On Heaven

I see "heaven" and "god" as pretty fuzzy terms, so I want to define what I mean by these words at the outset.

Heaven:  I think the basic idea the word "heaven" is trying to capture is an environment ideally adapted to those who occupy it; one where everyone's needs are met at all levels.  When I say Heaven (with a capital "H"), I am referring to such a utopian reality that is suited to human beings.

God:  I see a "god" as a word we use to describe a higher order living system that influences a set of lower order living systems in ways those individual lower order systems are incapable of.  I see "God" (with a capital "G") as a word used to describe the universal living system for which any other living systems is a subcomponent of.

The reason I see heavens and gods as real is because I see those as appropriate terms to describe most biological systems.

For example, each of our bodies is a collection of cells, living systems that work together to create an environment where all their needs are met.  The end to which our brains / minds evolved is to control the intake of resources necessary to fulfill all our body's needs; although none of our individual cells can perceive the outside world directly, our self awareness can.

The point being, using the senses of the words as defined above, our bodies are examples of heavens and our minds are examples of gods.

Seeing heavens and gods in everyday living things makes me inclined to believe that Heaven is in fact a real place, and that it exists here.  Finding our Heaven is a matter of continuing to unlock it from our present environment; the same basic process underlying how we keep unlocking new technologies.  The potential for the technologies was always here, and unlocking them is the process of us actualizing that potential.

The reason that I believe this is more than just wishful thinking stems from a basic observation on how human beings operate.  In any given environment, we seek to optimize that environment with respect to what we perceive as our self.  If we are hungry, we try to find something to eat.  If we are cold, we try to bring warmth.  If a friend or family member is sad, we do our best to try to comfort them.  In all of these cases, we are trying to bring our present environment closer to our personal views of Heaven.  At the species level, this creates a selective pressure for our environment to become optimized with respect to how the species as a whole perceives Heaven.

Through this process I believe that we, as human beings, will eventually come to form a collective of interacting living systems that operate as one, similar to how our body/mind relationship operates.

The reason I believe this will come to fruition is because it is readily apparent that we are already doing this to some extent.  Our societies are living systems with a collective willpower which guides its further evolution in a way none of its individual parts can.  Things like Google and Twitter are information networks linking us together; these types of systems are the not so rudimentary beginnings to the equivalent of a central nervous system for our species.  When the interpersonal networks connecting us to one another evolves to the point where we can react as a species in a manner equivalent to how a single organism would, I see this as creating a new form of god.  Although I'm not sure I would call this god "God", I at least think that creating it would bring us as a whole one step closer to perceiving God.

Although what I am talking about in regards to unlocking Heaven may seem like a long ways off, I believe that just trying to be a good person as you see the world is the biggest thing anyone can do towards this end.  Below, I've listed a few additional ideas that I am kicking around, which I believe could help the process along.



-  Cyber Aided Democracy (under construction):  I think it would be in everyone's best interests to make the representatives in our democracy more representative.  This link explains one way we could make this happen.

-  Connecting People of Like Interests:   I think pretty much everyone likes being able to connect to others with similar interests.  This link explains a few ideas on how to help us towards that end.

-  Wikipedia Scholarly Publications:

-  Google Scholar visualization (under construction):

-  Buyers unions network (under construction):

-  Sending Information Back In Time  (under construction):  In this link, I explain a method I originally came up with back in my undergraduate days as a physics student that seems to be capable of sending messages instantaneously.  I also explain how this can then be used to send messages back in time.  This isn't something I see as being physically doable any time soon, but I see it as an important concept because it would (in principle) lead to us having the capability to avoid nearly any potential disaster.



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