Category Archives: Transhumanist

In 2004 the prominent political scientist Francis Fukuyama described transhumanism as the worlds most dangerous idea. In 2011 transhumanism was featured on the cover of Time magazine, under the headline: 2045, the year man becomes immortal.

In 2022, when was the last time you read about transhumanism? What was once a piercing roar has retreated to barely discernible background noise, writes George Dvorsky, a transhumanist writer who is the chairman of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, in a fascinating article in Gizmodo.

Its not so much that transhumanism has declined. Instead it has been normalised, Dvorsky muses. He quotes Anders Sandberg, an Oxford don who is one of the principal theorists of the transhumanist movement:

We live lives online using wearable devices (smartphones), aided by AI and intelligence augmentation, virtual reality is back again, gene therapy and RNA vaccines are a thing, massive satellite constellations are happening, drones are becoming important in warfare, trans[gender] rights are a big issue, and so on, he said, adding: We are living in a partially transhuman world. At the same time, however, the transhumanist idea to deliberately embrace the change and try to aim for such a future has not become mainstream, Sandberg said.

The link between transhumanism and transgenderism is strong, at least on the theoretical level. Transgenderism views the body as a malleable tool, sexuality as a limitation to be transcended. As Dvorsky observes:

Martine Rothblatt, the billionaire transhumanist and transgender rights advocate, took it a step further when she said, we cannot be surprised that transhumanism arises from the groins of transgenderism, and that we must welcome this further transcendence of arbitrary biology.

But there are other explanations for why transhumanism is no longer on the medias radar. One is scepticism and even hostility towards technology. Citizen surveillance, data theft, war drones, manipulation by social media, deepfakes, and so on have demonstrated that advanced technology has a dark side.

Transhumanist themes pop up in films but nearly always as feature of a dystopian future.

Plus, people are distracted by other causes climate change, war in Ukraine, conflict with China, financial crises Today we are having a serious problem with cynicism and pessimism paralyzing people from trying to fix and build things, Sandberg told Dvorsky. We need optimism!

Finally, politics, from Dvorskys point of view, has taken a nasty turn. The power of anti-vaxxers in Covid pandemic showed how hostile many people are to genetic manipulation of any kind. And the Dobbs decision has restricted reproductive rights, which is a key issue for transhumanists. Until these rights are established, it seems a bit premature to laud the benefits of improved memories or radically extended lifespans, as sad as it is to have to admit that, writes Dvorsky.

Continue reading here:
Whatever happened to transhumanism? - BioEdge

Thats an unholy trinity if ever I saw one: Bostrom, Musk, Galton. Theyre all united by terrible, simplistic understanding of genetics and a self-serving philosophy that reinforces their confidence in bad ideas. They are longtermists. mile Torres explains what that is and why it is badalthough you already knew it had to be bad because of its proponents.

As I have previously written, longtermism is arguably the most influential ideology that few members of the general public have ever heard about. Longtermists have directly influenced reports from the secretary-general of the United Nations; a longtermist is currently running the RAND Corporation; they have the ears of billionaires like Musk; and the so-called Effective Altruism community, which gave rise to the longtermist ideology, has a mind-boggling $46.1 billion in committed funding. Longtermism is everywhere behind the scenes it has a huge following in the tech sector and champions of this view are increasingly pulling the strings of both major world governments and the business elite.

But what is longtermism? I have tried to answer that in other articles, and will continue to do so in future ones. A brief description here will have to suffice: Longtermism is a quasi-religious worldview, influenced by transhumanism and utilitarian ethics, which asserts that there could be so many digital people living in vast computer simulations millions or billions of years in the future that one of our most important moral obligations today is to take actions that ensure as many of these digital people come into existence as possible.

In practical terms, that means we must do whatever it takes to survive long enough to colonize space, convert planets into giant computer simulations and create unfathomable numbers of simulated beings. How many simulated beings could there be? According to Nick Bostrom the Father of longtermism and director of the Future of Humanity Institute there could be at least 1058 digital people in the future, or a 1 followed by 58 zeros. Others have put forward similar estimates, although as Bostrom wrote in 2003, what matters is not the exact numbers but the fact that they are huge.

They are masters of the silly hypothetical these are the kind of people who spawned the concept of Rokos Basilisk, that an all-powerful artificial intelligence from the future might retroactively punish those who did not help bring about its existence. Its the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, where the many are padded with 1058 hypothetical, imaginary people, and you are expected to serve them (or rather, the technocrat billionaire priests who represent them) because they outvote you now.

The longtermists are terrified of something called existential risk, which is anything that they fear would interfere with that progression towards 1058 hardworking capitalist lackeys working for their vision of a Randian paradise. Its their boogeyman, and it doesnt have to actually exist. Its sufficient that they can imagine it and are therefore justified in taking actions here and now, in the real world, to stop their hypothetical obstacle. Anything fits in this paradigm, it doesnt matter how absurd.

For longtermists, there is nothing worse than succumbing to an existential risk: That would be the ultimate tragedy, since it would keep us from plundering our cosmic endowment resources like stars, planets, asteroids and energy which many longtermists see as integral to fulfilling our longterm potential in the universe.

What sorts of catastrophes would instantiate an existential risk? The obvious ones are nuclear war, global pandemics and runaway climate change. But Bostrom also takes seriously the idea that we already live in a giant computer simulation that could get shut down at any moment (yet another idea that Musk seems to have gotten from Bostrom). Bostrom further lists dysgenic pressures as an existential risk, whereby less intellectually talented people (those with lower IQs) outbreed people with superior intellects.

Dysgenic pressures, the low IQ rabble outbreeding the superior stockwhere have I heard this before? Oh, yeah:

This is, of course, straight out of the handbook of eugenics, which should be unsurprising: the term transhumanism was popularized in the 20th century by Julian Huxley, who from 1959 to 1962 was the president of the British Eugenics Society. In other words, transhumanism is the child of eugenics, an updated version of the belief that we should use science and technology to improve the human stock.

I like the idea of transhumanism, and I think its almost inevitable. Of course humanity will change! We are changing! What I dont like is the idea that we can force that change into a direction of our choosing, or that certain individuals know what direction is best for all of us.

Among the other proponents of this nightmare vision of the future is Robin Hanson, who takes his colonizer status seriously: Hansons plan is to take some contemporary hunter-gatherers whose populations have been decimated by industrial civilization and stuff them into bunkers with instructions to rebuild industrial civilization in the event that ours collapses. Nick Beckstead is another, who argues that saving lives in poor countries may have significantly smaller ripple effects than saving and improving lives in rich countries, it now seems more plausible to me that saving a life in a rich country is substantially more important than saving a life in a poor country, other things being equal. Or William MacAskill, who thinks that If scientists with Einstein-level research abilities were cloned and trained from an early age, or if human beings were genetically engineered to have greater research abilities, this could compensate for having fewer people overall and thereby sustain technological progress.

Just clone Einstein! Why didnt anyone else think of that?

Maybe because it is naive, stupid, and ignorant.

MacAskill has been the recipient of a totally uncritical review of his latest book in the Guardian. Hes a philosopher, but youll be relieved to know he has come up with a way to end the pandemic.

The good news is that with the threat of an engineered pandemic, which he says is rapidly increasing, he believes there are specific steps that can be taken to avoid a breakout.

One partial solution Im excited about is called far ultraviolet C radiation, he says. We know that ultraviolet light sterilises the surfaces it hits, but most ultraviolet light harms humans as well. However, theres a narrow-spectrum far UVC specific type that seems to be safe for humans while still having sterilising properties.

The cost for a far UVC lightbulb at the moment is about $1,000 (820) per bulb. But he suggests that with research and development and philanthropic funding, it could come down to $10 or even $1 and could then be made part of building codes. He runs through the scenario with a breezy kind of optimism, but one founded on science-based pragmatism.

You know, UVC, at 200-280nm, is the most energetic form of UV radiation we dont get much of it here on planet Earth because it is quickly absorbed by any molecule it touches. Its busy converting oxygen to ozone as it enters the atmosphere. So sure, yeah, its germicidal, and maybe its relatively safe for humans because it cooks the outer, dead layers of your epidermis and is absorbed before it can zap living tissue layers, but I dont think its practical (so much for science-based pragmatism) in a classroom, for instance. Were just going to let our kiddos bask in UV radiation for 6 hours a day? How do you know thats going to be safe in the long term, longtermist?

Quacks have a breezy kind of optimism, too, but its not a selling point for their nostrums.

If you arent convinced yet that longtermism/effective altruism isnt a poisoned chalice of horrific consequences, look who else likes this idea:

One can begin to see why Elon Musk is a fan of longtermism, or why leading new atheist Sam Harris contributed an enthusiastic blurb for MacAskills book. As noted elsewhere, Harris is a staunch defender of Western civilization, believes that We are at war with Islam, has promoted the race science of Charles Murray including the argument that Black people are less intelligent than white people because of genetic evolution and has buddied up with far-right figures like Douglas Murray, whose books include The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam.

Yeah, NO.

Link:
Who needs religion when you've got these clowns promoting bad ideas? - Freethought Blogs

Morals are on our side, science is on our side, the law is on our side, and the Nuremberg Code is on our side.

Thousands of people from many different countries gathered on Aug. 20, 2022 in Nuremberg, Germany to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Nuremberg Code. Many activists, physicians, musicians, and others came to speak or perform during the afternoon at an event set up by the World Council for Health, whichwas set up on amultilingual livestreamso that viewers from across the world were able to join in.

The Nuremberg Code is a 10-point document highlighting a set of ethical research principles in experiments involving humans. Initially disregarded when the code was created in 1947, it has come into conversation in light of recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Vera Sharav, a medical doctor, Holocaust survivor, activist, and founder of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, was one of the speakers at the open-air event. She spoke about how human experimentation and eugenics never ended with Nazi Germany; how after World War II, thousands of Nazi scientists who operated closely with Hitler, were smuggled into the United States to continue their work.

These were brutal scientists, engineers, and technicians who actively participated in the human eugenics program during the Nazi era, she said, and they dont see people as humans. They legally infiltrated the United States and educated the next generation of scientists and taught them to be indifferent to humans, and ruthless. Sharav says that the reason President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex during his farewell speech was precisely because many people in the military and weapons sector were no longer interested in the basic rights of humanity.

She refocused the speech on modern times and said that this mode of thinking had never gone away; it has been passed down until today and applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were many inhuman aspects to the development of the vaccines, she said, and many of them violated the Nuremberg Code established decades ago, such as waves of mass testing, vaccination, and medical passport efforts.

Sharav drew parallels between the Nazi eugenics movement and the transhumanist theories being promoted today, especially by globalists. The opinion that humans are perfectible through electronic components and biotechnology is known as transhumanism, and many pandemic response measures were in line with this vision.

Another speaker was Dr. Rolf Kron, who came under heavy scrutiny in Germany because he was one of the first doctors to question the COVID-19 narrative. After speaking out against the official policies, he was woken up one day by the police who came and searched his house. This act, however, did not intimidate Kron, and for the past 15 months he has continued to speak out against the vaccine mandates among other things.

Kron said he knew many doctors who were fired because they had written medical certificates for patients exempting them from wearing a mask in public. Doctors in Germany, he said, were under strict scrutiny of the government and had no choice to obey the government because they would otherwise face unemployment, social scrutiny, and other forms of pressure. Doctors are now being looked at like criminals [if they put the wrong foot forward].

He called for an end to the medical tyranny as it seemed like a repetition of the medical offenses that led to the Nuremberg Code in the first place. He strongly reemphasized the codes as the baseline of scientific experimentation and that which should never be violated.

Although the Nuremberg Code is not officially a part of any law in the world, it is still enforced internationally, much like laws against slavery and piracy, said Mary Holland, the president and general counsel of the non-profit organization Childrens Health Defense. It is an international standard established by lawyers and doctors, and the importance thereof cannot be reemphasized enough, especially given the current situation, she said.

Dr. Holland says that although the current situation seems unappealing, it is still not too late. We have been winning for the last two years! The narrative that these injections work is over, [along with testing asymptomatic people and similar former regulations]. Dr. Holland highlighted how crucial the Codes are today, and how vital it is for us to fight back.

Morals are on our side, science is on our side, the law is on our side, and the Nuremberg Code is on our side.

Overall, the energetic event went on for the entire afternoon and hosted many more speakers from a multitude of nations as well as contributing professional musicians.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.

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The Importance of Medical Ethics Highlighted During the 75Th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Code - The Epoch Times

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Book critics Fiona Capp and Cameron Woodhead cast their eyes over recent fiction and non-fiction titles. Here are their reviews.

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Neil Balme: A Tale of Two MenAnson Cameron, Viking, $34.99

When former Richmond strongman Neil Balme contacted novelist (and Age columnist) Anson Cameron in 2020 and asked if he would be interested in writing his story, Balme chose well.

The result is not just the tale of a footballers life, but a thoughtful character study of an intriguing figure: a man of paradoxes and contradictions, a thug on the field with a history of violent episodes, but to those who know him a thinker, mild mannered, someone who goes his own way, but also a players player keenly aware of the collective of football itself.

Cameron covers his playing life, his coaching and key administrative roles at various clubs, plus the impact of football on his private life with sympathy, wit (he has a great turn of phrase) and the kind of intellectual inquiry his complex subject requires. A genuine cut above usual sports writing.

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RiggedCameron K. Murray & Paul Frijters, Allen & Unwin, $32.99

For all our nonsense talk of being an egalitarian country, Australia according to World Bank data is one of the most unequal in the developed world. Cameron Murray and Paul Frijters boil this down to something they call the game of mates, the title of their 2017 study, Rigged being an updated version.

In the nature of a parable, they invent a devious, corrupt villain called James, and an ordinary sucker, Sam, who indirectly foots the bill. But its a real-life tale of networks within networks. James works for a government department in land development, gets to know certain developers, jumps the fence and joins them armed with all his inside knowledge and contacts, resulting in massive government contracts.

Transport, mining, banking, COVID schemes that lined companies profits, you name it. The same principle applies.

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The WitnessTom Gilling, Allen & Unwin, $34.99

Much has been written about the infamous Sandakan death marches in Borneo during World War II, this latest study focusing on one controversial figure: Australian Warrant Officer Bill Sticpewich. Of the 2400 Australian and British POWs sent to Sandakan, only six escapees survived. Sticpewich was one of them.

Drawing on records and other texts (especially Tim Bowdens interviews with survivors), Tom Gilling creates a vivid picture of the brutality of camp life and sadism of the commander Captain Hoshijima. Sticpewichs evidence during war crimes trials was so compelling it sent Hoshijimi and others to the gallows.

But was he a heroic survivor or a collaborative opportunist out for himself at the expense of everyone else? The truth is possibly somewhere in between. Whatever, its a dramatic tale of war and survival.

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My Father and Other AnimalsSam Vincent, Black Inc., $32.99When Sam Vincent, a would-be writer in his 20s, offered to help out on the family farm just outside Canberra after his fathers hand was damaged in an accident, he could not have seen how events would unfold.

At first, he worked alongside his father, a sort of unpaid apprentice learning the trade, at the same time getting to know his father, warts and all. Then his mother suggested he needed a project of his own, which led to him becoming an orchardist, specialising in the Smyrna fig, which in turn led to grazier school and learning about holistic farming. Then, seven years later, his parents moved off the property, and he was suddenly in charge: a farmer, albeit a kind of accidental one.

True to his title, Vincent recounts it all in a droll, amused and bemused Durrell-esque style. Its also a window onto the new rural Australia.

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Every Version of YouGrace Chan, Affirm, $32.99

Set in a 2080s Melbourne ravaged by climate change, Every Version of You envisages a world where those who can afford it gel up and plug in to spend time on an unspoilt virtual planet known as Gaia. When the tech to allow a full upload into Gaia emerges, people choose to leave their physical bodies behind.

For Tao-Yi, her boyfriend Navin and their friends, the decision tempts and torments: Navin, plagued by ill-health, hopes to find release from suffering; Tao-Yi is left to wonder why shes so reluctant to surrender, as her friends upload themselves one by one.

With an intriguing blend of cli-fi, philosophy of mind and transhumanist themes, Grace Chans novel delivers striking science fiction steeped in absurdity and dystopian menace.

Grace Chan is a guest at the Melbourne Writers Festival.

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Cult ClassicSloane Crosley, Bloomsbury, $29.99

Sloane Crosley, author of the sharp-witted essay collection I Was Told Thered Be Cake, takes on the New York dating scene with a twist in her second novel, Cult Classic.

We follow the disgruntled editor of a psychology magazine, Lola, who is newly engaged to a devoted fiance, Boots, but might be developing an acute case of cold feet. Awkwardly, Lola keeps running in to her exes. With the first, outside a Chinese restaurant, she relights an old flame, but when she continues to run intoher exes again and again, something more bizarre than a coincidence is afoot.

Cult Classic is Twilight Zone-style speculative fiction that fuses acerbic dating memoir and digital media satire into a romantic parable with a neat twist.

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Isaac and the EggBobby Palmer, Headline Review, $32.99

This sensitive and assured debut novel from Bobby Palmer deep-dives into the perils of extreme grief. After the sudden death of his wife, Isaac Addy is in such anguish he finds himself on a bridge about to jump off. A nearby cry of suffering stays Isaacs hand; he heads into the woods and discovers Egg, a mysterious creature who starts as an inarticulate companion then evolves, ushering in an emotional transformation.

Isaac and the Egg could easily have been twee, but this unstinting study of grief is delivered with the seriousness of a fairytale. And while he uses a whimsical premise, Palmer is at pains to avoid sentiment and always has a well-judged flash of gallows humour at hand to leaven the novels bleaker intensities.

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HydraAdrienne Howell, Transit Lounge, $29.99

A young antiquarian, Anja, snaps at work and gets fired. She has a lot going on already: her mother has died recently and her husband left her after a hellish trip to Greece.

When Anja hits rock-bottom, shes drawn to an eerie sea change, using her inheritance to lease an isolated cottage by the sea. But it isnt long before she becomes convinced that shes not alone in the bush, that her every move is being watched, and tension builds as Anja begins to seek an unseen presence and confront the cause of her unease.

Adrienne Howell has written a paranoia-inducing modern gothic. It does suffer from the letdown of an uninspired reveal, but not before showing off the authors distinctly gothic vision and talent for creating suspenseful atmospherics.

The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.

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History of a hard man: Neil Balme memoir stands out from the pack - Sydney Morning Herald

One critical concern over technology is the fear that it could unleash severe havoc on humanity if misused.

Technology misuse alongside ecological disruption and the possibility of nukes misuse are viewed as the most potent existential (immediate and remote) threats to humanity.

Whilst all three threats are highly disruptive, technology misuse is receiving attention in recent times owing to technologys accessibility, speed of growth in knowledge in technological tools and, finally, the high degree of vulnerability in technology.

The evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its high application could soon change humans algorithms. Already, we are witnessing an advanced form of AI with gene therapy and bionic implants; these advances may quickly change the biological makeup of humans. Moreover, their pace of evolution is advancing at a rate never seen before in biotechnological engineering.

Ultimately, these advanced AIs aim to create superior humans with additional functionalities above those of ordinary humans. This notion of human upgrade or gravitating toward the robotic status is a difficult concept to look at from a religious perspective.

However, from a scientific and sociological point of view, significant developments lend credence to the idea that humans may be tilting gradually to a robotic or somewhat unknown status.

Unsurprisingly, transhumanists have long yearned for any attempt that could alter human DNA. For instance, Stalin is on record to have immensely pursued an agenda of creating a genetically engineered army with capabilities superior to ordinary citizens.

What, however, is unclear is whether the enhancement of humans guarantees superior capacity or could end up debasing humanity.

Need I mention that this revolutionary AI advances, should they go wrong, could spell doom for humanity perpetually as there are no known full-proof standards and protocols currently in place to govern such a situation.

Indeed, all the prominent actors in the AI space, including Elon Musk, have shared their concern over AI producing significant adverse effects on humanity. It is one thing to innovate, but it takes a great deal of grit to predict accurately and put in place mitigating protocols for possible future externalities to come from todays innovation.

Undoubtedly, the human way of life in society building relationship, work, and socialization, among others have markedly changed over the last several epochs, mainly influenced by advances in technological know-how.

Technology now has become an enabler of life and, in some instances, replacing chores originally preserved for humans. The cognitive capabilities of robots and technologically engineered machines have improved so much that some robots are even alleged to be sentient.

As robots improve in cognitive capacity and assume the characteristics of humans, humans are, on the other hand shifting gradually to robotic status. The shift in humans is in two-fold: inventors of robots who control the rest of society and those controlled by robots.

The first reason humans are becoming more of robots is that in the era of increased automation, no meaningful and unique thinking apart from following processes is required to perform any particular work. Automation is seen as optimal and desirable in the world of work today, driven by efficiency and profit.

Robots are more efficient in performing some specific tasks, and if profit is the underlining consideration, it makes sense to automate to maximize such gains. In such an environment, humans require very little thinking, as robots do all the thinking for us. Beyond human enslavement to machines, the unprecedented technological advances also exacerbate the division between humans those who control us (creators of robots) and those who are controlled.

Secondly, humanitys social construct, defined based on communalism and interdependence, has fast disappeared. The social support mechanism no longer relies on broader community support but is now based on the individuals traits. Individualism freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control appears to have been embraced as a modern way of life and taken hold of us humans.

The meaning of a community where people live together and share in each others joy and pain has drastically faded. Human social bond has been damaged, and people have less sense of group identity resulting in less and less feeling toward their community or people in their community.

It is not uncommon to have individuals live in a particular community for years and yet not notice or identify as neighbours. The proliferation of internet and new media have exacerbated individualism as people now prefer and can build a virtual community of their own without support from their locality.

The unintended consequences of technology could be addressed if regulation is brought to the front burner of policy discourse. Without such deliberate action, the world may struggle if artificial intelligence goes wrong.

In the same vein, the world could be surprised by the exploits of the bad guys who constantly seek to take advantage of cyber-systems vulnerabilities to harm innocent users. Undeniably, there are many vulnerabilities in technology.

These vulnerabilities have always been the conduit for bad geeks to either advance their interest or sometimes that of a sponsored State[s]. As a result, cyber-attacks on national, regional, corporations networks and sometimes on individuals have become common. The pain often inflicted on technology users by these bad guys becomes unmeasurable and often results in the loss of lives and property of those attacked.

Another critical concern is that as humans become more robotized, thereby seeking unending bliss and superiority, isnt there a possibility that they may become more powerful such that they too will begin to exploit cyberspace vulnerabilities and afflict more misery on unassuming technology users?

Moreover, what will be the faith of those already enslaved by technology in such space? Indeed, these questions are possibilities one cannot overlook since the desires of transhumanists to have an unending bliss of life will come at a cost and who must bear that cost?

Therefore, one must be careful with technology as its misuse could spell doom for humanity and possibly extinguish humankind forever.

****

Henry Kyeremeh

Kyeremeh@gmail.com

Co-Founder, iWatch Africa

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Henry Kyereme: Could advances in technology undermine the future of humans? - Myjoyonline

The groundbreaking designer continued to push the mold forward with a transcendent show for couture week in Paris.

The groundbreaking designer continued to push the mold forward with a transcendent show for couture week in Paris.

Iris Van Herpen, fashions most future-forward designer, looked to the past for her Autumn/Winter 2022 couture show. Inspired by the many identities from OvidsMetamorphoses, from Arachne, to Narcissus, to Apollo, to Daphne, the collection explores oscillating identities and life beyond our physical bodies.

Of course, Herpen didnt forget the future, crafting the collection with eye on the metaverse. As such, the collection, which explores both hyperreality in the digital realm and expands upon introspection in fashion, is called Meta Morphosis (emphasis on the meta.)

Though the meta component of the collection couldnt be showcased in Paris, Herpen worked with a team from Microsoft to create a mixed runway experience, where digital avatars as seen through HoloLens 2 technologywere set to walk alongside models, coexisting in their multiple realities.

Despite the technical difficulties (the Microsoft team got sick) the Meta Morphosis show still paid homage to Ovids centuries-old theme of transhumanism, and the modern theme of blurred lines between physical and digital.

The collection, which was the brands 15th anniversary showcase, included 16 couture looks, built upon Herpens prior technological innovations, like the 3-D printed dresses from 2009. With gradient dyes, unspun laces, and translucent layers, the collection reimagines some of the brands most iconic looks from years past. As is traditional for Herpen, the collection mostly stuck with a general color scheme of light and dark, though there were some unusual shades of amethyst and metallic copper.

Herpen worked with Dutch designers Eric Klarenbeek and Maartje Dro to create the 3-D printed Singularity jumpsuit, using sustainable materials like cocoa shell beans. Other sustainable elements include a biodegradable silk from a species of banana called Abaca, native to the Philippines, created by ForWeavers, and 100 percent recycled Mylar from Solaris.

The use of upcycled materials works to further eliminate the distinctions between man and nature, physical and digital. Herpen also worked with sculptor Casey Curran to create a statue of a future Daphne, bursting from the center of the runway.

By continuing to push the limits of fashion, Herpen has cemented herself as a designer of the future - the Meta Morphosis collection is merely proof of that.

Credits: Images courtesy of Iris Van Herpen.

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Iris Van Herpen Explores Life Beyond the Physical Realm for A/W 22 Couture - vmagazine.com

When is the last time you were outside in the morning to experience a glorious dawn? Or sat watching the sun set across the ocean horizon?

How do you feel when you touch the skin of someone you love? A grandparent, parent, lover or child?

Have you ever seen a spiders web full of morning dew, or after the rain, when the sun is shining through the droplets in the web to reveal the flashing diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds hidden within?

Have you ever stood in a natural environment a beach, desert, rainforest far from a city and noticed that strange and subtle feeling of freedom tremor through your body?

Have you ever marveled at the breath of wind that cools your face on a hot Summers day? Or been intoxicated by the smell of blossom in Spring?

Have you gaped in wonder at the birth of new life: a chick pecking out of its shell, a seed germinating or a baby being born?

Or paused to ponder the sheer magic of being alive yourself?

Or do you find life in the real physical world too constricting, painful, frightening and demanding: something from which you seek to escape, with some distraction or another (work, television, sport, a novel, a drug), as often as you can?

Well, very soon now, we are promised, you will be able to escape reality far more effectively than those primitive means of distraction made possible previously. And far more effectively than even the outcomes promised in those dystopian novels.

So the fundamental questions we must ask ourselves are simple: Do you want real life, with all of the pains, sorrows, fear and fury that go along with beauty, freedom and love? Or do you believe what they tell us and want everything unpleasant to go away? Permanently. And to live in delusion thereafter, given synthetic versions of all of the pleasant feelings and experiences described above?

Remember the dialogue between the Savage and Mustapha Mond during the closing stages of Aldous Huxleys dystopian novel Brave New World?

But I dont want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.

In fact, said Mustapha Mond, youre claiming the right to be unhappy.

All right then, said the Savage defiantly, Im claiming the right to be unhappy.

Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.

There was a long silence.

I claim them all, said the Savage at last.

Well, after nearly one hundred years, the dystopian future described by Huxley is almost upon us and, if we are to defeat it, we need a lot more savages willing to forego the promised comforts.

Because if those who see themselves as our global masters get their way, we are about to enter a virtual world that will become more complete by the day and from which there will be no escape.

The Metaverse

Based on many years of effort, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has recently launched its plan to create our new all-digital world, called the metaverse. See Defining and Building the Metaverse.

So if you find natural phenomena ranging from rainforests, beaches and weather variations to ill-health, danger and unhappiness annoying, you will soon be able to escape them, compliments of the metaverse. Or so we are promised. And you wont be troubled by anything resembling what might be called free will either. You will be content to do as you are told, even more than you are content to do already. See Terrified of Freedom: Why Most Human Beings are Embracing the Global Elites Technotyranny.

After all, your mind will no longer be your own. And while the usual descriptions, written by elite agents, fail to mention it, a quick flash of metaverse-induced fear will make sure that you comply, whatever you are required to do. The point is this: You wont be escaping all of those unpleasant feelings after all. They can just be used to control you more directly, to fulfill an elite-determined purpose. But that is a fact they are not advertising.

In their iconic hit song In the Year 2525, written in 1964 by Rick Evans and later recorded by he and Denny Zager to become a No.1. hit around the world in 1969, Evans captured key elements of what is already upon us somewhat ahead of the schedule mapped out in the song.

[Chorus 2]

In the year 3535

Aint gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies

Everything you think, do, and say

Is in the pills you took today

[Chorus 3]

In the year 4545

Aint gonna need your teeth, wont need your eyes

You wont find a thing to chew

Nobodys gonna look at you

[Chorus 4]

In the year 5555

Your arms are hanging limp at your sides

Your legs got nothing to do

Some machines doing that for you

[Chorus 5]

In the year 6565

Aint gonna need no husband, wont need no wife

Youll pick your sons, pick your daughters too

From the bottom of a long glass tube

Whoa-oh-oh

So what is the Metaverse?

According to the WEF: The metaverse is a future persistent and interconnected virtual environment where social and economic elements mirror reality. Users can interact with it and each other simultaneously across devices and immersive technologies while engaging with digital assets and property. See Defining and Building the Metaverse.

Moreover, if technologists are right that 2022 will separate thinkers from builders, then last years technical advances will produce this years first steps towards making the metaverse a reality.

But from the perspective of the human experience, one development stands out above all others: extended reality (XR) technologies. These include virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and brain-computer interfaces (BCI), which together position themselves as the next computing platforms in their own right.

Nevertheless, it is clear that a precise definition of the term metaverse (for a start: is it a product, service, place or moment in time?), upon which there is broad agreement even among those who routinely use the term, is yet to emerge. See 3 technologies that will shape the future of the metaverse and the human experience.

Having written that, here is one definition elaborated in the article above that reveals just how far some of those heavily involved in this work have become disconnected from any sense of themselves and, hence, reality: Specifically, the metaverse is the moment at which our digital lives our online identities, experiences, relationships, and assets become more meaningful to us than our physical lives. The original quotation can be read here: Spheres of Self: Performativity and Parasociality in the Metaverse.

And, as Cathy Li describes it, the metaverse is most useful as a lens through which to view ongoing digital transformation. The belief is that virtual worlds, incorporating connected devices, blockchain and other tech, will be so commonplace that the metaverse will become an extension of reality itself. See Who will govern the metaverse?

Let me reiterate two points from the paragraphs immediately above: our digital lives become more meaningful to us than our physical lives. And the metaverse will become an extension of reality itself.

Really?

While statements such as these reveal the breathtaking level of insanity that underpins this entire enterprise see The Global Elite is Insane Revisited it does not mean that we are not under enormous threat. Just as vast arsenals of nuclear weapons, by some insane logic, are supposed to provide us with security while actually threatening the existence of all life on Earth, the metaverse is part of a substantial package of measures that will reduce human life to one not worth living.

Why? Well, as noted by authors such as Tom Valovic: The metaverse is one element in the path to implementing technocratic governance over all of humanity.

As Planet Earth and our physical world continue to experience massive biospheric degradation and disruption, the elites that are now in many cases pulling the strings of governance at the country level are heading for the exit doors. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are exploring the realm of space and Musk has a Mars mission planned. Globally oriented elites looked out for themselves which is what they do best.

Paralleling the notion of space flight as a form of existential escapism is the metaverse. So what if our cities are crumbling, infrastructures falling apart, and the biosphere is seriously degrading? So what if our wasteful consumer-driven lifestyle has created unprecedented levels of pollution so extensive that its now the number one cause of health problems globally? No problem well just kick back and don our Meta headsets (or worse get a brain implant) and escape into an artificially fabricated world that lets us turn our back on the massive ecological and environmental problems we now face. See Why We Should Reject Mark Zuckerbergs Dehumanizing Vision of a Metaverse.

Education in the Metaverse

Of course, the metaverse is deeply interwoven with other components of their plan, such as those in relation to what they call education, which is more accurately described as the process by which young transhuman slaves are programmed to perform their function in the technocratic economy that is being imposed upon us. Of course, education sounds better than virtual programming of young transhuman slaves so, in the interests of not raising obvious concerns, the word education has been used.

As noted by Dr. Michael Nevradakis, discussions on this subject at the recent gathering of the World Economic Forum emphasized the importance of virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies with participants touting the purported educational and economic benefits that would derive from use of these technologies in the classroom by helping, according to Dr. Ali Saeed Bin Harmal Al Dhaheri & Dr. Mohamad Ali Hamade, to increase accessibility, enhance quality and improve the affordability of education globally. See Experiential learning and VR will reshape the future of education.

However, as Nevradakisalso noted, these discussions had little to say about the need to protect childrens data or digital identities or, for that matter, providing the types of early-life experiences children require as part of their socialization. See Future of Education? WEFs Vision Heavy on Virtual Reality and AI Technologies, Light on Privacy Concerns.

Of course, there is no need for concern about the early-life experiences of those young transhumans who are being programmed for decades of servitude prior to being terminated when they are no longer functional.

Beyond claimed educational and economic benefits, however, some authors argue that digitalizing education can play a role in easing pressures on the environment and climate. How so? Nevradakis again: Indeed, the WEF said the use of textbooks, notebooks and pencils as critical learning tools is on the way out, due to environmental pressures and COP26 goals (from the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference), which will drive the digitalizing of education streams. See Future of Education? WEFs Vision Heavy on Virtual Reality and AI Technologies, Light on Privacy Concerns

But it is clearly delusional to suggest that the use of textbooks, notebooks and pencils has greater adverse impact on the environment and climate than the environmental cost and climate impact of producing sophisticated technology for each student. And despite claims of improved affordability it is equally delusional to ignore the economic and social cost, for example, to the child laborers in the Congo working in appalling conditions to extract strategic minerals to produce this technology. See Humanitys Dirty Little Secret: Starving, Enslaving, Raping, Torturing and Killing our Children.

Besides, as touched on below, education is already a monstrous experience, destroying the Selfhood of the child so that they become submissively obedient. Removing the bulk of educationsremaining social component by technologizing it can only make it even worse.

Babies in the Metaverse

Then again, maybe children will no longer be put through school. It simply wont be necessary because children, for transhuman slaves at least, will no longer exist.

By 2070, the metaverse will offer you virtual babies, environmentally-friendly digital children, according to UK artificial intelligence (AI) expert Catriona Campbell. Parents will see and interact with their offspring through next-generation AR [augmented reality] glasses and haptic gloves. The latter devices enable users to experience a realistic sense of touch when handling virtual or holographic objects. As a bonus, these children take up no space, cost nothing to feed and remain healthy, if that is what you want, for as long as they are programmed to live. A subscription might cost as little as $25 each month.

And if this seems like a monumental leap out of reality to you, Campbell also believes that within 50 years technology will have advanced to such an extent that babies which exist in the metaverse are indistinct from those in the real world. As the metaverse evolves, I can see virtual children becoming an accepted and fully embraced part of society in much of the developed world.See Virtual babies who grow up in real time will be commonplace by 2070, expert predicts.

Thats right, Campbell is claiming that within 50 yearsbabies which exist in the metaverse are indistinct from those in the real world! Pause a moment. How does that sound to you?

Just in case you cannot wait, you are welcome to start using early versions now. See, for example, Virtual Baby, Adopt a Virtual Baby and My Virtual Child.

Oh, and by the way, you wont be having sex either, whether for reproductive purposes or otherwise. You will prefer virtual sex. See Sex And Pornography Aim To Strike Gold In The Metaverse.

Critiquing the Metaverse

Beyond the criticisms already noted above, there area great many other criticisms of the metaverse and the role it will play in the overall elite program being implemented under what the WEF callsits Great Reset. This comprehensive program will transform human society and human life for those people left alive after the eugenics component has been fully implemented. See The Final Battle for Humanity: It is Now or Never in the Long War Against Homo Sapiens.

If you like, you can read a little more about what the masters of this metaverse intend for us, as well as critiques of it, by authors such as these.

Derrick Broze: While some people may not intend for The Metaverse to become an all encompassing reality that supersedes physical reality, for the Zuckerbergs, Microsofts, and WEFs of the world, that is exactly what they intend for The Metaverse. For the billionaire class and their puppet organizations, such as the WEF and the United Nations, the Metaverse offers up the potential to commandeer all life into digital prisons where the people can be charged for services and products in the digital realm. With the people of the world safely tucked into their digital beds, the Technocrats could complete their total takeover of natural resources, the economy, and humanity itself. See The Great Narrative And The Metaverse, Part 2: Will The Metaverse End Human Freedom?

Dr. Michael Nevradakis: Who will govern the metaverse? According to the WEF, real-world governance models represent one possible option for metaverse governance. However, far from referring to constitutionally defined institutions of governance, with checks and balances, the WEF cites Facebooks Oversight Board as an example of such a real-world governance model. See WEF Launches Metaverse Initiative, Predicts Digital Lives Will Become More Meaningful to Us Than Our Physical Lives.

But an earlier World Economic Forum report from its Global Redesign Initiative was more blunt: The report postulates that a globalized world is best managed by a coalition of multinational corporations, governments (including through the UN system) and select civil society organizations (CSOs). See Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights p. 209, citing Everybodys Business: Strengthening International Cooperation in a More Interdependent World.

So if you believe that you and I are destined to have a say in the metaverse that is unfolding, you would be wise to keep investigating. Elite proposals are invariably very distant from the type of governance models usually considered by ordinary people in a multiplicity of contexts, where the emphasis is on facilitating widespread grassroots participation, not rule by technocrats.

You can read considerably more about what our technocratic overlords have in mind including the existing trade in such things as virtual real estate, virtual clothing and virtual art and what is wrong with it, in the articles on the metaverse published by Patrick Wood on Technocracy News & Trends: Metaverse. And there is more in articles such as these: The Top 10 Creepiest and Most Dystopian Things Pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and How Our Lives Could Soon Look: The World Economic Forum Posts An Insane Dystopian Video.

And heres another simple issue to ponder. Remember how I mentioned above that a quick flash of metaverse-induced fear would ensure that you complied with an elite-determined directive, how does the idea of eating bugs, processed sewage and human flesh appeal? Well, given that your mind will no longer be your own, what appeals now, or doesnt, will be irrelevant once the metaverse is determining how you perceive things. See Canadian Company Pledges To Produce TWO BILLION BUGS Per Year For Human Consumption and Will You Eat Cultured Meat Grown From Human Cells?

You will eat Soylent Green because that is what the program tells you.

So why are people embracing the Metaverse?

In a recent article in which he described taking his son to watch a film through 3D glasses, Charles Eisenstein noted The on-screen reality was so vivid, stimulating and intense that it made the real world seem boring by comparison. See Transhumanism and the Metaverse.

How can this happen?

Because we terrorize our children into submissive obedience, devoid of the unique and powerful individual Self they were gifted by evolution at birth. See Why Violence?,Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practiceand Do We Want School or Education? Why? Essentially to keep them performing tasks that bore them senseless throughout their school and working life.

Fundamentally, this terrorization works because it compels our children into suppressing awareness of how they feel. As a result, only the most intense experiences register emotionally: The capacity to experience a subtle feeling has been lost. And without this capacity, they cannot develop into the powerful, courageous Self-willed individuals that evolution intended. They are human relics. Ready and willing to be turned into a transhuman slave in the unconscious hope they will be finally able to experience, in the metaverse, what was taken from them in the real world as a child.

But they wont get that experience, even in the metaverse. It is not what the elite has in mind for us.

Resisting the Metaverse

Of course, the metaverse is just one feature of the Global Elite agenda that is being imposed upon us. And it is not enough to resist individual features of the Great Reset program. We must strategically resist its most fundamental elements so that the entire agenda is defeated.

If you are inclined to join those strategically resisting the Great Reset and its related agendas, you are welcome to participate in the We Are Human, We Are Free campaign which identifies a list of 30 strategic goals for doing so.

In addition and more simply, you can download a one-page flyer that identifies a short series of crucial nonviolent actions that anyone can take. This flyer, now available in 16 languages (Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish & Slovak) with more languages in the pipeline, can be downloaded from here: The 7 Days Campaign to Resist the Great Reset.

If strategically resisting the Great Reset (and related agendas) appeals to you, consider joining the We Are Human, We Are Free Telegram group (with a link accessible from the website).

And if you want a child who is powerfully able to perceive the dysfunctional lure of the metaverse, and is able to join you in resisting it, consider making My Promise to Children.

CONCLUSION

So, for just a little longer, the choice is yours.

Read more here:
Virtual Beauty, Virtual Freedom, Virtual Love: Is the Metaverse Our Future? - PRESSENZA International News Agency

The biggest reason why "Fringe" left such a high bar is the incredibly well-written characters, who are played by a hugely talented cast. The bond between Olivia, Peter, Walter, and Astrid (Jasika Nicole) is so strong because of the horrors they face on a daily basis, and it isn't surprising that they're a dysfunctional family by the time Season 5 comes to a close. But the emotional crux of the show comes from Olivia's journey into the unknown and the secrets that are unearthed about her past because of her investigations.

She's essentially asking the question, "Who am I?" for the entire series, because of the mysteries that overlap into her own life. These quandaries involve discovering the truth about her Cortexiphan-induced powers, whether she's her own person in the face of an alternate universe, and whether she can ever feel comfortable enough to start a relationship with Peter. Anna Torv's unflinching performance is nothing short of excellent (although "Mindhunter" fans won't be surprised!), and when Olivia finally gets to be with her family by the end of the series, it's so heartwarming to see her happy and fulfilled.

Torv's performance is only enhanced by her dynamic with Joshua Jackson as Peter because their relationship never feels forced it naturally grows over the course of two seasons. But just like the idea of the alternate universe, it's incredibly rewarding for the audience to finally see them together after struggling with an evil doppelganger, plot twists about their respective histories, and saving the world from the Observers.

"Fringe" knows what audiences expect from a sci-fi drama it bravely explores its own mythology and characters with a unique edge that makes it a true treat to watch.

Read this article:
Network TV Hasn't Been The Same Since This Sci-Fi Drama Left The Air - Looper

In his superb book, Dominion, historian Tom Holland finds parallels between the early Christians and todays judgemental theorists of gender and race. Both can be called social-justice warriors, he notes. Each sees a judgement day close at hand, and each has zealots who relish their role as judge, jury and hangman. Wokeness is just one modern mania that has a distinctly religious quality. Arguably, there are two other modern religions that eclipse wokeness in their scope and ambition: environmentalism and artificial intelligence (AI).

Environmentalism expresses a desire to subordinate human development and welfare to a new, all-encompassing mission that of reducing the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide. An emergency or a crisis has been declared by activists, one which supposedly requires the suspension of political and moral norms. Every aspect of our lives is recast into this new moral framework.

Karl Marx recognised how religion gives society its shape and moral order. He called religion the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point dhonneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. But Marx also recognised religions devotion to the idea that human beings are exceptional and unique: It is the fantastic realisation of the human essence. Religion is a form of fetishised or estranged humanism, Marx was saying.

Environmentalism turns this celebration of humanity on its head. Human activities are measured by the harm or impacts they cause to the natural order, and all human activity is therefore sinful. We ate the forbidden fruit by burning fossil fuels and by daring to increase human welfare and now we must pay. Even the UK prime minister signals his support for this philosophical belief when he describes the Industrial Revolution as a derangement of nature, or a doomsday machine.

Equally religious, and equally anti-human, is the current infatuation with AI. We are currently in the third wave of enthusiasm for AI in 65 years, during which periods of high hopes and investment in AI have been followed by periods of derision. This time, however, belief in the transformative power of AI has penetrated the policy, media and administrative classes as thoroughly as the belief in apocalyptic climate change.

Todays AI develops an idea that has been around from the start. It uses multi-layered neural networks which calculate probabilities to find statistical regularities or patterns.

The field is rife with anthropomorphic metaphors: AI is undergoing training, for example, or deep learning. But these terms are really misdirections, for the software has acquired no knowledge or understanding of the underlying data it is processing. Instead, the software has bludgeoned its way through a task using brute force producing a statistical approximation to achieve a result.

A better name for the various activities currently undertaken by AI may be heuristic software. But then this might remind us that its guesswork, and that things can go wrong. Sometimes this guesswork can be impressive. At other times it is sufficient to be useful. Often it is not, and AIs ignorance of the real world can be painful, and hilarious.

But companies selling AI software or services claim a great deal more on AIs behalf. AI is one of the most important things humanity is working on, insists Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, Googles parent company. It is more profound than, I dunno, electricity or fire, he even claimed last year.

Our political elites accept such claims at face value, because it allows them to indulge in a little vanity. They can imagine themselves taking their place alongside the boffins, as visionaries or vanguardistas, as the future sweeps in. Five years ago, I was one of over 200 people and only three from the professional media invited to give oral evidence to a House of Lords inquiry into artificial intelligence. In advance, we were given nine points on which the lords might wish to hear our views. One of these was how we would prepare the population for the sweeping changes that were to come from new developments in AI. Apparently, as journalists we were not expected to question such improbable claims. It was taken as a given that AI would soon be a smashing success.

Five years on, the hype has reached new levels of absurdity, with artistic pastiches of models, like Open AIs GPT-3 language generator, being mistaken for human-like sentience.

The political class was promised a fourth industrial revolution, but AI is conspicuously failing to deliver tangible practical results. Yes, it is becoming another useful tool in the data-analytics toolbox. But it has failed to make an impact on other key areas, such as robotics, just as sceptical robotics scientists predicted.

Not one radiologist has been made redundant by AI, the neuroscientist and author Gary Marcus pointed out recently. Marcus has argued for some time that the current approach to AI has hit a wall, and is proving to have very little use outside the IT industry. AI remains extremely crude and dumb. For his pains, he finds himself in the same boat as so-called climate deniers. And with uncanny echoes of Climategate, the AI priesthood even refuses to allow researchers like Marcus to view or test the models themselves, in case they find something wrong with them. Nevertheless, the stunts and AI is a faith that requires regular miracles get ever more spectacular.

In fact, invoking religion or magic when flogging AI is not new. The original term was a triumph of marketing. A young professor called John McCarthy, who co-edited an obscure academic journal called the Journal of Automata Studies, decided that this new branch of mathematics could use some pizazz. Automata werent sexy enough. I invented it when we were trying to get money for a summer study, McCarthy would later admit.

The appeal of being God, of artificially giving birth, was something Professor Sir James Lighthill identified as one of AIs promises. Lighthill undertook the review that cancelled most of the funding for AI in 1973. Today, DeepMind the AI subsidiary of Alphabet is a master at evoking unexpected or creative outcomes supposedly produced by its deep-learning applications, which critics refer to as Its alive! moments. These tricks work spectacularly well with journalists, who are only too willing to suspend their scepticism. Such credulity is abundant, for example, in a long cover feature in The Economist this month, which marvels at the emergent properties of an AI that border on the uncanny.

Throughout those first and second AI summers, religious claims were never far away. During the second revival of AI in the 1980s, philosopher Mary Midgley lamented how dreary and familiar all the great claims about AI sounded to her.

They promise the human race a comprehensive miracle, a private providence, a mysterious saviour, a deliverer, a heaven, a guarantee of an endless happy future for the blessed who will put their faith in science and devoutly submit to it, she wrote in a review of a 1984 book by Professor Donald Michie, one of the leading British AI academics (Michie led one of the few departments to survive the 1970s AI winter). Is it clear why I was reminded of hymn books?, asked Midgley. Michie exhibited a crude indiscriminating euphoria, she wrote, and there is no better description of his successors 50 years later they too have a liturgical quality.

What AI shares with radical environmentalism is a longing to create an external moral arbiter. With apocalyptic climate change, the planet is judging us because we dared improve our lot. In AIs Jesuit wing transhumanism man hasnt fallen, we were just awful all along. Among transhumanists, there is a revulsion toward the physical body, which decays and defines a fixed form, and also a revulsion at what is characterised as our hopeless irrationality. We have always been inferior to the machines, they argue, but those machines just hadnt been invented yet. By submitting to the machines, we become free, as Grimes 2018 single, We Appreciate Power, articulates:

People like to say that were insaneBut AI will reward us when it reignsPledge allegiance to the worlds most powerful computerSimulation: its the future.

Here the religious overtones are explicit immortality is achieved by digitising the physical and uploading it. The deeply misanthropic idea that humans are not unique, and are in fact a bit rubbish, is not a new invention of the AI evangelists, of course. It has become commonplace in fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science to argue that consciousness is a trick of the mind, that the subjective self is an illusion or a trick of the brain circuitry. Cognitive scientist and philosopher Daniel Dennett was making this case three decades ago. A parallel, materialist view is even older: the proposition that were just poorly functioning machinery was expressed by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 bestseller, The Selfish Gene, where he wrote: You, dear human, are simply a gigantic lumbering robot.

In the early 2000s, computer pioneer and technology critic Jaron Lanier recognised these two beliefs as two cheeks of the same backside a backside he called cybernetic totalism. He was dismayed that so many highly intelligent friends of his in science and technology were sympathetic to this collection of prejudices, in part or in whole. Of the six characteristics he identified of this worldview, one was that subjective experience either doesnt exist, or is unimportant because it is some sort of ambient or peripheral effect. Subjectivity has long been unfashionable among the intelligentsia, as James Heartfield identified in The Death of the Subject Explained in 2002. Twentieth-century literary fashions like structuralism, cognitive science and more recently behavioural science merely added some intellectual respectability to these prejudices.

Two decades ago, Lanier already had an explanation for the supposedly magical and emergent properties of todays AI. To make the computers look smart, we have to make ourselves stupid, he observed. It requires a curious act of self-abasement. Unfortunately, abasing ourselves is a habit to which our elites seem strangely addicted. Hollowing out what it means to be human has cleared the path for both artificial intelligence and apocalyptic environmentalism, two of the most powerful religions of the 21st century.

Andrew Orlowski is a weekly columnist at the Daily Telegraph. Follow him on Twitter: @AndrewOrlowski.

Read the rest here:
The myth of 'artificial intelligence' - spiked - Spiked

On July 4, 1941, five months before the United States entered World War II, then-Msgr. Fulton Sheen published A Declaration of Dependence to stir Americas soul into realizing what its independence entailed and to warn Americans what they must do to keep it. This work of Sheen, a true prophet, is even more timely for today, as the world fills with more violence, irrationality, growing abandonment of God and religion, idolatry of self and much more.

A Declaration of Dependence has been reprinted and rereleased for July 4 as the saintly bishops urgent wake-up call for the United States.

Men are visited with the effects of their own sins, wrote Sheen. In other words, sin brings adversity, and such adversity is the expression of Gods chastisement of sin, brought about by the action of man himself. We are living in such a period of history now the sad hour wherein we are gathering the bitter fruits of our apostasy from God. Wars from without; class hatreds, bigotry, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, atheism, and immoralities from within are the harvest of our godlessness. I know that there are many who profess belief in God, but they do not act on that belief. What recognition is given to the moral law in politics, economics, or education? How many Americans who say they believe in God went to their church or to their synagogue last Sunday or Sabbath?

His words became timeless reminders of what was already on the horizon for today.

Allan Smith, the editor of this new edition, plus other Sheen works, described to the Register how the prolific bishop wrote several books during those years as the world was engulfed in war. Sheen was really pushing hard, just to remind us and say, Were going to do World War III really quickly if you dont get this right.

It was essential to correctly understand that double aspect or meaning of Americas Declaration of Independence. As Smith explained, Sheen begins really saying to America: Remember, the Declaration of Independence means a Declaration of Dependence. He was also saying that the intentions of our Founding Fathers were that we would be a nation under God. All these men wrote this because they wanted us to say, We need God.

Sheen began his title chapter by observing, as Smith explained, how everyone talks of rights and few of duties, so that it is important for us Americans to recall that the Declaration of Independence is also a Declaration of Dependence. The Declaration of Independence asserts a double dependence: dependence on God and dependence on law as derived from God.

Quoting the opening of Americas founding document, Sheen emphasized, Notice these words: The Creator has endowed men with rights and liberties; men got them from God! In other words, we are dependent on God, and that initial dependence is the foundation of our independence. Each person has a value because God made him, not because the State recognizes him. The day we adopt in our democracy the already widespread ideas of some American jurists that right and justice depend on convention and the spirit of the times, we shall write the death warrant of our independence. He continued,

Smith pointed out that, in the books first chapter, Sheen talks about the revolutionary tempo and how its irrational. Its violent, and its atheistic. And he mentions how atheism is not so much I dont believe in God. Its like, I want to get rid of God. Its always very violent.

Indeed, as Sheen clarified, The spirit of revolution has three characteristic notes. It is: (1) irrational, (2) violent, (3) atheistic. He further explained, Irrationality developed quickly in the modern world after it lost faith in God, and it is important to note that violence follows from irrationality. When a man loses his reason, he becomes violent.

Sheen next observed,

In his book written as America celebrated its last Independence Day before entering World War II, the bishop emphasized: Mark these words: The enemy of the world in the near future is going to be Communism, which is using peace when it can and war when it must, and which is preparing, when Europe is exhausted from war, to sweep over it like a vulture to tear its flesh. When Russia falls, America will be the new seat of Communism.

Sheen always prophesied that communism would return back where it came from, the West, explained Peter Howard, president of the Fulton Sheen Institute. He reminded us that Karl Marxs philosophy came from Germany, his economics from England, and his sociology from France. It only took root in Russia because Russia, as Sheen put it, has the Asiatic soul of fire that communism needed to ignite, and then through violence spread its errors in the East.

In A Declaration of Dependence, Sheen foresaw what others did not. Howard, having received his doctorate in sacred theology focused on the work of Sheen from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), explained how communism has penetrated the West through ideological subversion.

Sheen nailed it back in 1941, when he said that the essence of todays conflict was between three philosophies of life, Howard told the Register. These philosophies revolved around the question of whether man is a useful tool of the state, as totalitarians believe; whether man is only an animal, as the materialists and secularists believe; or whether man is made in the image of God, as the Christians believe.

What is prevailing now, Howard added, are the first two philosophies, which are anti-democratic, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic and anti-human.

False prophets were saying, as seen today, Howard continued, that freedom means the right to do whatever you please; that to inculcate in the growing child a sense of right and wrong is to be unprogressive.

Smith explained that Sheen brought out in this book, as he did elsewhere, that there are two types of people: those who want to embrace the cross of Jesus Christ and those who say they dont want a cross. But when they fling off the cross of Jesus Christ, they get the cross of communism, the cross of materialism, the cross of consumerism, the cross of Marxism, Smith said.

Howard added, As Sheen put it, Communism is coming back again on the Western world because something died in the Western world namely, the strong faith of men in the God that made them.

With Europe having explicitly and implicitly abandoned its Catholic roots, America is the last force on earth that can stand between a free world and the diabolical transhumanist agenda of the totalitarian global elite, Howard explained. But America is at its weakest morally, politically and economically, and its collapse is now seen by many as imminent because many have sold out Americas foundational principles.

Still, a glimmer of hope remains, hinging on our response.

This is why America needs a new Declaration of Dependence now, Howard said, offering a Sheen solution.

It must now face and take up courageously the revolution of what Sheen calls the passive barbarism from within, while also defeating the active barbarism from without which attacks our freedom. We will only do this by rediscovering and instituting into every dimension of society Americas Christian roots (that precede 1776). This is why the Church and its saints must rise now, because we are the only ones with the fullness of that answer.

Sheen was adamant that we will never rid our nation of its political, economic and cultural problems unless we restore the Christian philosophy of life which single-handedly built Western civilization, Howard added.

Indeed, Sheen wrote,

Youth has no trouble seeing the truth in Sheens words and warnings. Jenna Drummond, a senior at The Catholic University of America who continues to focus projects and an upcoming thesis on Sheen and his development of ideas on communism beginning in his early years, finds a lot of what he says is mind-boggling because its so true now. It was true when he said it in the 1930s, in the 1940s and 1950s, and it has proven itself over and over again.

Referring to one of Sheens speeches at a Eucharistic congress before World War II, she said, He gave this really beautiful speech about communism, capitalism and Catholicism, explaining how everybody seeks liberty and equality, but what people really need is the fraternity of Catholicism, with everything rooted in God, because thats the only way that anybody will have real peace when everybody knows that theyre individually known and loved by God, she told the Register.

Drummond suggests celebrating this Independence Day in a Sheen way by spending a Holy Hour praying for our country because theres a lot going on right now, especially with the big decisions about Roe coming out, things like that, but also with the turmoil in Ukraine and Russia. As Sheen made a Holy Hour daily, people can make an Independence Day Holy Hour, she said, praising God for mercy on our country thus far, and begging for it to continue so that we can continue to celebrate Independence Day.

As Sheen wrote, Our love of God as a nation must begin with fear, for the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom (Proverbs 9:10): first the fear of the sanctions of his justice, then the fear of betraying the blessings of mercy. He pointed to Israels history, showing how God punishes both his own people and their enemies: punitive against the Assyrians, ending in their desolation; paternal correction upon the Jews, ending in their restoration.

With all these insights and warnings throughout history, Sheen asked, Shall we go on with our godless education, our shattered family life, our class wars, our political intrigues, and our undisciplined and uncircumcised hearts, because we foolishly believe the only enemy we have is across the sea? In the name of God, let us face the facts and admit our guilt.

There are too many divisions and classes among us in America now; too many hates, too few deep loves. We will find the secret in the humblest coin of our realm, Sheen explained. So many have been interested in seeking dollars that they have quite forgotten the wisdom that is written on the penny. Take a penny into your hand: on one side you will find written the words E pluribus unum: we who are many are one. If you want to find out how the many are made one, turn the penny over, and you will find the answer: In God we trust.

Go here to see the original:
Fulton Sheens July 4 Declaration of Dependence - National Catholic Register