As stated in my previous post, I believe that technological progress can deliver us from limitations we currently endure. Biological, economical, organizational. Why has it not happened yet? Everything we need to solve our problems is already here. We have means, we seem to have no will. Why?
Progress that humanity made does not belong to humanity. That seems to be, in very general terms, the problem. It's been done for us, but not by us. We use it, but don't own it. Direction of progress and fruits of progress are governed by a few and handed out in specific ways, as if to ensure that the rest of humanity remains... calm. Controlled, busy - it's the same thing really, we have all the knowledge, education, science, art just a few clicks away, and there never seem to be enough time to use it - there's always one more spin of the hamster wheel to be done.
We've been given lamps, not for us to see, but for someone to see us.
We've been given phones, not for us to listen to someone, but for someone to listen to us.
We've been given games, not for us to play, but for someone to play us.
(I can't find english translation, awesome polish original is here)
Before I mentioned merging with technology. Becoming cyborgs if you will. It seems inevitable, logical and great, on one condition: that we do it voluntarily, knowingly, so we can be more human, more thinkers and creators and less laborers and servants, and so we can reach the stars (we don't need to be cyborgs for that, but it would help!).
On the other hand we might be forced to do it anyway, RFID tags and all, so we can be more like cogs in a great machine of the world. The difference is everything. It is the difference between our and someone else's will being carried out. And the end result totally depends on our awareness and consciousness.
Transhumanism is about taking destiny in our own hands. It is not about collective decisions, it is not about following grand visionaries, because there is no one to tell us where to go. We can be shown possible directions, but decisions has to be our and ours alone. Individual decisions. Whoever tries to make that choice for us is inevitably trying to hijack our energy and focus, to use progress to control us (distraction is a form of control too, by the way). So it is critically important to know where your center of gravity is, and if it's outside of you, shanghaied, it needs to be brought back home.
The most important question is who we are. The answer determines where we wish our center to be. I am white, I am male, I am European, I am employee of The Company Ltd, I am capitalist, socialist, anarchist... "To call up a demon you must learn its name". There is second bottom to this - knowing daemon's true name gives the magician power over it. But if magician doesn't know the name, and the daemon doesn't know its own name, can the magician make something up?
"You are the Second Order Daemon of Unholy Beverages, so bring me coffee!"
"Um, ok, so if that's what I am, here is your coffee master"...
Letting ourselves be named is letting us be branded and controlled (isn't that why "in project mayhem we have no names"? Searching for appropriate information I've found this). What has no name, can't be called up. Can't be controlled. Can't be divided and conquered. And...
...is that for all the way we already traveled - down from the trees, out of the caves - we don't know who we really are. That knowledge has been occulted. It is out there if you want to find it, but few even realize that something is missing, not to mention searching for it, not to mention applying it. We let our centers be named, defined, exploited. Our creativity subdued, our minds caged and used for fulfilling someone else's dreams. For some must sleep, while some must watch... We let temporary and unimportant roles we play (voluntarily or now) become us, limit us, own us, be us. If we don't remember that role is only a role (and saying "I am transhumanist" is just a shorter version of "I needed a label, so I can express some thoughts"), we suffer. And letting ourselves suffer means letting the whole system...
...suffer. Our reality is shared. It is true that each of us is creator of her/his destiny (myth of self-made man), but it's only a half-truth. The other half is sometimes conveniently left untold: our reality is shared, so while we're creating our own destiny we're also make impact on the big picture. Maybe insignificant, but never non-important: after all the big picture consists only of myriad of insignificant destinies. Our actions have consequences and our good and bad choices come back to us via that shared reality. We co-create existence. We conjure ourselves into being, and shape collective reality in the process, and then that reality shapes us. This is the wheel of karma. And therefore it is only logical:
This is the only law we need. However, it is called "law" similarly to human made-up laws (resulting in Go to prison, Do not pass Go, Do not collect $200), but it is not one of those laws. It simply is an expression similar to "do not walk off the cliff", or else... And the whole sense of not doing so is in the second part of the sentence. Do no harm / make peace because there are consequences ensured by the very fabric of the universe we live in, and I can recognize which consequences I prefer. That's is all. More about that in the next post.
