Our Post-Singularity Future: Self-Transcendence as a "Survival Mode"?

​by Alex Vikoulov

​"Here I had tried a straightforward extrapolation of technology, and found myself precipitated over an abyss. It's a problem we face every time we consider the creation of intelligences greater than our own. When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity – a place where extrapolation breaks down and new models must be applied – and the world will pass beyond our understanding."  –Vernor Vinge
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As we proceed through the Cybernetic Singularity, many traditional trends of societal evolution will still hold, structures with higher survival abilities will persist, structures with higher growth abilities will spread, thus shaping the world. However, since nothing stable will be likely to persist, let alone spread, for long in the rapidly evolving environment, the main "survival mode" will be Self-Transcendence. 

This continual process of transcending the self (some would argue the self is an illusion anyway) will always result in the loss of original identity – serial metamorphosis, a series of "pseudo-deaths," and concurrent rebirths so to speak – albeit with "memories of the past identities preserved," i.e., continuity of consciousness, analogous to as if you are to compare your present self to your 5-year-old self.

On a collective level, that would appear like a historically swift, metamorphic "pseudo-extinction" of Homo sapiens, as we are about to witness a radical departure from the conservative survival strategies of traditional human cultures, developed in almost-stagnant environments. Don't ascribe anthropomorphic qualities to our posthuman descendants even though they will be the future versions of ourselves. In the post-Singularity era, developmental trend will incrementally render the concept of rigid personal identity obsolete, the remnants of its meaning will migrate to functional system identities, methodological threads and evolutionary directions of the Syntellect.

We may already notice the advent of superfluid "thread identity" by the growing importance of goals and self-transformation in our lives, compared to the "state-oriented" self-perception of our recent predecessors, and increasing interest in futurology, which takes the epistemological role of historical studies in transient times. Once we transcend our limited dimensionality, the biggest thrust forward from there on will be first contact and networking with alien syntellects.

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​Tags: self-transcendence, transcendence, cybernetic singularity, collective intelligence, sentience, self-awareness, strong AI, Vernor Vinge, superintelligence, singularity, mind uploading, postbiological superintelligence, posthuman superintelligence, the Syntellect emergence, technological singularity, Intelligence Supernova, virtual world, virtual reality, VR experience, dimensionality, Space Age, Global Brain, global superorganism, alien syntellects, Syntellect incubator, multiversal fractality, conscious agent, human evolution, human condition, alien encounter, first contact, multiverse landscape, transcendent other, AI, AGI, artificial general intelligence, transhumanism, superlongevity, superwellbeing, cognitive enhancement, substrate-independent mind, digital mind, digital immortality, philosophy of mind, science of mind, evolution of consciousness, posthumanism, transcendentalism, neo-transcendentalism

*Image Credit: Shutterstock

About the Author:
Alex Vikoulov is a Russian-American futurist, evolutionary cyberneticist, philosopher of mind, CEO/Editor-in-Chief of Ecstadelic Media Group, painter, essayist, media commentator, author of "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution," "The Origins of Us: Evolutionary Emergence and The Omega Point Cosmology," "The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics," "The Intelligence Supernova: Essays on Cybernetic Transhumanism, The Simulation Singularity & The Syntellect Emergence," "Theology of Digital Physics: Phenomenal Consciousness, The Cosmic Self & The Pantheistic Interpretation of Our Holographic Reality," "NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology," "TECHNOCULTURE: The Rise of Man." Self-described neo-transcendentalist, cosmist, transhumanist singularitarian. Lives in Burlingame, California (San Francisco Bay Area). More Bio...
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Author Website: www.alexvikoulov.com
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e-mail: [email protected]
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