[ExI] AI-generated music videos

[Ben Zaiboc]

On Tuesday, 8 September 2026 at 04:56, spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Ben
> Zaiboc via extropy-chat
> 
> 
> >...What I mean is, it's so false. You must have had the experience of some
> salesman/woman trying to be 'friendly' and coming over as totally insincere.
> This is like that, only from 360 degrees, and relentless. I find it
> horrifying...
> 
> OK, no worries.  The whole thing really has my wheels spinning however,
> because of what Religion Inc. is trying to sell.  A version of it I am
> familiar with offers a scene a lot like that video: it has people of various
> ages, made of ordinary matter, a 1G field where you don't fly exactly, but
> you can do some stuff like the Chessie Cat girl in the video: levitate
> temporarily for instance.  People are happy and don't get sick, they don't
> age, even if they can appear at various ages.  When I heard it, that version
> of the afterlife very much appealed to me, and oh how I wish I could believe
> it.  I would believe it if I could.  But I cannot.
> 
> Now this AI comes along, and shows us how it would look.  People are happy
> and healthy.  Well, isn't that what we humans struggle to do?  Find ways to
> make people happy and healthy?


Have you heard the Talking Heads song 'Heaven'? (it's on the album 'Stop Making Sense'):

"Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens"

Thinking about what the traditional western religions present heaven as being like, this would be exactly the result. I don't think that humans strive for stagnation, even if it's happy stagnation. I think we want and need stimulation, change, and progress. I always used to wonder about the traditional concept of hell, and how bonkers it is. Heaven is no less bonkers when you think about it.

You say "... isn't that what we humans struggle to do? ...", and I think that's true. /What/ we struggle to do, though, is less important than the struggle itself. It's a successful struggle that gives us joy. Attainment without struggle would be disappointing. Look how happy most lottery winners are after about six months.

What gives you the most happiness, solving a difficult engineering problem, or knowing that you solved one in the past?

I suppose everyone's a bit different, and maybe there are people who would genuinely enjoy an endless mindlessly happy status quo, but to me, status quo = death. Transhumanism isn't about striving to attain a better state and then staying there, it's about endless improvement. Once you're happy with everything, it's time to die, because there's nothing else to strive for. You might as well be in heaven.

---
Ben