This is an excellent podcast discussing the philosophy behind posthumanism. I wasn't sure where to put this - it's more than just AI, politics, religion, or Musk transgressions...
Quote:
...in order to fulfill our long term potential in the universe over the coming millions, billions and literally trillions of years, we will need to become post-human. And ultimately, we will very likely have to not just merge with technology, but completely replace our biological substrate with something technological, maybe computer hardware, or we could live as digital beings in a simulated world."
Torres explains that, according to longtermist thinking, once we become post-human, there's a moral obligation to colonize as much of the universe as possible and create a larger future population. (my emphasis)
"Then we will be able to maximize the total amount of value that could exist in the universe. So the more people there are living in these vast computer simulations running on planet-sized computers, the more possibility there is for happiness or pleasure or whatever else one takes value to be," said Torres.
The thinking, referred to as "billionaires' wet dreams", is that the universe can support trillions of digital beings for billions of years in the future, and we mustn't let anything stop us from getting there. It's a moral imperative. The fate of a few billion existing humans here on Earth is insignificant by comparison.
“And because, in all the Galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars; they sowed, and sometimes they reaped. And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from 2010: Odyssey Two
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“Moral obligation to colonize “ has been the self-imposed mandate through out our history; the British empire, Mongolian hordes, Boers in Africa,….
If a planet sized intelligence can’t see past that I don’t want one.
Edit: I haven’t seen the podcast but I can postulate unlimited opinions on very little data.
Last edited by Geraldsh; 12-16-2025 at 04:20 PM.
Reason: Intellectual addition.
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"In the beginning the universe was created. This made a lot of people very unhappy and has widely been regarded as a bad move" - Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
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This stuff is all re just sci-fi and navel gazing. Anyone pretending to be working towards this type of thing has either deluded themselves into thinking they alone are important, or they are just grifters. It's like someone in ancient Greece trying to find a general cure for cancer. It's so far advanced from our current knowledge and abilities it's fairly pointless to spend much time even thinking about, beyond a sci-fi story line.
And I say this all fairly confidently because you hear these Muppets talking about terra forming Mars or building Dyson spheres, and we can't even manage our own climate. Slow down there guys, long way to go before an episode of Weekend at Wormholes is gonna happen.
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I'm re-listening to one of my favourite sci-fi series right now, and it has post-humans as characters. It's a two book series by Dan Simmons. The first book is called Illium and the second book is Olympus. Highly recommended!
Spoiler!
Minor spoiler, the post-humans kind of F-ed things up for the solar system!
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I'm re-listening to one of my favourite sci-fi series right now, and it has post-humans as characters. It's a two book series by Dan Simmons. The first book is called Illium and the second book is Olympus. Highly recommended!
Spoiler!
Minor spoiler, the post-humans kind of F-ed things up for the solar system!
Yeah, yeah its all fun and games until the Morlocks crash the party.
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The World Ends when you're dead. Until then, you've got more punishment in store. - Flames Fans
If you thought this season would have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.
So... either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain?
well you could live a quiet life of contentment doing good works for your family and community, it's not a bad plan
In the end we all die with nothing but the love admiration of those we leave behind, our only legacy is the continuing effect of either the good or bad we do in the world
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well you could live a quiet life of contentment doing good works for your family and community, it's not a bad plan
In the end we all die with nothing but the love admiration of those we leave behind, our only legacy is the continuing effect of either the good or bad we do in the world
The evil that men do lives after them
The good is interred with their bones
What I want to know is once these techbros achieve superpowers and immortality what incentive do they have to share it with anyone else? They don't exactly exude altruism.
Lol, superpowers. These douchbros are far more likely to give themselves heart attacks and cancer than they are x-ray vision. Hopefully sooner than later.
Posthumanism
