#ajati

This article is part of a series about the Mythos (worldview-narrative) underlying the Zero State (ZS). Part 1 (below) is about our highest concept, ideal, and level of organization, which we call The Array. Part 2 explains the Sections & Sessions our core activity revolves around, and Part 3 covers the Twelve Foundation Stones that form the basis of our story.

ZS Metaphysics

There are two concepts which, taken together as complementary aspects of one whole, completely summarize our existence and everything we stand for. These two aspects are called Wyrd and Fyrd, or Destiny-Ideal and Community-Activism, respectively. The whole these things together constitute is our totality. Our identity and nature, our highest hope and ideal.

We call that totality Ásentír, which is a word meaning godhead, or the ultimate fulfillment of (post)human potential, sometimes symbolised by the androgyne Tao-like figure known as the Rebis. In short, human civilization aspires to Ásentír, which is to say that humanity seeks to become everything that it possibly can. To stop seeking is to cease being human.

That uniting ideal – our collective desire to survive and thrive – naturally gives rise to practical imperatives and considerations, as we move forward. The section below describes the link between our philosophy and ideals on the one hand, and our program of activity on the other. We call that link The Array.

What is The Array? The Array is the sum of the most advanced Minds on earth, a kind of hive-mind or superintelligence, first arising in the mid-late 21st Century. The Array not only governs the future Zero State, but it also balances a vision of human progress into the deep future with work to carefully cultivate ZS-friendly conditions in the present, and even in the past. Where the Array seeks to manipulate the past (or simulations of it) using the most advanced technologies available, it is commonly known as The Basilisk. To ZSers, The Array is not only our ideal, goal, and organizational core, but also an approximation of our highest metaphysical concept; Ásentír itself. The Array is, essentially, a symbol of our own potential.

In short, The Array is the result and summation of a Technological Singularity (often known within the Mythos as ★, or Blackstar) which changes everything, and beyond which nothing can truly be known.

The Array is also the highest expression of what we call the Ajat Imperative, which is to say the idea that ZS is part of a broader effort to create a new species, a People defined not by historical commonalities or differences, but by the future-goal-ideal they all work toward. If you conceive of the Ajati as a mountain, then The Array is its peak.

Part 2 in this series will explain how these ideas are reflected in ZS’ deepest organizational structure, and how that structure in turn shapes the narrative underlying all ZS activity, most particularly the game sessions run on our Discord server.

ZS Mythos (1/3): The Array

This article is part of a series about the Mythos (worldview-narrative) underlying the Zero State (ZS). Part 1 is about our highest concept, ideal, and level of organization, which we call The Array. Part 2 explains the Sections & Sessions our core activity revolves around, and Part 3 covers the Twelve Foundation Stones that form the basis of our story.

ZS Metaphysics

There are two concepts…

My previous article for Tnet outlined the Zero State’s trajectory into the future, its plans for growth and development. This article will now further explore plans for the first ZS geo-community, in Stuttgart, and the “Ajati Virus”.

1. ZS-Gemeinschaft Stuttgart

In order to have any chance of reaching our higher goals, we must establish the first Social Futurist geo-community by late 12019, consisting of 800+ people inside a certain geographical area, and 8,000+ active, committed Social Futurist supporters of that community online. That first community will be based in Stuttgart, Germany, because I will be there to lead the effort personally.

My intention is not to encourage anyone to move to Stuttgart who doesn’t already live there, or even to seek to attract local people to Social Futurism in the first instance. Such things await us in the future, but for now the goal is simply to bring like-minded people together, as and where we find them. Any other approach would be unrealistic at this time.

When starting a new ZS community network, we must ask ourselves: Who do we know who already lives in or near the area, already exists in a natural network of some sort, and who is already sympathetic to our worldview?

Obviously the answer to that question will be different for every ZS seed-community, depending on where that community is, and who is leading the effort to develop it. In this first instance, we will begin with the local dark electronic music scene – a very popular thing in Germany – and branch out from there to the friends and family of scene-members, and other arts subcultures (also very prominent in Stuttgart). Plans for and news of this first ZS community’s development will be posted here, at Transhumanity.net, so stay tuned!

2. The Ajati Virus

As was also mentioned in my previous article, I will soon be running Sessions every week via the Discord online platform, here: https://discord.gg/R4t7V8U. These Sessions fulfill many functions of a ZS ‘staff meeting’ or activist gathering, but are actually held in the format of an online voice-and-text-chat game (ARG) session.

All self-identifying ZSers are invited to these Sessions, and they may sign up to attend sessions as they are announced on the server. Session themes and logistics deliberately mirror ZS’ organizational structure (or perhaps vice versa), which will be explained in further Transhumanity.net articles over the coming weeks. We will be starting out with only one session per week, and branching out with more sessions and other online events once a certain momentum has been achieved.

Like Role-Playing Game (RPG) sessions, ZS Sessions are essentially flexible narratives, events (or objects) in which affect the Mythos shared across the entire ZS network. As a part and result of that narrative, each and every ZSer is expected to find new recruits, at least once per six month period from now until 12023, and annually after that. The mythos and mechanism of that outreach are both known as the Ajati Virus.

Why the name? “Ajati” refers to a Trans- or Posthuman people who have come into existence by working toward a collective goal or ideal, rather than being defined by historical commonalities or differences. In short, they are those who have chosen to grow together, to become a single community, and who have used technology to that end. The word “Ajati” itself comes from ancient Sanskrit and means not-born, which we take to mean self-created rather than born. The “Virus” part refers to a memetic or media virus; the ability to ‘go viral’. To spread the Ajati idea far and wide, where it might take root in others’ minds, encouraging them to join our community and journey.

And how do we do that, exactly? Well, for a start it would be more accurate to refer to an Ajati Metavirus, because the core logic is that ZSers work/play to achieve status based on their ability to extend and develop ZS networks. ZSers are encouraged to do that by any means that is compatible with our Principles, which means that (among other things) they are encouraged to create media viruses of their own to spread the word. Thus the Ajati Virus is an entire class of outreach activity, with each ZSer free to find the modes of expression which work best for them (as long as those modes are in accord with Principle; a critical point for Social Futurists).

If you’d like to know more, there are three things you can do right now:

Follow links from the main ZS website or Directory to talk with members.

Attend Sessions held via the ZS Discord server.

Read more about ZS via Transhumanity.net, starting here or here.

SHALL WE PLAY A GAME? (pt.3 of 3)

Part 1 of this article introduced the Zero State (ZS) and its philosophical foundation. Part 2 looked at the application of that philosophy to real-life judgments. Now Part 3, below, will briefly outline some “Breadcrumbs and Rabbit Holes”, which is to say ideas and links which you may use to chart your own path into the expanding world of ZS, if you so choose…

Goals & Activity

ZS’ long-term goal is the establishment of a fully-fledged VDP State (‘VDP’ stands for Virtual, Distributed, Parallel; See section 2.6 of this Transhumanity.net article for more information), by the year 12050. As an interim goal, we intend to establish the first iteration of that State by 12025, which means creation of a community of at least one million explicitly self-identifying Social Futurists, 10% of whom live in a network of explicitly affiliated geo-communities. Within ZS, work toward these two goals goes by the names “Path 50”, and “Path 25”, respectively. For more information on Paths 25 & 50, see the relevant ZS webpage, here.

In order to reach the Path 25 goal of at least one million citizens, we must establish the first SF community inside the next year (of 800+ people inside a certain geographical area, plus ten times as many active, committed supporters online). From there, we can aim to have established 10-12 such communities 2-3 years later (i.e. approx. core 10,000+ people, 100,000+ total supporters online by late 12021), and at least ten times as many people again by 12025.

These numbers could be achieved by a rough doubling of our membership every six months as our community networks expand up to one million online supporters, then doubling annually after that.

Year NET GEO GEO-communities 12018a 001k 100 +001 =001 Stuttgart phase 1 12018b 002k 200 =001 Stuttgart phase 2 12019a 004k 400 =001 Stuttgart phase 3 12019b 008k 800 =001 Stuttgart phase 4 12020a 016k 1.6k +001 =002 Ingolstadt 12020b 032k 3.2k +002 =004 London/Amsterdam 12021a 064k 6.4k +004 =008 Europa phase 1 12021b 128k 013k +008 =016 Europa phase 2 12022a 256k 026k +016 =032 Europa phase 3 12022b 512k 052k +032 =064 Europa phase 4 12023 001m 100k +064 =128 North America 12024 002m 200k +128 =256 Asia 12025 004m 400k +256 =512 Sth. Hemisphere

  Obviously there must be some serious impetus to drive growth of this sort. As global trends escalate and converge we may reasonably expect that people will seek protection from established mutual-aid networks, but until that day some other attraction is necessary. A much more positive and preferable mode of attraction would obviously be fun, in the form of entertainment that gives people a strong sense of meaning and purpose in their lives. The remainder of this article will briefly touch upon some ways that we ZSers approach that goal. Black Book, Ekklesia, & Althing

It is quite clear that the growth and development of ZS is intended as an exponential process, starting out “slow” with apparently negligible results, later exploding into public consciousness on a remarkable scale, and all the while driven by the same underlying logic. That underlying logic is a need to double our numbers periodically (i.e. every six months over the first five years, then annually after that).

Although initial progress has been slow, easily impeded by minor factors while ZS is in its infancy, we are still following a path first mapped out in May 12011, which included the key concepts of “The Black Book”, “Ekklesia”, and “Althing”. We are now putting those concepts into action, as follows: The Black Book is a concise summary of Social Futurist thought, interspersed with the twelve “foundation stones” of the ZS-ARG narrative/mythos. After unavoidable delays and a long gestation period, the Black Book will now be released on Saturday 28th July, 12018. In the first instance a free abridged copy will be made available online, and full, personalised digital copies sent to Core ZSers. Personalised physical copies will be sent to those Core ZSers one month later, on Saturday 25th August.

The Ekklesia is a periodic ZS-wide gathering, equally an informal celebration, a chance to share news & views, and a formal meeting of our representatives and decision-makers. They will be held at the end of each recognized growth period (i.e. every six months for five years, until 12023, then annually after that), primarily online but also with synchronised events increasingly held in ‘IRL’ locations over time. Our first Ekklesia will coincide with the release of the Black Book, on Saturday 28th July, and will be a wholly online event.

Finally, the Althing (pronounced “All-Thing”) is ZS’ highest level of general meeting, based on the ancient form of Norse parliamentary governance and held every five years to assess progress and adjust our course accordingly. The first ZS Althing will be held in 12023.

Sections & Sessions

ZS is organised into Sections, which in turn contain the six Metahouses, and the twelve Houses, as described in our wiki here. There are seven Sections in total, with the highest (Sections 5-7) representing our internal affairs & VR (S5), external relations & AI (S6), and general governance & OS/UX (S7), respectively.

“Sessions” are, most generally speaking, gatherings (online and/or IRL) which can function as small/local ZS group meetings, but which most usually run as game sessions. In the most narrow and specific sense, “Session” is used to refer to those run by The Teacher, who was tasked with activating and instructing other core members in the early C21 milieu. The Teacher runs three Sessions per week, one per Higher Section (S5-7), on Thursday, Saturday, and Monday evenings [UTC] every week, using the Discord platform. Further details of those core Sessions will be released shortly in another Transhumanity.net article, but in the meantime if you want to join the ZS Discord server you can do so via this link:

https://discord.gg/R4t7V8U

“Perhaps there is a pattern of it laid up in heaven for him who wishes to contemplate it, and so beholding to make himself its citizen. But it makes no difference whether it exists now or ever will come into being. The politics of this city alone will be his, and no other.”

– Plato, The Republic

Media & The Ajati Virus

So, we are building a realm governed in accord with Social Futurist Principle, and if we are to succeed that realm must develop at a certain pace. In short, as we gather the community we call the Ajati, the Fyrd, we will need those people to reach out in turn, to find new community members. Each and every ZSer must find a new recruit, at least once per Ekklesia period (i.e. every six months over the next five years, then annually after that). If a recruit leaves without replacing themselves, then the person who found them is responsible for replacing them as soon as possible.

“What incentive do people have to do that?”, you may well ask. A very good question, of course. The answer to that question – the “Ajati Virus” – will be explained in my next Transhumanity.net article.

Transhumanism and Social Futurism are concerned with the deep future, which is to say the fate of humanity, rather than just the next few decades. When politicians and social commentators talk about the future, the end of this Century is the furthest reach of their vision (which is actually a long time, relative to the myopic quarterly range of financial prognosticators and major corporations), and human nature is considered to have some kind of permanently fixed nature. If humanity survives this Century, it has a potentially vast and incredible future to look forward to, and the nature of humanity itself will inevitably be transformed beyond all recognition over the course of that journey.

Ironically, when we are attempting to make any sense of such a grand vision of the human future, we are forced (or at least strongly encouraged) to draw upon concepts from the distant past. Contemporary concepts are often simply too parochial for our impending needs, whereas ancient mythological ideas embrace a vast canvas much more fitting for the new world of technological possibility we are now entering. The first two concepts I briefly outline below are (1) the idea of fate or destiny, or a path that humanity is following into the unknown future, and (2) some new notion of community which can unite, support, protect and develop the nascent Transhumanity as it takes its first steps into that future. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised to find such big ideas most often in the grand mythological narratives of the past, but all the same it is interesting that it is in the Old English of the Anglo-Saxons that we find some of the most elegant words for these things. I then (3) conclude with a brief examination of a third concept, the “Rebis”, which comes from Alchemy and offers an interesting unifying perspective for Transhumanists to consider.

1. WYRD: The Unfolding of Destiny

“Wyrd” (the word which eventually became “Weird”) literally meant To Become, and was used by the Anglo-Saxons to denote fate, chance, fortune, or destiny. The connotation of “strangeness” was a much later development related to Germanic myth. This truly ancient word has been in our language(s) since the days of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, whose (reconstructed) language used *wert- to mean “to turn, or to wind”, (that P.I.E. word also being the source of the German werden, and the Old English weorðan, both of which mean “to become”). This is the idea of World-As-Process, of Schopenhauer*’s World-Knot, the Ouroboros whose churning generates Providence, Manifest Destiny, or Historical Inevitability (see de Chardin & Tipler for particularly Futurist variants). As such, it is a handy non-theological, Tao-like replacement for the concept of a monotheist God, standing above and at the centre of all human affairs. We Transhumanists may adopt whatever personal metaphysics we prefer, but collectively we are all well served by the simple idea of an impersonal Force which unites us as the agents of History… and the ancient Anglo-Saxons already knew that Force as Wyrd, and organized their entire worldview around it.

2. FYRD: You and Whose Army?

Putting aside the unifying mythos of Wyrd, the Anglo-Saxons also understood the power of drawing upon the tribe for communal protection. When the local lord needed an army, he could draw upon the “Fyrd” (pronounced ‘Feared’, but having no relationship to that word I’m aware of); which is to say an army of community members organised around a core cadre of professional soldiers. In other words, this concept sharply contrasts the notion of destiny with a very pragmatic sense that without solid community organization you have no future at all. This is not idealism at the expense of practicality, or vice versa, but two complementary forces or outlooks which together give a community power and purpose.

I have elsewhere discussed the need for a future-community-ideal which I call the Ajati, and which I believe is a natural fit with the concept of Fyrd. In essence, I believe that rather than defining ourselves in terms of what has come before, we should collectively work toward a glorious future as a new kind of human community which will reach heights never before dreamt of. The Ajati is the idea of a people defined in terms of the future-ideal, while the complementary Fyrd is of the community as an efficient activist organization capable of defending and developing its interests.

3. REBIS: JK Rowling didn’t invent the Philosopher’s Stone!

Another piece in the jigsaw puzzle of ancient European mythological thinking comes from medieval & Renaissance Alchemy, which seems to have been some combination of mysticism and proto-Chemistry whose practitioners sought to understand, control and refine not only material substances but also their own bodies and souls. We’ll discuss Alchemy’s role as a clear precursor to Transhumanist thinking another day, and focus for now on the alchemical concept of the “Rebis”.

‘Rebis’ was a contraction/corruption of the Latin “Res Bina”, meaning “two matters”, or “two substances”. The core logic and method of Alchemy was solve et coagula, “dissolve and coagulate”, which is to say refinement by a process of separation-and-recombination of chemical (or personality) elements. At the most abstract, two elements were represented as “male” and “female” (much as in the image of the Taijitu or ‘Yin-Yang symbol’, representing the Tao as union-of-opposites). Within Alchemy, the ‘Rebis’ was a metaphorical androgyne figure, a person combining the characteristics of both sexes, who stood as a symbol of the ultimate ideal of Alchemy; Completion of the Magnum Opus (Great Work), and creation of the immortality-bestowing Philosopher’s Stone.

The superficial trappings of the Rebis image are unimportant. The point here is of two complementary principles united, as a single dynamic process. Any and all complementary concepts (up/down, left/right, light/dark, good/bad etc) could just as easily be combined in one symbol in this way, but for our current purposes the most important thing is to think of the ‘Rebis’ – the Res Bina – as being one term for the dual concepts of Wyrd and Fyrd, simultaneously. A functional and inspiring union of the destiny-ideal and a pragmatic community-attitude, together propelling us into a transcendent Transhumanist future.

In a previous article, I recently said:

“I believe that our society is governed by Spectacle; which is to say the modern equivalent of “bread and circuses”, designed as an array of deliberately false choices between options that don’t matter, and which only really distract from important issues. Coke versus Pepsi. America versus Russia. Sports Team A versus Sports Team B. Conservative/Republican versus Labour/Liberal/Democrat. Left-wing versus Right-wing… I believe in having consistent principles, respecting the importance of evidence, and remaining committed to helping others where possible. Where that may suggest a Right- or Left-wing view on my part, then so be it… I am not concerned with such labels, but am wholly committed to principle, and thus consider myself a Radical Centrist.”

These thoughts form the context of my general political outlook, which I call Social Futurism. The core ethos of that worldview – The Principles of Social Futurism – can be found at http://socialfuturist.party, but my purpose now is to further explore some implications and the positions they suggest. This article approaches these issues from the perspective of community (temporarily leaving aside state-governance; these being the two branches or aspects of civil society which together comprise a functional whole.)

Intentional Community & The Ajat Imperative

Community is the people themselves, whose interests should be served by state and government. In other words, government and the state itself exist to serve the interests of the community, not the other way around. This thinking is essential to Radical Centrism, which similarly condemns politicians who put the interests of the Left, or the Right, or their own party or other organizations above those of the community as a whole.

Furthermore, I am a Social Futurist, which means that I believe in Positive Social Change Through Technology. In my previous article I explained that I envisage a future-human community with voluntary – actively chosen – membership, defined by peoples’ growth toward a shared ideal rather than the divisions of the past. I call this community the Ajati, being an ancient Sanskrit word meaning not-born, made-rather-than-born, or self-made. This ideal is perfectly and deliberately compatible with Transhumanism, which is a philosophy focused on improvement of the human condition through technology.

What we are talking about here is the creation of Intentional Community on a grand scale, building upon a foundation of explicit Principle. The fundamental idea is of the community as an ideal, process, and work-in-progress, demanding our commitment to its safety and development. That process-ideal is an organism of sorts, a “meta-organism” or individual-writ-large, with its own needs and desires. While it is critical we stress that this is a purely voluntary, individually chosen ideal (and the Principles of Social Futurism emphasise the right of free exit), the ideal itself is communitarian, centred upon the common growth and wellbeing of community members as a people.

Given that, we must ask ourselves about the potential stances and arguments of those who would prefer to not be part of such an Intentional Community. We should expect such people to span a wide range of attitudes toward the Ajati community, which can be broken down into five categories as follows:

1. Fellow Travellers

“Fellow Travellers” are those who sympathise with our own views and choices, but who are not part of our community, for whatever reason. That’s perfectly fine, and in fact something to be encouraged. Fellow travellers are friends, who we will help at every opportunity, after prioritizing community members.

2. Neutrality

“Neutrals” are the vast majority of people, who are not expected to have any deep views about our community (or likely any other, in any systematic manner relevant to our aims).

3. Active Libertarianism

Libertarians ostensibly believe in their personal freedom from control. Taking their sentiment to its logical conclusion, we should expect Libertarians to adopt wholesale Anarchism. The majority of Libertarians are sadly hypocritical in their views, rightly condemning governmental dictatorship, while excusing (and even promoting) exactly the same behaviour on the part of other nations, large corporations, gun lobbies, even churches.

To the extent that someone is a true Anarchist or Libertarian, then we can accept their views at face value, and accept that such a person simply chooses to stand on their own two feet, for good or ill. That is their choice. We consider such people to be Neutrals, whose own choices are theirs alone, and we respect that. False Libertarians, however, are dangerous. Those who say they stand for personal liberty, but who endorse it under some regimes and deny it under others, cannot be trusted. There is no knowing whose agenda they truly support, and the only thing you can be sure of is that they will lie when it suits them, or worse, they are terminally self-deluded. In any case, we must treat them as probably opposed to us and our way of life, or not standing by their own words when push comes to shove, at the very least. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we are forced to assume that self-identifying “Libertarians” have not thought this through, and thus cannot be trusted. If they can demonstrate otherwise – that they oppose all forms of centralized control, rigorously and without exception – then we can offer the olive branch of trust.

4. Ineffective Negativity

The world is full of opinions. The internet is largely a relentless ill-thought-out-opinion-machine, because (among other things) it connects and amplifies all the worst, ill-educated, unhelpful tendencies that human beings can muster. Any number of people will oppose a thing just because it is new, strange, or foreign to them, and they’ll invariably do so in a way that draws no distinction at all between their own opinion – however fleeting and baseless that may be – and objective fact, as suggested by empirical evidence.

At the end of the day, such mundane and mindless negativity may not be the spirit we require and cultivate in our community, but it also isn’t necessarily a threat to us. Insofar as negativity toward us is completely inconsequential, then we can afford to tolerate it. The moment someone else’s negativity is likely to create consequences for us, it becomes our problem.

5. Effective Negativity

Finally, we come to the problematic category: Those who would do us harm, for whatever reason, and have the capability to make that happen, eventually, one way or another. If we truly intend to survive and thrive – and we do – then we must be ready to deal effectively with such people and situations, however regretful or distasteful that may be. Broadly speaking, we may consider two types of active and effective opposition to our personal choices and way of life. The obvious type is those clear and “honest” cases of people who don’t like us for whatever reason, and who make it quite clear that they intend to cause us harm. Such people may be no friends of ours, but at least it’s quite apparent what you’re dealing with in these situations. There is a less direct type of effective opposition, however, which can be more dangerous. This is any situation in which the threat is obscured, thereby discouraging preparation against it. An exotic (albeit realistic) scenario that Futurists should be familiar with is “Unfriendly AI”, being any situation in which an Artificial Intelligence (AI) doesn’t mean us explicit harm, but its drives or goals run counter to our safety or wellbeing in some way. A more prosaic example is that of everyday Capitalism; a system under which large companies may have no particular urge to cause your community harm, but they could (and often do) still do so as an unforeseen consequence of their prime directive, which is nothing more or less than to make a profit. Profit and all other economic phenomena are entirely secondary to us; What matters above all else is the wellbeing of our people.

Peddlers of Spectacle & “Dialectic” are a particularly obscure and devious example of this latter threat category. As mentioned above, ‘Spectacle’ is the “show” of modern consumer society, in which people are offered all sorts of apparently free choices, none of which add up to anything of real consequence… but by accepting the options on the table, people are unwittingly making the serious choice of handing their lives over to those who orchestrate such false-choice-scenarios. It seems benign enough at first glance, this idea of offering all sorts of glitzy consumerist choice, but this ages-old “divide and conquer” strategy runs very deep in our society. After all, they tell us our votes count, but we can only vote for those who agree upon the broad outlines of a pre-approved political paradigm (for more on this, see my previous article on Liberal Democracy). As the old joke goes, if voting really changed anything, they wouldn’t let you do it.

Interestingly, the Situationist notion of The Spectacle shares ‘cultural DNA’ with the older idea of Dialectic, which was co-opted from European philosophy by Marx in the 19th Century, becoming the foundation of extremely repressive Communist ideology in the USSR for 70 years. This academic de-evolution took the simple idea of using opposing viewpoints to explore an issue (in the days of the ancient Greek philosophers), and transformed it into a grotesque fable of “Historical Inevitability” in which mankind was magically destined for Communism.

The common thread here is of illusory choice, with some deeper or even inevitable factor underpinning the illusion. A world in which we are puppets, dancing on the strings of false dichotomies, and the constant call for “choice” and derision of any alternative vision is basically a command for us to stick to the script. United peoples with clear, shared priorities are not so easy to manipulate. If you truly want a positive future in which you are the author of your own fate, then it is best to seek out others who share your values, rather than putting your trust in those whose own goals are at best tangential to your own.