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Spirituality of Science https://serenesage.wordpress.com/2015/10/11/spirituality-of-science/
Science and Religion have seldom been talked about in
the same sentence. History is full of examples of their
mutual hate – Galileo’s persecution by the Vatican being
may be the most popular example.
Spirituality, however, has no problems with Science. I
would go to the extent of saying true spirituality is
indistinguishable from Science – both emphasizing on
experience of the phenomena rather than blind
acceptance of the dogma.
Many modern say scientists, most notably those working
in the realms of the very large and the very small (the
cosmologists and the quantum physicists) have been
pretty vocal in delineating the similarities they have
observed in how the Universe functions as revealed by
their experimental observations and the cryptic, yet
eloquent sutras and mantras of ages old ancient Spiritual
texts. I would point any inquisitive reader to the excellent
‘Tao of Physics’ by Fritjof Capra.
My trigger in writing this post was a passage of text I
came across in a remarkable book by the eminent
futurist, Ray Kurzweil – ‘The Age of Spiritual
Machines’. In this book, RK is trying to postulate various
possible scenarios we may observe in the 21st century,
given the inexorable and ever accelerating onward march
of technology. After taking the reader through an
exhilarating journey across the historical growth of
technology, growing man machine interactions and
recent growth towards intelligent machines, RK broaches
the topics of ‘What is Consciousness’, ‘Can machines be
conscious’ and ‘Machine Augmented Humans’. One
particular passage that struck me really hard was the
following :
Now, this is a recognized futurist talking about how, in
course of evolution, we will transcend our natural
hydrocarbon bodies and will move onto technologically
augmented bodies which will be more suitable to let us
continue on the path of evolution. It is all modern,
technological jargon. Still, the echoes of deepest spiritual
aphorisms were quite striking in these paragraphs for me.
RK says that “…there will be hardware and bodies,but
the essence of our identity will switch to permanence of
our software…” , and further,
“…We will be Software, not Hardware“, “… We will
periodically port ourselves to more capable
computers…” To me, it looks like nothing but a reflection of the
doctrine of Atman as being the permanent essence of
existence, with the body being a mere tool, a vehicle to
enable the Atman to have the desired experiences, and
thereafter shed once it’s utility is over –
|
|| ( , 2.22)
Once the ‘software’ – the Atman, transcends the
capabilities of the ‘hardware’, it sheds the old hardware
or the body, and moves onto the next, more suitable
hardware !
Also, as RK states that “..we will not throw our mind
files away as we port ourselves to the latest, more
capable hardware…” is nothing but the Atman carrying
the essence of the experiences had in this lifetime as
the samskaras as it ports or moves into a new body in a
new incarnation.
There is a lot more I can say about the similarities I
observed, but I am running short of time today, and may
be I would cover this in a greater detail in some other
post. However, the whole idea was to leave a germ in the
mind of the reader, so she may have a new perspective to
look at the things, and try and see how various
knowledge streams, though might look distinct and
different superficially, eventually, at a fundamental level,
talk about the same ultimate reality.
