[ExI] Man’s Greatest Achievement – Nikola Tesla on Akashic engineering and the future of humanity

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2015-12-03 07:30, Giulio Prisco wrote:
> Man's "triumph over the physical world, his crowning achievement which
> would place him beside his Creator and fulfill his ultimate destiny"
> is spiritual meaning: our descendants will use science and technology
> to do anything they will dream of, including God-like achievements.
>
> Tesla's words here and elsewhere are "scientific poetry" meant to
> inspire and energize.
True. As someone who hangs out with philosophers too much, I however 
wonder why triumphing over the physical world (1) places humanity beside 
the creator, and (2) is ultimate destiny.

I think it really comes down to the issue of meaning of life. Now, the 
comist approach to that is generally a Baconian "effecting all things 
possible", but *why* this is meaningful is tricky. Fedorov and others 
saw it as doing God's work, fulfilling a plan set by the Creator. I have 
a hard time seeing how a plan made by an ever so great being actually 
produces meaning. One can also use an Aristotelian virtue view, where 
taking charge and transforming the universe well would mean the 
fulfilment of (post)human excellence. That I can buy a bit more easily.

 From my own more consequentialist view, transforming the universe is 
just good for its inhabitants - they will be more, happier and have more 
value. But that is just maximzing value, not anything to do with (1) or 
(2).


-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University