In Elon We Trust

This particular personality cult is A Good Thing. Also, a conversation on universal resurrection with Cometan.

Greetings to all readers and subscribers, and special greetings to the paid subscribers!

Please scroll down for the main topic of this newsletter. But first:

Cometan @CometanOfficial

Giulio Prisco returns to have a conversation with Cometan about the cosmist dream for a universal resurrection as well as Cometan's Astroeschatology (the eschatology of Astronism) – youtube.com/watch?v=Z9EJ9u… #cosmism #Astronism #eschatology #soteriology #transhumanist #transcension

youtube.comA Conversation with Cometan & Giulio Prisco | Season 3 Ep 9 | Cosmic Resurrection & AstroeschatologyGiulio Prisco returns to A Conversation with Cometan for Season 3. The transhumanist and cosmist thinker sits down with Cometan once again for a fascinating ...

I had a long Zoom chat with Cometan, the founder of Astronism. Here’s the video.

Cometan says:

“Giulio Prisco returns to A Conversation with Cometan for Season 3. The transhumanist and cosmist thinker sits down with Cometan once again for a fascinating deep dive into the concept of a cosmic anastasis, or a far-future resurrection of our human ancestors as one of the many rewards of humanity's exploration of outer space and our civilised expansion to the stars. Indeed, this is the cosmist dream envisioned by Nikolai Fyodorov and his contemporaries but Cometan brings in his own Astronist perspective on the topic by introducing his Astroeschatology. Astroeschatology embodies Astronism's doctrines of the final destination of the soul and humankind among the stars as based on the astrosoteriological dogma of transcension (also called the analipsis).”

With Cometan’s permission, I’ll republish the audio of the chat in a next episode of the Turing Church podcast. But the chat was mostly focused on my ideas, and I didn’t entirely understand Cometan’s Astroeschatology, or “Astronism's doctrines of the final destination of the soul and humankind among the stars.” We’ll chat again next week, this time mostly on Cometan’s Astroeschatology.

Image by Thierry Ehrmann / Flickr.

I’m not into personality cults, not even this one.

Elon Musk is way smarter than me, much more energetic, and about one million times richer. But he’s just a man like me. At the end of the day (or perhaps at the beginning), when he sits on the toilet, he does exactly the same thing that I do.

I have no doubts that Elon must be a bad person at times (like you, me and everyone else). I have no doubts that Elon must be a complete asshole at times (like you, me and everyone else).

But Elon has single-handedly revolutionized the electric vehicle technology and industry that promise to make our planet much cleaner and greener.

And Elon is using his genius and his money to advance spaceflight. Elon’s spaceflight technology is better than NASA’s, and this is beginning to make a serious difference.

But to me it’s even more important that Elon doesn’t limit himself to the timid and politically correct caution of NASA. Yes, spaceflight can be good for the economy and the environment and all that. But Elon says loud and clear that he wants to make humanity multi-planetary. THIS is what is really important.

Giulio Prisco @giulioprisco

@ramez @elonmusk is pushing toward a multi-planetary humanity, both as a DOER and as an inspiration for others. He is also pushing toward sustainable energy on this planet, with DEEDS instead of empty words. This is MUCH more important than whatever his critics say.

Today’s news are dominated by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. I strive to be optimistic and I think this pandemic and this war will end. But the news should be a wake up call and make us realize that the next pandemic and the next war could be much worse. Perhaps the next pandemic will be a hundred times more lethal and perhaps the next war will be fought with nuclear weapons or ultra-lethal and uncontrollable bioweapons. We need backup options, and we need them now. There MUST be a planet B.

And don’t forget Neuralink. I don’t know how, but besides Tesla, SpaceX, and other ventures Elon manages to find the time to oversee the development of next generation mind/brain interfacing technologies that could make humanity not only multi-planetary but also telepathic, and perhaps open the way to mind uploading.

When I visit Twitter, the words of W. B. Yeats come to my mind:

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”

I trust I don’t need to elaborate more.

But Elon provokes passionate intensity in the best. Seeing millions and millions of people from all over the planet tweeting support, praise, admiration and even adoration for Elon is refreshing, and fills my mind and my heart with optimism and great expectations.

Of course things won’t advance as fast as Elon hopes. We won’t have a Mars colony in ten years, Neuralink won’t make you telepathic anytime soon, and the adoption of electric vehicle technology will be slow. I’m sure Elon knows that, and most of his fans know that. But Elon is pushing forward on all these fronts and making people optimistic and enthusiastic about the future again. THIS is what really matters.

Instead of a colony on Mars, I guess in ten years there could be a small research outpost on the Moon. And even this could be wishful thinking. But so what? The road to the stars is long and we can only advance one little step a time. But advance we must, to keep our spirit alive.

And the prospect of human expansion into space, first to the planets and then to the stars, has deep and awesome cosmic and spiritual implications. See my book “Futurist spaceflight meditations.”

Not the nicest guy? Of course Elon isn’t the nicest guy. Robert Pirsig says:

“It’s not the nice guys who bring about real social change. Nice guys look nice because they’re conforming. It’s the bad guys, who only look nice a hundred years later, that are the real Dynamic force in social evolution.”

I’m sure Elon will look VERY nice in a hundred years, or a thousand. Here’s to Elon! This particular personality cult is A Good Thing that the world needs. Despite my skepticism for the short term, call me a loyal card-carrying member of Elon’s cult.