Monday, June 19, 2006

Sharing their near-death experiences

More than 1,500 delegates including people who claim to have had NDEs are attending the one-day conference, which aims to take stock of the disputed phenomenon in the most scientific way possible.

(Via Unknown Country.)






As someone frequently pegged for a hard-core transhumanist, I'm unimpressed by attempts to expunge nonlocal consciousness from the realm of possibility. If pressed, I'd argue that some form of awareness can indeed survive biological death -- a concept that's nothing less that heretical to the reigning "Singularitarian" school of thought. Intead of a mystical impediment, I see this as a potential boon for future technologies -- albeit one that existing paradigms are largely incapable of recognizing, let alone dealing with in a meaningful way.

2 comments:

Chris said...

I try to be open minded about NDEs as well as encounter experiences, because the phenomenon is still so poorly understood. I liken it to the cancer spikes in the 50s, 60s and 70s, when average people had a vague sense that an awful lot of people "seemed" to be dying of lung cancer - a fact pooh-poohed by the medical establishment and government until later confirmation.

btw, I love the word "Singlaritarian". Would adherents be known as "Singularitistas"?

Mac said...

Unfortunately, it's really fashionable for mainline transhumanists to issue trite, dismissive comments about anything they don't understand, which is why I make no attempt to ally myself with them intellectually. I've found, to my dismay, that "fringe" groups
of all sorts love excluding other fringe groups. It's an ego thing.

I like your analogy to cancer spikes.

btw, I love the word "Singlaritarian". Would adherents be known as "Singularitistas"?

I like using the word because

a.) it's actually what the term they use

and

b.) it inadvertantly emphasizes the cult-like mentality that's taken over technological futurism.