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Welcome to the metaculture wiki!
Background
metaculture attempts to describe the emergent properties of a universal belief system based on empirical knowledge of our universe, our minds and humanity's shared culture.
When fully developed, metaculture will provide:
- A mental framework for rational comprehension of how the universe works.
- A culturally neutral moral philosophy.
- An evidence-based socioeconomic and political philosophy.
metaculture is a dynamic philosophy, growing and improving with humanity's ability to more accurately describe the universe. It collects into a single narrative structure what, to the best of our knowledge, science has to say about how our universe came to be, how it works, how our minds work, and best-practices for how to live our lives and construct our society to achieve constantly improving outcomes.
While some corporate ethics involve pithy slogans like "don't be evil" that sound good but do little to help resolve modern moral dilemmas, Meta Enterprises is directly addressing the problem of evil by developing a universal ethical philosophy that resolves the conflict between science and religion.
While it was originally developed and hosted by Meta Enterprises, metaculture is not meant to represent the opinions or perspective of any individual, organization or ideology. Rather it is an attempt to describe the unwritten belief system that a growing number of secular universalists arrive at on their own each day. The components have been written about extensively but separately. The metaculture project seeks to weave this common collection of ideas into a single narrative structure, allowing it to be easily understood, recognized and taught to others. It is a necessary prerequisite for the building of secular institutions that bring people together in celebration of these common goals, and for traditional religions to adapt their theology to enable coexistence in a globalized world.
Core Tenets
metaculture is a complete, unified philosophical and theological system that addresses all of the major questions of ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, etc. that philosophers, scientists, and religions have always dealt with.
The goal is not to rewrite these works but to combine the best of them in a way that offers a simple, universally applicable belief system that is consistent with both science and scripture and can be understood regardless of one's education level.
These tenets are:
- Scientific Realism: that an objective reality exists and advances in science improve the accuracy of our understanding of that reality. The metaphysical, ontological and epistemological assumptions of metaculture are the same as those that underlie modern Scientific Realism.
- Utilitarianism: that the success of our ethics can be measured and improved based on the impact it has on human emotions. Furthermore, the assumed goal of utilitarianism (happiness and well-being) can be derived empirically from evolutionary psychology.
- Fractal Aesthetics: that our sense of beauty derives from our evolved mental representations of the universe, and because the universe is inherently self-similar, complex and symmetrical, we find beauty in that which exemplifies these things.
- That any principle describe herein, including these core tenets, is subject to future revision should empirical evidence contradict it.
When fully grokked, metaculture should convey all of the psychological and sociological benefits traditionally ascribed to religion without any reliance on supernatural beliefs. This include social cohesion, psychological support, personal meaning, positive social change, a good creation story and psychologically satisfying answers to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. (ref)
Major Components
Shortcuts to the answers to the big questions.
- Creation Story
- What is god?
- The fractal universe
- The role of religion
- Where is my mind?
- Maximizing happiness is the goal
- Best-Practices for creating happiness
Why a Wiki
The wiki format was chosen to allow ongoing updates based on best-practices from the latest widely accepted research, contributions from many people with different perspectives on the common goal, non-linear reading order, and direct links to detailed descriptions and research on any subject that the reader is unfamiliar with.
While the initial wiki was populated with the writings of a single author, the ideas should be fully separated from their authorship. First person perspectives and personal anecdotes are not used, and references to specific current events are minimal. References to religions, scripture, politics and culture should be generalized and made as universal as possible to allow people from any time, place or background to approach the subject matter equally.
The wiki will also allow for multiple language translations, as well as multiple education level translations. The initial wiki will be written on an academic reading level and assume the reader is familiar with of the fundamentals of science, philosophy, theology, and fractals. But each page should eventually offer simplified versions that explain concepts using allegory and examples, and provide additional reference materials to help those who are unfamiliar with with the topics being discussed.
The wiki will allow extensive linking to source material and research that backs up any assertions or conclusions made. The initial framework will mostly describe the perspective and methodology that metaculture will use to identify religious, psychological, political, and economic best-practices rather than drawing conclusions on what they currently are. This task is better left to subject matter experts who can provide this detail and cite the research to back it up. Hence, extensive links to corresponding pages on Wikipedia.org will be used to provide background information since these are written and maintained by experts already, and metaculture simply provides organization and perspective on these facts, not primary research or summarization thereof.
Finally, the wiki will track the version history of each article and provide the ability for authors to discuss changes, and for those discussions to be visible to future generations. It's like scripture with version control. giture if you will.
Why the Lower Case "m"
metaculture is not a proper name for a particular philosophy. It is a noun used to describe the emergent, global, common culture that will allow us to recognize our shared humanity and cooperate effectively while retaining our traditions, heritage and uniqueness. It is the general principles that underlie all human cultures, whatever those may be, not a specific theory about what those are. The lower case "m" emphasizes the fact that metaculture is not the philosophy of any one person or group, but an abstract and inevitable concept that, whatever form it takes, will be the next step in cultural evolution.
Likewise, references to god are also lower case to indicate the generic term for god and not the implied Judeo-Christian God that the capital "G" typically refers to.