What a brilliant piece! You parse so much here, Mary.
I will recommend the 'Borrowed Time' to my book club. The timing is perfect, as we recently finished two novels by Madeline Miller - 'Cerce' and 'Song of Achilles'. Gods and immortality.
Quick aside - I remember little of my life as a student, but I never forgot Nietzsche's comments on Greek Gods -who he said served as ongoing repositories for human guilt; crops don't come in - there's a god for that; wife left you, a god is to blame, etc. - VS the Christian God, where believers become the repository of guilt for everything bad that happens to them; it's you, you original sinner, pray harder.
He saw the former as having a major upside - blame a god and get on with life without it weighing you down and the latter as, well the opposite, we carry our guilt with us and overtime it does weigh us down.
Immortality eliminates an essential context, doesn't it and all our meaning, as physical beings, comes out of context. Meaning is dependent on its context. This certainly could explain the pettiness of the Greek Gods, their constant fighting and vindictiveness. They were both haughty and above mortals - and loved toying with them - (remind you of anyone?) but they were also envious our meaning.
Such a rich subject. I wonder if those guys who brought down Atlantis via technology are back in the form of these transhumanists and giving it all another go?
"The confusion and disorientation I felt, that we all feel at the prospect of dying, is not because we refuse to face the “reality” of dying; it’s because we know the real reality of our immortality. We know, in our deepest knowing, that our “true being” will live far beyond this earthly existence. We know what is real. But we forget, all too easily." 🎯
Agree. Wisdom or insight so often comes to us in paradox. Embracing our limited mortality, opens us up to our infinite aspects. So beautifully said, Mary.
I was fully unfamiliar with TSM. (And happy in my ignorance so thanks for that.😊)
And yeah, using 'soul' to move towards synthetic technology is weird. Unless you believe - as one of the pillars asserts - that God is technological.
Yes, there is a fear of death going on and a fundamental misunderstanding too. (I mean attempting to capture via technology the immortal soul is just...idiotic.)
"Because when Martine, and the rest of the frightened overlords, the ersatz immortality junkies, realize — and that’s a when, not an if — that a soul is not something that can ever be captured, that God is not technical, it’s game over." 💯
I can't help but feel this whole endeavor - capturing life essence, pinning the qualities we love, into a digital or robotic world of supposed permanence - these are the endeavors of people suffering from the infection (via infiltration) of an anti-human mind virus.
An energetic capture.
I think this is what's really going on. The good news is it exists at a set bandwidth and we can easily move beyond it.
Gonna reread. (Not gonna spend any time at all trying to empathize with a machine on the brink of sentience.)
Great addition to the subject, the concept of Greek gods and their absorption of guilt, as well as their vindictiveness and lack of contextual meaning... it IS a rich subject, impossibly so. Your comment is an indication of its vastness. There could easily be Part III and beyond. Because really, how many other topics are this important to our lives??
This got me, big time: "I wonder if those guys who brought down Atlantis via technology are back in the form of these transhumanists and giving it all another go?" Sheesh. I don't want to wonder about that, but now I am -- thanks for THAT.😊
Mind virus... that's something I've got on my list to address, essay-wise. Rocket pointed me in the direction of "the wetiko" and I've been fascinated. Seems totally plausible. As does your conviction that its bandwidth can be outstripped. Or maybe even exploded, like a Rife machine frequency!
Thanks for bringing SO MUCH goodness to this conversation. xox
Ha! What a great line to leave us with! Fantastic series of posts. Sheesh, we’re so far away from understanding consciousness, are we really trying to imbue machines with it? What grand folly.
Lots of food for thought here and another book to add to my long running cue. Thanks, Mary. What a wonderful read!
Folly indeed! Yeah, I think you'd love the book. It's very cinematic in scope -- it reads like a screenplay. According to his bio, Nolte was a scraping-by screenwriter for years before he started writing for Breitbart.
So many opus's... It is so rich reading your words Mary, your curiosity put into form; you turn back what has been inverted. I must read 'Borrowed Time'. Ai...I think a little (i) here is appropriate, brings up a word consistently for me, that word is HUBRIS; and I do see the purveyors of Ai as tragic characters on the world stage, and I do believe that their fatal shortcomings will be their demise. 'As above so below'. So many ideas have been co-opted and inverted! Yes...Homo Luminous, Patchamama, Unconditional Love, Unity, Ag'ape, and Human connection are the bedrock and foundation needed to transcend the inversion of all life that is sacred... Ashe'.
What a fascinating concept and book. I remember reading The Time Traveller's Wife, different take on a similar idea. Well, parallel but different track. And of course, the vampire apologists ;-) Thanks for this, Mary, I'll look for it.
And I missed your reading today for some lovely daughter Christmas shopping time. Is it recorded?
Lol, the transhumanists don't expect to spend eternity (or even 5 minutes) doing mundane chores. Those already are done for them by servants & robots. They essentially believe they'll spend eternity playing with themselves (& torturing their slaves for fun).
There is a running joke among engineers (at least the was a couple decades ago when I worked in high tech); a cartoon of a long equation that ends with a starburst / *then a miracle occurs* and finally the solution.
The trans-humanists have come to believe this. That if they accumulate enough data & knowledge in their AI robot, at some point there is a starburst flash & it morphs into consciousness. (Afaik the concept was first portrayed in Star Trek: the Motion Picture back in the 80s.)
They call it "singularity", that they will be able to download their consciousness into robots. The concept turned up in episodes of Friends & Big Bang Theory. Probably other sitcoms. Predictive programming or seeding the minds of our youths.
My expectation is that their eternity will be mighty miserable.
"How do we know how to fix anything if we can’t see what’s broken?"
We also need to understand that some breaks cannot be fixed. I spent the bulk of my life trying to fix the unfixable. All the kings horses & all the kings men couldn't put my life back together again after my parents & sister smashed it into little pieces via murder by proxy & character assassination.
Otoh, when I was single digits, long before I learned the concept or word reincarnation, I knew that this would be my last life. Lord knows I am done. I look at the ongoing ME genocide & I want off this plane NOW. My only purpose is to care for my mostly rescue critters. I count the years before they move on & then I'm outta here.
I'm sure you're right about transhumanists not spending eternity doing the mundane stuff. There are those -- like Martine -- who give lip service to making their version of immortality "available to all," but please. I'm beyond skeptical.
Ray Kurtzweil's original prediction was 2030, now he's moved the goalposts back to 2045. Mm hmm... keep them moving, Ray.
I hear the pain underneath your words re: your parents and sister. Sending love your way, SBW. Your critters are lucky for your presence. So am I. xox
I literally had NO idea about all this. So, like Kathleen said...thanks for that. Ha! I can only know what I want to know. Uncle Klaus is afraid to die and I can't way as I blame him. I hear it is super hot at his final destination. Alex Jones, during his interview with Tucker, talked about death. He talked about how, after he meditated on the fact that he would one day leave his mortal body, he was able to go on and do what needed to be done. I can say that confronting mortality and the fact that nobody holds my eternal in their hand or hard drive except The Almighty..it was much easier to go about the messy business of living my best life and being a light. There are good days and bad days, but, in this dress rehearsal of mortality, we have a chance to make our eternity glorious. Our free choice. And...I cracked up at your statement that you are a super fun party guest. Deep intellectual conversations about what really matters? Not the price of eggs or the weather? Imagine THAT.
But, as I was perusing the settings on my Substack writer dashboard, there was a new button. Until I turn it OFF, it is on by default, it says "Block AI training
This setting indicates to AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard that their models should not be trained on your published content. This will only apply to AI tools which respect this setting, and blocking training may limit your publication's discoverability in tools and search engines that return AI-generated results." Ah yes..training AI to be ME. After all, the world does need more of me and my opinions, no?
Arghhh! I had no idea about the new button on Substack!! Thanks for THAT. 😊 Damn, what to do? I actually do think the world needs more of you and your opinions, and a lot of other Substackers, but... I also hate the idea of participating in the "training" of AI. Hmm...
Without the context of physical death, life would become a meaningless bore, like a play that never ends. We are part of the natural world, imbued with Source and unfold according to seasons and cycles. To suggest that God or the human soul is digital probably makes God laugh...or cry. We’ve already become too robotic, trained like Pavlov’s dogs to respond to notifications. The spiritual awakening that’s occurring concurrently with transhumanism and transgenderism will neutralize its effects as it is powered by love.
"...like a play that never ends." YES. Endings are totally essential to meaning! I've finished books or movies sometimes just because I want to know how it ends. Of course, we see death as the end, which it is, but it's also the beginning. Like winter into spring, as you allude in your comment. Thanks for contributing, Katie. xox
Mary, this is incredible! I think it's a Masterpiece, your opus, as it were. I'm going to have to read it again, and again... You took me to a world that "this woman has never gone before". LOL. Seriously, you are "brilliant", to use Kathleen's word. I don't know how you managed to compose a piece like this. You really took me to the "Outer Limits" of my imagination. Bina48 really creeped me out. You're something else! XOX
Definitely! I've always been a fan of science fiction. Ha! Thank you for your reply.
FYI, I just want to make sure you know that I sent you an email with my feedback, such as it was, regarding Sunday's zoom. You don't have to reply to it. Just so you know.
Whin I wuz 'bout seven I had the same feelin's--an' nightmares ta boot! Some figger it out early, some later--but part'a the human condition of livin' is dyin'--loss, love, sayin' goodbye, makin' peace with life an' those livin' it around ya. Ta deny the journey is ta deny the human condition! Thus an' sich yer thoughts are truly well put!:
"In their relentless quest to evade death, they will effectively squander the very lives they sought to extend."
I'd sure like ta have a few've their sheckles an' the "joy" of bein' able to travel at the drop've a hat sans "Checkpoint Charlie" 'er riskin' jabbed pilots--like them globalists & globalistas--but I'd not trade my life fer theirs--those're some miserable minds indeed!
As fer the dubious entity know as "Bina"--she/it is kinda like a costly halloween prop--I've written about "her" (aka it) a couple times, here more recently:
"Then ya got a transhuman tranny billionaire bush-whacker Martine Rothblatt whose “wife,” known as Bina48, looks like one’a them Sharper Image Catalogue’s animatronic monkeys in the novelty shops (NO ya fools, not cuz she’s black, but ruther cuz she looks an’ behaves like a “better-on-film” but still fake-o-matic cheap plastic be-wigged prop on a set—in spite’ve costin’ millions).
Sure nuff I know some high-end dastardly tech is in place but "their" attempts to live forever in non-human bodies is a farce-an' I got sum wond'rins about the bodies they currently occupy even while "livin' " cuz most've 'em look like they'ze "death warmed over" an' pumped up on formal-de-hide!
What a brilliant piece! You parse so much here, Mary.
I will recommend the 'Borrowed Time' to my book club. The timing is perfect, as we recently finished two novels by Madeline Miller - 'Cerce' and 'Song of Achilles'. Gods and immortality.
Quick aside - I remember little of my life as a student, but I never forgot Nietzsche's comments on Greek Gods -who he said served as ongoing repositories for human guilt; crops don't come in - there's a god for that; wife left you, a god is to blame, etc. - VS the Christian God, where believers become the repository of guilt for everything bad that happens to them; it's you, you original sinner, pray harder.
He saw the former as having a major upside - blame a god and get on with life without it weighing you down and the latter as, well the opposite, we carry our guilt with us and overtime it does weigh us down.
Immortality eliminates an essential context, doesn't it and all our meaning, as physical beings, comes out of context. Meaning is dependent on its context. This certainly could explain the pettiness of the Greek Gods, their constant fighting and vindictiveness. They were both haughty and above mortals - and loved toying with them - (remind you of anyone?) but they were also envious our meaning.
Such a rich subject. I wonder if those guys who brought down Atlantis via technology are back in the form of these transhumanists and giving it all another go?
"The confusion and disorientation I felt, that we all feel at the prospect of dying, is not because we refuse to face the “reality” of dying; it’s because we know the real reality of our immortality. We know, in our deepest knowing, that our “true being” will live far beyond this earthly existence. We know what is real. But we forget, all too easily." 🎯
Agree. Wisdom or insight so often comes to us in paradox. Embracing our limited mortality, opens us up to our infinite aspects. So beautifully said, Mary.
I was fully unfamiliar with TSM. (And happy in my ignorance so thanks for that.😊)
And yeah, using 'soul' to move towards synthetic technology is weird. Unless you believe - as one of the pillars asserts - that God is technological.
Yes, there is a fear of death going on and a fundamental misunderstanding too. (I mean attempting to capture via technology the immortal soul is just...idiotic.)
"Because when Martine, and the rest of the frightened overlords, the ersatz immortality junkies, realize — and that’s a when, not an if — that a soul is not something that can ever be captured, that God is not technical, it’s game over." 💯
I can't help but feel this whole endeavor - capturing life essence, pinning the qualities we love, into a digital or robotic world of supposed permanence - these are the endeavors of people suffering from the infection (via infiltration) of an anti-human mind virus.
An energetic capture.
I think this is what's really going on. The good news is it exists at a set bandwidth and we can easily move beyond it.
Gonna reread. (Not gonna spend any time at all trying to empathize with a machine on the brink of sentience.)
Great piece! Best.
Wow. What a comment! So much to parse in THIS!!
Great addition to the subject, the concept of Greek gods and their absorption of guilt, as well as their vindictiveness and lack of contextual meaning... it IS a rich subject, impossibly so. Your comment is an indication of its vastness. There could easily be Part III and beyond. Because really, how many other topics are this important to our lives??
This got me, big time: "I wonder if those guys who brought down Atlantis via technology are back in the form of these transhumanists and giving it all another go?" Sheesh. I don't want to wonder about that, but now I am -- thanks for THAT.😊
Mind virus... that's something I've got on my list to address, essay-wise. Rocket pointed me in the direction of "the wetiko" and I've been fascinated. Seems totally plausible. As does your conviction that its bandwidth can be outstripped. Or maybe even exploded, like a Rife machine frequency!
Thanks for bringing SO MUCH goodness to this conversation. xox
Thanks, Mary. I think the subject is relevant for me - so your post brought up a lot of connective thoughts.
"Sheesh. I don't want to wonder about that, but now I am -- thanks for THAT.😊"
Ha! You're very welcome and isn't that just part of the fun here on SS?
Sorry I missed your play reading -it conflicted with other plans. Will there be a link for replays?
Best.
Big fun! So much so that sometimes I feel my head might explode!
No worries on the reading. Sadly, there is no replay -- Actor's Equity gets involved when someone hits "record."
Ha! What a great line to leave us with! Fantastic series of posts. Sheesh, we’re so far away from understanding consciousness, are we really trying to imbue machines with it? What grand folly.
Lots of food for thought here and another book to add to my long running cue. Thanks, Mary. What a wonderful read!
Folly indeed! Yeah, I think you'd love the book. It's very cinematic in scope -- it reads like a screenplay. According to his bio, Nolte was a scraping-by screenwriter for years before he started writing for Breitbart.
I’m thinking it be perfect for a Christmas present for myself, actually. 🤷♀️ 🤫 🤗
Great idea! What's your address? 😏
Hahaha!
No really. You can text the address to me if you'd prefer...
So many opus's... It is so rich reading your words Mary, your curiosity put into form; you turn back what has been inverted. I must read 'Borrowed Time'. Ai...I think a little (i) here is appropriate, brings up a word consistently for me, that word is HUBRIS; and I do see the purveyors of Ai as tragic characters on the world stage, and I do believe that their fatal shortcomings will be their demise. 'As above so below'. So many ideas have been co-opted and inverted! Yes...Homo Luminous, Patchamama, Unconditional Love, Unity, Ag'ape, and Human connection are the bedrock and foundation needed to transcend the inversion of all life that is sacred... Ashe'.
I agree. "Pride goeth," and we are awash in pride these days. It's just a matter of time before the fall.
Thanks for the comment, and the concept of turning back what has been inverted. I love that. Hugs... M
What a fascinating concept and book. I remember reading The Time Traveller's Wife, different take on a similar idea. Well, parallel but different track. And of course, the vampire apologists ;-) Thanks for this, Mary, I'll look for it.
And I missed your reading today for some lovely daughter Christmas shopping time. Is it recorded?
I'll be so interested to hear what you think about it!
And no worries on missing it. Daughter Christmas shopping time is far, far more valuable.
No recording; Actor's Equity gets porky with recordings...🙄
Lol, the transhumanists don't expect to spend eternity (or even 5 minutes) doing mundane chores. Those already are done for them by servants & robots. They essentially believe they'll spend eternity playing with themselves (& torturing their slaves for fun).
There is a running joke among engineers (at least the was a couple decades ago when I worked in high tech); a cartoon of a long equation that ends with a starburst / *then a miracle occurs* and finally the solution.
The trans-humanists have come to believe this. That if they accumulate enough data & knowledge in their AI robot, at some point there is a starburst flash & it morphs into consciousness. (Afaik the concept was first portrayed in Star Trek: the Motion Picture back in the 80s.)
They call it "singularity", that they will be able to download their consciousness into robots. The concept turned up in episodes of Friends & Big Bang Theory. Probably other sitcoms. Predictive programming or seeding the minds of our youths.
My expectation is that their eternity will be mighty miserable.
"How do we know how to fix anything if we can’t see what’s broken?"
We also need to understand that some breaks cannot be fixed. I spent the bulk of my life trying to fix the unfixable. All the kings horses & all the kings men couldn't put my life back together again after my parents & sister smashed it into little pieces via murder by proxy & character assassination.
Otoh, when I was single digits, long before I learned the concept or word reincarnation, I knew that this would be my last life. Lord knows I am done. I look at the ongoing ME genocide & I want off this plane NOW. My only purpose is to care for my mostly rescue critters. I count the years before they move on & then I'm outta here.
I'm sure you're right about transhumanists not spending eternity doing the mundane stuff. There are those -- like Martine -- who give lip service to making their version of immortality "available to all," but please. I'm beyond skeptical.
Ray Kurtzweil's original prediction was 2030, now he's moved the goalposts back to 2045. Mm hmm... keep them moving, Ray.
I hear the pain underneath your words re: your parents and sister. Sending love your way, SBW. Your critters are lucky for your presence. So am I. xox
And one more thing: Fixing what’s broken is one solution. The other solution is to build new things.
I literally had NO idea about all this. So, like Kathleen said...thanks for that. Ha! I can only know what I want to know. Uncle Klaus is afraid to die and I can't way as I blame him. I hear it is super hot at his final destination. Alex Jones, during his interview with Tucker, talked about death. He talked about how, after he meditated on the fact that he would one day leave his mortal body, he was able to go on and do what needed to be done. I can say that confronting mortality and the fact that nobody holds my eternal in their hand or hard drive except The Almighty..it was much easier to go about the messy business of living my best life and being a light. There are good days and bad days, but, in this dress rehearsal of mortality, we have a chance to make our eternity glorious. Our free choice. And...I cracked up at your statement that you are a super fun party guest. Deep intellectual conversations about what really matters? Not the price of eggs or the weather? Imagine THAT.
But, as I was perusing the settings on my Substack writer dashboard, there was a new button. Until I turn it OFF, it is on by default, it says "Block AI training
This setting indicates to AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard that their models should not be trained on your published content. This will only apply to AI tools which respect this setting, and blocking training may limit your publication's discoverability in tools and search engines that return AI-generated results." Ah yes..training AI to be ME. After all, the world does need more of me and my opinions, no?
Arghhh! I had no idea about the new button on Substack!! Thanks for THAT. 😊 Damn, what to do? I actually do think the world needs more of you and your opinions, and a lot of other Substackers, but... I also hate the idea of participating in the "training" of AI. Hmm...
Without the context of physical death, life would become a meaningless bore, like a play that never ends. We are part of the natural world, imbued with Source and unfold according to seasons and cycles. To suggest that God or the human soul is digital probably makes God laugh...or cry. We’ve already become too robotic, trained like Pavlov’s dogs to respond to notifications. The spiritual awakening that’s occurring concurrently with transhumanism and transgenderism will neutralize its effects as it is powered by love.
"...like a play that never ends." YES. Endings are totally essential to meaning! I've finished books or movies sometimes just because I want to know how it ends. Of course, we see death as the end, which it is, but it's also the beginning. Like winter into spring, as you allude in your comment. Thanks for contributing, Katie. xox
Mary, this is incredible! I think it's a Masterpiece, your opus, as it were. I'm going to have to read it again, and again... You took me to a world that "this woman has never gone before". LOL. Seriously, you are "brilliant", to use Kathleen's word. I don't know how you managed to compose a piece like this. You really took me to the "Outer Limits" of my imagination. Bina48 really creeped me out. You're something else! XOX
Damn, Rocket, you know how to compliment a gal. Thank you!!
Bina48 creeped me out, but also made me laugh. All of it seems so utterly preposterous.
Glad to send you to the "outer limits;" it's good to visit every once in a while, no? xox
Definitely! I've always been a fan of science fiction. Ha! Thank you for your reply.
FYI, I just want to make sure you know that I sent you an email with my feedback, such as it was, regarding Sunday's zoom. You don't have to reply to it. Just so you know.
I got it! Of course I'm going to reply, and thank you so much... xox
Whin I wuz 'bout seven I had the same feelin's--an' nightmares ta boot! Some figger it out early, some later--but part'a the human condition of livin' is dyin'--loss, love, sayin' goodbye, makin' peace with life an' those livin' it around ya. Ta deny the journey is ta deny the human condition! Thus an' sich yer thoughts are truly well put!:
"In their relentless quest to evade death, they will effectively squander the very lives they sought to extend."
I'd sure like ta have a few've their sheckles an' the "joy" of bein' able to travel at the drop've a hat sans "Checkpoint Charlie" 'er riskin' jabbed pilots--like them globalists & globalistas--but I'd not trade my life fer theirs--those're some miserable minds indeed!
As fer the dubious entity know as "Bina"--she/it is kinda like a costly halloween prop--I've written about "her" (aka it) a couple times, here more recently:
"Then ya got a transhuman tranny billionaire bush-whacker Martine Rothblatt whose “wife,” known as Bina48, looks like one’a them Sharper Image Catalogue’s animatronic monkeys in the novelty shops (NO ya fools, not cuz she’s black, but ruther cuz she looks an’ behaves like a “better-on-film” but still fake-o-matic cheap plastic be-wigged prop on a set—in spite’ve costin’ millions).
https://thcsofdaisymoses.substack.com/p/is-the-deadly-tech-as-advanced-as
Sure nuff I know some high-end dastardly tech is in place but "their" attempts to live forever in non-human bodies is a farce-an' I got sum wond'rins about the bodies they currently occupy even while "livin' " cuz most've 'em look like they'ze "death warmed over" an' pumped up on formal-de-hide!