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The Future of Humanity
What we are Facing and How to Take Control of it!
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"The Cage" from Star Trek
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What is the future of humanity? What will the human race be like 10 years from now? Or 20 years from now? Or 100 years from now? Or 1000 years from now? Where are we heading in the future? And, more importantly, what can we do about it?
Looking towards the future in the Church of Reality is looking in the Sacred Direction. This church is all about where we are going and taking control of our own evolution. We believe in taking responsibility for our future by being realists and using reality to guide us in making important choices so that we can ensure that we grow the Tree of Knowledge and that tomorrow is better than today. We realists commit ourselves to the Principle of Positive Evolution and in order to fulfil that commitment, it is our responsibility (The Sacred Responsibility) to look forward at the possibilities and to think things through so that we don't make mistakes that will put us on the Path of Destitution and Destruction. It is up to us to deny Armageddon to the Christians.
Our job as Realists is to make sure that the Christians are denied Armageddon."
The role of the Church of Reality is to ask The Sacred Moral Question - what is good? What is right and wrong in the context of reality. Asking the Sacred Moral Question means more than just asking a question. It really mean to insist that The Sacred Moral Question be answered in the context of what is real and that the moral element be evaluated in terms of The Sacred Principles.
This section is a discussion of some of the issues facing the human race in the near future. Some of the opinions expressed here are the opinions of The First One and are not a declaration of reality. I do not claim to have the power to see the future. The idea here is to introduce ideas in order to create discussion about them and focus our attention in the Sacred Direction. Allow your imagination to be stimulated by what you read here and if you don't agree - that's fine. As long as you are thinking about it. |
In the 1940's the human race developed nuclear weapons and used them twice against cities killing hundreds of thousands of people. We now can create far stronger nuclear weapons and we have the power to wipe all human life from the face of the Earth. If we are going to survive, we have to decide not to do that. We have to ensure that nuclear destruction never happens. Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should do it.
I often hear people say that primitive cultures were more ecological, that the ancient people knew how to take care of the Earth. But that isn't really accurate. The reality is that they just didn't know how to destroy the Earth like we do - so they didn't have to deal with that decision. In fact - there is a lot of history of primitive cultures who managed to destroy their environment enough to make their region uninhabitable. Now we have far greater technology and we can do things that we couldn't do before. And thus we have greater responsibility.
Actually - we can't destroy the Earth yet, nor can we yet destroy life on Earth. We can just wipe it of what we consider higher life forms. The planet we are on, our speck of dust in the universe will still orbit the sun for about 4 billion more years until it grows into a red giant and then collapses into a white dwarf star. We pride ourselves as being really significant, but we are only significant to us.
If we evolve forward, then we evolve forward. If we wipe ourselves out then we are wiped out. The universe doesn't care what happens to us. The only ones who care are humans - and a huge number of humans don't care either. Ultimately it is up to us realists to care enough to not destroy ourselves. We are the ones who have to figure out a way to make sure that other religions, that don't share our Principle of Positive Evolution, don't get to use the bomb.
The bomb is just one of many challenges we face in the future. The nuclear age was the point where we had the technology for the first time in the history of the world to destroy our own species by a deliberate and willful act. We have the ability to collectively commit suicide for every person on the planet. We now have a choice that we never had before. We have to decide not to do it. The Church of Reality is therefore against nuclear destruction. We choose evolution and reject extinctionism. |
One of the big issues facing humanity is how advanced computer technology will affect our lives. As computing power continues to grow, computers can remain our friends and continue to become the ultimate tool for growing the Tree of Knowledge. Or - computer technology could become the ultimate tool of oppression and slavery.
As many of you know, computers just do what they are told to do. They are neither good nor bad. It's all in how we choose to use them. They have the power to become the tools of creating freedom or suppressing freedom. Which way they are used depends on what we do with them - or what we allow others to do with them.
For example, today we have RFID (Radio Frequency IDentifier) chips. The chips are tiny unpowered computers that are the size of a grain of rice. They are used to track merchandise making it easy to know where items are in the shipping process. They are also implanted into animals so that cattle can be tracked, or if lost, pets are found - the owner can be contacted. In a perfect world the use of RFID chips on humans would have a lot of beneficial advantages. If everyone had an ID chip implanted, then their medical history could be accessed immediately if they are injured. You wouldn't have to carry money or credit cards because the chip would tie you into your funds. You wouldn't have to have keys anymore because the locks on your home and your car would recognize you and know to let you in. No more passwords to remember on your computer because the computer knows who you are and can get you into your stuff. It could be used to track criminals - except that in a perfect world there would be no criminals to track. If we only lived in a perfect world.
In a world where everyone has an ID chip, there is the dark side where the technology can be abused. Unfortunately it seems in the real world, as soon as some new technology is developed, someone finds a way to do something terrible with it. Let's take the same world where everyone has an ID chip. But in this world the government is tracking everything you do. Every time you walk near any door or computer or get into a car your ID chip is scanned and reported to a central database. Every thing you buy is also tracked. Money no longer exists and all transactions are done through your ID chip.
Suppose that an oppressive government is formed and you have a different political or religious view than the ruling powers. All they have to do is tell the system to find you and as soon as you walk near anything that can read your ID you are instantly reported to the police. Or suppose they just want to generally control your life. The can put restrictions on what you are allowed to buy. If you try to purchase something on the restricted list then the transaction fails and the attempted purchase is reported to the authorities. Or you try to go home but the door on your house no longer opens for you. Or the door opens to let you in - but won't open to let you leave. No one can do anything unless they do exactly what they are told to do. We have the technology today to build that kind of world.
We have the technology to track everything a person does and every place they go. We can create a system that totally enslaves every person on the planet. It is up to us to choose not to do that.
It is because of this, in part, that we in the Church of Reality must adhere to the Principle of Freedom and the Principle of Privacy to ensure that we do not use RFID and other types of computer tracking technology to enslave the world. If we are to ensure that tomorrow is better than today and that the human race evolves in the sacred direction, then we as Realists need to be visionaries and to help ensure that reality is part of the thinking that goes into the big decisions. We can not allow nations, religions, or any other group to seize control of the authority to use technology to turn us into slaves of the great machine. We need to be a free people moving towards a better world. |
The thing that's interesting about Christians and their "Intelligent Design" theory is that it is more likely in our future than in our past. The human race is on the verge of taking over our own evolution. We are at the point where we can engineer our future generations. And even though some of what I am about to write about are things we can't do today, many are things that we are about to be able to do in the next 10, 20, 50 or 100 years.
We already have the technology to do cloning. We can make a copy of existing life forms that are just like an identical twin of the original. As of the time I write this, human have not been cloned, but it is generally accepted in the scientific world that we could do it if we wanted to. No one has had the nerve to actually make it happen. But the fact that we can, makes us have to decide if we will or not.
And - we also have the technology not just to clone, but to make genetic improvements. Among these new creations are cantaloupe and yellow squash containing genes from bacteria and viruses, potatoes with chicken and wax moth genes, tomatoes with flounder and tobacco genes, corn with firefly genes, and rice with pea genes. These are essentially new custom life forms that we manufactured. All of this is just the beginning. This is the Frontier of Knowledge and we are just scratching the surface. We are making (what we believe) are better life forms. It's still the same species - but we have made a jump beyond evolution.
So far mankind has to what I would call "Assisted Natural Evolution" which is referred to as breeding. In pure evolution it's all about survival and reproduction, natural selection over billions of years. But thousands of years ago humans started to take control of the evolutionary process by selecting ourselves which animals to breed and we control what individuals survive and reproduce base on our own needs. In many cases we are creating species for the purpose of making them food. This is also true of crops. We have made huge advances in controlling the evolution of plants that we use for food and medicine. But so far we have done it through traditional reproductive means.
Humans are just another animal in the world of genetic engineering. Anything that is possible to do to animals will probably work on humans as well.
With genetic engineering we are changing the rules and speeding up evolution in ways that never could occur naturally. We are combining things that would not otherwise be combinable. This new way is far faster because we don't have to deal in generations and randomness anymore. We can just take the pieces we want and just put them together.
I believe that in the near future, when we can replicate any genetic sequence we want, and when we really understand genetics, we will be able to make any life form we choose with whatever characteristics we want, including custom versions of humans. The genetically superior race of super humans is not too far off in our future, and what we are today might be replaced but what we decide we are going to become, assuming that we make the choice,doesn't happen by accident.
We are already working towards using Gene Therapy to "fix" genetic disorders. If a person has a genetic defect, a gene that "normal" people have that is not functioning correctly, what is the harm in "fixing" it? But - what does fixing mean? Suppose that we can make a fix that improves humans beyond what any human has achieved through evolution. For example, we fix the genetic disorder we all share that causes aging. With the repaired gene we can live to be 150 years old. It might actually reverse the aging process allowing older people to become younger again, or partially younger in some tissues. If that were available today, would I go for it? You bet I would!
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The "Borg" from Star Trek
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Some people would argue that humans weren't meant to live to be 150 years old. But we are already cheating nature with the technology we have now. If we went back to "natural" we would have to give up all our medical science and we would go back to living half as long. Do we want to do that? I surely don't think so. So I'm not afraid of medical science getting better than it is today --as long as that progress really is better
Getting back on track - what does repairing genetic problems entail and when does it become genetic improvements? And - is that an issue? For example, suppose we could fix a gene that increased the sensitivity of our eyes to light, allowing us to see in the dark the way a cat can. Should we do that? Should we give people that choice? And if we do - that trait might be passed on to future generations. What about stronger bones? With genetic engineering, we might put the penis enlargement industry out of business, and maybe get less junk email. We could add cancer resistance, disease resistance, weight control, cure baldness, color blindness, Alzheimer's, ALS, stronger, taller, faster, smarter ... who can argue with that?
And then - taking it to the next level. What if we start using genes from other species to create humans with claws? Might come in handy if you work for the telephone company and are climbing poles all day. I think a lot of people might choose to have fur. Something like that might make living in Canada more attractive and might eliminate the need for clothing. The ability to digest cellulose might help ease world hunger providing a new source of nutrition. Or - we might even go to the next level and skip animal genes and just design new genes on computers. Once we figure it out, we could build a new form of life that is superior to us. And that life form would then do the same to make something that takes it to the next level.
Would this be a good thing? It sure seems like it. Unless, of course, there is a down side, and will we figure out the down side if there is one? And surely there will be problems that we have to deal with. The Church of Reality has the responsibility of making sure that reality is part of the process and that those who develop this technology think things through as we move forward. We need to ensure that there are safeguards in place so that we don't accidentally do something, like when we created "killer bees", that we are going to regret.
If we can choose what we will become, then let us make the best choice possible.
The technology is coming. Unless we destroy ourselves soon, the decision will be before us. We take the position therefore that it is not too early to start thinking about it and debating it. We can at least make some science fiction movies about it and scare the public into wondering, if we can choose what we will become, what is it that we would want to be. For better or for worse - we will soon have to make that choice. Let us then commit ourselves to that we will make a good choice and that we will put forth the effort to ensure that we choose as carefully as we can to do the right thing. |
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Wrigley's Doublemint Gum Twins
Natural Clones
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Many people talk about cloning as if it's a bad thing. Is it a bad thing? No - not in itself, but like all the technology presented here, it all depends on how you use it. Here we have cloned girls. The cloning process occurred naturally and we call them identical twins. One is an exact copy of the other. At the time the original cells split into 2 separate clusters. But natural or not - clones are clones.
Suppose however we did the same process artificially. We use artificial insemination in a laboratory. Suppose the couple wants identical twins. We could just clone the fertilized egg and implant both and you have twins. Or - suppose that you want to keep one of them frozen - just in case the first one doesn't take, so you can try again. But the first one does take and she grows up and finds out she has an identical twin sister frozen in a lab somewhere and she decides to implant it and be the mother of her twin sister? It would almost be like being the mother of yourself. That would be an opportunity for some self insight.
But aside from making copies of yourself and other people, medical cloning is mostly focused on making replacement parts. You have a heart that is going bad or your kidneys are shot. You are surviving on a machine. But now they can take your DNA, produce a clone, but just grow the part you need, then implant that back into you and you're good as new. Seems like there's nothing ethically wrong with that.
But - what if my ex-wife were to find an old hair follicle and decide to grow a copy of me? Now we've crossed a line. So far no one has given property rights to anything that leaves your body. In fact doctors have made products out of tissues taken from people who's DNA has been turned into a comercial product, and the person who's body parts were used had no property rights in the result. Somehow that doesn't seem right to me.
Cloning, like genetic engineering, is something that is in our future and we have to be smart about and make the right choices. Personally, if they make 100,000 of the Doublemint girls, that would be fine with me. But I'm sure other people might have a problem with it. |
Sounds kind of "tin foil hat" but we already are doing it. There's a device called a cochlear implant that this implant is a computer that converts sound to electrical impulses that are sent to the brain. Even though this implant is far less than what we think of as a "chip in the brain", it's close enough that you can see that it's coming.
Imagine what it would be like to have a computer implanted directly into the brain. The computers we have now are essentially an extension of the human mind. The only difference is that we interface to our present computers through our eyes and fingers. If the computer were implanted into the brain, then it would be more convenient. The computer is with you all the time and you don't have to use your eyes or fingers to access it.
Imagine what it could be like. You would never forget facts anymore. In your mind you would have huge lists of data. Phone numbers, addresses, names, street maps, all there in your mind. Need to do math - no problem. Do millions of calculations per second with 100% accuracy. Watches are no longer needed. You know what time it is to a fraction of a second and you can measure time with extreme precision. Add a GPS receiver and you would know exactly where you are all the time. And with some standard signal interfaces you can control all the devices in you house with a single thought. Direct mind to mind communication would also be possible. Sort of like email in you brain. You could even put a chip in your cat's brain. If the cat needs to go - the door opens to let it out.
This could all be wonderful as long as we do it right. But like all the new technology I've talked about, there's the dark side. Such a device can be used to enslave the population. It can be used to control the mind and force people to behave the way the government wants. They could even spy on your thoughts and execute you for wrong thinking. |
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Newsflash |
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The IRS has approved the 501(C)3 tax exempt status of the Church of Reality. |
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Future of Humanity