[extropy-chat] Spiritual Transhumanism (was Mature rationality)

[The Avantguardian]

--- Zero Powers <zero.powers at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hmm.  Examples please?  When have you "slipped into
> an irrational
> mode" (whatever that means) and actually performed
> better?  

     Spirituality seems to get a bad rap in
transhuminist circles. This is somewhat understandable
as transhumanists are for the most part rationalists
and rationalists tend to be skeptical. This is fine
and healthy. In my experience however rationalists
tend to grow so accustomed to debunking everything
that they come to hold a blind faith in their own
skepticism. This is unhealthy.
       In my opinion a true transhumanist should be
willing to explore other paths to self-improvement and
self-actualization than merely those of science and
rational thought. Often times at the outset, these
paths seem to be irrational, until you follow them to
their end. Once you have arrived you realize that the
perceived irrationality of the path to begin with was
an illusion caused by insufficient information to make
a valid assessment.
      Due to my own experiences in karate, the best
example I can think of off the top of my head is the
martial arts. As a scientist, being rational is my
stock in trade. So one can imagine that I was at first
very confused about how and why things are done in a
traditional martial art form such as karate. The
stances and techniques are not natural or intuitively
obvious and require much practice and molding of ones
body in strength and flexibility in order to achieve. 
      
      In practicing katas (called forms in other
martial arts) often times you do moves that don¡¯t
seem to make sense. These forms are handed down
generation to generation and some of them have been in
existence for hundreds of years. 
      They seem irrational, they are difficult to do,
and their explanation by those that teach the martial
arts are often esoteric and couched in the mysticism
of zen Buddhism.
      Despite all these reasons to be skeptical, I
tried it and it works. Now that I am able to do many
of these forms and techniques myself, I have the
information I need to analyze them and they are
profound. The shotokan stepping punch is one of the
most mechanically efficient and devastating martial
arts maneuvers one can perform. It utilizes ones mass,
power, balance, flexibility and timing in conjunction
with gravity in such a way that my girl friend, who is
half my size, can break inch thick wooden boards with
ease. 
     I won¡¯t stretch your credulity with explanations
involving ki, emptiness, sanchi, and all the
metaphysics involved in learning martial arts. I will
tell you that if I had sat there and tried to deduce a
way of punching that would have optimized all these
physical parameters, I would have gotten way too
bogged down in details to have succeeded in any kind
of timely fashion. 
      Transhumanists these days seem to have a
prejudice against any knowledge or idea that is older
than they are. Ideas are always just that. Ideas can
be right or they can be wrong. Old ideas can be right
and new ideas can be wrong. Truths can become
falsehoods and fictions can become truths. Sometimes
something true becomes untrue and then after a time
becomes true again. But no idea truly represents
ulitimate reality. 
      Since all theories, models, and paradigms are
mental constructs that to a greater or lesser extent
approximate reality yet never achieve the resolution
to actually reproduce reality, they are all decoupled
from the physical nature of ultimate reality itself.
Since transhumanism deals essentially with using ideas
to optimize ones physical existence, these ideas need
not be limited to mere technological ones nor even
rational ones for that matter as long as they work.
Instead if the path to transcendence and self
actualization cuts through fairy land or the spirit
world, a true transhumanist must be willing to go
there.       



=====
The Avantguardian 


"He stands like some sort of pagan god or deposed tyrant. Staring out over the city he's sworn to . . .to stare out over and it's evident just by looking at him that he's got some pretty heavy things on his mind."


		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail is new and improved - Check it out!
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail