The Joy Of Faith

It's a shame that atheism and its proponents seem to be viewed as austere miserablists by the vocal majority, even those who would refer to themselves as 'not particularly religious'. We have bought into the image of the atheist as the rather tired old academic who is left sullen and stoic after weighing up the big questions, before resigning themselves to a cheerless fate at the cruel hands of Mother Nature.

These people seem to be in their element when arguing with elements of the fundamental right but lost in the wind when faced with more indifferent mainstream opposition. No doubt the former scenario allows them to easily present scientific proof as a winning hand, and make the detractor seem clownish and deluded; while the latter leaves them open to accusations of sneering misanthropy.

If there's anything that comes across strongly in the rhetoric of the transhumanists and singularitarians it's that the future is something to be thought of with excitement. A futurist outlook is an optimistic outlook. AI can be friendly and a revolution in the spread of information can signal the beginning of a revolution in collective consciousness.

Interestingly, research from recent years has suggested the existence of a 'God gene' and pointed to familial tendencies towards choosing religion as a signifier that faith, at least in template form, may be passed via bio-chemical means and not just through indoctrination post birth.

So, belief in transcendence becomes the latest territory of the supernatural or mystic to be wrestled back to the realm of the rational by men in white coats. This shouldn't make it any less magical or startling... nature can work in mysterious ways too and that in itself is beautiful. When looking to the era of the conscious machine, we are looking at the prospect of true and pure transcendence... in a way that rivals the description given in any religious text. It simply suggests that we get a say in it as intelligent and aware individuals, which is surely more of a deal breaker than anything offered by any representative of the 'divine'.

The Eschaton Meme

It has been suggested that all the current theorising about the technological singularity is analogous to, if not a direct mimic of, the kind of end of the world predictions that sufface most religious doctrine. For Christians there is the Book of Revelation, for Muslims the Day of Judgement. For Hindus, there is both death and immediate rebirth for the universe courtesy of Shiva. Then there were the Vikings who lived and died against the backdrop of Ragnarök, where the gods go into battle for the last time, the dead wake and the Midgard Serpent eats it own tail; symbolising infinite continuum.

The memetic transfusion of the eschaton appears to know no bounds. It infects even those who pride themselves on being able to see past the constraints of human nature, unsentimentally categorising our behavioural makeup as the product of a series of evolutionary safeguards, designed to keep our genomes safe from extinction.

So what? There's nothing new here... just the emperor's new clothes with computers rather than angels and trumpets. Rapture for the nerds! What is striking is that this form of eschatological immanentisation comes with promises of advanced longevity, if not full blown immortality. Very interesting considering that the momentum of the eschaton meme could probably be attributed to its usefulness as an anti-insanity device, keeping us self-aware mammals safe in the knowledge that we will definitely die.

Makes sense doesn't it? If you see the end of the world as a collective synonym for your own expiration, in every direction you look, then surely nature's want for you to service the proliferation of the selfish gene will be given both emphasis and immediacy. Basically, keeping death front of mind makes you want to get it on... before it's too late.

So the Singularitarians preach the end in much the same way as bible-bashing ministers do. The difference is that they ask you to consider eternal life... not in Heaven, or in Valhalla... but right here.

Digital Evolution

In the future, the success of life within a programmed reality will rely on coherent and flexible streams of code duplicating and mutating in much the same way that our DNA does now. Whether the mechanics of these mutations are driven by our own consciousness or by the will of machines that we will have given prior instruction remains to be seen...





The evolution of our genetic code depends on a series of motivating factors that guide each new mutation, steering the development of our bodies to ensure that they are best suited to our physical environment at any given time. An example of this is the theory that ice age conditions prompted Homo sapiens to develop the guts needed to digest meat because plant life was so scarce.

The challenges presented by our environment (adverse weather, difficult terrain, scarcity of food) have governed the process by which evolution has found its solutions. Living with cold temperatures and rain in some climates has forced us to develop the skills needed to identify or construct suitable shelter. So we have the mouse (evolution) and we have the maze (physical environment). But the mouse won’t even attempt to try and run through the arduous process of trial and error needed to solve the maze unless there’s cheese at the end of it. The cheese is the motivation.

The need to eat, the need to find shelter and the cohesion of a group or herd might be motivating factors that have shaped our evolution over the course of several millennia but they themselves are only in place to facilitate the possibility of reproduction. Evolution in living things is absolutely and entirely powered by reproduction. In this reality, reproduction is the Ultimate Motivating Factor (UMF).

So, how does this apply to the programmed reality? Surely we will have broken through the constraints of sex for procreation, family and herd behaviour that have governed the progress of life up to this point. If reproduction is the UMF behind the replication and mutation of DNA against the backdrop of challenges presented by physical environment, resulting in the beauty and horror of life in its present form, then what’s the equivalent that will apply to our steps beyond transcendence?

When the digital environment becomes conscious, it is going to need a reason to develop, to mutate. Call it God or Mother Nature or Gaia or whatever, but there is a programmer behind our progress. Who’s to say it’s not us in a higher form engineering realities through which we can experience subjective existence? Who’s to say this reality, the ‘Sex Programme’ if you will, isn’t one of many occurring simultaneously across inter-dimensional lines; each driven by different UMF’s?

The point is that if we are to truly step through into the age of intelligent technology and become the programmers, become Gods, then we are going to need to take responsibility for our programming and make sure that we are all clear on what we’re going to say when the machine asks ‘What’s my motivation?’