Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Ethical Enhancement Technologies

The first thing that I've noticed about a strong majority of the h+ movement, is that those that are writing a lot on the movement are bald. You would think that baldness would be conquered before global risks. But, global risks are politically empowering while the issue of balding is not.

Taking the IEET Serious

Three of the main artcles over at the IEET website that is headed by Bostrom, deal with the Republicans as evil, a comic book series who is overwriting the Bible as stories that happen all at the same time, but with different storylines. And, the end of capitalism.

The news over at on that site make it difficult to see this as a serious movement.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Human 1

I guess is if my effort is to synthesize Christianity with posthumanism, then to have a full construction of a belief of what a human is  - apart from just my theological construction - then I need to define a human before I go into transhuman.

Wikipedia breaks humanism down into some good catagories to look at.

* Sociology
* Sociobiology
* Psychology
* Philosophy
* Theology

Friday, September 12, 2008

Douglas Rushkoff - Testament

...grad student Jake Stern leads on an underground band... who use any means necessary to combat the growing threat to freedom.  In the process, he discovers a modern threat that has roots in the ancient tale of the Bible.

IEET's posting.

Comic book aiming at Christianity.

"The idea that the Bible is not something that occurred in some real moment in history, but rather in all moments of time. It's happening now - as the underlying narrative of human experience. And, even more importantly, it's hackable. The stories don't have to end the same way for us that they did for these characters."-Douglas Rushkoff

I'm having a hard time taking Rushkoff seriously.  I love Frontline documentary work, but this is fiction aimed at presenting itself as something that might be true to some extent.  Time theories are usually very Sci-fi, and not real science.

Again Rushkoff: "It's no secret that Judaism was invented in large part to get people to stop sacrificing their first born sons to the god Moloch. (It was terrible for a nation preparing for war, because all those sons were being killed.) But it was also really upsetting to people. So the Israelites came up with some substitutes, like sacrificing animals, or doing circumcisions, that didn't require the murder of babies. "

The problem is that animal sacrifices and circumcision predate the Moloch episodes.  If you are migrating out of tents, and it becomes hard to create a shrine for Moloch in areas that are not under ancient Israeli occupation at the time.  Even if you start with the premise that the Old Testament is myth, you still would ble able to see a chronological progression of events, or myth development.  Rushkoff by this statement that he hasn't studied what he's talking about.

"In theory, the Nephillum were parents to a lot of the people in our best Bible stories. I mean, how did barren Sarah get pregnant so suddenly after the visit by those angelic "strangers." She made them her special buns - a temple prostitute action - and everything."

Douglas, THIS STATEMENT IS IDIOTIC - WTF!  And, your transliteration of "Nephillum" is wrong.


Douglas' work is fiction, and what comes out of his mind is fanciful.  Movies produced today are sometimes built upon older movies structures.  Douglas is doing the same with the Bible stories.  The stories are good and timeless, it is hard to mess up good and proven material.  Most of Douglas' statements shows a lack of Torah knowledge (I don't know exactly what he means by Torah - the five books of the Law? I don't know.).

Onpedia - Second Coming

The direction of Christian Transhumanism needs to be thinking in the area of human nature and technology, and the modification that emergent technologies show potential in. Any Post, Pre, or Mid-Tribulation theologies that are so prevalently tied with the Singularity needs to be avoided. Christian prophecy and transhumanistic thinking becomes too fantastical. At this stage in technological development, the focus needs to be on human nature.
Post-human and Christianity are not compatible. The idea of the Rapture, or the Second Coming, or the consummation of all history in the return of Christ to rule the world is related to becoming Adamic, not posthuman.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

John Rogers Searle - The Material and Mental

"Seen from the perspective of the last fifty years, the philosophy of mind, as well as cognitive science and certain branches of psychology, present a very curious spectacle. The most striking feature is how much of mainstream philosophy of the mind of the past fifty years seems obviously false... in the philosophy of mind, obvious facts about the mental, such as that we all really do have subjective conscious mental states and that these are not eliminable in favor of anything else, are routinely denied by many , perhaps most, of the advanced thinkers in the subject." - Searle

HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness remains an indefinable concept, the exact way the mind and body react to human’s sensations, feelings, and emotions. Humans cannot fully master the definition of this.




I hold to Creationism, not Evolution. The arch of human existence for the Creationist - I hold to the belief that the Earth and our universe is ancient, I can accept billion years concepts into my Creationism – goes from the “image of God” creation of man, then into a declined state of existence. For the Evolutionist, the human existence arch is one from a decreased existence level, then to a continual incline towards a highly modified monkey, that at some point achieved this high degree of consciousness making them a human.



With the Evolutionist model of the human existence, anything that can progress into a level of high consciousness on par with a human (I’m really hitting at AI here), what does so needs to be treated with the ethics endowed to a human.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

HUMAN NATURE BORROWED THOUGHT

When two or more groups of humans begin to be in contact with each other, each group is faced with a choice. They can decide to engage in destructive acts against each other for domination, which is costly; or the can develop a relationship of exchange and synthesis to a gain of both groups. Over time each of the choices will lead to a larger community where cultures begin to synthesize.

OF HUMAN NATURE

By the study and observation of our knowledge of ourselves as humans, what is the natural, universal state of all humans across time. Should we think that there are those that are naturally content at being enslaved by another human? Mental acceptance of this state might be one thing, and the finding of contentment within the status of slavery another, but it probably is not to be found that it is a natural state to any human.




Is there something in the natural order of our societies and cultures that give us direction as to what our nature is, or is our nature simply define by what the current academic consensus is? If the later is the case then human nature is simply what one can get his fellow human to agree to, but as divers and irrational as humans can be, then a consensus can never ultimately be formed.



At least one emotion that is generally universal to the state of being human is the fear of death. Some systems of belief may control this passion of humans, but the fear of death is innate, and if overcome, then it would be from some exterior pressure laid upon a human, whether the human accepts it or not.



A second layer of human nature in relation to the fear of death is the common trait of violence in society. A generally passive society even has to have some form of peace keeping structures, and war to societies across time and space is common.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Immovable System of Beliefs

The idea of the process of communicating the Church’s guiding beliefs to the next generation of believers seems as though the beliefs should be immovable and unchanging. Christianities beliefs are thought to be antiquated, hypothetically truth unchanging with time. This being the case, then it would seem that only heretical teachings of the church would be in motion. Coming about at various times and from different directions.

  
The problem of unchanging beliefs and beliefs changing in time leads a person to the study of writings of an historical theologian, or the decrees of a Church council. Source material and contextual meaning of the words used must be investigated. It is through investigation that a person can see the various assemblies through history having recognized a guiding system of beliefs.

Where Theologians Reside

From 100 to 600, the majority of theologians were bishops of cities. From 600 to 1500 the theologians remained mostly in monasteries. And, since the rise of the University system out of the monastic tradition, most theologians have been professors.

Pope Saint Gregory I was a monk before ascending to the position of the Bishop of Rome. (Died : 604)
Luther was a monk who became a professor. (Died: 1546)
It is through these occupations of theologians that the Church's understanding of what Jesus and the apostles taught, and it is primarily through these offices that the various Christian teachings have been passed on to each successive generation.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

System of Belief

Christian synthesized system of beliefs is what is believed and taught within the various Christian assemblies. The study of the history of these belief systems focuses on the statements issued by authoritative ecclesiastical bodies.

Belief systems have developed over time. The areas of devotion, spirituality, and worship is taught from the understanding of Christian religious writings. Through the study of the Bible a church, or church branch, will conclude a belief, and then incorporate that belief into its religious confessions, public speakings in different forums like worship, and in the general thinking about God. With this being the case - whatever word you wish to use - every religious body will have a belief of heresy, whether confessed or not; and will begin to form some kind of apologetics around the body of beliefs held by the church.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Theologian and the Philosopher

The distinctive difference between a theologian and a philosopher is that the theologian understands himself to be a representative speaker of the Christian community. A theologian is responsible for what is taught or spoken in behalf of the Church. A theologian's confessions must be based on the understanding of what his studies produce from the religious writings.

A philosopher is free in his study, for he is not bound to a set of religious writings, and professor of an authority for them.

Explain Thinking

What the worshipers of Jesus the Messiah believes and teaches based on the writings that have been authorized as being inspired by God: this is Christian guidelines of belief.  Establishing guidlines for belief is not the only activity of the Christian assemblies.  The Christian assemblies are to worship God and serve their fellow human beings.  The worship and service transform individuals, and in turn transforms communities.  The act of loving is the greatest act over any other act that the assemblies of God engadge in.  It is not faith, nor is it the determining of guideline standards (doctrine).  The Assembly is more than a place to get teaching.  The Assembly's faith, hope, and love all express themselves in teaching and profession.  The meaning behind our religious ceremonies is greater than the ceremony itself.  Preaching avoids a focus on the Bible as old writings with dated information, and focuses on discovering what the writings teaches people.   The assemblies of Christ would not have any focus of direction unless it had set guidelines to follow for how it is to worship.

Christian beliefs are of the greatest importance, and should not be taken in a relaxed manner, because within them there is contained a knowledge that can give a person a means of avoiding an eternal state of death.  Christian teachings give an individual the knowledge to obtain a continuious life extention.

Monday, September 1, 2008

In Theological Terms

Because of the Cursings every conscience action of a human is methodical. Method must be applied to our actions because the environment of our existance is hostile to us. Most actions undertaken by us is under the danger of a degree of pain.

Essentually the exchange in the Garden was God imposing a condition upon Man. "You chose to be hostile towards Me, therefore, My creation will be hostile towards you." This hostility imposed will over a given amount of time lead to the termination of life.

In this is the Axiom: until there is a reversal on this imposed hostility, then over a given amount of time life will cease.

Inhuman Environment



Humans by their very nature develope a method to accomplish a targeted objective. The manner of the method developed to achieve is called a technique. When a tool is invented to help the technique, then it is called a device.

The majority of devices that humans use within modern societies are machines.