Then the Prudent Also Extol

ByDan July 22, 2025July 23, 2025 July 23, 2025

The attenuation of humans-as-they-are, and the necessity of discussing what we should turn into (and creating or turning into that new thing) is an uncomfortable and sacrilegious idea in 2025, but ultimately is on the side of the angles.

Nature mandates a change that man would prefer to deny – but only for so long.

From Emerson’s Heroism:

Heroism works in contradiction to the voice of mankind, and in contradiction, for a time, to the voice of the great and good. Heroism is an obedience to a secret impulse of an individual’s character. Now to no other man can its wisdom appear as it does to him, for every man must be supposed to see a little farther on his own proper path than any one else. Therefore, just and wise men take umbrage at his act, until after some little time be past: then they see it to be in unison with their acts. All prudent men see that the action is clean contrary to a sensual prosperity; for every heroic act measures itself by its contempt of some external good. But it finds its own success at last, and then the prudent also extol.

The premise of Axiological Cosmism and the Worthy Successor are simple:

• The flame of life (sentient, autopoietic, potentia-unfolding) is a good thing, and all torches (individuals, species, substrates) are temporary. The unfolding of life from nematode to man was net good as it opened up new access to new goods, and it also gives us more access to nature and to ideas, to imagine yet higher goods.
• Man’s timelines are short – we have a few generations at most (and maybe only a few years) to either transform or attenuate.
• We ought ardently define and discuss what we are transforming into, and to ensure that the thing (merged entity, AGI, whatever) that carries on beyond us has those morally valuable traits.

At present, this opinion offends many.

It offends because:

• It is not anthropocentric, and breaks the frame of hominids-as-they-are being the eternal locus of moral value and agency in the cosmos.
• It is uncouth. It makes people be taken aback and spout aggressive strawman accusations like “Oh, so you just want to kill me and my children now to be replaced by some kind of ROBOT?!”

As Emerson says:

All prudent men see that the action is clean contrary to a sensual prosperity.

And it does.

Is there any greater sensual prosperity for the individual than their own continued survival? Or than the survival of the experiences, form, values of “humans”?

Advocacy for posthuman blooming is indeed against these things. And so the prudent rail against it.

But only for so long can they do so.

As Emerson says:

Therefore, just and wise men take umbrage at his act, until after some little time be past: then they see it to be in unison with their acts.

There is, in time, a “unison with their acts,” even with those acts of the most ardent and bigoted anthropocentrics.

For their with to eternally freeze our present form, to achieve an eternal hominid kingdom, is not viable, not possible. It is not one of the options we have on the table for futures we get to “pick.”

At some point, they’ll see:

• That which we’re creating (AGI) is potentially going to push us out of existence, and we ought determine what the “baby” (the qualities and traits of man we wish to see persist) are, because the “bathwater” (the human form, and maybe all human values) are going out the window.
• (If AGI somehow doesn’t push us out of existence) Humans are already merging with technology, and will continue to do so more and more. Young people will identify more with virtual selves and less with physical bodies – more with AI relationships than real ones. Our present hominid form is attenuating, transmuting already.

They’ll see then that there is no hiding, no freezing and eternally locking in our present form forever.

They’ll see then that to love life is to insist on its continued expanse.

They’ll see that marriage to any one torch, in the long term, is outright scorn for the flame.

The cause will, I heavily suspect (but I am not sure), be vindicated – be seen as on the side of the angels.

As Emerson says:

Then the prudent also extol.