The Transhuman Transition – Lotus Eaters vs World Eaters
https://danfaggella.com/the-transhuman-transition-lotus-eaters-vs-world-eaters/ Controlling Intelligent Substrate, Creating or Enhancing Consciousness, Digitized and Digested, Exploring the End Game, Facilitating Post-human Transition Collaboration, Managing the Transhuman Transition, Transhuman Transition
Human nature has always been to gain control over the physical world — both in maximizing its output for our benefit (farming, mining, etc), and in lessening the risks it poses to human life and wellbeing (medicine, construction, etc). This same drive for control compels us to manipulate the virtual world, with the emergence of a triad of technologies that have the potential to profoundly transform the human experience into something unimaginably different from what it is today.
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Pleasure (“The Lotus Eatersâ€)
lotus eaters
Odysseus and his companions in the land of the blissful and care-free lotus eaters. From Homer’s Odyssey. Source
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.†– Aristotle
I posit that a large segment of humanity will adopt transhuman technologies in order to escape from pain, and experience more pleasure.
I argue that this is an attempt (maybe one that can be successful, who knows), to escape the intense Darwinian competition and combat inherent in being alive by leaving it behind.
People with this motive might be referred to as “lotus eatersâ€, after the blissful and lethargic people in Homer’s Odyssey – who live off of narcotic lotuses on a secluded island.
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Power (“The World Eatersâ€)
“World eaters,†in contrast with “lotus eaters,†will sacrifice their human condition entirely in an attempt to be as productive, powerful, or influential as possible. This image is taken from a painting of Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon – a symbolic act of risking everything in the pursuit of control and power. Source: Wikipedia
“If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.†– Gaius Julius Caesar
I posit that a large segment of humanity will adopt transhuman technologies in order to gain control, power, and prestige.
I argue that this is an attempt to engage fully in the intense Darwinian competition of life – in an attempt to achieve security and/or prominence through dominance.
Almost unlimited power will be afforded to the person or group who controls the physical computers which house (a) the great artificial intelligence powers, and (b) the sentient and virtual experiences of people and AI agents. I am of the belief that in the coming century, almost all economic competition, political competition, and war will ultimately be a proxy for obtaining this pinnacle of technological control and power.
Indeed that quote from Caesar alludes to this very dynamic. The ultimate (in the literal sense) race for power will not be for market supremacy or the leadership of a nation, but for the dominance over all of intelligence itself – truly God-like power.
I’ve chosen to refer to people bent on the power motive as “world eaters†– as a direct contrast to pleasure-driven “lotus eaters.â€