A Cosmist Manifesto
A Cosmist Manifesto: Practical Philosophy for a Posthuman Age is a 2010 book by Ben Goertzel.
"The book is for everyone who likes thinking and understanding. For everyone who wants to understand their world, their mind, or their future. But it will go down most easily for the reader who’s already absorbed a bit of technofuturism --perhaps from reading modern SF writers like Vinge or Stephenson, Stross or Broderick; or perhaps from the nonfiction works so Kurzweil, Broderick (again) or Drexler or other futurist pundits."[1]
Themes
"There's a lot to say about Cosmism. Among the many topics considered are AI, nanotechnology, uploading, immortality, psychedelics, meditation, future social structures, PSI phenomenon, alien and cetacean intelligence and the Singularity.
The Cosmist perspective is shown to make plain old common sense of even the wildest future possibilities."[2]
Discussion
According to Ben, Cosmism advocates:
- pursuing joy, growth and freedom for oneself and all beings
- ongoingly, actively seeking to better understand the universe and its multiple aspects, from a variety of perspectives
- taking nothing is axiomatic and accepting all ideas, beliefs and habits as open to revision based on thought, dialogue and experience[3]