"Having made a plausible case that life was almost inevitable given the way that the universe generates complexity as it moves towards its eventual heat death, he argues that it is the universe's fate to become completely saturated with intelligence, with technologically advanced species and their non-carbon-based aids and partners colonizing its every corner. And even though this is all written into the universe's laws of motion, so to speak,"
"only can the vision laid out "imbue [our] existence with meaning and purpose" (to quote the book's website blurb), but we should take doing our part to help it come about as a moral imperative-a sort of "giving the inevitable a helping hand" argument reminiscent of the Communist revolutionaries of a century ago, who argued that "the revolution" was an inevitable consequence of the dynamics of social and technological change, but that the good revolutionary needed to be prepared to die for the cause."
Life, consciousness, and the physical universe can be viewed as an integrated whole. The universe's tendency to generate complexity makes life likely and capable of expanding. A projected outcome is universal saturation by intelligence, including technologically advanced, non-carbon entities colonizing the cosmos. That outcome is framed as morally desirable, urging humans to accelerate it. The claim that continuity via successive human-tech descendants equals personal immortality is challenged. Acceptance of mortality is emphasized, with a recommendation to stop seeking ultimate escape from death and to live fully in the present.
Read at Psychology Today
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