Technology, like all religions, sells extraordinary claims of humanitarian advancement without delivering extraordinary proof. That is the same stupidity by which we have allowed our religions of the past, our many theologies, to fester and wreak havoc around the world.
In the words of Richard Feynman:
This is the crazy world we live in: all the advances and understanding are used only to continue the nonsense which has existed for 2,000 years.
–– Richard Feynman (1918-1988)
Religions are born out of the fear of dying, giving the hopeless something to feel good about. That is not much different in spirit from what Elon Musk describes as the reason to get excited about life. He paints a fantasy world of video games, cartoon characters, space exploration, and extraterrestrial life. Broad stroke escapism from dealing with the challenges we face from messing up life on Planet Earth.
Just like theologies, the focus on artificial powers derived from past make-believe is replaced by artificial intelligence and life of future make-believe. Humanity is best equipped to deal with the realities on Planet Earth. To do more with less, as the result of the decline of available energy on our planet, called entropy, is not a sexy message. But it is the only response to nature’s undeniable power controlling the present and future of human life, here or extraterrestrial.
We must focus not on the wild suppositions of human escapism but on improving our adaptability to nature’s entropy that relies on the first-principles of nature that humanity, in love with its many manmade manacles past and future, does its darnest to ignore.
