Omega Point

For other uses, see Omega Point (disambiguation).

The Omega Point is a spiritual belief that the universe is evolving toward a higher level of material complexity and consciousness. The term was coined by the French Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955).[1] Teilhard argued that the Omega Point resembles the Christian Logos, namely Christ, who draws all things into himself, who in the words of the Nicene Creed, is "God from God," "Light from Light," "True God from true God," and "through him all things were made." In the Book of Revelation, Christ describes himself thrice as "the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." The idea of the Omega Point is developed in later writings, such as those of John David Garcia (1971), Paolo Soleri (1981), and Frank Tipler (1994).[2][3][4]

Five attributes

Teilhard de Chardin's The Phenomenon of Man states that the Omega Point must possess the following five attributes. It is:

Related concepts

Tipler

Frank Tipler uses the term Omega Point to describe what he maintains is the ultimate fate of the universe required by the laws of physics. Some have argued that it is pseudoscience.[8] Tipler (1994) has summarized his hypothesis as follows:

Key to Tipler's exploration of the Omega Point is the supposition of a closed universe evolving towards a future collapse. Within this universe, Tipler assumes a massive processing capability. As the universe becomes smaller, the processing capability becomes larger, due to the decreasing cost of communications as the systems shrink in size. At the same time, information from previously disconnected points in space becomes visible, giving the processors access to more and more information. Tipler's Omega Point occurs when the processing capability effectively becomes infinite, as the processors will be able to simulate every possible future before the universe ends - a state also known as "Aleph."

Within this environment, Tipler imagines that intelligent beings, human personalities, will be run as simulations within the system. As a result, after the Omega Point, humans will have omnipotence, able to see all of history and predict all of the future. Additionally, as all history becomes available, past personalities will be able to run as well. Within the simulation, this appears to be the dead rising. Tipler equates this state with the Christian heaven.

Technological singularity

The technological singularity is the hypothetical advent of artificial general intelligence theoretically capable of recursive self-improvement, resulting in a runaway effect to an intelligence explosion.[10][11] There is significant overlap of ideas between proponents of the singularity and futurists who explicitly theorize about the omega point at the end of the universe. Ray Kurzweil, one of the most prominent singulatarians, writes that "evolution moves inexorably toward our conception of God, albeit never reaching this ideal."[12] Like Kurzweil, Teilhard predicts a period of rapid technological change that results in a merger of humanity and technology.[2] He believes that this marks the birth of the noosphere and the emergence of the "spirit of the Earth," but the Teilhardian Singularity comes later.[2] Unlike Kurzweil, Teilhard's singularity is marked by the evolution of human intelligence reaching a critical point in which humans ascend from "transhuman" to "posthuman."[2] He identifies this with the Christian parousia.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Castillo, Mauricio (March 2012). "The Omega Point and Beyond: The Singularity Event" (PDF). American Journal of Neuroradiology 33 (3): 393–5. doi:10.3174/ajnr.A2664. PMID 21903920. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Steinhart, Eric (2008). "Teilhard de Chardin and Transhumanism". Journal of Evolution and Technology 20 (1): 1–22. ISSN 1541-0099. Retrieved 2015-06-03.
  3. ↑ Green, Ronald (2012). "Challenging Transhumanism's Values". Hastings Center Report 43: 45–47. doi:10.1002/hast.195. Retrieved 2015-06-06.
  4. ↑ Lilley, Stephen (2013). "Transcend or Transgress?". Hastings Center Report: 13–24. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4981-8_2. Retrieved 2015-06-06.
  5. ↑ Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. The Phenomenon of Man. HarperPerennial. p. 88.
  6. ↑ Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. The Phenomenon of Man. HarperPerennial. p. 165.
  7. ↑ The Bible, Genesis 1:27
  8. ↑ Ellis, George Francis Rayner (1994). "Piety in the Sky" (PDF). Nature 371 (6493): 115. Bibcode:1994Natur.371..115E. doi:10.1038/371115a0.
  9. ↑ Tipler (1994),
  10. ↑ David Chalmers on Singularity, Intelligence Explosion. April 8th, 2010. Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
  11. ↑ Editor's Blog Why an Intelligence Explosion is Probable, by Richard Loosemore and Ben Goertzel. March 7, 2011; hplusmagazine.
  12. ↑ Kurzweil, Ray (2005). The Singularity is Near. New York: Viking Books. ISBN 978-0-670-03384-3., pg 476; see also 375, 389-390

External links

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