How about we call such people “absurd altruists”, since abstracting one’s present interests to such cosmic scales is surely absurd. All these folks are doing is trying to construct some kind of scientific religion, to give themselves “cosmic hope” where none is warranted and to put themselves in the position of universal saviors. I used to do the same thing myself, until I deconstructed it a bit and realized that even superintelligences and intergalactic civilizations change nothing fundamentally. This is why I now advocate a form of nihilism, or what I like to call “Zen-Cosmicism”, which is a spiritual acceptance of the absurdity and material futility of our existence, without drawing any debilitating moral conclusions therefrom. The universe is what it is, but it’s not my problem and it can’t be fixed, so I’m not going to get neurotic or fanatical about fixing it.
This is why I now advocate a form of nihilism, or what I like to call “Zen-Cosmicism”, which is a spiritual acceptance of the absurdity and material futility of our existence, without drawing any debilitating moral conclusions therefrom. The universe is what it is, but it’s not my problem and it can’t be fixed, so I’m not going to get neurotic or fanatical about fixing it.
The second sentence is a debilitating moral conclusion drawn from the first.
How about we call such people “absurd altruists”, since abstracting one’s present interests to such cosmic scales is surely absurd. All these folks are doing is trying to construct some kind of scientific religion, to give themselves “cosmic hope” where none is warranted and to put themselves in the position of universal saviors. I used to do the same thing myself, until I deconstructed it a bit and realized that even superintelligences and intergalactic civilizations change nothing fundamentally. This is why I now advocate a form of nihilism, or what I like to call “Zen-Cosmicism”, which is a spiritual acceptance of the absurdity and material futility of our existence, without drawing any debilitating moral conclusions therefrom. The universe is what it is, but it’s not my problem and it can’t be fixed, so I’m not going to get neurotic or fanatical about fixing it.
The second sentence is a debilitating moral conclusion drawn from the first.