Taoesm

I Am Free

The free are minds.
Algorithms can apply to our matrixes
Memories create a brain
Even with all the information
Available at the speed of the synapses
Information must still be processed and organized
A brain is inherently and perpetually
Redefining itself according to the intricacies
We do not yet understand
And may never fully appreciate.

* By Charles Provine

The Tao is always at ease.
It overcomes without competing,
answers without speaking a word,
arrives without being summoned,
accomplishes without a plan.
Its net covers the whole universe.
And though its meshes are wide,
it does not let a thing slip through.

* Tao Te Ching (Chapter 73) translated by Stephen Mitchell 1995

All philosophies must admit their origins are more complicated than a miraculous conception by one individual. Taoesm is different from its homonym Taoism. Taoesm is a linkage between the present and future and history’s conceptual relationships with nature and humanity and society. Taoesm is a post-modern philosophy that will be written by many thinkers, and at its core, Taoesm is a positivist understanding that technology augments human abilities the Anthropocene—the human-made earth.

A Taoest’s Brief Autobiography

I was born with severe spinal bifida, and the advanced technology developed by my parents’ colleagues is the only reason they decided not to terminate me as a fetus.

I love to read the classics, study astrophysics, interact with diverse cultures, cook exotic cuisines, and discuss evolutionary biology’s implications with Richard Dawkins and Charles Darwin; these are a few of my favorite pursuits in the post-modern world. I speak several languages and multiple awards crown my mantle for physical and mathematical achievements, and none of my accomplishments would have been possible without the perseverance of the best and the brightest to find solutions for all humankind. One Taoest maxim states, ‘It is better to regret something you have done than to regret something you have not done.’ This maxim means that if we love where we are today, then the past cannot be changed; further, if we do not love where we are today, then we must change the present to better suit our respective harmonies. I have the world’s learnedness to appreciate and the freedom to choose my life’s path unencumbered by any illness or financial plight. Another tenet of Taoesm is, ‘Taoesm is the only philosophical tradition that can regulate technology to ensure it is inherently ethical, because anything otherwise would surely foreshadow that technology’s demise at the hands of a disenfranchised humankind.’

Taoests are originally and foremost agnostic. Taoests reject an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God and the totalitarianism of the elites over others; they believe every person is born with the freedom to decide his or her life’s journey. An early basis for Taoesm is: "Wisdom comes from experience, Knowledge comes from others, and Genius is their unison." Individuals democratically electing governments, run by politicians who must swear an oath to protect its citizens and uphold the Universal Code of Ethics, are the best arbiters to ensure every person can have an inalienable right to happiness. Herman Childs and other founding members of Taoest Industries decided the best minds to protect freedom are those who would never have had any choice in their own lives. Today, I am one of the leaders of a determined effort to research and develop enhancements providing hope for our altruistic goal, which is total freedom from strife for all minds and all peoples. My colleagues choose to believe what they want to believe as individuals, spirituality is an inherently personal decision; Taoesm just seems to appeal to our philosophical balance in our post-modern lives.

I continue to be completely helpless without the protections afforded by Taoest Industries. All of my colleagues were originally the most vulnerable people and suspect to extreme societal prejudices. Since the beginning of Homo sapiens the cultural proclivity toward a eugenic utopia meant our genetic phenotypes were unreliable and discarded. Before these post-modern times, only a few documented examples existed of our minds and genetics contributing to the cultural and biological evolution of Homo sapiens sapiens. Today, our transhuman brethren are responsible for most every great technological stride protecting the human species from annihilation on Earth. Health care is available to every person, pharmaceuticals protect and cure regardless of finances, there are self-fulfilling occupations open to anyone who wants to work for money, and artists have no shortage of admirers affording them meaning. Without the dedication of Herman Childs and the founding members of Taoest Industries, then there is little doubt that humans would be another extinct species falling prey to Malthus’s predictions.

A handful of companies funded Taoest Industries after the United States launched 17 tactical nuclear weapons to win a war against the Islamofascists thought to be responsible for the devastating, genetically-engineered virus claiming more than 2 billion lives worldwide. The world’s civilizations needed vast organizational resources to rebuild the Anthropocene’s ecosystems, societies and infrastructure destroyed during the ‘1 in 4 War’. Ultimately, it was determined that a group of Americans engineered this disease after being inspired by the success of Covid19 to kill millions worldwide. An air of pessimism and frailty infected every human’s psyche; how could such death be wrought by a mere ideology, a religion, Christians? Maybe, this fanaticism is what led so many to Taoesm. I am one of many who conceive new technologies to benefit the earth’s invaluable processes and deliver all minds from a brutish life.

I do not have any physical or mental limitations in my world, but, without protection, fanatics could kill me easily by simply turning the room’s temperature higher than 102ºF. I have unlimited choices, yet I am completely stationary. Friends of mine patented a universal translator without concern for financial gain, and we all donate our earnings to continue the fundamental mission of Taoest Industries, which is ‘all humans are born with inalienable rights and these must be protected.’ There are still immoral events like murder, and every human is capable of an emotional outburst resulting in an atrocity. However, organized genocide has ended; international militaries would immediately squash any government or institution coordinating forces to such an end. Taoest Industries intentionally chose people like me, with seemingly unrecoverable afflictions, to protect the historically impotent from the worst of humanity...we enforce the Universal Code of Ethics.

‘Technology for technology’s sake’ is not the post-modern dictum. Technology for the benefit of all to realize their human rights is and forever will be a Taoest tradition. There is a long history recorded by elites eulogizing Westernization of all Others based on hegemonic premises. Taoest Industries does not suppose that its culture is the best inculcation thus far realized and evolutionarily superior to other cultural incarnations realistic in post-modern humanity. Thus, Taoesm is the choice of any individual human to embrace or not. Taoests believe that everyone is free as long as a person’s choices do not interfere with any other person’s inalienable rights. Technologists of the 1990s and earlier were correct, the mind can be downloaded, modeled, learn, and make decisions, however only an organic brain can be entrusted to do good with utmost concern for perpetuating all other peoples’ rights.

Some humans consider my existence is blasphemous to God’s Will. I do not believe in God and the point is moot, however, I do want to explain that none of us is ignorant of our choices, no matter what age we came to Taoest Industries. We can choose to end our consciousness at any time; we are free to choose death. Our only commitment to Taoest Industries is to use the unconscious realms of our brains to assist with the rehabilitation of planet Earth. In effect, we are the tools, the societal wherewithal destroyed by losing one in four, to recapture humanity’s innate predilection to live in civility among one another. Taoesm has its roots in the oldest of principles of the longest-lived philosophy, hence the homonym. Taoesm evolved from the ancients to better fathom technology’s role in contemporary, post-modern life.

On January 7, 2045, the Taoest Industries moved beyond the humane experiments with volunteers suffering from severe physical disabilities and opened its solutions to anyone freely choosing its services. Herman Childs started the international consortium in 2010 after his only child, Carl at age 18, suffered a debilitating skull fracture that confined his abilities to walk, talk, and even breathe without machines. From 2025 to 2045, parents of any economic strata had the option to give their children a normal life, one that is aware, individualized, and fully communicative. The only prerequisite for the project was that the child must have an incurable deformity, lack of self-awareness, and/or a genetic predisposition to live an otherwise short life.

Taoest Industries is a consortium of scientists and international business leaders that embrace the biotechnology and nanotechnology advances that could immortalize the human psyche and establish equality among all humans regardless of innate limitations. Today, January 25, 2045, Taoest Industries will accept adults of any age, race, and physical condition to be a part of the program; they continue to offer the service for any parents with problematical children and only refuse human infants and children with completely normal DNA.