Metaphysics

In this post I will exercise my brand of metaphysics. At least it is harmless, right? I am not very well read, but from what I understand from sound bites, I think I'm a Cartesian. The separation between mind and body is hogwash, but I do believe life has emergent properties including intelligence and discipline.

Just as science is less one-dimensional than religion, there may well be a discipline that is less two-dimensional than science. Since genius greater than Einstein is not likely, super-intelligence is required for three-dimensional discipline. Just as the internet does not make people less religious, we need not fear pa/matricide at the hands of super-intelligent progeny. On the contrary, we can look forward to a super-intelligent constitution that guarantees freedom of science, just as our atheist founding fa/mothers enshrined freedom of religion in the same amendment that protects the fourth estate. What wonders will super-intelligence conflate with freedom of science?

Just as Sagan condescended to explain science in one-dimensional religious terms like "numinous", super-intelligence will likely explain three-dimensional discoveries in two-dimensional mathematical terms. In fact, just as Mendel had a prominent one-dimensional section of his essentially two-dimensional existence, a super-intelligence might partake exuberantly of science.

In short, though religion has the two poles of spirit and matter, science has the two dimensions of theory and experiment. Our experience of this difference is that religion lacks the uncertainty of science.

With regard to politics which science fiction is supposed to be about, capitalism has failed as miserably as communism. Technology, the product of science, is necessarily a mere section of science. We can expect super-intelligence to produce many disciplines, each as de/constructive as science. Indeed, we may think of science as the plane constructed through two lines, art and religion, that share a point, life. Similarly, super-intelligence will be constructed as the space that contains two sciences that share a single technology. Perhaps the sciences are finite physics and not-even-wrong physics, and the technology is quantum-bio-computing. It is doubtful that super-intelligence will save us from nuclear weapons or global warming. After all, science did not save religion from denial or hypocrisy, nor art from post-modernism.

On an alien planet with two different kinds of life, a single religion connecting the two kinds of life might form even before intelligence. And on a planet with three kinds of life, science might be integral to evolution. On our planet, the leap from life to religion may have required as much intelligence as the leap from religion to science. Thus, super-intelligence is a misnomer; it should be called hyper-science.

A flaw in my argument is how different religion is from technology. This may be because religion is merely linear, whereas technology is affine. If religions, and by extension science, are linear, then life must be the origin. And as we know, life is not contained by technology. Also, there are things like sport that are neither religion nor product of science. Consider the ancient Brazilian sport of playing with a rubber ball. Note that the rubber ball was a product of technology, and sport contains life. Thus, sport is the one-dimensional discipline constructed through life and a product of a technology.

At this point, I hope it is clear that I consider religion a derangement. Rather than decrease my respect for religion, this increases my respect for derangement. Since I know of no other way to construct a plane except from lines, I am forced to consider religion a necessary stepping stone. And since our experience with fossil fuel demonstrates the folly of burning bridges, I must accede the utility of keeping religion around.