Micah Redding | Christianity, Singularity, Life on the Curve

A Better Apocalypse

A few days ago, I delivered a talk entitled “A Better Apocalypse: Ancient Eschatology for a Transhuman World”. I gave this talk at the 2013 conference of the Morman Transhumanist Association, a group which I have been incredibly fortunate to become friends with over the past two years.

I would love to discuss this topic more broadly. To invite that conversation, I am posting the link to the video, the audio for download (can be loaded on mp3 player or phone), and an edited transcript of the talk.

The argument for basic theism

Some Simulation Argument flowcharts

The simulation argument conversation.

Finite or Infinite?

Broadcast From The Singularity

Since our second official episode just went up, I thought it would be good to point out that I'm doing a podcast. This podcast is about the future, the Singularity, and what it's like to experience life on the curve.

So far, we've had some great conversations. Our first episode was about art and technology and the future of the two, and our latest episode is about whether we are pessimistic or optimistic about what the future holds.

Christianity is Transhumanism

Wesley J. Smith has written a short piece entitled Christian Transhumanism is an Oxymoron.

For those of you who are interested in either Christianity or transhumanism, I want to make this very clear:

Christianity is transhumanism.

It’s not just that they are compatible. Christianity is a distinctly transhumanist viewpoint that sprung up in the first century, and set out to reshape both the world and human nature.

Miracles and the Anthropic Principle

The universe appears to have been fine-tuned for life.

It's astonishing, really. The physical constants (like the strength of gravity or the number of spatial dimensions) seem to have really improbable values, and those values just happen to be precisely the ones which allow creatures like us to exist.

The Anthropic Principle states that this is to be expected - after all, if the universe weren't fine-tuned for life, then we wouldn't be here to observe it.

Why I am speaking at the Mormon Transhumanist Conference

Late last year, I explained why I (a non-Mormon) had joined the Mormon Transhumanist Association. I felt like religious people hadn't been interfacing with the future to any appreciable degree, and that those who were spiritual and religious needed to speak out on the issues that rapid change and technological acceleration are causing.

The Most Powerful Being and the Simulation Argument

As a disclaimer, this is a thought experiment, not an attempt at a scientific argument.

Okay, so continuing my thoughts on the Simulation Argument, I'd like to throw in some possible additions to it.

The Simulation Argument, remixed

The other day I published my Introduction to the Simulation Argument, to some interesting reactions. Although it's a very simple argument, the mental contortions one has to jump through make it difficult for many people to grasp. So let me recap and generalize a little.

If there are intelligent beings
And if they create simulations
Then simulated worlds will outnumber non-simulated worlds.

Fairly simple so far, right? Okay, let's make it personal:

An Introduction to the Simulation Argument

In 2003, Nick Bostrom published his Simulation Argument, and shook the landscape of philosophy.

The basic idea is easy to describe.

For the past few decades, we've been building simulations of the world around us. We created Simcity, and then the Sims, and then one after another, a barrage of increasingly realistic video games.

The Singularity & Transhumanism