[ExI] Reconceptualizing the hero myth

[Bryan Bishop]

On Monday 10 March 2008, citta437 at aol.com wrote:
> Sorry, I cannot reconceptualize a hero to separate suffering from
> thought. Concepts/thoughts are still thoughts/ mind constructs.
>
> AGI is an artificial mind construct but none suffers in the micro
> level of elements like electrons, neutrons and neutrinos {the
> electrochemical language of the brain}.
>
> What is a mission, a motive? That too is a thought process arising
> from layers of brain matter coming from the top most layer going down
> to the lower layer/the emotional layer or the primitive region of the
> brain, the seat of emotion.

I'd like to quote Zindell:
> 'Without end,' Hanuman said. The pain of self-overcoming is just the
> beginning. Then, for our kind, if we're strong enough, if our souls 
> are great and deep – then comes the real pain. What's real pain, you 
> ask? The power to choose what we will. Having to choose. This terrible 
> freedom. These infinite possibilities. The taste for the infinite 
> spoiled by the possibility of evolutionary failure. Real pain is 
> knowing that you're going to die, all the while knowing that you don't 
> have to die.'   'But, Hanu, everything dies,' Danlo said softly. He 
> turned to face the scarred, old shih tree, and he pressed his forehead 
> against it. When he looked up, he felt the zig-zag mark where the 
> tree's icy bark had cut into his skin.  Hanuman shook his head and 
> continued, 'But why die at all, Danlo? Mightn't there be a new phase 
> of evolution? A new kind of being? Can't you understand? I'm trying to 
> delineate an emergent quality of the brain. New synapses. New 
> connections. A constellation of qualities and abilities, of new levels 
> of existence. Consciousness heightened and exalted in itself, 
> purified. This pure consciousness that we really are. That we struggle 
> to be. For our kind, there's always the burning to be more. The 
> eternal longing. And this is why true human beings feel more pain. 
> Because we are more, but it's never quite enough – never. And we are 
> aware of this neverness inside our souls. And aware of being aware. 
> There is a feedback. Can you understand what this is like? Pain is 
> magnified, infinitely. Each moment of time. Reality becomes almost too 
> real. It blazes. All the universe afire with the possibilities of 
> light, and madness, too. Real pain is the burning that never stops, 
> the frenzy, the lightning.'            

- Bryan
________________________________________
Bryan Bishop
http://heybryan.org/