Let’s explore new worlds together. Where should we stop first? Dry Mars or cold Pluto? Or burning Alpha Centauri? None. I am interested in dreams rather than in the real. The real, while fascinating, is nothing more than a very complex though ingenious articulation of the periodic table. And on that table and the laws that dictate their mixing, I do not see a heart. And I do not see a conscience. I do not see a law that says: though must not kill. And this is why nature is not very interesting to me. On the other hand, dreams and its friend the metaphysical is where the principles we hold dear and aspire to live by, live.
I choose ‘though shall not kill’ over E = MC2 any day.
I see sparks of this dream in life, where love, sacrifice, and principles evolved to serve evolutionary interests. It’s the universe accidentally arriving at the ideal sideways, and for self serving interests that are conditional on survival: morality if it suits my survival. This is where we are at today. We have a dreamy metaphysical world where the greatest inventions ever to grace the universe exist. They reach out from that world into ours, and make themselves manifest on paper, in court rooms, in discussions, in our churches, mosques. It shows up in our primordial but heroic efforts to treat animals humanely and better yet, refuse to eat them. It shows up when a good man stops another man from raping a woman. It shows up when a people on the far side of the globe minding their own business rise up in protest for a people on the other side of the globe being slaughtered. But given how often and how quickly these fizzle away, and intended outcomes thwarted, it shows how poorly embedded these dreams are in the our minds, and ultimately in the universe. They are not stable, definition of dreams.
This is why I now believe that greatest achievement of mankind is not science, technology, medicine or the wheel, but morality and follows the right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness applied equally and fairly to all tribes. AI, travelling to the stars, a new physics, immortality, all look pale if we can’t stop humanity from slaughtering each other. As long as there exists on one side of the globe wasted food when on the other side a small bloated thing of skin and bones is crying for a morsel of bread, we have achieved nothing.
In this dream world, there is a special place with a special dream that I have. It is the most dreamy of dreams. What if we advance enough technologically so we can manipulate the universe and the laws of physics with such godly powers that we can create new worlds and matching our imagination. If that were to happen, the first and most important objective is to integrate moral principles into the universe, put them under a lock, and throw away the key. Make a universe in which ‘though shall not kill or harm’, and ‘do on to others as you would like them to do to you’ are as real as as E=MC2.
Now that is a world worth living in.
Rabbits and Holes 