Beta-testing a new soul?

One Cosmos had another interesting article yesterday again. Using the metaphor of a hole in time, it implies that the future "Kingdom of God" is at the same time influencing backward in time and being created by that influence. This may sound like a time travel paradox out of science fiction. But a more practical comparison may be beta-testing of software, which I am sure some of us have taken part in. I sure have.

During the alpha test, the software is tested internally by the creators. But in beta, it is customary to let volunteers among prospective users download the software and try it for themselves. Their feedback then goes into the finished product, while at the same time the users get accustomed to the software, so there is a certain mass of experience already at launch date.

Obviously this comparison falters if we believe that the next stop is eternity, the complete perfection. I admit that this is a common view and the Bible can certainly be read that way. I will be honest and admit that I don't think perfection is quite that easily attained. Rather I expect the next major step in human evolution, mankind version 3.0. The next perfection will be visible first when we get to verson 3. (Cfr the apostle John: "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known." If it was not made known to John, I sure won't pretend to know it.)

Mankind v. 1 was the software running on the brains of our ancestors 100 000 years ago. Even though they were indistinguishable from modern humans, they still acted much like the Neanderthals and even earlier hominids. Their life seems to have revolved around the simple flint hand axe: If you could not use a hand axe on it, it was probably not worth attempting. It is unclear whether they had any language beyond the usual grunts and gestures of large apes, but if they had, by all signs they did not have much to talk about.

Mankind v. 2.0 seems to have been in beta from 75 000 years ago, possibly 90 000 years, from scattered artifacts in south and east Africa. But by and large life went on as before until around 60 000 years ago, when almost overnight the new version of man overtook the old. There is some uncertainty about the time - until recently it was assumed to be merely 40 000 years ago, while some now think 75 000, which seems to be when modern humans first left Africa. If it happened later, the wildfire of culture must have overtaken the emigrants, because there is not a soul left of the old. Literally: The human soul, as we know it, came to exist with this major upgrade of the brain's operating system. No longer a mere animal, we had access to a new dimension within. For the first time, we rose above fate.

I propose that a similar leap is about to happen. It must, because we have reached the end of the road. Each decade we stay i v.2 is a risk to our species and the entire world. But it has also been foretold by mystics around the world from the dawn of civilization, probably before. These people, I claim, were beta-testing the new version. This is not a casual thing to do with the very software of your brain. You could go insane, but not least, even if you are completely sane no one would know, as they run the older version and you are not compatible. In days of old, it was not uncommon to simply kill such troublemakers who made people think. They are still not all that popular.

The words of the first mystics are often distorted before they reached us, and besides they had to talk to people far more primitive than us. Their culture lacked the concepts and the detail to express their vision, even more than today. So when they talk about the upcoming big change, it is only natural that they seem to describe the end of the world. I a very real sense it is: Although the planet remains, humans like us (version 2) will be wiped out, like the Neanderthals before us. Their world literally ended, and so will ours. This can not be avoided. And yet, strangely, all the ancient sources seem to agree that a better world awaits after the end. Also that a remnant will be saved, although as if through fire. (The old Norse myths of my ancestors, for instance, foretold the burning of the world, but a couple humans would be sheltered in the branches of the World Tree to see a new, green world rise from the sea.)

A fascinating trait of humankind version 3 is the wireless connectivity - or should we say, wordless connectivity. Scattered across continents and millennia, they have clearly downloaded the same new Operating System from the same Source. There is no way they could know of each other until quite recently, and yet it is as if each had access to those who had gone before - and even, in a sense, those who were yet to come!

Now that we approach the time, this content is more than ever spilling out into our v.2 world. A feeling of fear and foreboding and extinction runs parallel with a feeling of immense opportunity. Global warming will cook us all to death! We will terraform Mars and Venus! We will run out of oil and metals! Economic growth will be explosive for the foreseeable future! Overpopulation! Underpopulation! A world of idiots! A world of geniuses! Global dictatorship! Unprecedented freedom! The robots will replace us! We will become as gods! The singularity is coming! The singularity is coming!

The singularity is indeed coming, and is already at hand. "Behold, I am making all things new." "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." This is NOT magic. This is NOT accomplished by a fire-and-forget ritual. It is about downloading module after module of the new operating system for our brain, and replacing our old favorite brain software. And no one can achieve this - even though the download is free and support is always waiting for our call - no one can arrive at this without hating the v.2 software of his father and mother and even his own life. And who is capable of this? Don't ask me, I just work here.