[ExI] Very long lifespans and accompanying mental milieus

[Spencer Campbell]

Will Steinberg <steinberg.will at gmail.com>:
> There is a good chance that we will, at some point, be faced with the
> problem that the confusing tangle of yarn in our heads produced by evolution
> is simply not good enough to deal with whatever comes next.  And then what?

I would argue that we hit that point somewhere between five and ten
thousand years ago. We've been flying by the seat of our pants ever
since, racing to evolve the next big species before we utterly destroy
ourselves in the process (along with everything else on Earth that
wasn't smart enough to be so stupid).

So, yes: what's the solution? I don't think we're close enough to
cerebral engineering for that to enter into the discussion as a
serious possibility. Before we can really address the hardware
problems, I think we have to work out the software problems.

The history of religion is basically equivalent to the history of
operating systems. I use Linux myself, and I don't identify with any
named belief system, including atheism, for precisely the same reason.

Actually I want to stop using Linux as soon as possible. Too many
stratified layers of ad-hoc compatibility. Have to write my own
computer architecture from scratch, at some point. I simply can't be
genuinely comfortable until then!

Let's say someone invents a religion that is scientifically proven to
improve the health, intelligence, and emotional stability of its
believers, but it assumes the existence of demonstrably false
supernatural phenomena. Let's also say that it comes with an effective
method of hypnosis to induce the required delusions. Would you
convert?

Another take on it: someone invents a novel surgical procedure,
crossing the wires in your skull in just such a way that you become a
more effective transhuman being. Would you sign up for it? How long
would you wait, before having it done, to see if there are any
unexpected side effects in the early adopters?

Both of these are within the realm of possibility right now, though I
have my doubts about how effective that hypnosis would be. Either one
could come up within the next five years.

In the former case, I might even be the one to design the
calculatedly-misleading metaphysics!