Hip Book Reviews
 Jonathan Robert Banks book "A New Reality:
The
Imminent Transformation of Science and Humanity"....a review by Ramon Sender
This book has kept me enthralled for 300 pages, although
some of the quantum theory stuff has me counting on my
fingers and toes in four positions at once. Also,
the book never enjoyed a final line edit, and the
lack of - or the misplaced - punctuation frequently
changes or blurs the author's intended meanings.
Nevertheless the book remains an expert attempt
to put Quantum Information and mysticism on the same
map. It's just unfortunate that the 'classical Newtonian
physicists' Banks would like to have read it never will.
He discusses upcoming technological advances so amazing that
according to him the life of every human will be transformed. He's talking nanotechnology, transhumanism, neurotechnology -- all
words worth a Google, along with 'neurotheology.'
According to Banks, Quantum theory does not make sense
unless one accepts that we all are swimming in the same
ocean of consciousness -- not a new idea to us Sixties folks,
but he wraps it up in a lot of science. Some quotes:
"A new understanding in science recognizes that our civilization
... is evolving according to natural dynamic laws. These
dynamics are non-linear (exponential) and our civilization is
about to go through a dynamic and rapid transformation that
involves our conscious participation in evolution itself.
Independently, other scientists have discovered that we are
headed for a technological singularity. A time when our intelligence
will create such unimaginable novelty via technology that we
will change our world and ourselves in unrecognizable ways.
A major aspect of this change will be the development of
powerful neurotechnologies that will give us superhuman
mystical/spiritual and mental abilities, changing us into a
more evolutionarily advanced species of human.
"... I believe there will be a convergence of modern
science with the ancient knowledge of shamans and mystics -
an integration of mystical insight and rational inquiry
to produce some utterly new novelty... The core of this
change will be a dramatic alternation of our minds. We
will mediate this change ourselves with new kinds of advanced
neurotechnology that will re-engineer/evolve/bootstrap our minds
in a powerful and natural way. This will unlock the vast
potential within us demonstrated by mystics and shamans of
the past. With this new technology, which now exists in a
rudimentary form, we will do for everyone in perhaps days
or weeks what took in the past, by an elite few, a lifetime
of sacrifice, toil and inhuman dedication to achieve.
"Powerful neurotechnologies exist now that are remediating the
entire range of psychophysiological disorders afflicting humanity
with an effectiveness that is miraculous by normal standards.
There are now new technologies of ecstasy that consistently
induce the full range of mystical, religious, psychic and
peak experiecnces, and a growing body of research in the new
neuroscience field of Neurotheology... This re-structuring or
bootstrapping of our minds will represent a type of enlightenment
and spiritual transcendence similar to the experience of shamans
and mystics in ths past. This enlightenment will be available to
all who are willing to undertake it - a possibility that has
never existed before...
"We need to literally change our minds and our view of ourselves,
our creations and reality itself in order to survive. What is even
more fantastic is that all of this could be completed in the next
twenty to thirty years. The ancient mystics and shamans, as
well as modern scientists, predict this timing. Current predictions
(2001) for the creation of a nanotechnology molecular assembler
are five to ten years, down from the twenty to thirty years predicted
in the late eighties. Assemblers are the key to enable full-blown
nanotechnology and thus advanced enlightenment technologies. We have
models of wellbeing, peak performance and enllghtenment from the
mystical traditions and a new modesl from the behavioral and
neurosciences to guide our progress... pps 306-307
"Our near future will represent a higher order punctuated
equilibrium event. For the first time in life's history, huumans
have the capacity to understand that we can steer the course
of evolution...
"Artificial life and complexity scientists with backgrounds
covering physics, economics, computation and biology such as
Gell-Mann, Langton, Cowan, Farmer, Danny Hillis, Holland, Crutchfield
Arthur and Kauffman point out that we will not gradually evolve
towards this future in a linear manner. To reach this state we
will go through what is referred to in physics as a phase transition. The change will be dramatic... In evolutionary theory it is known as
punctuated equilibrium, where entire eco-systems can go through a sudden discontinuous change... p. 309
"It is fascinating to see the great synchronicity and coincidence
in all of this. The collective momentum of human evolution has brought us to a point in our history when what was possible in terms of enlightenment for an elite few will be possible for the masses due to science and technology." p. 313-314
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