So while I was writing the script for Government: Earth I think the left side of my brain started to hurt from overuse and I ended up recording this, and kinda worked on them both at the same time.
Government: Earth
aaron moritz, July 24th 2010my latest video offering (another coming real soon… if this was me exercising my left brain, my next video is the right):
so what happens if i don’t live forever? (also how i became an athiest [extremely abridged])
aaron moritz, July 11th 2010When I was in 7th grade my religion teacher told the class that it was ok to be gay, but that having gay sex was a sin. Tell any 12 year old kid he can’t have sex (well, the kind he wants to have) and you lose ‘em. And Catholicism lost me. But that didn’t mean there was no God, not for sure anyway. I was content, for many years, to think that the church just gets some things wrong, that of course, an ever loving God would never send me to hell for sucking a dick (especially when he’s the one who made me want to do it…)
So I embraced my agnosticism, which by the time I graduated, had turned more into a quasi-spiritual pick and choose belief system when I got into mysticism and spirit guides and healing (note: not heavily into , I was just… browsing), and now my stance is basically… wait and see. But my intuition is that there is no afterlife.
The more ‘atheist’ I became, the more I began to feel free. There was no God watching and judging everything I do. I am the ultimate judge of myself. I am the only person with that power, truly. I once mentioned I was an atheist to a casual acquaintance and he said “…must be lonely sometimes.” I never looked at it that way. The only thing atheism has given me is less guilt, and a feeling of purpose.
I’ve been digging into Transhumanism for a while now, and I’ve become fairly persuaded by the evidence that we are developing technologies that will radically extend our lives (possibly until the end of the universe[or the beginning of the next one]). But lot’s of people like to say that this is nothing more than technologists wishful thinking, their own scientific version of religion, creating heaven on earth, rapture of the nerds some people have called it. And until I see the actual technologies working, on humans, I can’t have 100% confidence that they aren’t wrong. So what happens if I do die?
Well, I was an atheist (well, let’s say… 96% atheist. There’s always a chance the theists are right) before I stumbled upon transhumanism and my stance on death hasn’t changed much. If death is inevitable, then all that means is that this life is more precious. There is no garuntee, or even reason to think, that there is anything after this life. So make each moment count. And don’t worry about dying, because if you do die, you’ll either be starting on some great adventure, or you’ll be nothing, like before you were born.
Science, Wonder, and the Beauty of What’s Real
aaron moritz, June 18th 2010The struggle to find meaning in life seems almost to be a basic human impulse. Those who choose to engage in that struggle will find it both difficult and rewarding.
Finding true meaning, for me, doesn’t come from made up stories, or from superstitious, mystical explanations of consciousness and the universe. It comes, simply, from the inherently staggering beauty of nature, and from the puzzles and contradictions that arise the deeper we examine it. It is the thrill of finding truth, an answer to a question.
When I attempt to comprehend the totality of our unusual, subtle, and elegant universe I feel ecstatic to be a part of it. I almost feel like walking around, proselytizing to anyone I meet of the great joy I feel to be on this earth, full of hundreds of beautiful species, each the current pinnacle of their own evolution.
Contemplating nature, I sometimes feel like I’ve tapped into a power greater than myself and I can feel it’s love flow through me, fill my soul and spill out into the world around me. I can glimpse the fullness of perfection and realize that wherever we find it’s absence in our world, we should strive to implement and exemplify it. I am utterly connected, and surrendered, to the absolute. The infinity of existence.
I could go on and on, but at the end there I kind of lost my steam. The words stopped naturally flowing from this caffeine buzz I’m riding and I started using random abstract concepts that sound nice, but don’t really mean much. But the language is powerful. Humans have this amazing ability to channel the essence of our emotions into words. The thing is, words can get confused.
So, basically, I am Jesus. Wait. Not literally. What I mean is, I could sit and make up a million different ways to say, basically, ‘I’m feeling good, I want to sustain that feeling and share it with others. And I want to encourage others and myself to do only good things.’ You know, the stuff Jesus talked about, spreading the love. Except for Scientology, which, of course, we all know started as a money making scheme by science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard in the 1950’s, most religions probably start with a normal person, an endorphin rush, and some unique circumstances. Anyone could be Jesus. We all experience this love and we all have the ability to share it.
One thing I really do wonder about, though, is why none of these religious founders ever taught that we humans ourselves are the source of this great, infinite love. Just us. Except for maybe Buddhism (I’m not too clear on how that whole thing works), typical religious training is that some being greater than ourselves must be responsible for our love.
I don’t believe in a ‘power’ greater than myself. I am the greatest thing this universe has ever created and so are you. I exalt in the realization that my consciousness is just a transcendent property of my neurons firing, unique to me and my physical brain. Giving credit to a non-physical soul would cheapen the stunningly complex, yet simplistic nature of what we are. Atoms dancing with each other.
Because we are just atoms, and through how they interact, we are able to know ourselves, and learn about our universe. Sadly, this amazing gift is rarely nurtured. People are kept ignorant. The joy of discovering the truths of our world is robbed from children, their education reduced to a mind-numbing game of question/answer regurgitation. Children should be led down a self-directed path of
discovery, allowing them to freely explore their curiosities with a wealth of information at their feet. Not graded and compared, or made to compete and experience humiliation for failing to learn fast enough.
The most successful tool we have for discovering what is true is the scientific method. And yeah, the scientific method is strict, very strict, because if we want the truth, it has to be. It demands proofs and repetitions, continued experiment and revision. Truth is beauty and truth is power and science works because it is self-aware, self-correcting, and utterly devoted to the truth.
But being strict does not mean that science has to be cold and uninspired. The spiritual and philosophical power of what has already been discovered should not be dismissed. Us, plants, animals, water, the air, all of nature, all of almost everything, is made up of atoms forged inside of stars. This is a fact. Also, every being on the planet gets it’s energy, in one way or another, from the sun. As Carl Sagan put it, “We are star stuff harvesting star light”.
It is humbling to realize that beings as complex and experiential as we, could, and did, evolve slowly over time through nothing more than subtle interactions between atoms, exchanges of force particles and photons, gluons, quarks, and neutrino’s. The universe dancing with itself. When we get down even smaller, many physicists think that all these particles are made up of strings. All the strings are the same ‘stuff’, they just vibrate, and resonate with each other in unique harmonious ways (through ten spacial dimensions no less!), and from those harmonies the natural world unfolds. The orchestra has been building for 15 billion years, and it looks to me like we might be at a crescendo.
We currently face a choice. Will we continue this battle we rage against our own species? Become extinct, a sour note, allowing the symphony to continue on without us? Because it will. The fall of
humanity would be but a minor stumble, a single trumpet player faltering for just a moment, when we consider the vastness of this universal production. Or do we learn to resonate with one another, as our atoms and our strings do, and create music so beautiful that some seem to think it impossible, or unimaginable?
I find that sad, because I don’t just imagine this beauty, I can see it, read about it. Science has shown that humanities long-felt, deep connection to nature is a real and tangible thing. We are all dependent on each other: plants turn sunlight into our food and we spread their seeds, they breathe in our CO2 and we breathe in their Oxygen. Bees that pollinate flowers, bacteria that help us to digest our food, animals that eat each other… everywhere we look we seem natural examples of living things being ‘plugged in’ to one another.
These realities raise our consciousness above vague, spiritual statements on connectedness. They empower us with the realization that we are physically, demonstrably, and irrevocably intertwined. We are extensions of one another, aspects of one planetary organism. We have come to see nature as neither a force to be reckoned with, nor an enemy to be vanquished. Nature is a set of highly interdependent variables that when broken down into smaller components can be known, recorded, understood, and ultimately influenced and maneuvered. This is what science shows us. This is the power we have been discovered to be holding.
Facing the future and all of it’s uncertainty, the search for truth through science, and it’s humanistic application to the way we live our lives, could be the key in the engine of the next revolution. A global, but personal and truthful revolution that implements institutions not of power, but of facts, and truth.
The Love Police — AMMERRIKKA
aaron moritz, May 19th 2010I’ve seen a few people taking the Love Police idea and doing their own videos, but this is by far the best I’ve seen yet.
I fucking love the internet. I love global communication and community.
Oh and my friend just bought a megaphone… I’m gonna see where that takes us.
4/20 at the Edmonton Legislative grounds
aaron moritz, April 22nd 2010In high school I was all about legalizing weed, because it’s better for you than alcohol, has been shown to stunt cancer growth, is good for chemo, glaucoma, and pain patients, nobody has ever died from it, the argument that it’ll get you addicted to other drugs is superfluous and plain dumb, it enhances creativity, calms people down, makes people happy, people should have the right to alter their state of mind if it does not negatively affect others, and it is not physically addictive.
Now, I don’t care quite as much because I realized we have much bigger problems, and I can just smoke it anyway, illegally. And that’s what I did on the 20′th, 4/20, global weed day, at 4:20pm. I ended up going alone because none of my friends were available, so I just walked down around 4:15, took a walk around, smoked a joint at 4:20, and walked back home. Clearly dangerous illegal activity.
There were at least two thousand people there. It’s hard to tell, but it was actually really uplifting. People there are happy, they smile at you and make eye contact. Everyone there knows that everything is ok, at least at that moment, and it’s a beautiful thing.
Plus it’s always fun to feel like you’re doing something naughty. Being on GOVERNMENT GROUNDS with POLICE all around and lighting up a joint feels rebellious, it feels right. It was just a great display of the human spirit, fighting against repression and all that. I know. Like I said, there are more important things than weed, but it’s nice to see people caring about something.
Man was I fucked up when I walked back home across the bridge.
Peace
I Refuse To Be Terrified
aaron moritz, April 19th 2010I’m talking now to the advertisers, the corporate CEO’s, and government officials… because I know how hard you guys are trying to make us scared.
I’m talking to police officers, security enforcers, and anyone who feels entitled to hold authority over another person, because I know that you’re confused.
I’m talking to every working person who worries that without their submission to a corrupt government and labour system, their survival is at stake, because they aren’t wrong.
I’m talking to every person who feels restless, bored, or unhappy. People like to tell you that it’s your fault, that the problem lays with you. It doesn’t.
I’m talking to all who know something disgusting is going on, but don’t believe it will ever change. You’re wrong.
I’m talking to everyone who, very justifiably, fears for the future of our planet. Every day we are told how it, and we, might be destroyed, either through environmental disaster, or the dropping of nuclear weapons. They don’t talk about solutions, they don’t offer hope. I hope that I do.
Today I overheard a young woman telling a co-worker that she sometimes wakes up crying. She doesn’t know why, but she can’t help it. She recently emigrated here, she has a husband and two kids, and she didn’t understand how, with such a seemingly perfect life, she still spends mornings crying in the shower, before pulling herself together to send her kids off to school, and heading off to work.
It wasn’t my conversation to join, but I wanted to tell her that I understand. That her pain is justified, but that she has a choice, just as we all do, between fear and love.
And I refuse to be terrified.
telescoping evolution
aaron moritz, April 15th 2010Keeping in the same vein as my last couple posts about accelerating technology, here’s a clip from an excellent movie called ‘waking life’, where accelerating change is talked about not only as a technological phenomenon, but an all-pervasive one.
It took billions of years for life to turn from single-celled to multi-celled organisms, some millions of years for mammals to evolve, some hundreds of thousands of years for humans, 10 000 years for agriculture (the end of nomadic hunter-gatherers and the establishment of cities), a few hundred years for science to get started, a hundred years for the industrial revolution, four or five decades for the computer revolution.
The next revolutions will be biotechnology (us messing with out own genetics, cloning, etc), and nanotechnology, which has so many incredible possible applications that I can’t even pick a couple to list.
And these revolutions will take maybe a decade or two. They are happening now.
In the video he talks about ‘neo-humans’. This is what I was talking about in my last post when I said we’d merge with machines, become information in the cloud, choosing our bodies at will using swarms of nano-bots. That’s not what HE says, but he definitely talks about man merging with machine, and something else that I love:
SELF-DIRECTED EVOLUTION. Evolution traditionally happens through natural selection. Survival of the fittest. Once we have the ability to control and transcend our biology, we can evolve in whatever ways we want. PERSONALLY, not together as a species, but as we, as individuals see fit. Self-directed evolution. That’s a term I’m definitely gonna yank and use as much as possible.
I want this all to happen. I think it’s exciting. I know lots of people don’t want it to happen. They think it’s scary. But if we want it or not is irrelevant regarding whether it will actually happen. It may, it may not, but people, lot’s of very very smart people are working on it. Right now. And they’re constantly getting closer. It’s in the news every fucking day if you’re up on the right blogs and websites. http://www.kurzweilai.net/ is a good one to start.
If it does happen, we’re all going to have to find a way to deal with it. Or you could kill yourself, I guess, but I don’t recommend anyone kill themselves. I actually value ALL human life, not just my friends and family and people who are from my country or my church. I don’t value the ‘life’ of a non-thinking embryo over the hundreds of thousands of dead soldiers we waste fighting wars, you fucking religious whackjobs (Ok, sorry, cheap shot, I say this all in fun and only in love, feel free to call me whatever kind of whackjob you want… just look at the crazy neo-technocratic bullshit I post on here) (oh and for a big long speal about my views on abortion, which go a little further than just ‘pro-choice’, click here).
So anyway, if we’re creating a universal compu-biological consciousness, it’s pretty safe to say that God doesn’t exist. Yet. But we’re on our way to inventing one.
