1. Spirituality and Fulfillment
Thoughts on Techno-spirituality and
Apocalyptic Visions

2. Caprica knocks my socks off
• Has an upload heaven as a primary plot element and
speaks of apotheosis
• Has perfected virtual reality with complete sensory
immersion
– Some accidentally survive body death in this VR/VW
– Thus an upload space
• Cylons in BG are basically patterns in a computer and
have new bodies tank grown when their former body
dies
• Many of us are big on uploads
• Consider upload virtual heavens..

3. Virtual heaven?
• With or without “dying”, “you” upload / find
yourself in a virtual world
– That matches your fondest dreams
– You experience being in that world as long as you wish
• With all its implications and unintended consequences?
• Given the right tech
– You can reincarnate/inhabit/wear/puppet a physical
body or perhaps many of different kinds.
– Want rebirth as a baby and to forget a lot? No
problem

4. Basis for religion / spirituality?
• “salvation” from mandatory death
• Strong basis for faith/hope as such a scenario is
scientifically possible
• Changes significance of many things in life
• Gives more meaning
• Changes the way we view ourselves drastically
• Basis for long term importance of growth
• Rebalancing of perspective
• You are not “flesh” not your substrate embodiment but
“spirit” – information / pattern
– Unlimited potential

5. Sacraments, Sacred Quests
• Recording everything we experience
• Deep understanding of brain
• Creation of Artificial General Intelligent
– Virtual (computational substrate) beings
• Immortality / Longevity
• Worship of life, life ever more abundant, life and mind
– mind triumphant
• Creation of rich virtual worlds
– Fully sensory immersion detail
• Open data / computation
• Freedom of choice

6. What is spirituality?
• The search to know our true selves
• Seeking to live more deeply, ideally, fully –
yearning toward perfection
• Overcoming of limitation
• Desire for deep union/belonging/ at-one-ment
• Deep appreciation / love / joy as base state
• Quest for liberation – transcendence of limitation
• Beyond, beyond, beyond the Beyond..

7. What is spirituality #2
• The idea or process of self discovery
– Who you are and who you want to be
• Reaching beyond limits
• Connectedness – to self and others
• Meaning, purpose, direction.
• Higher power whether religious (deity) or nature or
unknown essence or ultimate Mind (AGI) or ..
• Living life from perspective that our current body and
circumstances is only the tip of a potentially very
(infinitely?) large iceberg that is our “true self”.

8. What do you want to be?
• When you “put on incorruptible”, when you are beyond aging and
disease and so many limitations, what then?
• What type of being will you be?
• How much power do you expect to have?
• What are you doing to be a being that wields that power wisely?
• What can you do?
• Do you want to become a god?
– Or do you only want an end to all pain and care?
– What then?
• How will you be toward others?
– What do you want for them, for all the variety of “them”?

9. How do you need to be?
• Given what you want to be and what you would like the world to
become..
• The power to transform the world is also the power to destroy the
world
• How much wisdom is needed to wield that power?
• How will it be obtained?
– By voting?
– By a CEV attempt to extract our species coherent volition?
• What would it take to become more wise?
– Is this a spiritual practice?
• If your mere thought could radically effect the world then what
type of being would you need to be for that to be more likely a
blessing that an unmitigated disaster?

10. A Message of Great Hope
• Fulfillment of great aspirations of humanity
– Immortality (or as close as possible);
– End of physical suffering;
– Abundance
– Unlimited Intelligence
– Co-creation of reality
– Complete triumph of spirit (mind) over matter
• This is what we offer, what we can hold up to the world
– Are we brave enough to do it without apology
– Are we willing to learn by as much that has gone before as may be
useful?
– Are we willing to go beyond our cynicism and despair?
– In the face of honest appraisal of where we are, no matter how dark,
do we choose to hold this light high?