It is predicted that a pandemic of psychological and societal injuries is to come as we face financial and emotional crises across the globe.
For the first time since the Great Depression, both advanced and developing economies are in a recession. People are anxious, confused, and demand justice to protect individual liberties, our livelihood, and for many, simply the right to live.
People are rightly outraged by the uncertainty of COVID-19, the lockdown, and the injustices perpetrated by those abusing power. No crime, however, justifies the burning and looting of private property as this threatens the lives of innocent people by putting in risk the very communities we are protesting for.
Crises, whether due to natural disasters or human ignorance and incompetence, are part of life. It is our attitude towards life, individual responsibility and ability to recover from unwanted situations that give us actual power to not just effectively demand justice, but become the change we seek by living by example.
How do we nurture mental toughness, a thick skin, and a compassionate heart?
How do we build resilience at the core of all systems?
Resilience, or the ability to effectively bounce back from traumatic situations, is crucial to effectively protect personal liberties and overall wellness.
Building resilience, whether is in economic or healthcare systems, starts with the individual person. The more resourceful and educated societies are on an individual level, the better our chances to establish social systems that are in better alignment with a rapidly evolving cosmopolitan humanity.
In Brent Nally’s article for Immortalists Magazine 5th issue, "Everything Is My Fault”, quoting Tom Bilyeu, co-founder and host of Impact Theory, Brent reminds us that “we are only victims if we want to be”. He explains that we can choose to be influenced by the emotional appeal of popular and social media, or be influenced by objective data and statistics.
The pandemic is also providing us with opportunities to build resilience in a number of ways that might seem counterproductive to most people. In “Unstructured Leisure and Progress” by Gennady Stolyarov II, he argues that “Unstructured time is not only the source of human progress; it is also essential for people to develop their own individualities and flourish as unique human beings.”
Yes! and even if the unstructured time isn't voluntary, as it is in the case with the current lockdown, what’s important is to overcome a victimized mindset to make room for productive thinking and planning. Dr. Catherine Demetriades in her article “Biophysics of Emotional Responses that Weaken the Immune System for Fighting COVID-19”, writes about the effects of negative thoughts on our biology and what can be done to overcome them.
While COVID-19 has taken the lives of approximately 370,000 people globally in a period of about four months, there are approximately 110,000 age-related deaths daily! Bill Faloon’s article “How to Build Healthy Immunity” explains how immune senescence, the cause of many age-related deaths, is also the reason why people succumb to COVID-19. Bill provides invaluable information on what can be done to protect ourselves against any viral infection and maintain our biological age (different from chronological age) more robust.
A “Proposal for Argentina to Declare A Mandate For Longer Life Spans and the Reasonable Treatment of Aging as an Ailment” was recently submitted to the Minister of Health of Argentina by the U.S. Transhumanist Party. The goal is to encourage forward-thinking countries around the world to become models for techno-optimistic progress. This proposal, which you can also sing by contacting the U.S. Transhumanist Party, represents the kind of global initiatives by transhumanists to reform the health care system from a system that capitalizes on keeping people sick to a system that thrives on making people live longer and healthier.
“Canary in the Mine: A Thought on the Economic Crisis” by Tehofilos Chaldezos, laments on the inefficiencies of an archaic economic system that also needs urgent reformation. In upcoming articles, Theofilos will be introducing ideas inspired by a Resource-Based Economy and techno-progressive thinking.
“Information technologies can help us build a new kind of mental resilience”, writes Brent Rietze in his article “Extropian Resilience: Strengthening the Data of ‘You’”, in which he talks about building digital backups of our minds (mindfiles) with the goal of creating digital versions of ourselves for cognitive expansion.
Bigger Threats
While the current focus is on public health, the financial crisis and social unrest due to COVID-19, I believe the development of artificial intelligence (AI) is an extremely pressing issue that needs attention as it has the potential to bring about the greatest benefits to all areas of societies but also the greatest dangers.
Existential risks, or losing our humanity due to technologies are real threats. Technologies aren’t the problem, however.
People’s tribalistic tendencies, inability to relate to those deemed different, or an inability communicate truthfully and effectively, lead to self-destructive tendencies which can worsen as technologies get more powerful and sophisticated, as illustrated in Pavel Llin’s essay “Othering: The Ultimate Challenge of Sentient Life”, and in the works of world-leading transhumanist thinker David Wood, in his article “Ten Proposed Principles For a Transhumanist Society", in which he writes “The beginning of any system for ‘ethical AI’ must be a renewed understanding of ‘ethical humanity’.”
How can we ensure the development of “ethical” AI systems if we humans can’t agree on what values to prioritize?
Immortalists Magazine’s 5th issue introduces the work of award-winning professor and researcher Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy who specializes in AI ethics and cybersecurity. Roman is his article, “Personal Worlds”, explains why aligning values of highly capable intelligent systems with those of humanity face many challenges. Roman proposes that a viable solution is to build Superintelligent AIs that can be implemented to act as personalized simulations, or “Individual Simulated Universes (ISU)”.
Alex Vikoulov, in the third and concluding part of his article, “AGI: How to Ensure Benevolence in Synthetic Superintelligence”, writes about the interlinking of enhanced humans with artificial general intelligence (AGIs) that “may be interested in integrating with us … when free and motivated to work for their own interests.”
When we are dealing with a global health crisis and incompetency of such a massive scale that has crippled the global economy and threatens civil liberties, all this techno-optimist narrative might seem science fiction or out of touch with reality. Worst, it might seem as if true progress can’t ever be sustainable.
But, I Believe There Is Hope
And, I also believe we are at the early stage of transition to a radically super-intelligent and super-compassionate civilization.
Fellow Venezuelan transhumanist, Jose Cordeiro, in his article “A New Renaissance: Crisis (危機) = Danger (危) + Opportunity (機)”, reminds us that when there are crises, there are always opportunities. Referencing a meeting with Sir Arthur C. Clarke who told him to always remain positive about the future and “continuously try to change bad dangers into good opportunities.”
In “A Pandemic Redefined” by Stephen Valadez, he expresses a similar sentiment. Along with Ojochogwu Abdul’s article “COVID-19, Epidemics, and Windows for Science and Transhumanist Medicine in Africa”, and Brandon Rummel’s “Transhumanism is a Universal Right”, in which they all refer to the windows of opportunities presented by advanced sciences and technologies and the techno-optimist attitude driving futurists and transhumanists like myself.
A Thought on Freedom of Speech and Misinformation
At a minimum, we need unbiased facts to guide decision-making.
The rapid spread of misinformation is, instead, driving societies' behavior. The mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global financial crisis that followed is considered the “ultimate clickbait”.
How do we know what information to trust?
In my article, “An Artist’s Creative Process: A Model for Conscious Evolution”, I write about my own creative process, in which I identified six attributes that can lead to an expansion of limited beliefs and a better discernment of reality through an integral and methodical approach to creative thinking and consuming information.
Conclusion
To build resilience - mental, physical, social - we consider the basics: taking supplements, eating superfoods, lowering stress, developing better communication and interpersonal skills, having a positive attitude, and most importantly, through self-knowledge.
We can affect social change by demanding justice and exposing wrongdoers, but it is not until we are able to walk the talk and be accountable for our individual actions for sustainable social transformation to truly take place.
Times of crisis are also times for opportunity and re-invention.
COVID-19 pushing for techno-transformation is also reminding us to keep in mind that
technological development is meant to help enhance human innate capabilities,
not replace them!
Healthy skepticism is crucial to ensure the safe development of advanced AI systems. It is also crucial to move beyond a zero-sum mentality. Elon Musk, for instance, is publicly known to advocate for the merge between humans and AI out of fear of being surpassed and controlled by thinking machines. I believe potential threats are not the sole reason to want to merge with AI or desire any kind of human enhancement. Becoming "god-like" is an evolutionary domain built on resilience because humans are driven to explore and thrive in any environment, for as long as we desire.
A virtuous and justifiable goal on its own.
To Resilience!
Warm regards,
- Dinorah Delfin
IM, Founder & Editor-in-Chief
A special thank you to Bill Faloon and LifeExtension for the support!
