Transhumanism and the future of astral projection in society.

[desert-rat]

they could live in a jar like in futurama 

:NoY:

There would be no fun in that , you would need to have a body with full human movement and feeling , or it would be a lot more fun on the astral plane . On Pavlina a few years ago we had this discussion of un freezing a frozen body .  Would there be a soul there to re inhabit that body ? Maby a demon would be wating for that body .  desert rat

[PlasmaAstralProjection]

No, I'm saying it's hard because it's supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be a rite of passage. It's supposed to be something that teaches you along the way, something that helps you navigate your own existence. With hard work and determination you can and will access it.

I think what you call challenging will just change as time goes by. We will always have challenges. Does that mean we should all just go back to the stone age in order to learn how to challenge ourselves enough. Not necessarily. We just need to be challenged in different ways.

[Lionheart]

I think what you call challenging will just change as time goes by. We will always have challenges. Does that mean we should all just go back to the stone age in order to learn how to challenge ourselves enough. Not necessarily. We just need to be challenged in different ways.

It's exactly this kind of thinking that makes lazy minds. People are always quick to fall back on the "dinosaur" excuse. If you don't conform to new technology, than you are old fashion and anti technology. There are some things that technology should not replace. I don't need to make excuses, I confront things head on no matter how difficult the challenge may be. I know as do many other people here that the true learning is in the entire experience. Why do you think we don't try use the Astral to win lotteries?

[PlasmaAstralProjection]

It's exactly this kind of thinking that makes lazy minds. People are always quick to fall back on the "dinosaur" excuse. If you don't conform to new technology, than you are old fashion and anti technology. There are some things that technology should not replace. I don't need to make excuses, I confront things head on no matter how difficult the challenge may be. I know as do many other people here that the true learning is in the entire experience. Why do you think we don't try use the Astral to win lotteries?

You are obviously missing the bigger point here. Don't you think it would be better to give astral projection to the world via transhuman technology than to say "no you must do AP my way, or you don't deserve to astral project at all."

[Lionheart]

You are obviously missing the bigger point here. Don't you think it would be better to give astral projection to the world via transhuman technology than to say "no you must do AP my way, or you don't deserve to astral project at all."

It's not MY way, its the way it is! Why do you think we have thousands of threads on this forum related to this?
Do you expect to learn to play a guitar with a simple button or for that fact any trade in general? It's the challenge that gives you the final fulfillment!  
I can see that you don't share my view at all here and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. This is my final words on this post.
Thank you! 

[PlasmaAstralProjection]

It's not MY way, its the way it is! Why do you think we have thousands of threads on this forum related to this?
Do you expect to learn to play a guitar with a simple button or for that fact any trade in general? It's the challenge that gives you the final fulfillment!  
I can see that you don't share my view at all here and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. This is my final words on this post.
Thank you!  

Both views will work but my view will have the most effect and end more suffering faster.

Peace.

[catmeow]

Here is another list of things transhumanists want to do.

"Transhumanists support the emergence and convergence of technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science (NBIC), and hypothetical future technologies such as simulated reality, artificial intelligence, superintelligence, mind uploading, chemical brain preservation, and cryonics. They believe that humans can and should use these technologies to become more than human.[70] They therefore support the recognition and/or protection of cognitive liberty, morphological freedom, and procreative liberty as civil liberties, so as to guarantee individuals the choice of using human enhancement technologies on themselves and their children.[71] Some speculate that human enhancement techniques and other emerging technologies may facilitate more radical human enhancement no later than the midpoint of the 21st century.[41"

Sorry to rain on the parade, but some of us think that these technologies will never exist, or at the very least, are way way beyond our current scientific understanding of the nature of the mind.

The field of AI emerged, maybe 60 or 70 years ago as a direct result of the invention of the computer. I think Alan Turing is the father of all this AI nonsense, when he invented the Turing Machine and proposed the Turing Test. Turing likened the human mind to a computer. And once he sewed the seeds, the idea took off. People (mainly science fiction authors) then started to propose that the human mind is a bio computer.  i.e. the brain is a piece of hardware, and somewhere mixed in there, is a computer program, running on the brain hardware... and bam! the mind appears!

Well, there is absolutely no evidence to support this notion, other than the observation that computers can be made to respond a bit like humans do. But otherwise absolutely NO EVIDENCE that the human mind is the result of brain software running on brain hardware. The idea is pure speculation. It has gained widespread acceptance. Why? Mainly because of science fiction writers, such as Isaac Azimov and "I Robot". But NOT because of any scientific research. It is ALL just pure speculation.

Computers are not self aware, they do not have subjective experiences, they do not have emotions, they do not experience qualia like we do. these are all part of the "hard problem of consciousness". We must solve the hard problem before we can create any sort of technology which can interact with a human brain, let alone replace part of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness

We are no closer to solving the hard problem than we were 70 years ago when the field of AI was invented. And there is no evidence that this situation is is changing.

Why do we think that we will have this technology by 2050? Because Ray Kurzweil says so? Do you realise that back in 1960 they were predicting we would have this technology by 1990?  It never appeared. It doesn't matter how fast our technology is expanding. If we start with zero knowledge about the "hard problem" it doesn't matter how quickly we expand that knowledge. It is still zero knowledge.

[Szaxx]

Hi,
Take a look back in history at all those natural to AP. Most if not all have a nomadic lifestyle or very similar. Read plenty of books and this fact is there. U.K. residents notably those from Scottish highlands are more adept than those of long term city life. Ask yourself why, then think would this new or future technology be of use to townies?

[Everlasting]

Transhumanists/technocrats are a bunch of lunatics, that's a fact.

[Xanth]

Transhumanists/technocrats are a bunch of lunatics, that's a fact.

Actually I think that's called an opinion.  LoL 

[catmeow]

Actually I think that's called an opinion.  LoL  

But I like his thinking!

EDIT: oohhhhh, it is a fact. Read your sig Xanth!!!

[Xanth]

But I like his thinking!

EDIT: oohhhhh, it is a fact. Read your sig Xanth!!!

ROFL! 

[Kirkland]

Why do we think that we will have this technology by 2050? Because Ray Kurzweil says so? Do you realise that back in 1960 they were predicting we would have this technology by 1990?  It never appeared. It doesn't matter how fast our technology is expanding. If we start with zero knowledge about the "hard problem" it doesn't matter how quickly we expand that knowledge. It is still zero knowledge.

Kurzweil has quite an accurate track record though but it's based on his theory of exponential growth which I don't think will continue. Neither does his predictions take into account social and ethical concerns which would slow down progress. I wouldn't write him off but his predictions are quite optimistic. We'll see