by DN Irving
The article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoltan-istvan/transhumanist-beliefs_b_4870636.html by transhumanist Zoltan Istvan is nothing
more than a grand scheme for population control. To see this, read it first “as is” --
pure transhumanism (which is bad enough). Then go back and read it again,
against the backdrop of the essential Gnostic principles inherent in it (briefly
summarized below). I apologize for
the repetition, but this article is a classic example of Gnostic Transhumanism
that is hard to pass up.
The Gnostic bottom line is that all “matter” is evil. The piece of the divine in most human beings is imprisoned in an evil material body and material soul, and must be freed so that it can move back up through the spheres of the cosmos and finally fuse back into the Ultimate god/goddess from which it originally emanated to help heal this divine breach (not unlike the transhumanists’ goal of transferring our brains into computers in 2045 in order to ultimately fuse into The Singularity). Every new birth is simply a further terrible dispersing and breaching of the Ultimate god/goddess. Thus any and all manner of “birth control” or “population control” is required to stop this terrible continuous breaching of the Ultimate.
As recently explained, the cosmology of the Gnostics is far different than most. Although there are many different kinds of Gnostic myths that vary from century and geographical location, there are many common elements that they all share (see world expert in Gnosticism Hans Jonas’ encyclopedia article in Irving, "GNOSTICISM, the Heretical Gnostic Writings, and 'Judas'" (April 9, 2006), at: http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/irv/irv_121gnosticism1.html, Below is an example of some common elements that might help one understand the connections among transhumanism, Gnosticism and population control:
Most Gnostic myths are
attempts at explaining how the world came to be, and based on the
imagination. Most are pantheistic (only ONE “thing” or
Ultimate god/goddess in reality);
some are dualistic (only TWO “things” in reality). They are polytheistic (many minor gods/goddesses
of the Spheres). In pantheism,
the interior of the spiritual Ultimate is composed of an infinite number of “opposites” or “contraries” that are connected (because this is a
pantheism), and are thus the
same. As Heraclitus said, “The
path up and the path down are the same”. Because these are “opposites” there is
constant “strife” or “dialectic”
among them all, resulting in an
“explosion” or a breach of the Ultimate wherein some of the “opposites”
flow out (emanate), and congeal beneath the Ultimate.
Thus the First Sphere
is formed. (Eventually, this
terrible breach of the Ultimate must be stopped and repaired -- and that is
where the population control element comes in). The same is repeated multiple times
because the interior constitution of each Sphere is also composed of “opposites”
in strife, resulting in a group of Spheres. There is a god/goddess of each
Sphere. The first group of Spheres
to emanate are the divine spiritual Aeons (good guys, Messengers of
Light); the lowest Aeon goddess Sophia “sins” (often involving sex) and
procreates a son named the Demiurge, often equated with the God of the Old Testament (thus
Gnosticism is anti-Semitic and anti-Christian). Both are kicked out of this group of
Spheres into the Chaos.
The monstrous Demiurge, ignorant of the
divine Aeons and Ultimate above him, thinks he is god, and emanates the second
physical group of Spheres called the Archons (the bad guys; each one is a psychic power). Again, the First group of Spheres and the Second group
of Spheres are thus “opposites” within Gnosticism itself, and all connected
because this is a pantheism. The Demiurge and the Archons then emanate evil
“matter” and the rest of the physical material cosmos, planets, stars, etc.,
including human beings. There
are no true “individuals” in the
cosmos because they are really just “pieces” of the pantheistic Ultimate
from which they have emanated. The Ultimate is the only true “individual”. Because each item that has emanated from
the divine Ultimate (and then from the divine gods/goddesses of the Spheres), most have a “piece” of the Ultimate
divinity in them.
In a human being that piece of the Ultimate
is called, e.g., the “Self”, “Pneuma”, “Spark”, “Light” or “Spirit”, etc. -- and it
is held captive as a prisoner in the
evil material body and evil material soul. In order to keep their “creations” or
emanations intact and continuing to multiply, the Archons emanated physical human sex. Human beings are oblivious to the
little piece of the Ultimate deity within them (at least, within the elite human
beings), and every new human child born
represents an even further and continuous breach of the Ultimate. The Aeons of the upper divine realm of
spheres have a solution.
To trick the
Demiurge and his Archons and free the piece of divine entrapped in evil material
bodies and souls, the Aeons defy them
using two different methods. Some Aeons defy the Archons by destroying and abusing anything
having to do with the material body, especially sex or the product of
sex, e.g., (in today’s terms) by promoting abortion, embryo research, "free
sex", homosexuality, self-mutilation, etc. Other Aeons defy them by
simply not using sex, by abstaining from
it, by being ascetics -- as Hans Jonas puts it, they “go on a metaphysical
strike” against it -- and both
Aeon-types include population control measures for that purpose. That is, they want to stop any further breaching of the
Ultimate any way they can. Thus
the Aeons, the Messengers of Light,
trick the Archons by "revealing" to (elite) human beings their true divine
"essence" and other secret knowledge (gnosis) while humans are meditating, dreaming, in any kind of
altered mental states (even drugs).
This gnosis also consists in informing humans that the laws of science and nature they are using
are false, and provide them with their True Science in its place. Gnosis also consists in “informing”
humans that the Laws of Moses are
false (Gnostics are anti-Semitic); and gnosis also has an “ethical” dimension (or “knowledge of the way out of this
material world”), i.e., instructions on how one should live one’s life in order
to get on the PATH back to their origins
-- i.e., the Ultimate.
Eventually the idea is that all this breaching of the Ultimate must stop,
all the divine “pieces” in the cosmos
(including that in man) must move back up through the many Spheres and finally
FUSE BACK INTO (or merge or transfer back into -- not unlike The Singularity) --
the Ultimate from whence they emanated. This is called The Ingathering of the Light or
“salvation” -- when the Ultimate is made whole and healthy once again.
Of course, this goal is “a-cosmic”,
necessarily involving and willing the destruction of the cosmos itself. These types of Gnostic myths have been
passed down and around since at least 5000 B.C. Some things never change.
NOW, try going back to Istvan’s article above and this time read it from the Gnostic perspective.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoltan-istvan/
[See also: Psychology Today; The Transhumanist Philosopher, at: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-transhumanist-philosopher. Also, Zi Ventures - Istvan Media, at: http://www.istvanmedia.com/.