Witness: Religious Life

[nadia]

Super!

[nadia]

or, wait - is that an issue?

[yudhanjaya]

Not a problem at all. Just pointing out that it’s already accounted for in the basic Buddhist matrix, and can be separate or intermingled among many-come-one practices - very pick your flavor.

[nadia]

hmm how about sum total of life energy is finite…

[yudhanjaya]

Radical environmentalism would absorb that in a flash. Hang on, I have an idea . . .

Update: added Tielhardism, as one of my favourite philosophers who I don’t believe in. @alberto, might interest you. @nadia, the Tielhards are in opposition . . .

[alberto]

@yudhanjaya

Tielhardism

Inconsistency! I used Teilhard to underpin a radical order in the Covenant. In my version, he’s been canonized as a biologist-saint (below). Can I reconcile?

I guess it’s good news that Witness has already grown so dense that not even @yudhanjaya can keep track of every detail!

@yudhanjaya

The Distrikt Minor of Viriditas, located in a narrow peninsula at the extreme periphery of The Covenant, is home to a large congregation of Teilhardite monks. This is a reclusive order inspired by the works of the biologists-saints Hildegard of Bingen, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Stuart Kauffman. The Teilhardites farm both the land and the sea, using minimally invasive techniques that make large use of genetically engineered organisms, but in Viriditas they live only at sea. They have built a large monastery, dedicated to Saint Hildegard, out of connecting a large number of boats and raft. This technique gives Saint Hildegard its peculiar appearance, and has earned it the nickname of Floatsam. They have announced that their mission is to build and launch the Saint Cristopher, a slower-than-light starship for interstellar colonization, conceived as a deep space monastery. The project has an estimated duration of 400 years, with the first 300 dedicated to developing blueprints and the ancillary technologies.

[yudhanjaya]

Oof, I have committed the cardinal sin! Please reconcile as you see fit.

[alberto]

@yudhanjaya

Please reconcile as you see fit.

Done.

[amelia]

@yudhanjaya

• When you are dead, you are dead. Your life force can be transferred into a new body once the cycle of your life ends, however your “self” ceases to exist once your time is up. There exists no such thing as eternal life.

This is textbook Buddhism.

Have you played or watched Soma? I think they way they deal with it in that game is amazing.

[yudhanjaya]

Indeed. It felt like Evangelion x Marathon: Durandal. I used a similar line of thinking for the Salvage Crew: AI are just humans writ into hardware. The people most likely to survive the surgery that imprints a human consciousness onto a machine are those who believe in reincarnation, and can therefore accept a new body as part of the karmic cycle. Because of this, Buddhist planetary colonies are often hunted down by corporates looking for new minds for their expeditions.

[hugi]

@yudhanjaya

I used a similar line of thinking for the Salvage Crew

I just heard you talk about this on the imaginary worlds podcast. Had no idea that you were going to be on it, so that was a nice surprise!