Notes: Metamodern Transhumanism and Living with Psychological Disability

I have recently become aware of “metamodernism.”  It seems to be a movement with the intent of integrating the strange aspects of postmodernism with traditional life.  Theoretically, it attempts to get rid of the “excesses” of postmodernism and make the perspective useful instead of simply critical.  After watching several YoutTube videos on the topic it seems to be a multicultural force, with artistic and political and other cultural aspects.  It is of interest to me because I think I personally might be metamodern, if such a school of thought actually exists.  If it a true force in the world then I might be accidentally metamodern the way I am accidentally a Taoist, not that the two are connected in any way except in my mind.  Hanzi Freinacht is an excellent example of this philosophical perspective.

Most of videos on metamodernism are frustratingly vague about exactly what were are talking about, offer few insights as to how to accomplish anything, and might be nothing more than a few alienated liberals talking among themselves about something ill-defined and having virtually no impact on anything at all.  If you actually read or watch any metamodern explanation or discussion you will quickly notice no one seems to ever really make any definitive points.  It is difficult for me to see anything “metamodern” in how they express themselves unless vagueness and indeterminate statements are the essence of metamodernism.  They keep talking about possibilities of realigning ways of thought but it doesn't seem to lead anywhere.  The metamodern way seems to be inconsequential and overly vague about accomplishing anything in the world.  

On the other hand, there is transhumanism, which sort of competes with metamoderism for the same human space.  Transhumanism has interested me since the 1990's.  Because of the possibility of the Singularity, I adopted a vigorous exercise and supplement program in 1997 which evolved over the years.  It was (and maybe still is) the closest thing I have to a faith.  I have not been sick in over 20 years.  I caught the flu once and it almost knocked me out of work for one day but it didn't.  I was better the next day.  All these years my intent was to be in the best possible mental and physical condition for whenever the Singularity occurred.  Then the combination of nanotechnology and biotechnology would make it possible for me to physically repair myself and stop the aging process.  

Now, in my sixties looking at what I've tried to do physically the last 25+ years, I find that it still might not happen in my lifetime.  I need to remain grounded in that fact my faith is not guaranteed.  My child or her children might receive the benefits I believed were coming.  And hopefully they will do like me and be in the best possible condition mentally and physically when it happens.  According to Mayo Clinic, we just invented a pill to lengthen our lives 30 more years.  Can you image what living 30 years farther into the future will be like?  Besides exacerbated global warming, there will be exponential advances in healthcare and startling possibilities for our lifespan.  I intend to live the longest, healthiest life that I can.

I have intentionally and habitually done the best I've could mentally and physically as the technology has developed.  More than anything else, I'd say this has been my basic motivation in the past three decades of my life.  A tremendous acceleration (like everything else) in biotech developments makes it seem in less that two decades we might be where I'd hoped, though later in my life.  Anyway, I don't care about any tradition that would not welcome transhumanism.  I want to do the most non-traditional thing possible.  I want to live at least 120 good years.  I honestly think if I can make it another sixty years I could live forever, if I so choose (which is a separate issue).  And I believe every human deserves that choice.  The final death of religion will come when humans choose how long they live.  That makes me pretty damn transhuman in the way I have actually lived my life.  Taoism, my land, camping and hiking in the natural world are really foundation components of my plan to live longer.

No matter how long I live, however, I remain enframed, as we all are.  This is not a bleak statement so much as a qualifying one.  It shows us where we are headed.  Enframed people in their 20's and younger, newborns who are more enframed than any generation in human history, their behavior will “unleash the power of a new technological era” according to the Wall Street Journal.   This might not lead to the Singularity but it will certainly significantly change the world in ways we cannot predict.

Enframing is not discussed as the state of human Being today in part because it it so subtle no one even sees it.  And yet it is everywhere, in little things.  Human beings that are good with numbers, for example, because that leads (convexity bias) to higher income and life satisfaction.  That our brains are wired in this fashion makes us susceptible to enframing as our innate number-sense is naturally satisfied by technology. 

Part of the enframing process is the subjectivity of humanity to mechanical process in terms of shaping their behavior.  I plan to post on this when I discuss how human beings do not control technological progress anymore, but for the past century or so human psychology has developed within a highly technical environment.  One example of the technical is found in technique applied to the masses themselves.  Social engineering has been happening at least since the 1970's.  More than anything, this is the force of marketing and advertising which fueled the rise of the consumer culture (in which case this started in the 1950's).  To a large degree our brains are wired by social engineering, which is new only in the sense that cultural rules now reside purely within a technological framework.

Part of what makes the techniques of social engineering possible is the fact that systems can hack how our brains are wired.  Systems now understand how to trigger our brains.  Recently, we have discovered that our political beliefs are all pinpointed in our brains.  If your brain's neurons did not “fire” in the patterns that they do, then you might be the same person as you are now but politically different to some degree.  Not because of your "values" change.  Because how your brain is hardwired for politics defines your values neurologically without your knowledge.  Political viewpoints are literally fabrications of the brain.  They don't actually exist, which shows you how delusional all human beings are.

Suddenly, we find ourselves in a world of constant becoming due to cultural change driven (mostly) by technology.  The biggest problem the world faces right now is too many people are living in traditional modes of behavior.  These modes literally make no sense within constant becoming.  Can human beings rewire their brains to become relevant with where enframing is taking us?  The answer to that is no.  Because most people don't have enough neuroplasticity to rewire themselves.  Most people are incapable of the level of transformation demanded by the Modern.  Neuroplasticity makes rewiring easier.  It is a vital way to develop going forward.

This is why rewiring is the greatest challenge in the world.  But there are specific techniques for exercising your brain.  For the first time in human history we can directly impact our brain function with specific practices.  This has never been known before.  Neither Muhammad, Buddha nor Jesus knew this stuff.  Specific practices, particularly in combination, maximize your brain's capacity for flexible thinking, reacting, changing – neuroplasticity.

Equally important is the flow state.  Psychologically, this is a new tool.  Flow is something humans have probably always experienced but until recently no one has actually developed techniques for entering and behaving in a elongated flow state.  Techniques for summoning flow into your life.  This is the absolute easiest way live in constant becoming.  Coupled with neuroplasticity (indeed partly because of it), the flow state has the potential to give you literally superhuman powers.  Neuroplasticity practice and flow practice are harmogenic with each other.  By their nature (karma), good things will come of this pairing in your life.  Just as Nietzsche proclaimed.  An example of the ubermensch is someone maximizing neuroplasticity in the flow state.  Someone who can dance on the edge of the abyss that constant becoming often feels like.

 
We recently discovered that meditation evolved as a way to deal with stress as much as a spiritual practice.  Which shows that humans have experienced the need to relax for thousands of years.  It also suggests that the practice might have had a practical development before it became sacred and placed inside eastern religions.  After all, Buddha did not invent meditation.  He transformed it.  Meditation practitioners before Buddha and the first Hindu masters might have been doing it simply to chill. 

The secular use of meditation is one example of how religion is not a reflection of the divine.  It is a reflection of its believers.  The fact that fear, sex and power were so fundamentally recorded in ancient mythology is a reflection of who human beings were 2000 years ago.  The divine varies from culture to culture.  But fear and sex and power are universal and show that our own behavior actually shapes our lives through time.  Reverence and fearfulness are both important traits of believer's lives.
 

Here's a hopeful stat.  Most Americans see the Bible as “fables” not as the actual “word of God.”  This reflects transition from the traditional toward a more rational application of sacred texts.  This is one thing that makes evangelical Christians cringe.  This is sinful, to them.  In a way it is understandable.  

We are still hardwired for magical thinking.  Atheists and materialists must come to grips with this fact.  Their brains don't work like most of humanity's (yet).  We have to learn to accept that magical thinking is simply something a lot of people cannot avoid.  Part of the brain is hardwired specifically for religion.  Given the world of constant becoming, this hardwiring is similar to having a disability.  They are, in fact, dis-abled in terms of transcending their reliance on magical thinking.  They cannot function efficiently with the consequences of being enframed.  We should not rage at them or joke about them.  They can Be no other way.  Just as we enabled ones can be no other way.  

Another psychological disability is that we all possess cognitive biases that trivialize the importance of empirical facts, which makes most people incapable of living a fact-based life.  They live in the world of their biases and their brain's psychological development.  This is an important fact everyone should accept if they want to understand why the world is the way it is and why it won't change faster.  Technology can outrun our brains and that is a big problem, though a temporary one.  Enframing paradoxically ensures that Generations Z and Alpha will be more neuroplastic humans ever.

Still, for now, beliefs are more important to most of us than facts.  “Even if X is not true I would rather believe X than not believe it.”  This truth justifies my statement that we are not "modern” yet.  We do not live in modern times.  We are still medieval people and these are the last days of the Great Enlightenment that began 300 years ago or so.  The next generations (Z and Alpha) will bring forth the Modern, and possibly, hopefully, the Singularity too, such as it will be – which no one can foresee.

Late Note: A couple of days after this post Newsweek ran an article entitled: "Ninety Will Be the New 40 in 10 years."  This is what I've been planning for.  From the article: "The creators of a new program that aims to 'reboot' your biological age say that within a decade people who live into their 90s could feel as if they are in their 40s, thanks to rapid advances in the longevity field."  So much is happening in longevity research that it seems inevitable that I will benefit from some of this research in the near future.