[extropy-chat] Transhumanism: Teilhard de Chardin - Truth or Dare

[Samantha Atkins]

On 10/31 , cmcmortgage wrote:
"I read a book titled "The Omega Point" so long ago I don;t even remember the
author.
It often left me wondering if religions weren't created by our post-human
descendents who were capable of manipulating the past. Granted, time would
have to be linear which I don't believe to be the case. Still, the idea that
religion was created to keep us from reaching singularity faster than we are
capable of handling socially is a bit alluring. Maybe it could make for some
decent fiction."

An alternate view is that some parts of religion were an attempt largely gone 
awry to influence us toward changes within our consciousness leading to a 
less violent singularity and us even arriving there at all.   It is not too 
far-fetched for me to consider that the future SI and posthuman society runs 
countless sim experiments toward understanding how the entire transition 
could have been a lot less painful or get to more interesting conclusions 
more gracefully.    It would not surprise me if we are in such a sim.

Sometimes I think religions are remnants of a much more advanced past or a 
brush with a much more advanced reality that have degenerated into 
superstition and dogma to a large degree.    But I don't find 
religion/spirituality utterly bankrupt as many do.

BTW, I would recommend "The Age of Spiritual Machines" and Moravec's "Robot - 
Mere Machines to Transcendent Mind". 

- samantha