I know we can’t predict the next paradigm shift or black swan event, but if you could, which would you choose?
Magic is real?
The supernatural exists?
Life after death?
Holodeck/matrix?
AI / technological singularity?
Aliens land?
Purgatory?
Keep on keeping on?
Stargate ascension?
Uplift?
Choose your own!
You can pick different answers for personal and world if you like, though at some point they will have to be reconciled.
Personally I’m leaning slightly more towards aliens.
One problem (at least with your title specifically), is that people can misconstrue the deity(ies) of Christianity (or other religions) as being arrogant, jealous, not very benevolent etc. and that of course puts them off.
With extra terrestrials though we don’t have as much of an expectation, and we haven’t attributed any negative human traits to them or that they may possess.
In some cases we treat the situation as which is the lesser of two evils.
For myself? Aliens are a joke. For being perceived as so highly intelligent -by extension they must be advanced - as they can keep flying into our atmosphere at will. Yet it raises the question, how come they can never LAND THE GOD DAMN SPACESHIP and quit crashing or vanishing like a bad Copperfield trick?
The other issue is that, they don’t bother to contact us.
Christians can always argue that God contacts them everyday - just watch a butterfly morph from a pupa.
Seems most often people make decisions on these matters purely based or primarily based on how they feel, and how it fits THEIR lifestyle. They do not want anything that impedes this.
How many times have you heard naive comments from so called atheists whom say ‘ya but being a Christian or a Buddah must be really boring!’
Aliens don’t represent any authority, they do not reflect any moral code and therefore do not impose upon humans any immediate restrictions.
So if you were put in charge of choosing the next paradigm change, what would you choose?
I’d save Jesus… Wrong thread
Throw in Justin Bieber, and I wouldn’t save all three.
There are paradynes where all can be and are just different interpretations such as aliens are angels and magic is very advanced technology and we are being watched over and guided by them regularly.
Aliens land and have the answer to all our problems, would be nice - in particular:
Cheap unlimited energy
Mastery of biological science (so, an end to disease and early death)
Mastery of physical materials (allowing us to make pretty much any tech we can imagine)
Easy space travel (including interstellar)
All detailed in their book, To Serve Man.
I can’t decide between life after death, the singularity, and a cure for disease (so that only trauma would kill you.)
With life after death, I may grow bored after a few trillion years and not be able to end it. Plus there is the question of whether it’s you or just a copy of you. Plus who knows if this is the last level, what if we die again and all get sent to an extra-bad Hell?
A cure for disease would be nice, but then there is the problem of the Earth frying in a billion years or so. The singularity could potentially offer a cure for disease and the long-term problem of Earth’s location. Or it could lead to a robot war.
Aliens’ land would be a simple answer to our problems - mineral resources, new sites for shopping malls, lebensraum…
We fake peaceful overtures when they arrive, take over their ships, steal their technology and invade their planet. Problems solved.
Given how the internet is progressing, these feel like they are unfolding over time. We already see the seeds of both - I just think they will emerge in somewhat different ways than we expect and are looking for.
I would suggest a variation: technology supporting groups of humans to form Big Data Consciousness - i.e., groups that share immersive connectivity and the ability to function and make decisions more effectively within that space. It gives them advantage in the online context, but is that much farther removed from the physical world.