anon_huci said in #4638 1mo ago:
1.) Being a person in the future won't involve experiencing life as a person, but trying to be a very enviable object there. It's a tragedy that ever since the onset of industrialization, people have been rejecting the traditional higher ideals of society - like religion - in favor of newer ones like nationalism or humanism. The problem with this is firstly the lack of emotional connection present with these ideas, unlike a personal God, and secondly, the lack of principles to revolve their lives around.
To be a nationalist has some principles/goals, such as creating a unifying state that could dominate their regions, but then what? The Catholic Church's pursuit is to unify the world under their church, and to redeem the souls of humanity - that goal could be pursued until the end of time, but to be a nationalist becomes pointless after some time. Furthermore, the weak emotional bond to a nation, relative to a family, displaces other local identities. This is since the more identities held, the less meaningful they are.
What's worse is humanism. The farther emotional bonds to higher ideals are with people (i.e., the less principled they are), the more they could be subjected to a torrent of aesthetics/vibes. This is bad as it leads to the natural entropy of society into rapid hedonism and the pursuit of objectification by oneself and to others. Being a decent person doesn't give you a way to orient your life, it'll just be "do what you want just don't be mean to people". For an average individual, being a humanist has nothing to it that could benefit their lives; frankly, it's just something governments say to legitimize their existence.
This is currently present in modern society. Many fail to be in Paris when they're in Paris because of how distracted they are with showing they are in Paris to their followers. I wish more people could experience life instead of showing themselves seemingly experiencing life.
Pair this with the idea of designer babies. They will grow up in a society that rewards them for being alive, not necessarily for their achievements, but for their engineered traits, like beauty, height, or intelligence. The one problem with this state is that designer babies are unable to be people. Given their enhancements, they are always pressured to be the best in terms of academics, social situations, etc, and when failure shows itself, that only drives immense self-hatred, alongside major rejection by popular society. Imagine falling so far from being universally praised to being humiliated by the majority, a phenomenon amplified by the internet. You'd do anything you could do to redeem yourself in their eyes, while never managing to. To redeem yourself, your new imperative would be to be the object that can be envied, not being a person experiencing life.
What accentuates this is how society will admire these people as idols. While maybe being 5% of society, they would hold a stranglehold over culture due to their predominance for their traits. People will then emulate their culture of being the most enviable object they could be. Ultimately, no one will experience being; they'll just be objects.
To be a nationalist has some principles/goals, such as creating a unifying state that could dominate their regions, but then what? The Catholic Church's pursuit is to unify the world under their church, and to redeem the souls of humanity - that goal could be pursued until the end of time, but to be a nationalist becomes pointless after some time. Furthermore, the weak emotional bond to a nation, relative to a family, displaces other local identities. This is since the more identities held, the less meaningful they are.
What's worse is humanism. The farther emotional bonds to higher ideals are with people (i.e., the less principled they are), the more they could be subjected to a torrent of aesthetics/vibes. This is bad as it leads to the natural entropy of society into rapid hedonism and the pursuit of objectification by oneself and to others. Being a decent person doesn't give you a way to orient your life, it'll just be "do what you want just don't be mean to people". For an average individual, being a humanist has nothing to it that could benefit their lives; frankly, it's just something governments say to legitimize their existence.
This is currently present in modern society. Many fail to be in Paris when they're in Paris because of how distracted they are with showing they are in Paris to their followers. I wish more people could experience life instead of showing themselves seemingly experiencing life.
Pair this with the idea of designer babies. They will grow up in a society that rewards them for being alive, not necessarily for their achievements, but for their engineered traits, like beauty, height, or intelligence. The one problem with this state is that designer babies are unable to be people. Given their enhancements, they are always pressured to be the best in terms of academics, social situations, etc, and when failure shows itself, that only drives immense self-hatred, alongside major rejection by popular society. Imagine falling so far from being universally praised to being humiliated by the majority, a phenomenon amplified by the internet. You'd do anything you could do to redeem yourself in their eyes, while never managing to. To redeem yourself, your new imperative would be to be the object that can be envied, not being a person experiencing life.
What accentuates this is how society will admire these people as idols. While maybe being 5% of society, they would hold a stranglehold over culture due to their predominance for their traits. People will then emulate their culture of being the most enviable object they could be. Ultimately, no one will experience being; they'll just be objects.
1.) Being a person i