Talk:Test

1. Mythological View of Technology

• Hephaestus was son of Zeus and Hera but because he was not a perfect god (he had a malformed foot), his mother cast him off of Olympus and down to the earth.
• Hephaestus was asked by Zeus to chain Prometheus (thinking ahead) to the lifeless. We are so chained by technology to the lifeless kingdom.
• Hephaestus builds the first humanoid – Pandora (no, she is not the first woman). Her appeal to Epimetheus (thinking about the past) allowed for her jug (box) to be opened.
• Hephaestus was invited back to Olympus. As a foreshadowing of Christ-Jesus, he rode up to Olympus on a donkey.

2. Mythological happenings today

• We are chained to the lifeless. It will take strength and inner work to break these chains.
• AI uses only the lifeless. Data is Lifeless.
• Pandora’s box is being opened by our thinking about the past. The Prometheus in us is warning us not to open that box – but it will be opened. We have Hope for the future.
• Technology will be raised to Olympus – some call this an etheric technology.

3. Technology and the Philosophy of Freedom

• We are stuck in dead thinking. We had to go “there” to develop Freedom.
• We need to be prodded to develop living thinking.
• When Steiner published this book, PoF, he wrote these words about its significance, "the grip of Ahriman has been broken.“
• The amount of data we each generate from living in modern times is so enormous that we need AI to manage it all – otherwise, we would have no free time.
• AI is a double-edged sword. While it can free us to develop living thinking, it can also severely weaken our thinking skills.
• Getting over our love of a life of ease is critical at this point. Does our free time become TV-time? Do we do more meditation? Do we explore counterbalances?

4. Spiritual Assistance

• To balance the migration of the spirits of darkness from heaven to our ‘heads’ the Vulcan beings have come to help us prepare for our future. Their own evolution depends on their successful guidance for us. But we do not speak the same ‘language’. Thus, to get across to us, they are forced to cause upheaval after upheaval.
• Christ is with us like a brother, but he will not be invoked; he will not interfere with our Freedom. Likewise for Michael.

5. The Incarnation of Ahriman

• For our evolutionary journey to be complete, we must successfully face the incarnation of Ahriman.
• Through humanity and the Mystery upon Golgotha, Lucifer will be redeemed.
• Ahriman too must be redeemed. But he has no heart, no “gemut”.
• Through “mixing” with the spirits of Love and Freedom (us), Ahriman will be changed enough that later, during Jupiter, he too can be redeemed.
• Thus, we must go into Ahriman’s sphere – not only for his future redemption but also for certain ‘gifts’ we must wrest from Ahriman for the further course of evolution.

6. The Role Counterbalances and Developing Consciousness of the Etheric

• We must build a sphere where Ahriman has no access. This come about because the Christ is now united with the Earth and those souls who can truly say “no longer I but Christ in me” create in the etheric this sphere that reflects back for all the radiating light from the Christ.
• Counterbalances allow us to stand upright in the modern world. These develop our Consciousness Soul to become conscious of our own etheric body.
• When we practice the arts, we are “tapping into” the etheric.
• Eurythmy is one of the best practices for developing an awareness of the etheric.

7. Ascension, the Second Fall, and the 6th Epoch

• Beginning about 4500 (4900?) the Maitreya Buddha will open the doors for human ascension which means we will be able to consciously go through death, leave our physical body behind
• One portion of humanity will ascend. Those who do will do so to help those left behind. They will work out of the Brotherhood this 6th Cultural Age fosters.
• Those who initially ascend will be the forerunners for the Sixth Epoch when we will no longer incarnate but we will be present in the etheric.
• Christ’s words “follow me” mean that we follow him into the etheric leaving the physical behind.
• Another portion of humanity will ascend during the 6th Cultural Age (5733-7893)
• A third portion of humanity will feel compelled to remain with the physical. They will go the path of evolution with Ahriman and the Ahrimanic doubles.
• This path will be with the Eighth Sphere. In this context, the Eighth Sphere can be seen as God’s mercy to provide such a path to Jupiter. Its path will not be with the rest of humanity in the 6th or 7th Epochs. From indications (but not provable), it appears that Mani will voluntarily go with this group to lead the overcoming of this evil via meekness and agape love.

8. Technology as Necessary for Evolution of both Us and Our Ahrimanic Double

• The peak of physical earthly evolution was during the middle of the Atlantean Epoch
• The peak of physical human evolution was during the Greek Cultural Age when the etheric body had fully entered into the physical. Now individual intelligence could spread. Now the steps to freedom could be walked. Into this environment, Christ incarnated.
• Human physical bodies are in decline. As they decline and wither, the temptation to intervene will grow. We will continue with pacemakers, hearing aids, artificial knees and hips, prosthetics, and much more. The physical body will become heavily mechanized by the end of the 6th Cultural Age. “The merger of Man and Machine will be an ongoing issue for the rest of earthly evolution.”
• Sexual procreation ends by 5700. Then what? We will be required to work with the fallen spirits of darkness to create something to take the place of sexual procreation. Such bodies will evolve throughout the 7th Post-Atlantean Cultural Age.
• Our soul will hover above such bodies
• Such bodies will experience neither birth nor death
• Such bodies will lead to extreme egoism and the War of All Against All
• The 7th PACA will be the Golden Age of Transhumanism.
• Highly mechanized physical bodies will be the delight of our ahrimanic doubles
• It prepares us for the War of All Against All. Its conditions dire enough to prod those remaining to seek ascension.
• As the Moon approaches, its hardening forces will become stronger on earth
• It was withdrawn during Lemuria and must, physically, be reunited
• Something (asteroid?) will alter its orbit around the year 5733 so that it gradually becomes closer and closer to the earth over 2160 years.

9. On AI, Robotics & “Ahrimanic Incarnation”

• It is valid within Steiner’s framework to see AI and robotics as deepening incursion of Ahrimanic spiritual forces—but this makes spiritual vigilance imperative, not optional.
• Appropriate use becomes possible—but only when anchored in spiritual-strengthening, moral clarity, and continuous self-reflection.

10. On “Etheric” or “Moral” Technology

• Rudolf Steiner never used the term “moral technology” but he certainly did talk about both plenty.
• Steiner talked about the use of vibrations emanating from one person to a future machine that would respond to those vibrations and do a task. This is very much like asking a question to your smartphone and getting a reply. Your voice is “translated” into vibrations. Can such a machine be able to distinguish the user’s morality and thereby know when to respond and when not to? MysTech, when funded to do R&D, plans to research this.
• Etheric technology could mean that in some way life forces (etheric forces) are used to run physical machines. It could also mean that in the not-so-distant future, once ascension has begun for example, that life in the etheric will call for etheric machines that would be entirely within the etheric. I lean toward the latter.
• When ascension is ready to begin, by then there will be sufficient understanding of the etheric to begin such research. Steiner also indicated that such research must wait until Threefolding exists (somewhere) in the world.

11. Conclusion

• I agree with “Anthroposophists should engage with technology—as long as they:
• Are clairvoyantly conscious of its spiritual entanglements”
• But I am very uncomfortable with such use being limited to only those who:
• “Undertake inner training (meditation, moral development, artistic cultivation);
• Use technology for spiritually aligned purposes—healing, art, community-building, environmental regeneration.”
• Anyone can take up the use of Technology if they also practice counterbalances!
• We cannot become Essenes, Ascetics, nor Luddites.
• Anthroposophy must be a modern society. When asked about the stage lighting for the First Goetheanum, Steiner said we will use electric lighting (not gas lighting) because we are to be a modern society.
• The most important of the counterbalances is “the Christ in me”. With Christ as one’s companion, one can go into Ahriman’s sphere and wrest from him what will be needed for further evolution.
• We must rise up into super-nature in balance with our sliding down into sub-nature. Technology provides the slide. All of us can (and will) easily slide down into Ahriman’s realm. What will save us is not avoiding this slide but take up the Consciousness Soul work and EXPAND our consciousness from Sub-Nature to Super-Nature.
• We will be the Tenth Hierarchy. During Jupiter, we will need to incarnate into the bodies of those on the human stage of Jupiter as angels have, during Earth, incarnated as humans to guide us.
• Who are those who will be human on Jupiter? Steiner tells us that they too are here NOW in our consciousness. They come from below and, as such, have an Ahrimanic disposition to existence. It is not fully clear who they are, but it is implied that they are our ahrimanic doubles. We will need to incarnate into their bodily form to guide.
• What kind of bodies will the Jupiter humans have? Look at the sequence so far: warmth, gaseous, liquid, solid. What’s next with which to build a body as the vehicle for life on Jupiter?
• Eventually, there will be seven elements and seven ethers.

And now to address these questions:

1. How should anthroposophists use technology as a tool for *their own spiritual development*?

• Community building.
• Study groups
• Social groups
• Research of “the past”
• RS Archive, Free Man Creator, Anthrowiki, etc.
• Broadening your understanding of Anthroposophy
• Building colleagues
• Reviewing each other’s works

2. How should anthroposophists use technology as a tool for the *continued development of spiritual science*?

• Use Tech for the dissemination of spiritual science
• Personal development should be free of technology
• See and experience one’s “slide” into sub-nature to know how far to rise up

3. How should anthroposophists use technology for the *dissemination of spiritual science*?

• To help others who are beginners or are seekers
• Collaborations that help all involved
• Eventually, after ascension has begun, we will find that we can do everything that Zoom can do through our etheric connections. (Sub-nature) Technology will fall away then. Perhaps, we will then be using an etheric technology.