From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Sat Jun 29 2002 - 07:14:38 MDT
Hi,
> If this is so then some forms of spirituality with their strong
> emphasis on stepping beyond individual ego identification and
> even teaching means of doing so may actually have a bit of an
> advantage over the type of agnostic or atheist materialists who
> are firmly identified with their current state, ego and
> personality structures.
Yes, I agree with this...
> One hopes. :-) The AI will find flaws in modern science and
> some aspects of the philosophy of science as well as in much
> else that came before it.
That is true. And how the typical empiricist/rationalist human mind will
react to an AI telling them empiricism and rationalism are wrong... well,
this will be interesting to see, if it comes to pass!
> From the point of view of a Muslim mystic, a Muslim (or anyone)
> that thinks/intuits/experiences Truth in so limited a fashion is
> the true infidel. :-)
It is true, of course. But the vast majority of Muslims are not Sufis!
I found LSD a useful tool for understanding how my
> current personality and other constructs were put together,
> blowing them apart and having some degree of freedom to
> reconstruct in a way that seemed, well, "better". After a while
> it felt as if I went to pretty much the same sorts of states and
> saw infinite reiterations of the same basic information. The
> trouble was actually making use of what was learned there in the
> "real" world. It wasn't scary for me because my sense of, not so
> much identity as center, was deeper or different from or more
> fluid than most. I believe this sort of fluidity is indeed
> essential as the world and one's very self changes more and more
> rapidly.
Right, so you see what I mean -- a sense of the "fluidity" of self and
being -- this is what I think will be helpful in making the transition from
humanity to transhumanity.
This transition will be totally different from an LSD trip, but will be
similar in that it will involve an out-of-the-ordinary insight into how
one's self, personality and beliefs are put together.
Part of what LSD does is lets you see parts of your mind that are normally
blocked off from your perception. Unfortunately, it also *distorts* your
perception of everything, so the insights it gives you are often badly
tainted.... When becoming transhuman, we will see all that and much, much
more...
-- Ben G
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