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

[Giulio Prisco]

Anders, you philosophers are really hair-splitters. To uneducated
morons like me, good is meaningful. Becoming co-creators places us
besides the Creator by definition, and it's ultimate destiny because
it's a good ultimate outcome.

On Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 10:24 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:
> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat