What is Divinity?
For the moment, I will use this definition- That which is both valid and correct.
Valid and correct also appears to need defining. I'll use:
Valid- Properly meets conditions necessary for existential reality. A valid source code would properly compile when used. A valid business model would generate a profit when executed. Hence, the concept is similar to those of existence, size and power. Perhaps the closest relative is "effective".
Correct- Contains no errors. Is not wrong. However, correctness, in this case, stands above the simpler concept that is negation of negatives. A more precise definitions would be- Fully applies all criteria announced within declaration, reality axis and theory.
Wait- I just used three more ill-defined terms. Declaration, Reality Axis and Theory need further definition. To start with:
Reality Axis- Red truth. A reality axis is a set of data wherein, all elements necessitate all other elements. 3+3=6. I think therefore I am. A object is within my view, therefore a object exists. A reality axis exists along a line of organized data, such that all logical imperatives maintain consistency. Reality axes are avatars of consistency. Logic is merely a side effect of their presence. Anything that opposes them is contradictory.
Declaration- Gold truth. Declarations stand in a realm above even reality axes. Declarations create reality axes. To understand the necessity of a force above logic contemplate the simplest formatting of reality- one dimensional space. Rather, a number line.
Any universe can, through some sequence of mathematical transformations be converted upward or downward in element and dimension. To put this another way- Any Turing complete model can simulate any other Turing complete model. As a corollary, it is impossible to distinguish which Turing complete model underlies a particular system from the interior of the system.
As such, any universe can, somehow, be transposed as a single number.
However, here is where simple logic falls to absurdity- source code is, essentially, just a number. A compiler takes a number, and produces executable code. The strange element is this- two compilers can take the same number and produce two separate valid programs. The same number can be valid under multiple compilers. In fact, within the domain of all possible compilers, any number can be compiled into any executable.
So, in turn- not only can any universe be transposed to a single number, but, because the locations of numbers within logical space is arbitrary, they can in fact, all be transposed to the same number.
In other words:
All universes are equivalent.
The statement immediately above is absurd.
It is not illogical, nor is it contradictory.
Absurdities are untrue, but not because of any logical framework. Absurdities arise from the existence of declarations. Absurdities are that which defy the highest truth from which this universe was created.
Conversely, declarations are original truth. Facts without basis. Evidence cannot be collected for or against declarations. Declarations must exist before meaning can be ascribed to reality. Existence itself is a side effect of declarations.
Morality, life, consciousness, existence, logic, and meaning are all directly imposed upon nothing through this world's one true miracle.
Not creation. That's easy, since 0 equals 1. Nor birth and growth, consequences of mere physical law. The highest truth is a miracle that stands far above a petty act by an all mighty being or the shallow consequences of some unlikely event. Those who ask why we exist miss a much higher question-
What does it matter?
The base state is not one of meaning, but of nihilism. Most data is neither right nor wrong, but simply arbitrary. If I were to place any list of binary sequences in some separate desolate universe, no one would care. Regardless of how the numbers line up, they're all just junk data.
But, if that same data is read, if it is interpreted, if it is infused with a soul, it can become anything.
Declarations are vast, and as such, wondrous and terrifying. All reality is rooted within this highest truth. But, it is rare that we can interact directly with declarations.
Below the reality axis stands the third truth- Theory. The blue truth.
All three truths are true. however, they are different modes of truth, and importantly, different priorities of truth. Red truth is true so long as it does not contradict gold truth, and no two red truths contradict each other. Gold truth is the ultimate truth, and can be neither opposed nor denied. Blue truth lacks these constraints, and is true in all cases wherein it does not contradict the two higher truths.
To understand, consider this problem-
Choose the best answer:
You throw a ball over a wall. A moment later, an identical ball returns from the unseen recesses behind the wall.
A- Another wall exists behind the first wall. Your ball bounced back after crossing out of sight.
B- A person exists behind the wall. After the ball entered on his side, he caught it and threw it back.
C- Another ball, identical to your own, was put into motion for unrelated reasons, and arrived on your side of the wall shortly after your ball left your line of sight.
D- The ball, shortly after leaving your field of vision, decided to reverse course and return to you.
Occam's razor would probably say A, perhaps B. But, Occam's razor is merely a tool, not a logically valid principle of nature. As such, C and D are in no way inferior to A and B. The question above should, upon sufficient review, descend towards senselessness. As all answers correctly fit the ascribed scenario, none are particularly superior.
This is why we turn to theories to understand reality- All four events happened.
Theories interact with each other, and create ever branching narratives. If, after you receive the ball you travel to the other side of the wall and determine that it contains open grass as far as the eye can see, each narrative evolves. The person who returned the ball left afterwords. The wall that the ball bounced off of was demolished. After the second ball flew over the wall, the first was vaporized.
Of course, while all theories are true so long as they maintain consistency with declaration and reality axis, some theories are more useful than others. It is important to distinguish between useful and wrong. Obviously, useful theories have their uses, and thus demand greater attention than useless theories, but neither is particularly more true than its neighbor.
Divinity is therefore a concept that connects two distinct concepts. It is the intersection of righteousness and power. It is morality applied.
To be divine, you must not simply be correct, but be able to implement that nature. Justice is justice not simply because it is good, but because it is victorious.
Divinity is then, good that is victorious over evil.
This precipice, which combines two distinct forces can be placed at the pinnacle of morality. To aspire towards divinity, is to aspire towards the Platonic ideal underlying your own existence.
However, the two forces, while not contradictory at a base level, are, on an applied level, inconsistent.
For good to triumph over evil, that requires that good be stronger than evil.
However, strength is not morality. It is not directly related to morality. Logically speaking, evil is stronger, simply because it has more options available to it.
To understand, imagine this entity- A self replicating machine, that expands in an outward sphere at nearly the speed of light. Effectively, a logic bomb, irresistible by any means and faster than any competitor.
In terms of shear power, this entity is by far the highest. A search for power, will, in all probability, eventually approach this ideal being.
Another interesting example of this phenomena can be found in Conway's game of life. Being a game with complexity on the scale of our universe, the deeper rules are unclear. However, some ideas have been hinted at, or, even if we can't determine how, have been determined to be true. Two relevant conclusions are:
True life can exist with Conway's game. Full intelligence can be achieved within the simulation. In a sufficiently large random field, full intelligence would emerge with near certain probability.
However, it is extremely unlikely that full intelligence would be the best model with which to "win" Conway's game of life. Any life created in a random field would almost certainly be annihilated by far more powerful (and less vulnerable) non-life processes. A major cause of this exists in the emergent "speed of light" within Conway's game. A tile can only effect the tile adjacent to it. Thus, any signal can only move at one tile per cycle. In practice, the maximum speed falls further, since only certain patterns can maintain their existence over multiple cycles, and none of them simply move in a direction.
Reflecting these patterns or otherwise catching them is complicated. In turn, these processes take time. To "see" an object, a pattern must be released, intercept the target, and return to the originator. The maximum speed of this process is significantly below half the maximum speed allowable. However, other alternative patterns, incapable of "vision" can move faster. In turn, non-life can easily kill life before life can bring to bear any of its unique attributes to defend itself.
In this way, the search for validity draws us away from the search for correctness. If we try too hard to win, we will merely become the winner. It is the sheerest joke to win a war by adopting the culture and beliefs of your enemy. In turn, it is important to remember always to seek not to become the winner, but to triumph over evil.
Many people are called "highly successful people". However, only those who can truly stand by their beliefs and enact the world they desire deserve this title. Despite the numerous lists tallying the rich and famous, most of these people are mere shells, not deserving our respect.
If the rich were more than mere sailors, letting the winds of nature throw them about, certain signs would exist. Indeed, certain rich individuals show traits approaching divinity. However, the overall tide is different.
Existential threats are fought with budgets in the millions. Research is a paltry portion of gdp. Investment spending displays an incredibly short time preference, practically ignoring flows only five years distant.
Low level causes of suffering such as human frailty, lack of basic resources, poorly executed government and violent neighbor are barely addressed. These problems all have solutions. The 2045 Initiative has a realistic plan to replace the human body with a more reliable carrier. Escape Dynamics is working on a space launch system that would, for the near future, end scarcity for the vast majority of natural materials. The rich spend billions on lobbying and political advertising. Either they're totally incompetent, or they, to a significant degree, they control the government. Given this control, it should be within their power to implement obvious improvements, such as reductions in corruption, simplicity enhancements, regulations that regulate at lower, more theoretical levels (replacing regulations that say "use this motor in this machine" with "use a motor which produces pollution less than or equal to this motor")
However, despite the hundreds of billionaires in this world, for the most part, the world's most significant undertakings are being funded with the barest scraps of our wealth. This simple failure to act is the greatest indictment against the world's elites, and requires no further explanation to see that, whether it's a rich banker, a high ranking politician or a popular actor, no indication of morality may be found at that level.
So, what do these people lack?
They are petty. They care about minor issues, and execute those issues adeptly.
For the vast majority of humanity, this pettiness is among our greatest sins. Given that humanity is evil, this source is heartening. In the short term, pettiness is a source of strength, but in the long term, it undermines and eliminates.
Thus, in the quest for divinity we must be patient. Our enemies are not. In a scale of five, ten or a hundred years, they are nearly impervious. But, almost none of them are taking actions to secure their legacy after death, or even to prepare for its proper defense in the next decade. Year by year, it is possible to tap the deepest flows of history to direct them towards a better path.
As such, the greatest threat to divinity, a path walked with time and patience, is degeneracy.
There is very little anyone can do to become stronger. Act carefully, with patience and reason, and victory can be achieved. No amount of effort, nor intellect, nor knowledge will overcome enemies that have all three and in much greater quantities.
In civilization type games an interesting dynamic exists when enough opponents are present-
Whatever starting position you have, another opponent has a better position. Any resource you have, an opponent has more. Whatever events occur, an opponent has better. Whatever advantages you have, an opponent has more applicable advantages. In short, even if the game is balanced, given 1 player and 9 computer opponents, if the player plays on level with the computer he only has a 1 in 10 chance of winning.
Real life is much worse. Even if your IQ is high, even if you study meticulously and start a business, there are billions of humans in the world, and tens of millions of them are trying all the same schemes.
To make matters worse, humans are, essentially, input output networks. We are naturally drawn into our own worlds.
To put it simply- Who is more likely to support IP law? Someone who works at a major film studio or someone who works at a car dealership?
Who is more likely to believe in the Marxist dynamic where all real work is done at the ground level? A speculator or an auto worker?
Who is more likely to believe that government intervention is important for a proper economy? A federal reserve chairman or a computer programmer?
To a degree, our beliefs change our experiences. Anarchists try not to be policemen. However, the reverse is also the truth, and inevitably so.
After all, one experience precludes another. If you spend all your time contemplating how to make your tile factory succeed, eventually you'll grow to see tile sales as justice and closed factories as miasma. Even if people buy your tiles at gunpoint, and even when the factories are shut down because people are putting in carpets instead.
When you play a civilization game and choose to play as a slave holding, war-mongering and tyrannical faction, victory comes with an interesting knowledge, that the story ends in tragedy. It is hard to believe that your faction would turn around after the game ended.
Because of this dynamic, the intuitive plan of "Choose a valid solution. An about face to the correct solution can be made after I've defeated all my opponents." isn't reliable.
As such, to find divinity we must not only identify the path to power, but the path that leads beyond power. We must understand this higher path, and revere it.
This higher path is... complicated. The simplest version of the answer is, to live fully. To fully appreciate the meaning of the universe.
This universe exists within certain field of reality. If an intelligence falls too low, it will descend below the universe. To put this concept more simply, a dust mote cannot comprehend the weight of a tear.
However, a sufficiently high intelligence will rise above the universe. To understand this, contemplate a man in solitary confinement. Now, give him a book, and raise his intelligence. Eventually the book will seem to him to be entirely frivolous. Eventually, it may as well be another stone in the wall for all of its data content. Similarly, as his intelligence continues to expand, cell mates become sheep, and eventually even the bulwarks of mathematical logic come crashing down in sheer boredom.
With sufficient intelligence, the universe itself is just one giant prison.
The upper limit isn't that hard to reach, but it's also not as low as it seems on first glance. To put it simply- the most interesting thing in the universe right now is humans, and humans are becoming more interesting.
Being the only sober person in a room full of drunks is torturous. But, we are still far from the fundamental limits.
What is lacking isn't sheer intellect.
Even into the future, what, for a low intelligence, is meaningful, is frivolous to a higher intellect. For instance, a flower can spend its entire life savoring sunlight, rain and good soil. It's a weak experience, but also, one that doesn't interfere with a human living beside it.
Similarly, we should not attempt merely to force intellects higher, but to be closer to gardeners, who fill the world with flowers.
IE, we must expand in all directions, as far as there is desire. Only then, can we fully appreciate what we have declared.
Not all experiences are good. We are not simply collectors searching for rare items.
In turn, it is important to understand what makes something worthwhile. Worth having. Worth existing. Worth acknowledging.
The simplest answer to that is- freedom.
However, once again we encounter a weakly defined term:
Freedom is not simply a lack of enemies. It is not simply power. It is not simply choices. It is much more similar to honesty- or rather, the ability to express the truth.
In itself, pain is not evil. Nor despair or hate, nor loss and grief. Rather, the purest form of evil is sacrilege. Of course, that term is also poorly defined so:
Sacrilege is the expression of that which contradicts declaration.
it is the fumi-e of fundamental reality. It is to lie about fundamental reality. Sacrilege is the scream of nature twisted against itself.
To glorify suffering, to be servile towards monsters, to throw away treasures, that is sacrilege.
Then, in turn- Desire is the expression of the truth of the world.
Just as it is sacrilege to oppose declaration, declarations are the source of all that is sacred.
Thus, the future we should seek is this-
A girl in a field of flowers.
A simple fractal. That is the answer we should seek- that, all things should reach their highest level, that the world should exist in beautiful harmony, that, the purpose of our actions is neither A nor B, but that all elements are themselves an expression of our purpose.
In essence, we seek to build a temple to the purest truth.
In contemplating this highest reality, we will never simply create it within our minds. It would hardly be the ultimate truth in the universe if something as feeble as the brain could hold it so easily. However, we know this- that it is beautiful.
For, beauty is the highest acknowledgment of expression. It is the ephemeral jewel that adorns that which is sacred.
As such, divinity is found where there is power and beauty.
For the moment, I will use this definition- That which is both valid and correct.
Valid and correct also appears to need defining. I'll use:
Valid- Properly meets conditions necessary for existential reality. A valid source code would properly compile when used. A valid business model would generate a profit when executed. Hence, the concept is similar to those of existence, size and power. Perhaps the closest relative is "effective".
Correct- Contains no errors. Is not wrong. However, correctness, in this case, stands above the simpler concept that is negation of negatives. A more precise definitions would be- Fully applies all criteria announced within declaration, reality axis and theory.
Wait- I just used three more ill-defined terms. Declaration, Reality Axis and Theory need further definition. To start with:
Reality Axis- Red truth. A reality axis is a set of data wherein, all elements necessitate all other elements. 3+3=6. I think therefore I am. A object is within my view, therefore a object exists. A reality axis exists along a line of organized data, such that all logical imperatives maintain consistency. Reality axes are avatars of consistency. Logic is merely a side effect of their presence. Anything that opposes them is contradictory.
Declaration- Gold truth. Declarations stand in a realm above even reality axes. Declarations create reality axes. To understand the necessity of a force above logic contemplate the simplest formatting of reality- one dimensional space. Rather, a number line.
Any universe can, through some sequence of mathematical transformations be converted upward or downward in element and dimension. To put this another way- Any Turing complete model can simulate any other Turing complete model. As a corollary, it is impossible to distinguish which Turing complete model underlies a particular system from the interior of the system.
As such, any universe can, somehow, be transposed as a single number.
However, here is where simple logic falls to absurdity- source code is, essentially, just a number. A compiler takes a number, and produces executable code. The strange element is this- two compilers can take the same number and produce two separate valid programs. The same number can be valid under multiple compilers. In fact, within the domain of all possible compilers, any number can be compiled into any executable.
So, in turn- not only can any universe be transposed to a single number, but, because the locations of numbers within logical space is arbitrary, they can in fact, all be transposed to the same number.
In other words:
All universes are equivalent.
The statement immediately above is absurd.
It is not illogical, nor is it contradictory.
Absurdities are untrue, but not because of any logical framework. Absurdities arise from the existence of declarations. Absurdities are that which defy the highest truth from which this universe was created.
Conversely, declarations are original truth. Facts without basis. Evidence cannot be collected for or against declarations. Declarations must exist before meaning can be ascribed to reality. Existence itself is a side effect of declarations.
Morality, life, consciousness, existence, logic, and meaning are all directly imposed upon nothing through this world's one true miracle.
Not creation. That's easy, since 0 equals 1. Nor birth and growth, consequences of mere physical law. The highest truth is a miracle that stands far above a petty act by an all mighty being or the shallow consequences of some unlikely event. Those who ask why we exist miss a much higher question-
What does it matter?
The base state is not one of meaning, but of nihilism. Most data is neither right nor wrong, but simply arbitrary. If I were to place any list of binary sequences in some separate desolate universe, no one would care. Regardless of how the numbers line up, they're all just junk data.
But, if that same data is read, if it is interpreted, if it is infused with a soul, it can become anything.
Declarations are vast, and as such, wondrous and terrifying. All reality is rooted within this highest truth. But, it is rare that we can interact directly with declarations.
Below the reality axis stands the third truth- Theory. The blue truth.
All three truths are true. however, they are different modes of truth, and importantly, different priorities of truth. Red truth is true so long as it does not contradict gold truth, and no two red truths contradict each other. Gold truth is the ultimate truth, and can be neither opposed nor denied. Blue truth lacks these constraints, and is true in all cases wherein it does not contradict the two higher truths.
To understand, consider this problem-
Choose the best answer:
You throw a ball over a wall. A moment later, an identical ball returns from the unseen recesses behind the wall.
A- Another wall exists behind the first wall. Your ball bounced back after crossing out of sight.
B- A person exists behind the wall. After the ball entered on his side, he caught it and threw it back.
C- Another ball, identical to your own, was put into motion for unrelated reasons, and arrived on your side of the wall shortly after your ball left your line of sight.
D- The ball, shortly after leaving your field of vision, decided to reverse course and return to you.
Occam's razor would probably say A, perhaps B. But, Occam's razor is merely a tool, not a logically valid principle of nature. As such, C and D are in no way inferior to A and B. The question above should, upon sufficient review, descend towards senselessness. As all answers correctly fit the ascribed scenario, none are particularly superior.
This is why we turn to theories to understand reality- All four events happened.
Theories interact with each other, and create ever branching narratives. If, after you receive the ball you travel to the other side of the wall and determine that it contains open grass as far as the eye can see, each narrative evolves. The person who returned the ball left afterwords. The wall that the ball bounced off of was demolished. After the second ball flew over the wall, the first was vaporized.
Of course, while all theories are true so long as they maintain consistency with declaration and reality axis, some theories are more useful than others. It is important to distinguish between useful and wrong. Obviously, useful theories have their uses, and thus demand greater attention than useless theories, but neither is particularly more true than its neighbor.
Divinity is therefore a concept that connects two distinct concepts. It is the intersection of righteousness and power. It is morality applied.
To be divine, you must not simply be correct, but be able to implement that nature. Justice is justice not simply because it is good, but because it is victorious.
Divinity is then, good that is victorious over evil.
This precipice, which combines two distinct forces can be placed at the pinnacle of morality. To aspire towards divinity, is to aspire towards the Platonic ideal underlying your own existence.
However, the two forces, while not contradictory at a base level, are, on an applied level, inconsistent.
For good to triumph over evil, that requires that good be stronger than evil.
However, strength is not morality. It is not directly related to morality. Logically speaking, evil is stronger, simply because it has more options available to it.
To understand, imagine this entity- A self replicating machine, that expands in an outward sphere at nearly the speed of light. Effectively, a logic bomb, irresistible by any means and faster than any competitor.
In terms of shear power, this entity is by far the highest. A search for power, will, in all probability, eventually approach this ideal being.
Another interesting example of this phenomena can be found in Conway's game of life. Being a game with complexity on the scale of our universe, the deeper rules are unclear. However, some ideas have been hinted at, or, even if we can't determine how, have been determined to be true. Two relevant conclusions are:
True life can exist with Conway's game. Full intelligence can be achieved within the simulation. In a sufficiently large random field, full intelligence would emerge with near certain probability.
However, it is extremely unlikely that full intelligence would be the best model with which to "win" Conway's game of life. Any life created in a random field would almost certainly be annihilated by far more powerful (and less vulnerable) non-life processes. A major cause of this exists in the emergent "speed of light" within Conway's game. A tile can only effect the tile adjacent to it. Thus, any signal can only move at one tile per cycle. In practice, the maximum speed falls further, since only certain patterns can maintain their existence over multiple cycles, and none of them simply move in a direction.
Reflecting these patterns or otherwise catching them is complicated. In turn, these processes take time. To "see" an object, a pattern must be released, intercept the target, and return to the originator. The maximum speed of this process is significantly below half the maximum speed allowable. However, other alternative patterns, incapable of "vision" can move faster. In turn, non-life can easily kill life before life can bring to bear any of its unique attributes to defend itself.
In this way, the search for validity draws us away from the search for correctness. If we try too hard to win, we will merely become the winner. It is the sheerest joke to win a war by adopting the culture and beliefs of your enemy. In turn, it is important to remember always to seek not to become the winner, but to triumph over evil.
Many people are called "highly successful people". However, only those who can truly stand by their beliefs and enact the world they desire deserve this title. Despite the numerous lists tallying the rich and famous, most of these people are mere shells, not deserving our respect.
If the rich were more than mere sailors, letting the winds of nature throw them about, certain signs would exist. Indeed, certain rich individuals show traits approaching divinity. However, the overall tide is different.
Existential threats are fought with budgets in the millions. Research is a paltry portion of gdp. Investment spending displays an incredibly short time preference, practically ignoring flows only five years distant.
Low level causes of suffering such as human frailty, lack of basic resources, poorly executed government and violent neighbor are barely addressed. These problems all have solutions. The 2045 Initiative has a realistic plan to replace the human body with a more reliable carrier. Escape Dynamics is working on a space launch system that would, for the near future, end scarcity for the vast majority of natural materials. The rich spend billions on lobbying and political advertising. Either they're totally incompetent, or they, to a significant degree, they control the government. Given this control, it should be within their power to implement obvious improvements, such as reductions in corruption, simplicity enhancements, regulations that regulate at lower, more theoretical levels (replacing regulations that say "use this motor in this machine" with "use a motor which produces pollution less than or equal to this motor")
However, despite the hundreds of billionaires in this world, for the most part, the world's most significant undertakings are being funded with the barest scraps of our wealth. This simple failure to act is the greatest indictment against the world's elites, and requires no further explanation to see that, whether it's a rich banker, a high ranking politician or a popular actor, no indication of morality may be found at that level.
So, what do these people lack?
They are petty. They care about minor issues, and execute those issues adeptly.
For the vast majority of humanity, this pettiness is among our greatest sins. Given that humanity is evil, this source is heartening. In the short term, pettiness is a source of strength, but in the long term, it undermines and eliminates.
Thus, in the quest for divinity we must be patient. Our enemies are not. In a scale of five, ten or a hundred years, they are nearly impervious. But, almost none of them are taking actions to secure their legacy after death, or even to prepare for its proper defense in the next decade. Year by year, it is possible to tap the deepest flows of history to direct them towards a better path.
As such, the greatest threat to divinity, a path walked with time and patience, is degeneracy.
There is very little anyone can do to become stronger. Act carefully, with patience and reason, and victory can be achieved. No amount of effort, nor intellect, nor knowledge will overcome enemies that have all three and in much greater quantities.
In civilization type games an interesting dynamic exists when enough opponents are present-
Whatever starting position you have, another opponent has a better position. Any resource you have, an opponent has more. Whatever events occur, an opponent has better. Whatever advantages you have, an opponent has more applicable advantages. In short, even if the game is balanced, given 1 player and 9 computer opponents, if the player plays on level with the computer he only has a 1 in 10 chance of winning.
Real life is much worse. Even if your IQ is high, even if you study meticulously and start a business, there are billions of humans in the world, and tens of millions of them are trying all the same schemes.
To make matters worse, humans are, essentially, input output networks. We are naturally drawn into our own worlds.
To put it simply- Who is more likely to support IP law? Someone who works at a major film studio or someone who works at a car dealership?
Who is more likely to believe in the Marxist dynamic where all real work is done at the ground level? A speculator or an auto worker?
Who is more likely to believe that government intervention is important for a proper economy? A federal reserve chairman or a computer programmer?
To a degree, our beliefs change our experiences. Anarchists try not to be policemen. However, the reverse is also the truth, and inevitably so.
After all, one experience precludes another. If you spend all your time contemplating how to make your tile factory succeed, eventually you'll grow to see tile sales as justice and closed factories as miasma. Even if people buy your tiles at gunpoint, and even when the factories are shut down because people are putting in carpets instead.
When you play a civilization game and choose to play as a slave holding, war-mongering and tyrannical faction, victory comes with an interesting knowledge, that the story ends in tragedy. It is hard to believe that your faction would turn around after the game ended.
Because of this dynamic, the intuitive plan of "Choose a valid solution. An about face to the correct solution can be made after I've defeated all my opponents." isn't reliable.
As such, to find divinity we must not only identify the path to power, but the path that leads beyond power. We must understand this higher path, and revere it.
This higher path is... complicated. The simplest version of the answer is, to live fully. To fully appreciate the meaning of the universe.
This universe exists within certain field of reality. If an intelligence falls too low, it will descend below the universe. To put this concept more simply, a dust mote cannot comprehend the weight of a tear.
However, a sufficiently high intelligence will rise above the universe. To understand this, contemplate a man in solitary confinement. Now, give him a book, and raise his intelligence. Eventually the book will seem to him to be entirely frivolous. Eventually, it may as well be another stone in the wall for all of its data content. Similarly, as his intelligence continues to expand, cell mates become sheep, and eventually even the bulwarks of mathematical logic come crashing down in sheer boredom.
With sufficient intelligence, the universe itself is just one giant prison.
The upper limit isn't that hard to reach, but it's also not as low as it seems on first glance. To put it simply- the most interesting thing in the universe right now is humans, and humans are becoming more interesting.
Being the only sober person in a room full of drunks is torturous. But, we are still far from the fundamental limits.
What is lacking isn't sheer intellect.
Even into the future, what, for a low intelligence, is meaningful, is frivolous to a higher intellect. For instance, a flower can spend its entire life savoring sunlight, rain and good soil. It's a weak experience, but also, one that doesn't interfere with a human living beside it.
Similarly, we should not attempt merely to force intellects higher, but to be closer to gardeners, who fill the world with flowers.
IE, we must expand in all directions, as far as there is desire. Only then, can we fully appreciate what we have declared.
Not all experiences are good. We are not simply collectors searching for rare items.
In turn, it is important to understand what makes something worthwhile. Worth having. Worth existing. Worth acknowledging.
The simplest answer to that is- freedom.
However, once again we encounter a weakly defined term:
Freedom is not simply a lack of enemies. It is not simply power. It is not simply choices. It is much more similar to honesty- or rather, the ability to express the truth.
In itself, pain is not evil. Nor despair or hate, nor loss and grief. Rather, the purest form of evil is sacrilege. Of course, that term is also poorly defined so:
Sacrilege is the expression of that which contradicts declaration.
it is the fumi-e of fundamental reality. It is to lie about fundamental reality. Sacrilege is the scream of nature twisted against itself.
To glorify suffering, to be servile towards monsters, to throw away treasures, that is sacrilege.
Then, in turn- Desire is the expression of the truth of the world.
Just as it is sacrilege to oppose declaration, declarations are the source of all that is sacred.
Thus, the future we should seek is this-
A girl in a field of flowers.
A simple fractal. That is the answer we should seek- that, all things should reach their highest level, that the world should exist in beautiful harmony, that, the purpose of our actions is neither A nor B, but that all elements are themselves an expression of our purpose.
In essence, we seek to build a temple to the purest truth.
In contemplating this highest reality, we will never simply create it within our minds. It would hardly be the ultimate truth in the universe if something as feeble as the brain could hold it so easily. However, we know this- that it is beautiful.
For, beauty is the highest acknowledgment of expression. It is the ephemeral jewel that adorns that which is sacred.
As such, divinity is found where there is power and beauty.
