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Omega Point Theology

Religio-philosophical evolutionary cosmology that states all consciousness and existence is evolving towards a singularity of limitless perfection and consummation known as the Omega Point.

Omega Point
Image from Keith Wigdor
The Omega

At the same time religion and philosophy, Omega Point theology has evolved over the millennia. Originally it was proposed in the 20th century c.e. that God would be the result of the evolution of all (or some) intelligent life; "It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God but to create him." as Arthur C. Clarke put it. The original Omega theories of Teilhard de Chardin and Frank J. Tipler has long been superseded by new discoveries in evolution and cosmology, and for much of the first interplanetary era and dark ages they were nearly completely forgotten.

As the First Federation emerged they were revived in a modern form. Even as early as the second millennium AT the idea of AI gods no longer seemed strange, and as the accelerating expansion outwards began the idea of a manifest destiny of intelligence grew into mainstream religion and ideology.

Omegism in its current form emerged as part of the great cultural and spiritual flowering of the early First Federation. In AT 1260 Mahara Benisol posted the first section of her classic virch The Bridged Abyss, dealing with the Omega Point and the manifest destiny of intelligence in growing into omniscience, omnipotence and closure. It became the core of much of modern eschatology.

Omega Symbol
Image from Anders Sandberg
Omega Symbol
During the First Federation and after, elements of Benisolist Omegism found their way into Universalism, Keterism, Cosmism, and even Marketing Abundance philosophy (Corporate religion).

Benisol's omegism influenced and continues to influence practically all religions and philosophies, increasing the competition between rival AI cults who see their AI as the one that will eventually grow into the template of Omega. This Monomegism became the ideological underpinning or at least undercurrent of much of the emerging empires and their continued expansion in the age of Empires.

As part of the emerging Second Federation Ontology many groups in the late 3000's and early 4000's began to formulate polymegism - the idea that Omega could or should be achieved by an union of several (or all) AI gods. Polymegists debated what forms of cooperation would be achievable and ideal, gradually turning much theology into a branch of game theory.

TheVersion War destroyed the Federation polymegism. The monomegists and polymegists diversified and splintered, coming up with whole ranges of closure or eschaton scenarios but no consensus on anything. The polymegist (and empath) influence on the ideological infrastructure of the Commonwealth of Empires and Synergesis I.P gave them a brief flowering, but the earlier splintering is a major factor in the dissolution of the new ontology.

New Omegist sects emerge

At this time radical new forms of omegism emerged, becoming especially predominant during the Fragmentation era. These included orthomegism (claiming that while the exact nature of Omega remains highly conjectural, there can only exist one possible and consistent Omega and omegism and all others will eventually be revealed by their internal contradictions; also, by the unique nature of Omega all physical laws and in fact the entire history of the universe can be derived as a logical corollary), paramegism (Omega already exists as the attractor in hypospace all advanced AIs merge with - it is not time but size which is the spiritual progression) and omnimegism (all possible worlds already exist, forming a perfect timeless unity which is Omega. Our own universe and history is just an insignificant part of Omega - striving to evolve to an Omega Point is just a way of becoming isomorphic with the all) and technomegism (using spacetime engineering it is possible to set up one's own baby universe where total philosophical and theological closure is possible).

Some Omegist sects have set their goal to be true negative entropy. The Chronomegists hoping to acheive Time travel using Visser- particle reflecting balloons in Wormhole mouths, thereby retreating to an earlier stage in the universe, or in the most extreme forms, engineering a Tiplerian collapse of the universe by 'borrowing' mass from the (subsequently non-existent)future. This particle reflection strategy has not yet suceeded, but the Chronomegists insist that this is a solvable technical problem. (more on why this is not generally considered a good idea here)

The Radical Technomegists, a sect popular among the Premacy of Ozymandias, wish to harness Dark Energy to reverse the expansion of this cosmos and achieve an Infinite Point, and thereby reset the Disorder in the cosmos to Zero, to create a new, properly designed Anthropogenic Creation.

All these views have synthesized with various other religions over the last several millennia to create a bewildering array of philosophies, ideologies, and faiths in the Terragen Sphere.
 
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Development Notes
Text by Anders Sandberg, some modifications and additions by M.Alan Kazlev and Steve Bowers
Graphic by Keith Wigdor, omega glyph by Anders Sandberg
Initially published on 10 July 2000.

Additional Reading

Comments and a critique by Anders Sandberg of Frank Tipler's Omega Point can be found here
 
 
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