Monthly Archives: October 2023

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Do you really want to live forever, forever, and ever? These lyrics from the song Forever Young, (1984) by the German synth-pop band, Alphaville, touch on whats perhaps one of the oldest and deepest philosophical quandaries: mortality. Since man first became conscious of himself, since he first began to gaze inward, he has been faced with the horror of his own mortality. Everyone dies. Entire religions and philosophical movements exist to provide comfort and hope in the face of this grim, singular reality; the common thread between them being the ability to accept and reconcile this universally shared fate.

One more modern, and perhaps more obscure philosophical movement, known as transhumanism, screams a resounding No! in the face of this shared fate, and answers Alphaville with a resounding Yes!. Transhumanism is a philosophical and scientific movement that seeks to enhance and continuously improve the human condition through ever-evolving technologies. The term has been around since the late 1950s, but began to take on increased significance in the 1980s and beyond with the growth of computer technology. A bit of an umbrella term, transhumanism encompasses all things futurist: AI, space exploration, life extension, bioengineering- all are endorsed and celebrated within the realm of transhumanist thought. At its heart, transhumanism embraces the sobering realm of science to shepherd the human race into a prosperous and technologically advanced future.

The prefix trans is culturally and politically charged in 2023. As soon as anyone utters trans, theyre likely to be met with partisan political moralizing. Its worth noting that the term transhumanism predates contemporary discussions around transgender rights, and the two concepts are distinct, despite sharing the same prefix. The prefix trans originates from Latin and means through, across, and beyond. Its been used in the English language to form various words that convey the idea of moving or changing e.g. transport, translate, translucentthe list goes on.

Transhumanist thinking indeed encourages man to think through, across, and beyond. Transhumanist ideals have already taken root in modern scientific thought and are inextricably intertwined with progressive science. Calico, a research and development company funded by Google (through the holding company Alphabet Inc.) seeks to unravel the fabric of aging, with the goal of developing new technologies to combat age-related diseases and potentially extend human longevity.

With essentially unlimited money from Google, and assistance from AI, theres no stopping Calico. There are a number of other companies with the same, or similar goals: Human Longevity Inc., Unity Biotechnology, SENS Research Foundation, BioViva, Insilico Medicine, and Gero.

The most prevalent counterargument to life extension is the fear of overpopulation. Elon Musk is well known for boldly asserting that population decline is the single greatest threat to humanity. While nuclear armageddon and climate change may be solid rivals to this claim, Musks observations are grounded in data. Human beings are reproducing at much slower rates than in previous generations. For many developed nations, theyre reproducing at a rate below the replacement level, or not enough to maintain stable population numbers. Globally, humanity is still maintaining its numbers by reproducing slightly above the replacement level. However, global fertility rates have been steadily declining for decades. According to the Pew Research Center, the worlds population is projected to nearly stop growing by the end of the century.

As humanity takes its first steps into uncharted territory, the question remains: Do you really want to live forever? It would seem the answer is yes, given the extraordinary sums of money being spent to find out if humanity can indeed extend its collective lifespan. With the tools and technologies at its disposal, settling for the status quo is a regressive slap in the face to the aspiring human condition.

The average lifespan for humans in 2023 is somewhere between 70 and 75 years. Given the incomprehensibly vast expanse of the cosmos, and the 13.7 billion years that the known universe has existed, 75 years isnt that long. Confronted with their transitory existence, humans have developed numerous systems to pacify their existential dread in the face of their own cosmic insignificance. In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Denial of Death (1973), Ernest Becker writes, Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level.

For some, 75 years is indeed long enough. Their religious framework incorporates death effectively, infusing it with meaning. Theyve made peace with an eventual transition to the other side. Theyre confident a divine reward awaits them, an eternity in a celestial realm free from strife and turmoil.

Others believe this life isnt the only one, but one of many. Theyve lived before and will live again, reincarnating on an endless cosmic wheel, until theyve transcended their egotistical shortcomings and can then transition to the celestial garden promised initially to the first group.

There are still others unconvinced of any certainty beyond the corporeal. For them, the terror of death is ever-present. It isnt so much the fear of leaving this life, but the horror of non-being that petrifies them. They arent convinced theyll reincarnate, or gain entry into a celestial utopia. The lack of tangible evidence for either creates a bleak picture, horrifying them. The prospect of non-being leaves them bitter, grim and sober. Non-being is existential cosmic horror of the first order.

Objectively, horror at non-being seems absurd. To quote the late German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, After your death, you will be what you were before your birth. The logic is sound. Its totally irrational to fear death. Yet, this logical appeal makes absolutely no difference in how people feel. They dont know why they fear it, they just do.

Each human being has an ego, a sense of conscious identity that separates them from their fellows. It is a byproduct of sentience, a consequence of the evolutionary predilection for intelligence. Everybody is somebody, separate and unique. This separation is what many eastern spiritual traditions assert is the root cause of all conscious suffering. Having an ego presupposes a fear of losing it, losing ones false sense of self. And still, knowing they have egos doesnt change how people feel. Humans need to feel, on a visceral level, that they are going to be taken care of after death. It cannot be the end. It just cant.

One of the knee-jerk reactions that can be heard when people first hear of transhumanist ideas about life extension is that they cant imagine continuing in an existence where theyre old and feeble, indefinitely. Though the term age regression is, in itself, rather self-explanatory, its worth addressing this common concern. The concepts of life extension and age-regression go hand in hand, presupposing a speculative future where one could hypothetically achieve a chronological age of 150, 200, or 300 years at the physiological equivalent of roughly a 25 year old, or the prime of adult youth. The goal isnt to maintain an elderly status indefinitely, but to rejuvenate and restore youthfulness.

This idea is uncanny, often provoking confusion and resistance in those confronted with it. It challenges the scientific and philosophical paradigms that conditioned their psyches. What would one do with all this time? It truly is an unfathomable, otherworldly concept.

Humans construct their lives around an itinerary that presupposes a finite term of 7090 years. Theyre born. They go to school. They get married. They reproduce. They work. They retire and die. They choose one career, one area to specialize in, because thats all there is time for. Some dont even get to choose. The socioeconomic hand that fate deals them chooses for them. The concept of free time is paradoxical by definition. Legions of humans spend the majority of their waking hours working unfulfilling jobs simply to provide themselves with basic living necessities. Time spent on leisure and self-interest is bought and paid for, dearly.

People do not stop to ask themselves if 75 years is enough time, because heretofore the question was irrelevant. From the perspective of a transhumanist thinker, it is a painfully short amount of time. For those free spirits demanding more from their cosmic allotment, transhumanisms resounding No! in the face of fixed mortality rings louder and louder. Its a war cry, an assault upon the chains of time.

Imagining a world where the average lifespan is 300 seems far-fetched. But if one were to suspend his disbelief, and entertain this futurist notion, he may come to the conclusion that 300 years is a far roomier timeline for human development and self-actualization. The old adage youth is wasted on the young, might lose its gravitas in a world where age-regression technologies could keep humans in their prime for extended periods. The wisdom of age could coexist with the vitality of youth. In the face of the vast expanse of the universe, accepting a mere 75 years as the entirety of human experience is not just limiting its a grave injustice to human potential.

Religious or secular, there is one common fear that unites humanity, the fear of death. How humans reconcile that fear varies. For the most ambitious, progressive, industrious, and forward-thinking of humanity, it means tackling the erosion of time head-on. Transhumanism battles the horror of non-being boldly, directly, without attempting to deny it or push its significance aside in favor of the next lifes unproven promises. It answers Alphaville with a resounding Yes!

Link:
Transcending Time. The Transhumanist Challenge To | by ... - Medium

Supporters and opponents of gender-affirming health care for transgender youth held consecutive rallies at the state Capitol over last weekend. Both included state legislators, advocacy groups and some counter-protestors, but that was where the similarities ended. After Gays Against Groomers (GAG), a national group founded just last year by a pro-Trump conservative media specialist, announced it was holding a rally at the Capitol on Saturday morning, pro-LGBTQ group One Colorado invited supporters, legislators and allies for a celebration of Colorados gender-affirming care laws on Friday afternoon.

The Friday, Oct. 20 event saw about 100 people gather at the Capitols West Steps to listen to speakers share personal stories, praise Colorado Democratic majorities for protecting trans and non-binary health care, and warn of the increased volume and severity of misinformation and political attacksagainst LGBTQ peopleoccurring across the county. Speakers (all of whom can be seen here) included members of the trans community, advocates from LGBTQ and reproductive rights organizations, and state Rep. Brianna Titone (D-Arvada), Colorados first transgender legislator, who thanked the crowd for coming out to support the trans community and promised to have the back of everyone there.

If youd told me five years ago that I would be standing here I wouldnt have believed you, said Noah, a 19 year-old trans college student. I didnt know what my future held, but I knew I wouldnt have a future at all if I kept hiding who I was. I wouldnt be here without the gender-affirming care I received. My transition saved my life.

One Colorado spokesperson Alex noted that the purpose of GAGs Protect The Children rally was, simply put, fear.

Indeed, on Saturday morning, Rich Guggenheim, spokesman for Gays Against Groomers Colorado chapter, made clear that GAG views gender-affirming healthcare as grooming or child abuse.

Our focus is on protecting children from transitioning, from indoctrination, the harmful textbooks and books that are going up in libraries that are pornographic in nature, said Guggenheim. And from what science tells us is harmful physiologically and emotionally to children who undergo what they call gender-affirming care, hormone therapy and surgery They should not be subjected to pornography. They should not be subjected to ideology that encourages them to transition.

Contrary to Guggenheims claims about science, academic research shows that gender-affirming care has enormous benefits for trans kids.

Echoing statements made by GAG online, Guggenheim says, Its become a fashion statement now for so many parents to say they have a transgender kid. And its erasing who their children really are. He claims school mental health professionals and librarians want to sexualize children, which is how he characterized counseling about sexual orientation or gender identity at school, or making books that mention sex or sexuality available in school libraries, and questioned their motives for doing so.

Asked if GAGs position on removing books that reference sex or sexuality from libraries extends to public libraries, such as the main branch of the Denver Public Library across the street, as well as school libraries, Guggenheim confirmed that it does. It applies to any library. He later argued that libraries should keep books with sexual content in an age-restricted area and check IDs of patrons who wish to access it.

Guggenheim was joined by Log Cabin Republicans of Colorado President Valdamar Archuleta, state Reps. Ryan Armogost (R-Berthoud) and Brandi Bradley (R-Littleton), and about a dozen other people for what was more of a sign-waving session than rally.

In response to a person in a passing care yelling bigot at the group, Bradley shouted back, Hetero-phobic! Youre hetero-phobic! Given that almost all of their signs read Gays Against Groomers, its unclear why Bradley believed the heckler would presume she was straight.

Across the street from the fifteen or so GAG supporters stood about thirty members of the Parasol Patrol, an group of LGBT supporters who typically use their rainbow umbrellas as a barrier to block anti-LGBT protestors from disrupting events like Pride parades or drag queen story hours. In this case, they simply remained visible as counterprotestors themselves, playing Disney tunes and showing support for trans kids.

Also among the small group of GAG supporters was anti-trans activist Christina Goeke, a self described trans exclusionary radical feminist or TERF, who repeatedly pointed across the street at members of the Parasol Patrol while shouting pedophile and pedo at them. In May, Goeke was asked to leave Colorado Springs Territory Days festival after posting anti-trans messages with stickers and chalk on the grounds of the street fair.

Goeke also interviewed Reps. Bradley and Armagost. Bradley told her, were here to support Gays Against Groomersand all the people of Colorado who think that this is wrong and this is a form of child abuse.Armagost pointed the blame at teachers.

We have faculty and teachers unions pushing to guide those kids into gender dysphoria, said Armagost. Its making them more confused, digging deeper into depression and everything else rather than letting them find their own identity.

Goeke then introduced Armagost to transhumanism, a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates for the enhancement of the human condition by developing technologies that can enhance longevity and cognition. Historically, transhumanism has been concerned with things like age reversal and cryogenic preservation, counting among its adherents wealthy tech elites like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and anti-aging enthusiast Bryan Johnson. The popularity of transhumanism among the rich and powerful has led to conspiracy theories which claim that globalist elites will merge people with machines to control them, and that gender-affirming care for trans kids is the first step of this process. After explaining it to Rep. Armagost, he said it makes sense to him and promised to look into it further.

Christina Goeke: The political agenda currently seems to be uh the pathway to transhumanism. Are you aware of transhumanism?

Rep. Ryan Armagost: Im not, no.

CG: So its this idea that humans will eventually like basically meld with machines. Theyre going to completely control every aspect of humanity. A lot of the rich elites talk about this. Martine Rothblatt on a TED Talk talks about downloading your mind into a mind file on a computer and living forever. um so I feel like and Jennifer Bilek does a lot- she talks about following the money. If you follow the money and you look at it, this is what theyre trying to get us to.

RA: Oh absolutely.

CG: Its transhumanism you should definitely look into that.

RA: I will absolutely.

CG: It helps put the pieces together why theres such a huge push to medicalize our children.

RA: Yeah.

CG:If they can like separate you from your sex body, then youre just parts, right? Thats what transhumanism is all about.

RA: Yeah, that makes sense.

CG: Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you, Ryan, for being here.

Speaking to the Colorado Times Recorder, Armagost repeated his belief that public school teachers are encouraging students to transition.

I think our educators are trying to get into the business of mental health and pushing kids toward picking the gender rather than letting parents do that, said Armagost. Thats not the business public school need to be into. They need to stick to academia.

A GAG national board member, Joe (he didnt give his last name), repeated Armagosts accusations of teachers, but he narrowed the focus, pointing the finger specifically at LGBT teachers.

CTR: Why would teachers want to encourage students to transition? Whats their motivation?

GAG: I wish I knew the full reasons. I can suspect reasons. Some of it is to create a space for them [the teachers] to feel accepted of their own path. To confuse them [students], to be predatory towards them.

CTR: So is it trans teachers who are doing this?

GAG: Not always. Its LGB teachers. Its LGBT teachers.

The rally was one of 75 simultaneous Stop the War on Children rallies around the country, according to Joe. GAG partnered with several other conservative largely Christian groups including Moms For Liberty and the Gavel Project. Asked where GAG, which is a 501c4 dark money group, gets its funding, Joe said most of it comes from online donations and some from merchandise sales. GAG isnt required to disclose its donors and the group is too new to appear in any IRS tax filings, but the Southern Poverty Law Center identified several large religious right funders as donors to the rally partner groups.

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From Trans Healthcare to Transhumanism: Reality vs. Conspiracy at ... - Colorado Times Recorder

We are used to thinking of our ideological divide as cleaving conservatives from liberals. I think the Republican Partys collapse into incoherence reflects the fact that much of the modern right is reactionary, not conservative. This is what connects figures as disparate as Jordan Peterson and J.D. Vance and Peter Thiel and Donald Trump. These are the ideas that unite both the mainstream and the weirder figures of the so-called postliberal right, from Patrick Deneen to the writer Bronze Age Pervert. This is not a coalition that cares about tax cuts. Its a coalition obsessed with where we went wrong: the weakness, the political correctness, the liberalism, the trigger warnings, the smug elites. Its a coalition that believes we were once hard and have become soft; worse, we have come to lionize softness and punish hardness.

The story of the reactionary follows a template across time and place. It begins with a happy, well-ordered state where people who know their place live in harmony and submit to tradition and their God, Mark Lilla writes in his 2016 book, The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction. He continues:

Then alien ideas promoted by intellectuals writers, journalists, professors challenge this harmony, and the will to maintain order weakens at the top. (The betrayal of elites is the linchpin of every reactionary story.) A false consciousness soon descends on the society as a whole as it willingly, even joyfully, heads for destruction. Only those who have preserved memories of the old ways see what is happening. Whether the society reverses direction or rushes to its doom depends entirely on their resistance.

The Silicon Valley cohort Andreessen belongs to has added a bit to this formula. In their story, the old way that is being lost is the appetite for risk and inequality and dominance that drives technology forward and betters human life. What the muscled ancients knew and what todays flabby whingers have forgotten is that man must cultivate the strength and will to master nature, and other men, for the technological frontier to give way. But until now, you had to squint to see it, reading small-press books or following your way down into the meme holes that have become the preferred form of communication among this crew.

Now Andreessen has distilled the whole ideology to a procession of stark bullet points in his latest missive, the buzzy, bizarre Techno-Optimist Manifesto. I think it ill named. What makes it distinctive is not its views on technology, which are crude for a technologist of Andreessens stature. Rather, its the pairing of the reactionarys sodden take on modern society with the futurists starry imagining of the bright tomorrow. So call it what it is: reactionary futurism.

Andreessens argument is simple: Technology is good. Very good. Those who stand in its way are bad. He is clear on who they are, in a section titled simply The Enemy. The list is long, ranging from anti-greatness to statism to corruption to the ivory tower to cartels to bureaucracy to socialism to abstract theories to anyone disconnected from the real world playing God with everyone elses lives (which arguably describes the kinds of technologists Andreessen is calling forth, but I digress). It ends I kid you not on a quotation from Nietzsche: The earth has become small, and on it hops the Last Man, who makes everything small.

Read more:
Opinion | The Reactionary Futurism of Marc Andreessen - The New York Times

Artificial intelligence (AI) already is making a difference in healthcare by helping medical professionals interpret tests, clarify diagnoses and identify the most effective treatment approaches to a range of diseases.

As Cedars-Sinai explores new uses of AI, it is balancing the rapid development of this emerging technology with responsible and ethical implementation.

AI systems have the power to transform healthcare, said Mike Thompson, vice president of Enterprise Data Intelligence at Cedars-Sinai. If implemented properly and responsibly, AI can be deployed to enhance patient experience, improve population health, reduce costs and improve the work life of healthcare providers.

Thompson sat down with the Cedars-Sinai Newsroom to examine the uses of AI to improve healthcare and to detail how the academic medical center is pursuing this fast-evolving technology in an ethical manner.

The integration of AI into medical technology and healthcare systems is only going to increase in the coming years. As technology continues to develop, the push toward safety, soundness and fairness occurs at all levels. This effort will require checks and balances from innovators, healthcare institutions and regulatory entities.

As technology advances, the medical community will need to develop standards for these innovative technologies, as well as revisit current regulatory systems on which physicians and patients rely to ensure that healthcare AI is responsible, evidence-based, bias-free, and designed and deployed to promote equity.

If AI systems are not examined for ethics and soundness, they may be biased, exacerbating existing imbalances in socioeconomic class, color, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability and sexual orientation.

Bias disproportionately affects disadvantaged individuals, who are more likely to be subjected to algorithmic output that are less accurate or underestimate the need for care. Thus, solutions for identifying and eliminating bias are critical for developing generalizable and fair AI technology.

While many general principles of AI ethics apply across industries, the healthcare sector has its own set of unique ethical considerations. This is due to the high stakes involved in patient care, the sensitive nature of health data, and the critical impact on individuals and public health.

It is critical that AI in healthcare benefit all sectors of the population, as AI could worsen existing inequalities if not carefully designed and implemented. Its also critical that we ensure AI systems in healthcare are both accurate and reliable. Ethical concerns arise when AI is used for diagnosis or treatment without robust validation, as errors can lead to incorrect medical decisions.

As an example, consider an AI system that is used to assist in a patients risk for diagnosis. One question to ask is whether the AI algorithm performs equally for patients, regardless of race or gender.

In the same vein, an algorithm trained on hospital data from the European Union may not perform as well in the U.S., as the patient population is different, as are treatment strategies and medications.

To combat these challenges, bias mitigation strategies may require us to implement mathematical approaches that help an AI model learn and produce balanced predictions.

At Cedars-Sinai, we also believe that critical AI algorithms should augment the expert, not replace that individual. Keeping the human in the loop to review a recommendation is another important strategy we use to mitigate bias.

To support our AI strategy, we created a framework for the ethical development and use of AI. The framework and policies are designed to ensure that the evolution of AI in medicine benefits patients, physicians and the healthcare community. It advocates for appropriate professional oversight for safe, effective and equitable use.

The framework starts by identifying who might be impacted and how, and then takes steps to mitigate any potential adverse impact.

The most powerfuland usefulAI systems are adaptive. These systems should be able to learn and evolve over time outside of human observation and independent of human control. This, however, presents a unique challenge in AI ethics, as it requires ongoing monitoring, review and auditability to ensure systems remain fair and sound.

Recent booms in AI technologies have been decades in the making. The most relevant and recent advances have accelerated the growth of AI algorithms and conceptsan evolution that will continue.

Now more than ever before, we must ensure that AI algorithms are trustworthy and deserving of trust. In healthcare, this entails systematically accumulating evidence, monitoring systems and data that are based on ethics and equity.

Read more from the Cedars-Sinai Blog: The Human Factor of Artificial Intelligence

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Pursuing the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare - Cedars-Sinai

This column is adapted from Jason Jones upcoming bookThe Great Campaign: Against the Great Reset, which will appear in early 2024.

Last time I ran through the top five fashionable delusions of our elites the people who must know more than we do, since theyre giving TED talks to hedge fund billionaires in Davos. I explained how:

We must fight each of these ideologies on its merits, locating what grains of truth they might contain, then showing how sloppy thinking, hunger for power, the herd instinct, and other ancient temptations have built up a pyramid of lies. And I do that, in detail, in the relevant chapters that follow.

But we must do more than run around putting out fires. Theres a reason that such grotesque caricatures were able to come to dominate among highly educated Westerners: they rushed in to fill a vacuum, which nature abhors. Since the self-styled Enlightenment, the Christian West has been living off its savings, going ever further out on a limb of the Tree of Knowledge, and sawing it off at the trunk.

It might have seemed safe to 19th century Brits like Charles Darwin and Austrians like Freud to hack away at the supports for human dignity, family life, morality and reason. Surrounded by the built-up riches of Christendom, they couldnt imagine what bankruptcy their gambling habit would lead to.

We can. We grew up in the poorhouse, the howling void of meaning, value, and beauty that was left when the last implications of an integral Christian worldview were finally swept away. And in that empty space the principalities and powers have offered us golden calves, primitive fetishes, elaborate phantasms shiny objects that make loud noises to distract us from the fact of our desperation, and the need to turn back to Christ.

We now have a pope in Rome who scoffs at reverent liturgy, biblical sexual ethics, unborn life, and the organ harvesting of the Communist regime in China in order to focus on: exploiting shell-shocked and bewildered refugees, battling climate change, and boosting Pfizers stock price. Countless lesser Christian leaders in various churches pursue the same inverted priorities, auditioning to serve as tame live-in chaplains to Caesar, Mammon, and Sodom.

We can do better. We must. In the face of these old errors and new delusions, we turn to what is timeless: the law God wrote on the human heart, which He first made clear to man in the Covenant of Noah. The Natural Law, enriched by the truths of divine Revelation, is our guide. Think of it as the instructions manual to the human race, which its Maker helpfully left us but most of us are too proud to read.

In my last book, written ten eventful years ago, I distilled that Natural Law down to five core principles. The Race to Save Our Century doesnt argue for these principles from some set of abstract definitions, of the kind philosophers argue about in journals few people read. No, it looked at the cavalcade of atrocities and horrors that began in 1914, which turned a century of progress into the great age of genocide, tyranny, and destruction. Then it asked which moral maxims could have prevented these massive abuses of human life and dignity. As it turned out, the five core Whole Life principles that would have saved the 20th century were also the pillars of Catholic social teaching.

Having watched the decade that followed, I can only say that the book was sadly prophetic. Our culture went even further in its rejection of Natural Law than even Id thought possible, and these five principles are more urgently important than ever. In this book Ill lay them out again, more briefly, and in each chapter shows how they need to be applied today, as emergency medicine:

These arent specifically Christian teachings, which people need the grace of Faith to comprehend and accept although, since our reason is fallen, grace certainly helps. Fighting for these principles isnt religious, much less intolerant or somehow (as the left likes to say) promoting a theocracy. In fact, as we can see by the degraded state of our culture in the absence of these principles, fighting for the Natural Law is the only truly human thing to do. And if we value the human race, we will order our lives to serve this struggle.

We might, like the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings, be fighting to save the Shire, but not for us. Its possible that our efforts will win us persecution and poverty, and only leave rewards to our children or grand-children. For centuries, men planted olive trees that only their descendants would live to eat from. At a time when too many people are gleefully eat the seed corn, we ought to act like hobbits, instead of orcs.

Jason Jones is a senior contributor to The Stream. He is a film producer, author, activist and human rights worker.

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Curse God and Die, They Said. It Will Be Fun, They Said - The Stream

Delegates vote to approve a synthesis report at the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 28, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Oct 28, 2023 / 19:17 pm (CNA).

At the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis monthlong Vatican assembly, one of the meetings leaders said the freedom and openness experienced during the gathering will help the Church change in the future.

While sometimes people had their knives out over an issue during small group discussions at the Oct. 4-29 assembly, eventually, an alternative solution would be discovered, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the synods relator general, said at a press briefing Oct. 28.

To have this freedom and openness will change the Church, he said, and Im sure the Church will find answers, but perhaps not the exact answer this group or that group wants to have, but answers [with which] most people could feel well and listened to.

The Vatican gathering this month was the first of two sessions of the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The synod delegates, which included laypeople for the first time, voted on and released a synthesis report to conclude the gathering. A more definitive document is expected to be released at the end of the second session of the synod in October 2024.

The process starts, really starts, at the end of the [whole] synod, Hollerich told journalists Saturday evening. So even next year, I hope there will be a document that is a real document, where also some theological questions of synodality get considered and so on.

But even the final document, he stressed, will just be a step of a Church on the move.

And I think thats the important thing: we move, the cardinal added.

The archbishop of Luxembourg repeated that the synod is about synodality even if people have not believed us.

He said there are topics that are important to some people and should continue to be important to them, even if they were not mentioned in the Oct. 28 synthesis report. And I think a synodal Church will more easily try to speak about these topics than the Church as it was structured in the past, he said.

Thats not to say that a synodal church will just embrace everything, he added.

About the fact that some people voted against some of the hot-button issues included in the assemblys report, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, said there are points in which we agree and points in which there is still a way to go.

Hollerich said: It was clear to me that some topics would have resistance. I am full of wonder that so many people have voted in favor. That means that the resistance [was] not so great as people have thought before. So yes, I am happy with that result.

Similar results, in a parliamentary vote, would be considered very positive, he said.

The inclusion in the report of a paragraph about studying the possibility of women deacons had 69 votes against and 277 votes in favor.

Grech said one bishop told him he saw ice melt in people during the gathering.

This is the approach of Jesus, to create spaces for everyone so that no one feels excluded, he added. Today there was a tremendous joy that you could see with your own eyes.

I think, Hollerich said, people will leave tomorrow or the day after tomorrow going home with a heart full of hope, with a lot of ideas, and Im looking forward to seeing them back next year.

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Cardinal Hollerich: The openness of the Synod on Synodality 'will ... - Catholic World Report

There are probably many moments when our minds would rather drift off into fantasy rather than deal with the reality of global calamities. Who could blame us?

But author Jonathan Taplin, who is director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California, argues that a fantasy world is deliberately built around and for us while democracy and the commons are stolen from under our feet.

In The End of Reality: How 4 Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto, Taplin outlines how the Technocrats Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter/X), Peter Thiel (Paypal, Facebook) and Marc Andreesen (Netscape, Bitcoin) are intent on dismantling democracy for their own profits by creating a fantasy world for us based on virtual reality, avatars, Marvel Movies, trips to Mars, transhumanism and/or living to age 200.

John Locher / The Associated Press files

Cutline TK

As Taplin suggests,The Technocrats have risen to levels of previously unimagined wealth while providing tools to autocrats around the world. At the same time, they are centrally focused on using public money to fund space exploration and other strange projects, while some, like Musk and Thiel, seem eager to fan the flames of fascism.

And for Taplin, Andressen, Musk, Thiel and Zuckerbergs disruptions of our notions of both capitalism and democracy are only going to increase in the coming years. This will usher in more autocratic states, an expansion of the social class he refers to as the Precariat, and a fantasy world that has all of us spouting hateful things online, betting on sports online and creating more perfect forms of ourselves.

Leaning on George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, Taplin builds the case that our society is at a tipping point where we are eating each other alive while these four, and others, are becoming immeasurably richer at our expense. Taplin calls for a greater collective criticality where we ask ourselves if investing trillions in virtual reality or going to Mars will add to the collective wealth of society, through real, productive growth.

Through contemporary bread and circuses, billionaires are attempting to create a utopian society for themselves, while dangling this utopia in front of our eyes through Captain America, TikTok stars and the Metaverse. Taplin takes the reader through a deep dive of each of the Technocrats, outlining how each grew up focused on science fiction and in contexts where social interaction and healthy relationships were devoid from their experience.

In 2023, our digital social networks will have been created by those who have not developed significant and non-digital social relationships and by four men who would rather live in a utopian world where their awkwardness is shielded. Meta and the Metaverse to Taplin are stark examples of how the Technocrats are engineering a more perfect social network and society while providing insidious forces a platform and space to dull our criticality.

For Taplin, Meta and similar social networks are at best an opioid for Gen Z and at worst a stomping ground for neo-fascism. As he argues, Meta proposes complete elimination of the boundaries between truth and fiction, between real and unreal. This is what Trumpism and fascism produce and need. For Taplin, Zuckerbergs company has almost destroyed civil society and our democracy.

So where is the hope? Taplin suggests we have two choices: succumb or wake up. Waking up involves not letting our children use VR, not buying into cryptocurrency, standing up to the misuse of public dollars for childish space fantasies. And, above all, getting back to humanism, the humanities and the arts. It is within these where revolution and healthy social networks and societies are created.

The End of Reality

For educators, the examination of the Technocrats is an opportunity for learners to fully reflect on the forces that are fully engineered to dissuade them from reality. From Instagram, YouTube and Marvel movies (Taplins rant on Marvel is worth the price of the book alone) to TikTok, are young people able to understand the negative impact the fantasy world has on individuals and our relationships with others?

Educators (and thats all adults): begin with Orwell and Huxley with our teens, and then have them fully investigate the Technocrats. Have them challenge the inevitability of a bleak and engineered modernity. Have them imagine the possibilities that reside in the exciting notion that The brilliance of democracy is that it allows for improvisation, the greatest power of the creative spirit.

Matt Henderson is superintendent of Winnipeg School Division.

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