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General Epistemology        Chapter VI-16       

 

VI-16
The future of mankind

 

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The purpose of this chapter is more specifically to determine the desirable evolution of the human specie, in the short run (The long run evolution will be in chapter VIII-8). But we must start by being wary of imitations:

Disambiguation: the frightening transhumanism

(Permalink) Transhumanism claims to foresee, and even to prepare the future evolution of Mankind. However transhumanism as we know it today is a frightening ideology. Their dream is to find technological solutions to problems such as immortality, or «advanced states of consciousness», without thinking first about the nature of consciousness, the purpose of life, or ethics. So this is the exact opposite of what we are doing in this book. Of course, transhumanism also meddles with the abolition of genders, eugenics and the hacking of Evolution (extropianism), all of them without any ethical or spiritual control, not even human rights. And in addition they do not like nature or ecology, that they feel as a reproach. Basically, everything that is technically possible MUST be done, without ever asking the question of the consequences. Their link with the inevitable libertarianism (note 90) indicates where these crazy ideas are coming from: the new financial nobility, preparing the ground for juicy sales of false hopes and true mutilations.

What I propose in this chapter could occasionally use the same technical, neurological or genetic means than transhumanism. However, the goal is totally different: to develop a harmonious, happy and spiritual life. A free and fulfilling Humanity, not Borg monsters from Star Treck. In this view, a mean whatsoever is acceptable only if it serves that purpose.

To avoid confusion, I propose the terms «gray transhumanism©» (note 93 on the use of ©)or «black transhumanism©» for the technological delusions, and «white transhumanism©» for the positive evolution. But I prefer not to use that word at all, to cut any link with this frightening movement. What I propose is radically different, and based on beauty and spirituality:

Homo Elficus©

(Permalink) (note 93 on the use of ©) Origin of the concept. The concept and name of Homo Elficus that I propose for the human species which will follow Homo Sapiens, is a clear allusion to the concept of Elves of Scandinavian mythology, as described in the Edda, and magnified in Tolkien's novels and the movies they inspired. In a nutshell, in the Edda, the Elves are human-looking beings, but wonderfully beautiful, wise and loving nature. Tolkien, in his novels, imagined similar characteristics: physical beauty, lack of ageing, love of nature and life, goodness, intelligence, wisdom and honesty without fault. They also have magical powers, which are totally evacuated from the movies, although we see their magic lamps in the Lorien.

How can these fictions affect our future? Simply by proposing a very interesting and well-known model, of a wonderful humanity.

In fact, there are many other sources describing a similar ideal: Ajanta Caves, Buddhist and Hindu Tantras, Quranic Paradise, more recent Christian sources, and probably many others. We can say that this ideal appeared gradually, starting about twelve centuries ago (It therefore owes nothing to the modern media). In fact, we have no obligation to call these creatures Elves. But Tolkien's Elves are well known. The East invokes different kinds of wonderful creatures, but their names are less known to the general public. We cannot speak of Angels either, too much related to a single religion. So, to give a name to these creatures, Elf sounds better than Nietzsche's Übermensch («Superhuman»), and with positive connotations that everyone knows.

The very idea of Elves, different from Humans but magnifying them, reflects a progression towards a more advanced species, not only in quantity, but also in new capacities, which Humans have not yet developed. In more, a natural progression which owes nothing to technological balderdashes. A progression already desired since twelve centuries from all the sources above. And which will happen naturally anyway: Darwinian Evolution pushes precisely in this direction, for 60 million years (see why in chapter IV-6).

I do not know yet how things will happen, nor what will actually be possible. But we can give some general lines:

 

-Slender bodies (neither obese nor muscular) without body hair, without unpleasant smells (see also the ideal of bodily beauty in chapter VI-5 on sexuality). It is likely that we shall see a much wider variety of skin colours, styles, and even sizes (Pixies).

-An artistic sensibility towards high vibrations (chapter V-17): pure colours, inspiring music, nature, etc.

-Comfortable clothes, also with beautiful colours

-Simple but beautiful homes, with rounded and organic shapes

-Good in science (I know this is going to shock some, but if there had been science in Lord of the Rings, the Elves would have mastered it first, just as they mastered the magical science of their universe. In my stories of the Dauriath, the Elves beat the Humans in the race to science).

-Intelligent and cultivated.

-Positive and constructive.

-Honest and sincere, with themselves and with others.

-And especially psychoeducated from birth. I think this is THE criterion that will differentiate Elficus from Sapiens, just as the intelligent technology differentiated Sapiens from Erectus.

The methods to realise this ideal:

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-Art, to share the vision. Virtual worlds, movies, novels, and music will all be useful. This is mostly what I consecrate my own life to, and this site.

-Psychological and spiritual training, to heal our neuroses and pathological thought processes. What I call psychoeducation (chapter VI-12). This is the cheapest method.

Normally, these two should be enough, if everybody does it seriously. But as usual, every time we do something interesting, we get a lot of idiots that hatch right under our feet and start bawling and opposing. More seriously, psychoeducation is not transmitted to children: it depends on a complex process of education and on the goodwill of the recipient. Thus, even putting it in compulsory education at school, there is no guarantee that everyone actually engages in the process, or even a majority. And we shall still have a cumbersome minority of sociopaths (chapter VI-13) unable to do the necessary introspection. Managing all this would require a castes system, but castes systems always degenerated into discriminations.

We can envision to use the same technological solutions as the grey transhumanism, but with an ethical control and a positive purpose. But given the dangers these are the most expensive methods.

-Genetics and eugenics (chapter VI-7 and chapter VI-15) to modify the brain in the way of promoting psychoeducation and eliminating psychoses and sociopathy.

-Control of the brain by implants. In practice, only its growth (chapter V-14 and chapter V-15) should be controlled, mainly because controlling the content poses formidable human rights problems. Ideally the person would feel the activity of the implant as a consciousness director, who would help him in his thought choices, but without constraining him (except of course to prevent crimes)

-3D printing of people, including the brain. The fantastic progress of 3D printers allows to consider this solution in a reasonable time, and I describe it in one of my novels «Typheren». The advantage of creating a brain in this way is that the person could benefit from many «native» neural learning: languages, skills, artistic gifts, and of course the indispensable psychoeducation. The principle is to use connectome parts from particularly talented people. Thus the printed brain would benefit from the best: Mozart's fingers, Einstein's genius, Gandhi's Ahimsa, etc.

The problem here is that developing these technologies can also serve the gray transhumanism, and even plans for a gross subjugation of mankind: brains natively submissive, super-soldiers without feelings, sex slaves, Orwellian control of the thought, etc. And if these methods are wildly developed, it will probably be very difficult to avoid these scary applications. These methods are therefore to be excluded in a non-psychoeducated setting. We can fear that there will be a competition between positive projects and slavery projects, and probably these methods should be developed in secret (Chapter II-9), but this raises other difficulties and problems.

 

The only safe and practical short-term solution I see is to establish a positive egregore, able to influence things in the right way, discreetly and without forcing anybody. We see that the enemies of humanity have their egregore, so why not us. In the meantime, we must denounce all the risks: we saw in chapter I-4 why we sometimes have to brake an evolution that we however want (to avoid an overtaking in the opposite excess).

Tolkien's Elves also have a magical side. Even if the explanation is different, modern spirituality foresees that evolved beings can reach a level of powers comparable to that of the Elves. Already today we have slight effects of this kind, though insufficient to compensate for the entropy of human stupidity. When these effects are sufficient to thwart the entropy-generating policies, then humanity will escape the grossest forms of collective evil. Despite appearances, we are not very far from this stage, and the rotten policies that we still see today could actually help to raise awareness.

But it is only when these forces are able to awaken all the people to the true life, and protect them from the temptations of evil, that we can speak of Homo Elficus. At this point, technological methods will no longer be useful. This provides us with a safe way to access this state. Further, we will be able to influence even genetic evolution, without any of the dangers of eugenics.

Ultimately, this would even be enough to ensure individual change, as of today, as soon as a person is able to purify himself of his neuroses by this means.

Hence another name that I propose to the next humanity: Homo Spiritus© (note 93 on the use of ©).

The planetary paradise

(Permalink) Once free of neuroses, we shall be free to build the world we really want.

What awaits psychoeducated humanity is above all a fantastic freedom: free from any dictatorship (brutal or psychological), free of all opinions and ideologies (religious, political, scientistist (note 92) or materialistic), free of all these ridiculous relationship problems which ruin our personal lives and our collective undertakings, we can then build a world of happiness and beauty, or realize our wildest dreams (with only the limitations of the material world).

Of course it is tempting to describe this planetary paradise, freedom to do this, freedom to say that. But before I would like to share a vision: the sensual desire of this freedom, to live and enjoy the world without hindrance, its beauty, its life, the sensations that it offers us, caress of the wind, heat of the sun, brightness of the morning, vitality of the greenery... To be 100% invested in it, without having to worry about conflict, paperwork, useless grey stuff. Knowing that wherever we go, we will be welcomed. To know that whatever we decide, we will be respected. Be able to admire a landscape without anyone talking about TV stuff. To take care of cultivating, of building, without being denatured by a commercial statute, nor to depend on a credit that grey people will have fun refusing us. Let all these concepts and illusions dissipate, leaving only the fantastic energy of existence. That all these grey, absent-minded people that we see in the streets suddenly wake up, light up their eyes, become friends, accomplices, and start doing exciting things. May the world cease to be a battle without stakes. That we live in peace, the absence of war of course, but also the peace of each moment: not to have constantly to defend oneself of a judgment, to restrict our gestures, to make ourself look busy at something serious, and that we can enjoy every moment of the fantastic adventure of being conscious!

In today's world, we are used to guarantee freedom with rights, laws, etc. But it is still restricting it. Each of these laws is yet another opportunity for sadists to monitor, control, criticize, and restrain. They did that with the word of Jesus, they did that with democracy, they did that with communism, they did that with the Internet. If we let them, they will do that even with these very sentences you are reading. The only guarantee, but the best, is that everyone becomes positive and respectful, that everyone draws directly on the basic inspiration of life and consciousness.

The most fundamental freedom is therefore to be able to enjoy a harmonious life. Even a modest-sized house, but surrounded by nature, a garden, birds, and calm. Today, to achieve this ideal, homes should be at least 500 meters away from each other. A much more practical solution is that we do not hear televisions, arguments, engines, barking, cracraproot music, discussion with a distressing level of stupidity. Thus, the nearest house would always be the one of a friend, and so it can be only fifty meters away. An excellent addition would be a soundproofed meditation cell, or better ear plugs with active sounds cancellation (I think they could be effective even against tinitus).

We saw in chapter VI-7 the best layout scheme: a fractal plan mixing nature and humanized areas, without impeding each other. In practice, this gives small housing units, surrounded by cultures and then by virgin nature, but connected by fast and convenient transports, which do not disturb the animal life.

The transition toward the planetary paradise

(Permalink) In the short term, this freedom will be very relative: in the devastated world covered with concrete boxes that we are leaving to our descendants, almost everything will have to be rebuilt. A certainly exciting exercise, but which may require a lot of work: we are far from the famous two hours a day that some predicted! So the appearance of the world will change only gradually, and it will take several generations for it to become really beautiful.

 

The most serious problem will be overpopulation. Reducing children to 0.5 per woman will create a generation of elders, who will have to be cared for. The advantage however will be much better conditions for children, in villages for them, their parents and educators.

 

Soon, too, will be the problem of eugenics, mandatory consequence of the nuclear age. Today, the only eugenics that we know how to do, is to detect some illness genes in the parents, and if a bad one is found, advise against a procreation. However, the proliferation of unhealthy genes from the nuclear age will soon impose much more powerful means, involving a much more complete control of fertilization, including meiosis. (For obvious reasons, the fertilized eggs will be immediately implanted in a woman, who will also be the mother of the child. The father will naturally be the donor man, unless the number of genetic diseases is such as more diversity is needed. But in any case the child has the right to know, on simple request). With the lifespan of nuclear waste and the number of recessive diseases to be detected, it may take several thousand years for these methods to be no longer needed, and to return to all-natural fertilization.

Eugenics will also allow to improve the human species. We shall study in chapter VI-15 the conditions and the risks of such a project. Fortunately, in a psychoeducated society, the risks are reduced to errors. Errors which can still have serious consequences, as I explain in my novel Dumria, where an attempt to create immortal bodies has resulted in a blockage of the spiritual evolution of this people! The mistake has been corrected, but from their incredible lifetime, the Dumrians will need twenty thousand years to replace the population.

My novel Araukan shows the spiritual transition in a dramatized way.

Life span of a psychoeducated civilisation

(Permalink) In the long run, this situation is inherently stable. Indeed, whatever danger or unexpected situation may arise, people can analyze and understand it, and above all they can act to correct the problem immediately, without having in their feet manipulative politicians, defamatory media, masses of asleep people or riot police. Even serious natural disasters would find appropriate responses, minimizing casualties or destruction.

Even geological or spatial changes in living conditions on a planet would find progressive adaptations: migrations, population decrease (by family planning), etc.

Clearly, it takes a really huge or sudden global catastrophe to eliminate a psychoeducated civilization, and it will usually end only with the extinction of its star.

For this reason, I put forward the figure of several billion years for the average life of such a civilization (several tens of billions with a red dwarf). This figure has an immediate implication: knowing that life on Earth took four billion years to achieve civilization, and that planets like Earth exist for eleven billion years, then we can expect to find psychoeducated civilizations as old as six billion years. Moreover, after all this time, they should be very numerous. Which brings us back to the question of why no one ever visited us. We shall see a possible explanation a little further, and especially in chapter VIII-9.

This figure will surprise, and even scandalize some. It is indeed fashionable to say that Mankind «cannot» survive for a long time, that overpopulation «will» make the globe uninhabitable, that its resources «will» be exhausted, and so on. These affirmations are indeed true for today's Mankind, bound by its psychological problems and incapable of managing even its own survival. But not for a psychoeducated Mankind, free to examine the problems and to apply the solutions. Even if Mankindumanity is to be reduced to a few hundreds millions, it can survive during the five billion years that the Sun leaves us.

 

Others propose astounding solutions: to colonize other planets, to modify our brains, to replace them with electronic brains, to disconnect our senses from the physical world and to invest ourselves in a virtual reality... They just forget that, as with the former hippies fleeing the technological world to Kathmandu, their psychological problems will follow them wherever they go, space or virtual worlds (already checked for the later). These problems are indeed inherent to the physical functioning of the brain, nor to the environment neither to the experience. In other words, if someone is bad or stupid on Earth, he will be bad and stupid in space, still bad and stupid on another planet, and still again bad and stupid in a virtual world. Even if we offer him a paradise, he will just destroy it. Finally, an awkward electronic copy of the brain could even make things worse, by suppressing free will (see the full discussion in chapter V-18). So it is quite useless to go through so much trouble, and it is infinitely better if every idiot stays near his manure pile.

The Evolution

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Evaluation of the speed of the natural Evolution of the brain

(Permalink) (Legal warning: I forbid to quote or mention the following paragraph without adding the two precisions in parenthesis: this is NOT a justification for racism, and anyone saying or suggesting otherwise is liable to prosecution)

The speed of Darwinian evolution of the human brain can be estimated by observing its recent history. 60,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens left Africa to spread to Australia where they arrived 40,000 years ago. However, Australian Aborigines continued to live like their prehistoric African ancestors, in their «dream world» (which is a form of spiritual civilization just as interesting as a concrete world), without creating technological civilizations nor large societies. These things appeared more recently, on a date which is difficult to assess because the traces of this time were hidden by the rise of the oceans six thousand years before JC. But it had to appear much earlier, as proof the Indians of America, who entered there 13,000 years ago, and already had the ability to create civilizations and technology. There is therefore good reason to believe that one or more mutations of the genes controlling the formation of the brain favoured the emergence of technical thought and society life, between -60,000 and -13,000 years. Even more recently, spiritual tools have emerged which favour compassion and control of our thinking, possibly based on mutations making introspection easier.

(Precision: Possible observable differences between races are not ground for hating or discriminating people. Racism is a mental illness which has nothing to do with possible differences between people, only with the mental inferiority of the person suffering from it. In a non-dual way with the preceding sentence, the fight against racism can not be a motive for hiding any differences between the races, if any were found. They anyway are too weak to justify different rights or treatments).

(Precision: We can even go further: if we follow the branch which spread from Africa 60,000 years ago (probably from the Bushmen), we find the Malagasy, the Dravidian of India, the Papua, Aborigines, Kanaks, and Melanesian. All these peoples have in common practices of pacification or mediation of conflicts, which make them the most non-violent peoples of the world (perhaps they are even at the origin of Ahimsa in India.) In these conditions, if there are «superior races», it would rather be them. In any case, the day when we want to use eugenics to create natively psychoeducated brains, we will definitively need the genes of these so-called primitive Papua).

 

Thus we can estimate that an important mutation of the human brain occurs naturally every fifty thousand years, bringing each time new conditions, much more favourable than the previous ones. The capacity for psychoeducation already exists; naturally psychoeducated brains could therefore arrive within a very short time span at the scale of evolution: 100,000 years at most. And even earlier, if our disasters come to exterminate a large part of humanity, creating «bottlenecks» favouring the spread of mutations. So the idiots who dreamed of destroying humanity with their bombs and their nuclear power plants will serve it in the end.

 

This forced march evolution towards such a huge stake as psychoeducation is very probably resulting of what I called in Chapter IV-6 a logical feedback, that is to say a Darwinian evolution, not at random, but forced in a direction imposed by a powerful emerging stake. However, we must remember that a logical feedback is not an action of external origin: it will do nothing to help us. Actions, it is up to us to do them, if we want to be on the winning branch of Evolution. Otherwise we will be on a dead branch, and others will win later. The only thing the feedback does, is to make the pruning tool much faster and sharper. Beware of idiots.

Evaluation of the speed of controlled Evolution of the brain

(Permalink) We have experience of controlled brain evolution, by oriented Darwinian selection: tamed animals. For cows and goats, 6000 years were enough to familiarize them with the Humans. For dogs, 32,000 years of breeding made of them loyal companions, who even know how to modulate their anger when dealing with children. The extreme is reached by huskies or malamutes, to whom we can entrust babies. The transmission of such genetic characters must require at least a dozen genes.

A directed evolution of the brain is therefore much faster than a natural evolution, with a gene in something like every 2000 years. And this with old methods, without knowledge of Mendel's laws. Today we create animal breeds in a few years, even if nobody yet controls the evolution of the brain itself. This shows the superiority of a directed evolution compared to a natural evolution which just rejects the «abnormal».

The artificial methods of genetic selection, applied to Humans, should allow to obtain visible personality improvements from one generation to the next... if we knew which genes to choose. For now we know very little of the genes coding for the brain or for its instinctive programs. We are not even sure that the structure of the brain is entirely determined by genes. But if it is determined by an egregore, then it is easier and less risky to modify it.

Who will control the process?

(Permalink) Whether the means used are psychological, spiritual, medical or genetic, they offer far too much power to be entrusted to random folks. In fact, it would be far better to employ none of them, than to leave them accessible in an anarchic world like today, where a whole lot of infantile egos would seek to conform others to their own limitations. Hence the need for an authority to steer the process, if we want to go faster than the slow Darwinian elimination of psychoprimitives.

The world authority for the Transition

(Permalink) There clearly are decisions which have to be taken globally, and must not be opposed by minorities or by local governments. This anarchy is costing us our climate policies today (2018), and we cannot afford to lose the free will of mankind to egocentric or childish ideologies or to local powers. So we clearly need a world authority able to lead the process without oppositions.

It would be better if the world authority for the Transition starts from the UN. However the UN today (2018) totally lacks the required authority and spiritual competences, and by far.

Please note that I say «world authority», not «world government». This makes its attribution more limited, and entails less risk of a dictatorship. Anyway, people are free to continue to manage their economy, keep their culture, etc.

The enlightened dictatorship

(Permalink) We may think that a psychoeducated government can help a lot in the transition. But there are two problems:

1) The legitimacy of the government, and therefore its purpose, must be accepted by the majority. Otherwise they will revolt or brake.

2) The government must be really psychoeducated, otherwise it cannot ensure the transition to a better society.

In practice, I cannot vouch for any of the two: If there are too many non-psychoeducated, such a government will not be able to work, unless it has police or military powers to force its decisions. But experience (USSR) shows that this does not create trust toward the government. At best, we could stay for centuries with a seemingly united society, but which does not move forward because it is deeply divided spiritually. This is what happened with the dictatorship of Catholicism, which only result was the rejection of spirituality.

An easy first step towards a psychoeducated government would be a selection of candidates for election, by psychiatrists and psychologists, to eliminate sociopaths, neuropaths, temperamentalists, ideologues, etc.

An angelic or extraterrestrial intervention?

(Permalink) In my opinion, we must not rely too much on that. But assuming this is possible, at least this would satisfy the point 2) above. This is why the religions and the New Age desire such a government. But he could not solve point 1): if psychoprimitive people create problems, even a kind and spiritual government will have to take authoritarian measures. We can only hope that it will have less unpleasant means than police or military force.

In any case, they would have to take measures against non-psychoeducated atavisms. So we come back to the previous case. Or worse: such a government would not bother with our «traditions», and it would directly tackle problems like meat or drugs, and this could be very unpleasant for all the addicts.

However it is more likely that an extraplanetary intervention would not seek to directly control Humanity, but to allow the psychoeducated to take power, and to protect them from backward reactions.

We shall speak again of such an intervention in chapter VIII-9, section on psi SETI. And how it could already be started. And this in a totally discreet way, but without falling in any of the above traps.

Conclusion

(Permalink) If it is difficult to predict in which direction Humanity will evolve, but we can still say that it will. And that the gimmicks of infantile politicians trying to block the process will rather speed it up. Even climate disasters and nuclear disasters cannot prevent it. The only question is whether the process will be under our control, fast and pleasant, or whether it will be a long conflict and suffering.

 

The only question everyone needs to ask himself is how he will fit into the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

General Epistemology        Chapter VI-16       

 

 

 

 

 

 

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