Project Empyrean

• The fundamental problem of existence is feeling bad aka stress.
• Project Empyrean seeks the indefinite avoidance of stress.
• In other words: “What should I do to be happy forever?”

Existence Twofold

• There are two kinds of existence: good and bad.
• Good
  • Pleasure perceived as personal
• Bad
  • Displeasure perceived as personal

Beyond Existence

• When one feels neither good nor bad, they’ve gone beyond existence, undefined.
• This is not dull, dark, black, or dreary. Dull, dark, black, and dreary are unpleasant feelings. A common misconception.
• Where one is beyond, they don’t feel bad. Not feeling bad, they’re accomplished in the fundamental goal.

Twofold Solution

• And thus, two solutions to the fundamental problem:
  • Feel good
  • Don’t feel
• Both are equally sufficient, for bad feeling does not occur.

Permanence

• But the best of solutions are permanent.
• From a Buddhist perspective, the highest allure of pleasure is “the unaffiliated”. And yet, though completely devoid of displeasure, it too is considered a burden as feeling is an arisen phenomenon. Anything that arises is inconstant, and thus subject to cease.
• Nirvana however does not arise, and thus not subject to cease. Thus, it is unconditioned and permanent. Though no feeling occurs there, it is the highest of happiness by its permanence.
• And thus, however indefinite a good existence might be, an unconditioned solution such as nirvana is inherently superior.

Influence of Volition

• The goal then is to either feel good or not feel in the future
• Volition is the sole domain of influence by which this may be secured
• Therefore, one ought to act such that they don’t feel displeasure in the future, either by feeling pleasure, or not feeling.
• Feeling itself can be volitional. Volition influences future volition.

Constraining the Infinitude

• The range of volition can be seen as endless

• An endless range of action leading to various results

• A unit of experience can be seen as influenced by the aggregate of all choices made in the past

• Its incredibly complex, but we can use models to determine the choices that are more likely to result in optimal future volition and avoidance of stress

• Examples

  • Smoking
    • Smoking cigarettes used to be viewed as healthy
    • As a result of this model, people chose to smoke
    • And because this model was inaccurate, they suffered the consequences such as cancer etc.
    • But now our model says that smoking is unhealthy
    • So people don’t smoke, and as a result they don’t get lung cancer caused by smoking
    • The model determined the quality of outcomes
  • Germ theory
    • Old model did not account for germs
    • Thus doctors did not choose proper sanitation
    • And thus increased mortality rate
    • New model accounted for germs
    • Sanitation increased
    • Mortality dramatically decreased
    • The model determined the quality of outcomes

• Some more examples from ChatGPT:

Old view	New view	Actions	Results
Disease from miasma or humors	Germ theory	Sanitation, sterilization, vaccination	Huge reduction in infectious disease and surgical mortality
Scurvy from bad food or sea air	Vitamin C deficiency	Citrus supplementation	Scurvy largely eliminated in navies
Childbirth fever as unavoidable	Physicians transmit infection	Handwashing between patients	Maternal mortality collapsed
Ulcers caused mainly by stress/spicy food	Bacterial infection (Helicobacter pylori infection)	Antibiotics	Many ulcers cured rather than managed
Fire as release of “phlogiston”	Oxygen-based combustion	Modern chemistry	Enabled advances across science and industry
Continents fixed in place	Plate tectonics	Better understanding of earthquakes, volcanoes, resources	Major advances in earth science
Mental illness as possession or moral failing	Brain, psychological, and social mechanisms	Evidence-based treatment	Better outcomes for many disorders
Stomach acid should be neutralized permanently	Acid has physiological functions but can be excessive	Targeted acid suppression	Effective treatment of reflux and ulcers

• So accurate models lead to better outcomes
• Thus, we ought to expand and improve our existential models such that stress is indefinitely avoided

Bedrock Models

• We can begin with a set of bedrock assumptions that are very difficult to refute
• Volitional causality
  • This model assumes that volition does have an influence on existence
  • Consider two cases: that this is true or false.
  • If it were false, then operating on either asumption would not change the outcome, for in that case outcomes are outside of influence.
  • If it were true, then operating on the assumption that it were false would lead to less favorable outcomes that if we operated on the assumption it were true.
  • Thus, it makes no sense in the absence of absolute knowledge to operate on the false model
  • So this model is locked in place, which eliminates the range of “inaction” based choices resulting from it
• Biological mortality
  • Assumtion that the human organism will inevitably die
  • So even with transhuman advancements, even a life of a billion years would be bound to come to an end
  • Because the very substrate upon which the human organism survives is highly unstable
  • Eventually the sun will burn up the earth
  • Eventually Andromeda will collide with the milky way
  • Eventually the universe ends in one of three ways
  • But realistically, all it takes is one wrong step and you’re dead
  • This model thus deprioritizes transhuman efforts as they are simply insufficient. Death and rebirths must be understood and mastered (see next)
• Organic Cessation
  • Assumption that conscious existence will normally arise again after the death of the organism
  • Smilar argument to volitional causality
  • Suppose cessation were naturally guaranteed. In that case, given biological mortality is inevitable, nothing need be done as stress would naturally come to an end with death.
  • Suppose it were not. In that case, operating on the assumption it were would be a huge opportunity cost and miscalculation.
  • Thus, in any case it only makes sense to assume it were not guaranteed, thus seeking either the guarantee of cessation, or future pleasant existences.