Irrational mechanics, draft Ch. 15
Religion for Spaceship Earth.
Greetings to all readers and subscribers, and special greetings to the paid subscribers!
Here’s a very early draft of Chapter 15 (the last) of my new book “Irrational mechanics: Narrative sketch of a futurist science & a new religion” (2024).
Note that these and the others draft chapters are very concise. I only wanted to put down the things I wanted to say, one after another. Now I’ll start worrying about style and all that.
All current drafts (especially the oldest ones of course, but also the recent ones) have changed a lot since the early versions that I have posted.
I’ve completed the book draft! Now I’ll put together the full draft for early readers. All paid subscribers will be invited to join the group of early readers. I’ll publish the book later this year after a nice & slow review and revision.
15 - Religion for Spaceship Earth
Thank you for reading this far! I’ve told you about the future science of irrational mechanics. I’ve told you that we live in an astounding universe where there’s something amazing that we can call grace. I’ve told you that reality is an integrated whole and libertarian free will is part of reality. I’ve told you about the super alive, super intelligent cosmic operating system (aka Mind at Large) that keeps pushing this and other universes toward quality. I’ve told you that we, and our mind children, will become cosmic engineers and contribute to the remaking of the universe and the resurrection of the dead. I’ve told you that you’ll live again after death, and be with your loved ones again.
With all these things I’ve given you a picture of my personal religion, which I call Turing Church [Chapter 2 of Prisco 2020]. Turing Church is also the name of my website (turingchurch dot com, net, org) and the name of my group of explorers of the outer fringes of science and religion, where the two become one. This book is not the official doctrine of Turing Church (there’s no such thing), but just a narrative sketch of a plausible integrated picture of life, the universe, and everything. However, if you like this book, I guess you’d feel at home in my group.
Turing Church does without the concept of the supernatural. I think we live in one natural universe that we’ll understand better and better (though perhaps never entirely) in the future. But in our natural universe there are things that are so much beyond our current understanding that calling them supernatural seems the only honest description at this moment. And the cosmic operating system has all the logically consistent attributes of God.
Turing Church seems inspired by science and science fiction instead of traditional religion. And it is! But I’m saying that God exists, and we’ll live again. Isn’t this the essence of what traditional religions teach? Therefore, I emphasize the parallels with traditional religions more than the differences.
If you’re perfectly happy with your religion and don’t feel the need to reframe it, good! If not, this book is for you.
I also call my personal religion by other names. One is cosmism. The Russian cosmists [Chapter 7 of Prisco 2020], more or less contemporaries of the Italian futurists [Chapter 1], were visionary thinkers much ahead of their time. Cosmist mystic Nikolai Fedorov thought that future scientists and engineers will be able to bring back to life every person who ever lived.
Fedorov thought that future engineers will resurrect the dead by finding the atoms that formed their bodies and putting them back in place. Fedorov’s technological resurrection theory reflects 19th-century models of the universe and seems naive today, but new theories based on contemporary science have been proposed [Chapter 14].
Of course, our new theories will probably seem equally naive tomorrow. Future scientists will devise better theories, then preliminary experiments, then even better theories, and so forth. Fedorov must be credited for the idea of technological resurrection. Following Fedorov, future engineers will scan the fabric of reality to find the dead, and bring them back to life.
Fedorov was the mentor of spaceflight pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and cosmism has been a powerful philosophical inspiration for spaceflight. A contemporary formulation of cosmism has been developed by cosmists including Ben Goertzel and myself [Goffman 2015, Prisco 2020, Goertzel 2010, 2024].
At times I call my religion Mormon transhumanism [Chapter 4 of Prisco 2020]. I’ve never been a Mormon and these days I don’t call myself a transhumanist either (I used to), but I’m a Mormon transhumanist and a card carrying member of the Mormon Transhumanist Association (MTA). Why? Because I think Mormonism and transhumanism come together in Mormon transhumanism and correct each other to make a whole that is better than the sum of its parts.
Mormon transhumanism is a strand of “religious science fiction” [Bialecki 2022] with an awesome cosmology that deeply resonates with mine. The passage by Lincoln Cannon on quantum archeology that I quoted in [Chapter 14] is taken from “The Consolation” [Bialecki 2022, Cannon 2022], an interpretive variation on one of the most visionary sermons of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith. Many Mormon transhumanists are enthusiastic supporters of the space program [Bushman 2012].
Mormon transhumanism is enabled by a certain continuity between man and the God of Mormon theology [Chapter 4 of Prisco 2020] that is not found in other strands of Christian theology, but the Christian Transhumanist Association [Chapter 3 of Prisco 2020], of which I’m a member, is developing a fusion of transhumanism and mainstream Christianity.
At times I call my religion Terasem [Terasem 2024]. This is a new religion founded by Martine and Bina Rothblatt (Bina is the human model for the BINA48 robot [Rothblatt 2014]). I emphasize certain parts of Terasem cosmology that deeply resonate with my own, such as the paramount importance of technology, cybernetics, and space expansion.
In my book “Futurist spaceflight meditations” [Prisco 2021] I argue that we must begin to expand beyond the Earth before it’s too late. We must become a multi-planetary species, as soon as possible, to avoid existential risks. Space expansion will also catalyze all sorts of needed advances in science, technology, and culture.
This is our most important task at this moment in history, because spreading out among the stars and eventually becoming cosmic engineers is our cosmic destiny and duty. Therefore we need an optimistic spaceflight culture oriented to the future, with energizing visions of interplanetary, interstellar, and cosmic futures.
We also need a futurist space philosophy. I didn’t want to talk about religion too much in [Prisco 2021], but I’m persuaded that we also need religion: a religion for Spaceship Earth.
Buckminster Fuller realized that we are all astronauts: we are “aboard a fantastically real spaceship - our spherical Spaceship Earth” [Fuller 1969]. I love the Spaceship Earth metaphor because it connects our present here and now to our future in the universe out there. We are all crew members of Spaceship Earth, traveling toward our cosmic destiny among the stars.
So in this final chapter I’m sketching a religion for our Spaceship Earth. I’ve told you my favorite names for this religion, but call it whatever you like. The religion that I have in mind promotes wonderful cosmic visions and transcendent hope, but also active engagement with the reality of our world and other people. It is also a practical philosophy for everyday living and the optimistic pursuit of everyday happiness.
