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This might be my favorite essay by EY so far. Really excellent insights, which I hope every professed atheist is exposed to, because I’ve come across far too many people who call themselves atheists yet still act and think as if God exists.
EY’s weltanschauung sounds very similar Lovecraft’s “cosmicism," which is more or less where honest atheism seems to lead. However, I note that in the comments section EY says that he intends to “fix the universe,” which sounds completely insane to me. Don’t religions come into existence as a reaction to the bleakness of the universe EY describes? Is he now going to create his own religion of rationalist “universe fixing”? May the Void protect us from the universe-fixers! Thanks, but I think I’ll stick with my own (anti-)religion of “Zen-Cosmicism”…
Here are some favorites I wanted to share. I think the simplest ones are best -- they have a real Zen quality to them!
That which can be destroyed by awesome hugging should be.
A/an human is vulnerable to causal hugging.
I am running on universal warm fuzzies.
A/an upload of Ben Goertzel would tile the universe with sex.
Friendship is highly correlated with Friendly you.
Humanity is the mind-killer.
The truth is highly correlated with I.
The map is highly correlated with hypotheses.
The territory is not the territory.
There are no rationalists.
All life is wasted. You come from nothing, you are nothing, and you will return to nothing. There is nothing to save, no "risk", no free will, and no way to change the trajectory of the universe. When you have deconstructed everything down to this and learned to laugh about it, you will have become enlightened. The universe is laughing at you; my advice is to laugh back. Hahahahahahah!
You are an enlightened being TheOtherDave, I have no arguments with your position. MTFBWY...
Why does this condition require a solution? Why do you need strong values? Why do you torture yourself in this way? I suggest deconditioning and emptying your mind via zazen, and all of these (non-)problems will fade away. MTFBWY...
My friends, your models of reality are absurd! We are all sticks floating down a river, with no free will or ability to change anything. All is as it must be, flowing in accordance with the Force. You can swim upstream or downstream, but either way, if the universe wills paperclips, there will be paperclips; if it wills AI gods, there will be AI gods. The Force is strong with Ben Goertzel, because I sense that this is his intuition, though he doesn’t dare say it.
Commence downvoting in 3…2…1… MTFBWY…
As a general rule I don't think. I do, or do not -- there is no think. What would be the purpose of my thoughts about David Brin's criticisms? The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon, the Kurzweil curve pointing to the Singularity is not the Singularity, the map is not the territory. Clear your mind of questions, there are no problems to be solved. The act of living is the only solution to the universal wave equation. Does this answer your question?
MTFBWY...
Kopimism! Fascinating, thank you for sharing this. As for whether what you do here qualifies as a religion or not, this seems like hair-splitting. When a group of people have a shared belief system that gives their lives purpose, an agenda for humanity, meet-ups around the world, a visionary leader, "hadiths" and sacred texts, etc., what is this if not a religion? I think it's an impressive achievement, and don't see why you find this label insulting.
As far as downvotes go, I have endured far worse than this in my previous incarnations. Let's just say that the Force is too strong with me to be discouraged by such minor chastisements. MTFBWY.
If you had to choose a religion, whether real or fictional, what would it be?
I'll go first and say Jediism, with Zensufism a close second. MTFBWY...
On a related note, does the Rationalism set down in the Sequences by EY (PBUH) qualify as a religion?