Published on December 15, 2024 5:17 PM GMT
People of LessWrong share a common thread: a drive to understand reality as it is, coupled with a willingness to tackle ambitious projects that push beyond current human limitations. Today, I’d like to introduce a nascent idea—“Avatarism”—that attempts to meld rationality, scientific rigor, and technological ambition into a guiding vision.
The short version: Avatarism proposes that instead of relying on ancient metaphysical narratives to provide meaning or solace from death and injustice, we should consciously work to create a future state (a “True Heaven”) in our own actual universe—a realm of well-being and freedom from suffering, and even more outrageously resurrect past individuals into this improved state of existence. The claim is not that we know how to achieve this right now, but that we can at least start charting a course, applying the same tools of rationality, epistemic humility, and technological foresight that the LessWrong community already values.
A Brief Sketch of Avatarism
- Acknowledging the Void: Traditional religions often fill existential dread with unfalsifiable promises. Avatarism starts by acknowledging that no external authority is guaranteed to deliver utopia or salvation from death. We have no inherent “purpose” gifted to us; we have to craft it. Treat the most ambitious goal we can think of as a generational engineering challenge.Goal-Setting Under Uncertainty: The aim is to create a drastically better future environment, effectively a heaven on naturalistic terms. We don’t know the exact methods: maybe advanced neural engineering, virtual reality civilizations, or large-scale energy harnessing. The point is to keep the goal open-ended, allowing for rigorous updates as knowledge grows.Rational Approach to Grand Goals: Avatarism does not claim certainty. It does not hinge on miracles or suspend natural laws. Instead, it approaches the question “Can we create the future we want?” with a physics, engineering mindset. We treat it like a frontier research question. Recreating individuals from the past into an artificial heaven, extremely hard, perhaps improbable, but not obviously impossible given millions of years of scientific advancement, a blink of an eye in the mind of a dead human.Incremental and Iterative: Avatarism encourages continuous refinement. If tomorrow’s physics breakthroughs challenge a current approach, we pivot. If new understandings of consciousness emerge, we incorporate them. No dogmas, no unchangeable doctrines.
Engaging with Objections
- Overambitious Dreaming? consider the grand transformations already contemplated here: colonizing space, aligning superintelligence, or overcoming aging. These, too, once seemed hopeless. Avatarism is an umbrella concept for structuring efforts around well-being at the utmost scale.Ethical and Value Alignment Challenges: Ensuring “eternal well-being” introduces major value alignment problems. This is not waved away; it’s acknowledged as a key research challenge. The Avatarist mindset would push for deep inquiry into what constitutes flourishing and how to preserve autonomy and morality in any engineered paradise.Practicality vs. Fantasy: Initially, Avatarism is more like a direction than a near-term blueprint. Engaging with it means fleshing out intermediary steps: advancing cognitive science, physics and building a society that would accommodate progress. It’s less about pronouncing a ready-made solution and more about inspiring methodical action toward a distant but worthy horizon.Even More Ethical Considerations: what of individuals who would refuse resurrection? simple.. just don't. assuming the ability of maintaining an artificial heaven along with the tech to bring into it people lost from history, We should also be able to create an absolutely true calculation of person stance on the idea before the revival. and if it is not for their calculated liking, leave them be.
A Friendly Invitation
Avatarism is not a demand for belief; it’s an invitation to consider and promote an ultimate goal: leveraging rationality, science, and collective wisdom to move beyond existential angst and toward a state of well-being that past generations dared only to fantasize and mythize. It could be a grand unifying narrative for rational futurists—one that stays tethered to reality, embraces uncertainty, and makes no excuses for pretending things are easy. The journey is just beginning, and I’m curious whether the LessWrong community finds value in exploring—and perhaps shaping—this conceptual frontier.
If this resonates—or if you have critiques or counter-arguments—I invite you to a discussion here or to visit the Avatarism website and share your thoughts. Your insights can help refine the vision.
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