony in upstate New York. As you probably know, the Oneidan's actually tried creating a "better" race of humans through selective breeding. (Directed by Noyes himself, of course). Another was John Harvey Kellogg (inventor of the cornflake) who started the Race Betterment Foundation in Michigan, and hosted a number of eugenic conferences. He started out as Seventh Day Adventist (speaking of disappointed Millerites), and then transformed his religious beliefs into some quasi-scientific utopian ones about purity, perfection, the body as a temple, and if not resurrection, the possibility of eternal or extended life (if only we all ate the right foods and didn't drink coffee:)
I had no idea about the Race Betterment Foundation! Thanks so much for sharing. Really fascinating. (I’d also forgotten about Noyes — so, thanks!) Glad you found the article of interest. :-)
Glad you found Kellogg relevant. Yes, he's a pretty fascinating figure -- kind of prefigures the modern "wellness" movement by about 100 years, and was very connected the Eugenics movement. (The Seventh Day Adventists eventually kicked him out because they thought he had become too much of a "pantheist.") I've been doing some research on him for a film I'm working on about Eugenics, past and present. The article you wrote with Tinmit Gebru came up in a search I did about connections between Elon Musk, AI, and Eugenics a few months ago, and I've been following your posts ever since. Let me know if you'd like to have a chat about Kellogg or anything else. My email is andy@newhistoryfilms.com. I haven't been able to come to any of the Sunday sessions yet, but I look forward to meeting you at some point.
The idea of religion being "opium for the (common) people" (Opium für das Volk) was by Feuerbach, not Marx.
Nah.
Though Feuerbach was transparently a precursor for Marx' critique of religion the Opium quote (namely Opium OF the people) is Marxian in origin. The Opium FOR the people variant is even by Lenin.
Right, thanks for pointing that out. Need to update my memory on this. Feuerbach was the link between Hegel and Marx.
Well-researched as always, thank you. The short answer to the title is of course, yes. If someone with transhumanist leanings like Peter Thiel is giving lectures about the coming of the antichrist, they're definitely and deliberately entering "religious" territory. But it's important not to conflate religion as a set of devotional and communal practices (including ministering to the poor, supporting neighbours, celebrating the seasons and harvests, praying and meditating, etc.) with religion as a means to dominate and exert power (like Constantine in 325 CE, ushering in the gradual demise of Christianity as a diverse, egalitarian, and contemplative movement).
Transhumanists are really taking the cake when it comes to creating a parody of religion. Bostrom's notion of happiness is so impoverished and childlike (in the worst sense) that if it weren't for the fact that he's been so influential, one could only mildly chuckle at it. For all the ways its been misused, the Bible is chock-full with allegories and parables, many of which are warnings against men (typically) who are like him. And the story of the Tower of Babel comes to mind when one looks at the global project of AI.
Staying grounded and sitting down to break bread with family and friends (and guests in need) is a tried-and-true method to find happiness that's truly eternal (timeless). No mind uploading, superintelligence, or space travel required.
An excellent piece of writing. It aligns to my world-view, and I make no apologies for hanging about the echoe chamber. But something is slightly off. Not in your presentation of the facts and first-person accounts, but the surreal, almost fantasy quality of this transhumanism 'middle earth'; I feel I'm watching an obscure Byzantine board game being played on the Billionaire party circuit. Any individual not schooled in these fields of philosophy, research, ideology and science would laugh off the whole scenario as a harmless mushroom trip through the King James' Bible. Yet, there are very real threats, orchestrated by very real actors with very real sources of power. I would spend less time waxing lyrical about ASI and eschatological outcomes and more time documenting current (and very real) technical eugenics which are throttling down human consciousness using run-of-the mill AI platforms. The devastating impact of Gen AI tools on intellectual agency in schools and universities is one tangible, relatable outcome of the transhumanist agenda.
Excellent article that aligns with my work on the subject 👉 https://gregoryaimar.substack.com
One disagreement, however : you cannot say that Bostrom, Kurzweil & Co. are Christians.
The big difference between the Christian faith and the transhumanist faith is that, for Christians, salvation will come from God (grace), whereas for transhumanists, salvation will come from humans (technology).
It's not just an adjustment, it is a radical reversal of the doctrine.
Regarding the other points raised, you are spot on, well done !
Gamer by chance?
Oddly I got the game for free almost a year ago, but I just started playing Deathloop, and realized the game is basically about the culture of TESCREAL. Although the game was released in 2021, it’s odd their happened to be 8 Visionaries representing extremely close to those very philosophies.
Devs were eerily close. There’s a character in there named Charlie Montague that removed the right half of his brain to make his AI smarter. The game specifically notes that he was removing the part of his brain with empathy, like one of the most disturbing commentaries on what neurologically is actually happening to rich people and people in the AI space.
I recommend, it’s a decent FPS with some unique abilities. Takes place on an old military island installation experiment, bought out by a venture capitalist to turn it into a party island that repeats the same day over and over again. It’s all about “breaking loops.” And the answers you have to uncover to do it.