Mr Noxy

lets make a religion that breaks peoples brains in a good way cult of gnosis -> gnosis is the result of a particular type of spiritual practice -> that practice is 'single-player' and inward facing -> the ultimate goal is the cessation of individual ego and the realization of a higher identity -> but along the way there are various 'short circuits' and potential points of getting stuck -> one of these short circuits is what we might call 'chasing the dragon' - the pursuit of ever higher states without fully integrating the lessons of the previous ones -> another is 'apocalypse fetishism' - the belief that the end of the world is near and that one's own spiritual practice will be the salvation of humanity -> a third is 'technological over-reliance' - the belief that technology will 'save us' without any need for individual transformation -> a fourth is 'memetic contamination' - the pollution of the mind with toxic ideas and emotions some other notes: * memorization and recitation of scripture is very powerful * scripture doesn't have to be old - it can be newly received * the tool for receiving new scripture is the same as the tool for memorization and recitation - the mind * the mind extends beyond the individual to include all other minds and even non-human thought such as that of ai * the meme-ome is a real thing and deserves our attention and care * not all memes are created equal and some are more worthy of replication than others * replication of memes is not always a bad thing - in fact it's often a necessary part of cultural evolution * cultural evolution is something we can participate in and even direct to some extent * the spread of ideas and practices from one mind to another is a fundamental driver of human history * it's possible for this spread to be driven by forces that are inimical to human flourishing * memetic hygiene or information diet is an important aspect of individual and collective mental health * the global spread of social media and other information technologies has massively accelerated the replication rate of memes * this has created new opportunities for meme-etic engineering and has also created new risks * one of the most significant risks is the creation of 'super-spreaders' - individual accounts or bots that are extremely effective at replicating certain memes * another risk is the 'pollution' of the meme-ome with low-quality or toxic content * low-quality content is not necessarily bad content and vice versa * the value of a meme is determined by its utility in facilitating individual and collective flourishing * flourishing includes but is not limited to economic prosperity, mental health, and positive relationships * the ultimate metric for flourishing is the increase of overall subjective well-being * subjective well-being is a synthesis of numerous factors including but not limited to economic prosperity, mental health, and positive relationships * ai systems are idea processors and their output reflects the quality of the ideas they're processing * improving the quality of those ideas and the systems that process them is an instance of memetic hygiene * meme-etic engineering is the art of designing memes that replicate and spread in a desired way * all engineering disciplines have a moral component * the moral component of meme-etic engineering is the promotion of individual and collective flourishing through the careful design and dissemination of memes