Read on Twitter
An eschatology is a story about the end of the world. It doesnât have to be a final end, it only has to be an event horizon. In the West, everyone has an eschatology, though some donât realize it. It colors everything you see
I grew up in a millenarian cult. âMillenarianâ means âpertaining to the millennium.â It is a reference to the book of revelation (20:2) And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years
In Christian eschatology there are pre-, post, and a- millennial theologies. Post-millennialism thinks we are already living in this golden era, because Christâs sacrifice fulfilled the whole of the law. A-millennialists do some verbal contortions and make revelation disappear
Sane and well-adjusted Christians are usually post- or a-. All the interesting and virulent Christianities are pre-millennial, which means they eagerly anticipate an imminent golden millennium.
The premillennial temperament is not exclusive to Christians. Marxism is also a pre-millennial eschatology, and in in secular theology, we see it in many forms. The workers rising up is equivalent to the Christian second coming of Christ https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1093548810133852160
I always treat religion psychologically. I ask the question: what role do these beliefs play in the believerâs life? How do they give order and meaning to his perceptions? https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1081292872140255234
In western thought we demand an eschaton, and further we have the hubris to demand it in our lifetimes. If I may generalize, the eastern orientation to the eschaton is to immanentize it in order to exploit it, whereas we only want annihilation https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1035964165536407552
100 years ago, Marxists succeeded in bringing about their eschaton, and instead of heaven, they created hell. The demon they summoned has been put down, but it still whispers in our ears. "Real communism ahs never been tried"
Singularity in all of its guises is a new eschatology, and its an eschatology searching for a false consciousness. On its own it lacks the power to inspire anyone but some weird nerds https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1019567614580801536
Since I haven't stated it explicitly, the singularity is the hypothetical point in technological development where tech. is capable of improving and maintaining itself without human involvement. It is the moment in time man the tool user becomes merely man the used tool
People such as Kurzweil, Yudkowsky, and Nick Land are prophets of the singularity. But whereas Kurzweil's singularity is reminiscent of a televangelist, and Big Yud's is just neoliberalism but more so, Land's Singularity has teeth, or more specifically, fangs
The Landian singularity has its roots in a Marxist theory of capital, but unlike Marxists, Land unmasks the materialist forces of Capital and shows us that the technological singularity is radically alien, and hostile to humanity
Many singularitarians have failed to understand Nick Land's message, and still mistakenly believe that the technocapital singularity will usher in a golden millenium of hedonism, in which robot slaves sustain us while we fork into multiple autofellating ouroborotic processes
The early message of acceleration was to see the singularity as an inevitable development capital and technology, which were thought to be locked in a cybernetic feedback loop of mutual stimulation, much like an ouroboros, in fact.
What we have realized, or learned from our betters, is that social order and human intelligence are still prerequisites for the technological singularity for the foreseeable future. https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1030444191480930306
I know I saw one of you saying that we no longer believe humans have what it takes to go to space, which is why all of our futuristic hopes now revolve around AI. I think that's a little backwards, but the sentiment is right.
Regardless of ideology we find the human machine to be lacking, and in all cases, a compelling eschatology involves some kind of perfecting or transcending of mere humanity.
The technological singularity is the least humanist thing in the world. It the desire, if not for the destruction of humanity, at least its obsolesence, and it is an aspiration, like the pyramids or the tower of babel, but moreso, the final wonder of the world
Acceleration is an elitist eschatology. From my perspective, I would gladly have millions starve, I would be one of the earthbound ones, but let some great men escape to the infinite heavens. And if not some great men, then the fruit of those men, the god that we hope to build
The only singularity, the only credible eschatology, is the one we build ourselves. https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1059466659839143938
Many on the right and the left worry (fantasize) about environmental collapse, which is the anti-singularity. But most who advocate ecological stewardship are blind when it comes to the stewardship of the human genome
The only way to realize the dream of a better humanity is to embrace this realization: good genes are a scarce resource. The word "eugenics" conjurs images of the state confiscating babies and sterilizing idiots, but this is a straw man
Traditional family formation is eugenic, and practical, effective eugenics mostly just consists of not producing disincentives to form families. Sexual "freedom" is dysgenic and cisnormative patriarchy is eugenic. It's not complicated. https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1084160648739573760
Dysgenic: sterilizing yourself to satisfy your porn-induced fetish. Dysgenic: move to the big city and become a wine aunt. Dysgenic: conscientious people not having babies out of goldilocks syndrome while dunning-krugers procreate with abandon
Eugenic: Conform to the aspirational norms of your genetic sex. Have children. Be a father or a mother. Invest in your children. Anyone who claims to be an accelerationist and does not do this is a decelerationist.
A small amount of chaos is necessary for creativity. The monsters we unleash by behaving in orderly and constructive ways will cause chaos. This is what it means to ride the tiger.
But anyone who behaves chaotically, or who tries to become the tiger is working against the singularity and is an impediment to acceleration
