I kicked off a new project at work today which is exciting but is also probably going to mean my posting frequency might take a bit of a hit over the next couple of months. October is shaping up to be fairly busy what with one thing and another but it’s not necessarily a bad thing! What is causing me much annoyance is the throat infection I seem to have picked up making eating/drinking/talking extremely painful – just what you need when doing client presentations! Thank goodness for non-prescriptions drugs!*
Outside this particular sphere of influence into another noosphere:
Omega point is a term invented by French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe the ultimate maximum level of complexity-consciousness, considered by him the aim towards which consciousness evolves. Rather than divinity being found “in the heavens” he held that evolution was a process converging toward a “final unity”, identical with the Eschaton and with God.
It’s an interesting idea for sure. If our consciousness evolves towards ever greater integration and a social structure of such complexity that no one person can understand more than a tiny fraction of the whole where does this leave the individual? Is it possible that human tools could eventually completely surpass human capacities? Some people just have to take these things one step further…
Assuming that achieving the Omega Point is physically possible, Tipler hypothesizes this would be accomplished by “downloaded” human consciousness in tiny quantum computers that could exponentially explore space, many times faster than biological human beings. The incredible expense of keeping humans alive in space implies that humans will never personally travel to other stars. Instead, highly efficient artificial intelligences (“Mind Children” as Tipler calls them), will spread civilization throughout space.
A slightly freaky idea I’d say but nevertheless food for thought!
(*taken in moderation!)
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