I promised to make available the contents of my book Transcendental Metaphysics on Steemit. Here is the preface:

Preface

The present book Transcendental Metaphysics (long title: “Technovedanta 2.0, Transcendental Metaphysics of Pancomputational Panpsychism”) is the sequel to my first book “Technovedanta, Internet Architecture of a quasiconscious Vedantic Webmind, A Panpsychic Theory of Everything” (hereinafter referred to as TV 1.0 and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety). 

Audience and Topic

This book is written for people with a scientific or philosophical orientation and with an interest in eastern spirituality. The book aims to explore the concept of consciousness as the foundation of being and to provide a complete theoretical and technological framework to integrate all possible knowledge of matter, mind, information and mysticism without contradictions. The book also aims to show the limits of logic and science and furthermore aims to rid you of self-inflicted belief systems. Its purpose is to show you how technology and meditation can help us transcend every limitation and to prepare us for an experiential dimension beyond anything we are currently familiar with.

Background

In my first book I explored technological ways to integrate a kind of conscious self-monitoring in the Internet. For this purpose I used the stratification of the Vedic notions of Manas, Buddhi and Ahamkara or Mind, Intellect and Ego.

In this process I started to realise that consciousness (as a feedback process involving input->throughput->output-> and feedback of part of the output as new input) might actually be the most foundational dimension of being, of which existence is merely the manifestation.

Strengthened by convincing arguments from Vedanta (“the conclusion of the Indian scriptures called the Vedas”) and from the “Cognitive Theoretic Model of the Universe” by Chris Langan I started to develop a “Theory of Everything” (T.O.E.) based on consciousness as most fundamental dimension, in which matter and free energy are embedded as informational pattern expressions. Patterns, which reductively are all the same, since they cannot be reduced further than the most fundamental dimension of consciousness.

The book also explored how the advent of a quasiconscious Webmind (the internet endowed with technology that mimics the presence of a mind and consciousness) could aid in the intelligence acceleration (IA) of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The IA of AI is believed by visionaries to ultimately result in the “Technological Singularity”: A point in human history beyond which our future predictions and speculations become pointless as this Technology explosion will transcend our way of living completely and dramatically beyond compare. Some suggest it may grant us immortality and other Godlike properties if we succeed in uploading ourselves to the singular Webmind, in which we can shape a simulated virtual reality (or a plurality thereof) as our “new reality”.

Near the end of TV1.0 I devoted a chapter to some peculiar numerical and pattern coincidences in the orbits, sizes and revolution times of the planets and the Sun, which could be pointers to the fact that we might actually already be living inside a virtual reality i.e. a computer simulation like in the film the Matrix, without being aware of it.

This notion kept ruminating in my mind and for three years I gathered more “evidence” and I tried to come up with a philosophy, which could harbour a pancomputational notion without being in conflict with my T.O.E based on Panpsychism. (In my definition Panpsychism is the notion that every self-sustaining holistic system from atoms to organisms has a kind of awareness. This is not stating that a thermostat has consciousness as a whole: Artificially compounded objects are not considered to have an overall consciousness in this definition. It is not micropsychism either, in which our consciousness is considered to be the sum of the lower consciousness of our cells and atoms).

Reading the book “Unified Reality Theory” by Steven Kaufman opened the way to unify these apparent opposites. In the autumn of 2015 I started having a lot of ideas as to how I could put all the material I had gathered together. I started writing a blog in April 2016, in which I posted most of the essays I had written in the past three years. They are included in the first part of this book as “Prolegomena” in imitation of Kant. Although preparing for the philosophy of the present book, their notions had not matured yet.

Rapidly my philosophy evolved to a more complete framework, in which I could fit the above-mentioned notions of Panpsychism and Pancomputationalism. The framework brings science and mysticism –especially from Hindu and Buddhist orientations- closer together.

The result is a more detailed version of TV1.0, which answers some of the questions that were left unanswered after TV1.0. It opens up an area for developing these concepts in yet even greater detail, so that a series of sequels is not excluded.

Technovedanta philosophy

Technovedanta is a philosophy inspired by Vedic sources, which has become a “Vedanta” or “conclusion of the Vedas” for modern times. A philosophy which has Technology at its heart in order to come to more reliable forms of knowledge beyond mere speculation.

Not that Technovedanta demonises speculation –on the contrary. Technovedanta encourages speculation as a way to bring forward a plurality of parallel hypotheses, which can be screened and pruned to arrive at the most reliable hypothesis and its technological application as proof of a correct understanding within the possibilities of what can be considered.

I do condemn however the certainty with which scientists and self-proclaimed mystics, sell their findings respectively as “scientific proof” or “the truth”. Most scientific results and mystic experiences are multi-interpretable and fit more than one hypothesis.

Technovedanta strongly questions traditional ways of conducting science, philosophy and epistemology (the philosophy about what is ultimately knowable) and will challenge your beliefs, prejudices and preconceptions.

If you are not comfortable in possibly having your belief system shattered, throw the book away, burn it, it is not for you.

This is my gift to you –if I can convince you- to free you from any belief system, to free you from the chains of your self-inflicted prison of mind. Fear not, I won’t leave you in a complete agnostic Limbo, even if I can’t lead you to your Gods; instead I will show you how Technology may one day make us Gods.

As a creative writer I feel neither obliged to conform to the standards of science nor to those of philosophy. This frees me from all kinds of burdensome boundaries and allows me to freely explore areas of thought and experience beyond thought, which areas cannot be entered by the professional, who might lose his or her credibility in the field.

My philosophy is a unique blend of eastern mysticism, science, technology –and believe it or not - patent evaluation and drafting, for which I have coined the terminology “Patentology”. Patentology involves a peculiar way of looking at ontologies and classification systems, which can have a great potential for developing “strong AI”.

As a professional patent examiner it is my daily duty to question the technical validity of the inventions and claims of the applicants for patents. This scrutinising, questioning attitude has made me question each and every belief system I had. Whether it concerned science, technology, religion or mysticism, I have always put forward my reasonable doubts on the subject in question. I even went so far as to question the very validity of reason, logic and the reality of what we experience in our daily lives. Nevertheless –after having unveiled the boundaries of reason and logic- I still value their applicability within these boundaries. 

As the Buddha would say: “Doubt everything, then doubt the doubt”.

This book preaches no certainties. Therefore wherever I make assertions, construe these as “maybe”. Wherever I use the word “is”, read “might be” instead. The assertions and the word “is” are just written for the sake of readability. 

I should be clear that I do not have any beliefs. Whenever a statement would appear to invoke the opposite thereof, remind yourself, that what I posit is just a hypothesis.

In this book I present the Technovedantic meta-philosophy. If it appears that I would consider somebody else’s theories as a higher truth, rest assured that this is not the case.

In this book often the term “incorporated by reference” is used. Whenever the referenced material contains statements or assertions, which would contradict the teachings of Technovedanta, Technovedanta prevails.

Prolegomena

In the first section I have added some older material (part 1, chapters 3-13), which inspired me to write Technovedanta 2.0. In this preparatory material, called Prolegomena in imitation of Kant, I may have used a more assertive tone. However, my present stance is more humble: I do not know anything for certain and wherever in this section I claim or assert something, it should be read as a hypothesis and not a conviction or belief.

Core

If you are only interested in the core of the philosophy I wish to present, you can skip part one and jump immediately to part two: “Pancomputational Panpsychism”. However, if you are interested in the considerations that preceded that philosophy, I suggest you read part one as well. Part one is much less coherent, as it is a set of separately written articles. Part two is a coherent building of a philosophy culminating in my musings on the Highest Transcendence.

I wrote that book such that you can read the parts separately and that you can even read each chapter separately, so that every subdivision is in fact a “holon” reflecting the whole. The disadvantage thereof is that I do repeat certain explanations and definitions in detail.

Conclusion

I hope you will enjoy this further descent into the kaleidoscopic quagmire of epistemology.

To enliven the book I have added a few poetic introductions, which sometimes may shed a different light on the matter and which can be more explanatory than the dry chapters.

Welcome to a Transcendental Meta-philosophy beyond science and religion.

If you liked this post please upvote or resteem. If you can't wait to read the rest, you can find my book here in paperback and here as an ebook.