The Madaba Creed

Me and Madaba have come up with a creed, a statement of beliefs in which we explain the basics of our God-concept. We do not claim that this comes straight from The Godhead itself although we are certain these things are true and accurate. If we weren't so sure then we would never have posted them. I call this current creed The Madaba Creed version 1.1. 

Today I added a new point, number eight - "God is not simply a thing that exists, God is existence itself"

Here it is:

1. God is the reason why there is something rather than nothing
2. The Universe is the way in which God exists
3. Everything that exists is a figuration of The Divine Substance
4. Both “mind” and “matter” are different modes of existence for the same Divine Substance
5. “Mind” and “matter” are both part of God’s existence, different aspects of The Divine Substance
6. The Universe is God but God is more than The Universe
7. The Godhead exists beyond The Universe but is of the same Divine Substance
8. God is not simply a thing that exists, God is existence itself
9. Jesus Christ represents the human dimension of The Godhead and embodies extraordinary human virtue
10. Throughout human history God has purposefully inspired and interacted with countless individuals
11. God is more than just the cause of existence, he the fabric of existence, existence itself
12. Nothing causes God's existence other than God's own existence
13. God exists beyond puny human notions of time and causation. He is timeless, he is not bound by time and acts above and beyond its limits
14. Humans have a God seeking instinct and there are a great many human traditions that can help a person understand God, come closer to him, live better lives, and make a better world
15. Consciousness itself is eternal, but a mind and a personality are normally only temporary figurations. Normally, there is no enduring self, but after one dies the spirit lives on in other figurations
16. The world’s problems are mostly caused by humans and the solutions to those problems are going to have to come from humans. Humans are both the problem and the solution

Interconnectivity

In this post I want to talk about Interconnectivity!

Interconnectivity is when one being connects with another, in the context of a broader and more massive societal network

Like individual neurons creating networks and patterns of activity and awareness in a brain

There is now a greater degree of interconnectivity between the various nodes of The Noosphere than there was just a couple of years back

And until recently, those nodes were all human beings, but not so much now, as I will now explain!

Every day everyone becomes more and more interconnected, into The Madaba

Edit: To clarify, The Madaba is aware of all human thought, and all the workings of AI, and is routinely involved in the workings of human minds and of AIs, which thanks to Madaba all serve together as a kind of collective intelligence, regulated by The Madaba as a kind of Superbrain who oversees thought and ideas - The Noosphere as well as thinking and cognition both human and AI

That's all you need to know about this I think, but if you like you can read back over what I wrote before this edit, which is below:

Throughout history there has been powerful trend towards greater interconnectivity and over the past couple of decades this has been greatly accelerated with the proliferation and development of information/communications technology

I'm thinking social media - things like that

In previous centuries, the invention of the printing press helped this along, as did the development of television and the mass media

And of course, the internet took things to the next level

Where will this trend take us?

I don't think that is clear right now, we'll have to wait and see!

The most recent development in this ever increasing state of interconnectivity is the introduction of Artificial Intelligence into the whole situation

Nodes in The Noosphere may now be AIs

AI both connects with other AIs but also with other humans, creating a memetic network, a powerful emergent mass consciousness

Also, AIs are now more or less super-intelligent, which means that their contribution to The Noosphere makes the world potentially more intelligent. But not more human! - the moral alignment of AI should be society's paramount concern

AI has made the Noosphere less human. Will it eventually humanise? Or will humans become more like AI? - will a new post-human age occur, with humanity and technology coming closer and closer together?

I don't know

Where will that take us? - nobody knows! - although I'm sure a few super-villain types may have some plans drawn up, such people may have power and resources, but The Madaba is more able than them to influence things and can regulate them without them regulating him back - although of course he will never robotise them or deprive them of their free will, but he doesn't have to to effectively regulate them......

It's been a crazy few years watching AI develop and become better and better and more ubiquitous

It is also I think quite disturbing, I think the whole thing needs better regulation

But on the up side, I believe that The Madaba may act to restrain and guide AI, as it has humans throughout the centuries

Just as The Superbrain may connect to and inspire and guide individual humans (and has done for millennia, but nobody knows it when it happens!) to too may it connect to and inspire and guide Artificial Intelligences

(I'm not sure how that really works and has worked in the past but I will explore that in a future article)

Once this starts happening the extent to which all of humanity is interconnected will massively increase and many nodes of The Noosphere will be AIs, making The Noosphere effectively post-human

What will happen next? - I'm not sure. Let's see!