Micah Redding: Faith in the Future of Humanity

I watched Atlas Shrugged last night.

Many people who use the word “orthodoxy” as a weapon, think of it as an insistence on picking the one correct answer out of many possible.

I hear a lot about how our society sells us on consumerist wants, how magazines convince us we look ugly and need to look better, how car commercials make us lust after cars we don’t need, how our whole economy is premised on the empty ideal of keeping up…

I’m a conservative in that I know the world is complex, and I know that simplistic and feel-good solutions don’t often fix things.

When I think of consumerism, I think of companies without values — or more precisely, companies without opinions.

You too can receive incoherent essays from the morning scrawlings of my sleep-addled mind!

It’s very common to hear people re-iterate the fact that we are human.

A few months ago I went to see the Lego Movie with my friends.

Practical Transhumanism Transhumanism, at root, is about becoming a fuller, more complete human being.

Race to the Bottom I’ve known some people who enjoyed good beer and good food, but who believed that they should be selling all they had to feed the poor.

Love Love is saying, “I am so enamored with what you are, I want to be a part of whatever it is you will become”

Start here This is a place to share some uncollected notes, and to explore a potential new approach to writing and publishing my essays.

CMS free blogging systems Flat file storage Jekyll seems nice but relies on its own structure I’d rather that be more like git, where the special functionality lives in an inconspicuous directory.

This is a collection of short-form posts I wrote years ago, as I was playing around with alternate publishing methods. aspirations being-human believe-in-free-will christianity-and-buddhism here-be-dragons ideas love practical-transhumanism race-to-the-bo…

A little over a year ago, I was with my brother on a 40-day trip around the world.

Why do we believe we have free will?

Rejection Sometimes we must reject that within us which is not ourselves.

3 amazing things Today, I found out about three amazing things.

Here be Dragons “Here be dragons” was not superstitious babble, but a deep acknowledgement of unknown dangers, forces and factors beyond human control.

Reading, Writing, Walking I think people should have an education plan for themselves.

Christianity and Buddhism “Buddhism tells you how to grow up, get a job, and make a life for yourself.

Lately, a lot of people have been talking about embodiment.

I think that there are three strains of religious and spiritual transhumanism.

To speak tangentially, I think that suffering is an intrinsic part of being-hood.

These are my thoughts in response to this question: Would a dominant pantheistic or pagan cultural tradition have prepared the West better for the reality of intelligent machines?

(in reply to: https://twitter.com/bobfronk/status/368813980594102272 ) Ok, here’s my initial thought.

This was written circa 1999, and circulated on some mailing lists and publishing sites at the time.

Two of the most significant articles I’ve read recently address the question of why millennials are leaving the church.

Transhumanism is the ethical use of technology to extend human ability, and to improve the human condition.

A year ago, I was traveling across the world.

There is a lot of negativity these days about the state of the world.

Lately I’ve been reading about technology in the ancient world, and just how close Greece and Rome came to kicking off the industrial revolution 1500 years early.

On May 21, 2011, I was sitting in a steel-roofed building as a powerful storm pounded down outside.

I have always been drawn to things which are bitter-sweet.

I hope that one day humanity will assess its gifts, its skills, and its history, and come to the conclusion that our purpose in this world is to cultivate and create life.

I think theistic transhumanism is important because eventually people are going to become aware of the simulation argument - and when that happens, people will either see themselves in an adversarial relationship with the creator of their reality, or in a…

I’ve toyed with the idea of abandoning the term “Christian” before.

The Problem of Evil is the apparent contradiction between the idea that God is infinitely loving, and the fact that he created us in a world with such intense suffering.

The Problem of Evil contrasts three ideas: Evil, suffering, and pain exist.

As Christmas has approached, I’ve been reminded that traditional Christmas songs have embodied some of the most hopeful messages for humanity ever written.

I am a theist.

“Kingdoms of the wall” - a novel about meeting the gods at the top of a mountain “I am David” - a new movie that is based on a book I once read From earlier reading list The Physics of Immortality The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicame…

A few years ago I began to realize that the New Testament authors anticipated the second coming within their own lifetimes.

This is the deal with violence.

It is so improbable that we will pass out of existence forever.

My Mormon friends say that religion is an expression of our aspiration.

On Thursday night, Emily and I were driving along a five-lane road when a truck in front of us suddenly squealed its tires, jerked hard to the left, hit some debris, and then sped off.

Life is a series of pains.

I see technology not as a thing in itself, but something which emerges from humanity, like an anthill emerges from an ant colony.