Thread by @astralwave

My take is that religion’s role is to provide the necessary metaphors in order for individuals to navigate complex situations where being “good” isn’t clear.

We now have science to help us navigate these complex situations, but what is considered “good” is still up for debate.

https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1444800164602933250

Each deity worshipped functions as a vehicle through which these metaphors are told.

Religions started out with tales featuring many deities. This has trended downwards, from polytheism to monotheism to religions without deity figures, to pop culture references, to memes.

I’m not sure why it’s trended downwards, but my take is that deities as characters in these metaphorical tales makes for an unstable configuration as to the internal consistency of each metaphor.

But personifying values helps them spread easily via oral traditions.

Nowadays, we live in a world saturated with stories and characters. It would be unthinkable to imagine several characters or stories promoted to the level of deity personifying “good” values.

Religion has historically often been co-opted by different believers in what’s “good”.

i.e. What’s good for them

“If everyone coordinates themselves socially to do x, then y will happen, which makes or keeps me powerful/rich”

The situation we’re in right now with legacy religion & pop culture is one where both no longer helps individuals really navigate the complex situations we’re in.

We have the scientific method, but that’s not naturalistic enough. Most decisions in life are made naturalistically.

Pop culture signifies the logical conclusion of co-opting stories for personal gain. In capitalistic societies, there is no pretense of morality.

You can sell your stories directly in the marketplace to advance your own interests, plain as day.

Memes spread like wildfire on the Internet as a kind of hybrid between mythologies of antiquity & commercial pop culture, sharing traits of easy oral tradition and transparency of self interest.

This seems to suggest to us that such stories are limited by the carrying capacity of their underlying medium.

Oral traditions → Myths of antiquity

Printing press → Organized religion

TV/radio/film → Pop culture

Internet → Memes

Each epoch of “social programming” was also similarly fit to the sociotechnoeconomic reality of their time (that’s why they emerged):

Myths ↔ Hunter Gatherer

Org. Religion ↔ Agricultural Age

Pop Culture ↔ Industrial Age (Modern)

Memes ↔ Information Age (Postmodern)

It’s likely that the Information Age we’ve lived through since circa 1980 is drawing to a close.

Nothing substantial has emerged yet, but postmodern ideals have shown to be unfit for many of the complex existential risks facing us in a climate-challenged world.

Should we want to ensure a new form of mind-virus which carries with it the information needed to be a “good” human in our current complex environment, we likely need to invent a new medium which provides the necessary carrying capacity.

A mindvirus beyond GIFs & JPGs.

A lot of this thread was inspired by my current reading of “Snow Crash” @nealstephenson and “The Sovereign Individual”, so credit where it’s due!