Mormonism and the Fractal Lineage of Gods

Speaker 1

All right. So this is interesting for me. I kind of keyed into Mormon transhumanism about almost two years ago.

Caleb Jones

And most of my interaction, actually all of my interaction, has been through your avatars and your posts and your email addresses. And so this is my first kind of Introduction to MeetSpace. It’s almost like when you see that picture of that radio show host for the first time, right? The glass shatters. Oh, they didn’t look like what I thought. But fortunately, from the interactions I’ve had. The picture is better after that glass is shattered, and that’s encouraging.

Caleb Jones

So my title is Mormonism for this is Mormonism and the Fractal Lineage of Gods. So Joseph West might have been bemoaning some of the Protestantization of Mormonism. This is old school Mormonism. So we’re going to be talking potheosis, man-God continuums, things like that, aesthetics. But I want to give a quick primer, the beginning. The language I’m using here, I’m drawing from quotes over a long period of time. And they use man and men, which I believe they’re using in the way that René Descartes does, meaning a rational animal or a being who thinks or has intelligence. So just know that’s what my intent is when I’m sharing those quotes. See if I clicked the right direction. Yes.

Caleb Jones

So Joseph Smith used the symbol of a circle. He says, I take my ring from my finger and liken it into the mind of man. the immortal part, because it had no beginning. Suppose you cut it in two, then it has a beginning and an end. But join it again, and it continues one eternal round. So with the spirit of man. So it’s a simple yet powerful symbol that causes us to the mind to think beyond linear finite time in nature, instead ponder on the nature of nature itself. What are the attributes of the eternities and existence, and how does consciousness fit into that?

Caleb Jones

So, here Mormonism deviates from traditional Christianity in some ways. There’s common ground. But instead of creation ex nilio, it affirms the eternal nature of elements. It rejects fundamental immateriality, anchoring all that is to a material expression, though it does allow for more exotic forms of matter. And it exalts the mind of man to the same eternity and capability of glory as God, making our spirits co-eternal or coexistent with God.

Caleb Jones

Lorenzo Snow, a later Mormon prophet who knew Joseph Smith personally, echoed this sentiment in this famous Mormon couplet. As man now is, God once was. As God is now, man may be. That’s that. Man, God continuum.

Caleb Jones

So while Christianity sees this causal arc from God to man Mormonism completes that ark and shows how man has a causal arc back to God. So, woven throughout Mormonism is this notion of eternal continuum of man and God, that we are of the same stuff of God, though at a more primitive stage of maturation. And it’s in this framework that the symbol of God is our Father. Takes root.

Caleb Jones

There’s affiliation with God, as Joseph Smith explained. God Himself, finding He was in the midst of spirits in glory, because He was more intelligent Saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself. Very interesting. He discovered intelligences rather than invented them.

Caleb Jones

One quick note here. It almost reminds me of the prologue to Arthur C. Clarke’s book, 3001 Space Odyssey, quote: Since in all the galaxy They found nothing more precious than mind. They encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars. I think there’s some parallels there.

Caleb Jones

I’m going to skip just forward a little bit. I think it’s important to pause briefly and talk about the role and limits of symbolic language in revealing truths. William James is a favorite figure of mine. He put it this way: Religious language clothes itself in such poor symbols as our life affords. How very interesting.

Caleb Jones

Joseph used the best symbol at his disposal, just as we are and I am today, nearly 30 years after the death of Joseph Smith. Carl Wierstrass published developed the first models of fractals drawing upon Leibniz’s cell similar geometry. The field of fractals progressed, creating, or perhaps discovering, increasingly intricate, complex, and strikingly beautiful shapes and patterns. And it hasn’t been until the computer revolution that these fractals have been able to be visualized in a way that exposes their infinite complexity and potential. This work was pioneered by Benoit Mandelbrot with his famously discovered Mandelbrot set. And that’s the fractal equation behind it. We’ll talk more about that later.

Caleb Jones

Mormonism’s ontology and views on salvation are amplified, I believe, by the semantics offered by fractals. Beyond the symbol of an eternal circle, the lineage and destiny of mankind and godhood can be understood as a fractal progression. And given the limited time for this presentation, I’ll just look at four of these.

Caleb Jones

First is self-similarity: that a shape, the fractal shape, contains repeating elements and patterns, but can also have infinite variety. It’s everywhere continuous. Um you following the limit of of fractal functions, shapes drawn by fractals are usually continuous everywhere. Oddly enough, not differentiable. And simple iterative recursive functions, equations which describe fractals are self-referential and surprisingly simple. And then while not a mathematical attribute, I think it’s important to talk about aesthetics, that the endless and infinitely diverse aesthetic quality of fractals is one of its most striking features.

Caleb Jones

Before I go into each one of those, I want to point out that Mormonism wouldn’t be the first, at least the first to express a tinge of spirituality with regard specifically to fractals. Michael Barnsley, who pioneered fractal compression algorithms, expressed this sentiment. Fractals are how God created a system which gave us free will. It is the most brilliant maneuver in the universe to create something in which everything is free. Now I don’t know how philosophically careful he’s being with each of those words, but I believe he’s expressing this sentiment, which is an important thing, this aesthetic behind this.

Caleb Jones

Arthur C. Clarke, talking about the psychologist Carl Jung, mused on whether fractals might point to something more fundamental to our consciousness and psyche. He said, quote, Carl Jung would have been surprised and delighted to know that the computer revolution would give impetus to his theory of collective unconscious. The mind clearly finds resonances in the Mandelbrot set. Fractal math offers new insights into the way the universe works.

Caleb Jones

So the first attribute here, self-similarity. Mormonism declares God is a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s. And God Himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. From Joseph Smith. Mormonism shares the broader Christian sentiment of man being made in the image of God, but goes further in pointing out how God contains the image of man, a very transhumanist ideal. The Mormon temple experience underscores how the nature and purpose of this life is an eternal pattern which has been applied before, perhaps infinitely so.

Caleb Jones

And Mormonism’s doctrine of exaltation arcs back towards this kind of mortal existence with the exalted Instituting laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like themselves, acting as gods in the goal of further exalting infinitely more coexistent spirits.

Caleb Jones

This infinite variation appears in Mormon scriptural language. In the book of Moses from the Pearl of Great Price, God explains the limited scope of Mormon scripture in relation to the infinities of his creations. It says, quote, Worlds without number have I created, but only on account of this earth and the inhabitants thereof give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds which have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many worlds that stand, and innumerable are they unto man but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them.

Caleb Jones

This strikingly non anthropocentric perspective dethrones mankind from notions of being the apex of Existence, that while the filial relationship, co-eternality, and continuum potential between man and God strenuously orients God and His love towards us. Mankind is not an end, but another iteration or generation in this eternal fractal. God sees His own past as well as His future in us, not dissimilar from the relationship a parent has with their children. And our created environment, and indeed the environments we in turn create, are a variation on this eternal pattern, which has played out and will play out with infinite variation through times and creations.

Caleb Jones

An interesting note here is that fractals are naturally occurring phenomenon. Mandelbrot expands on this in his book, The Fractal Geometry of Nature. And fractals have since become useful tools in our increasingly realistic simulated environments, understanding symmetries and genomes, improvements in telecommunications, and even computing with fractal Merkle trees.

Caleb Jones

Recent ideas about consciousness have turned towards self-referential definitions, leading Douglas Hofstetter to note in his book, I’m a Strange Loop, that in the end, we are self-perceiving. self-inventing locked in mirages that are little miracles of self-reference. Now he’s not Mormon, and that deviates somewhat from the Mormon attitude, but it does contain that notion of coeternality and self-reference between man and God.

Caleb Jones

This universality of fractals both in our real and simulated environments has strong implication for the simulation hypothesis. And the amplification of Mormon cosmological and ontological beliefs by fractal symbolism creates a fascinating intersection between creation, simulation, consciousness, and God.

Caleb Jones

So everywhere continuous. Mormonism defines eternal progress as line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. This echoes the principle of natural non-facet saltis, which was used by Leibniz and Newton as they each invented calculus. That is that progress or change in nature and systems is usually made by small, almost imperceptible Changes. This sentiment is also expressed elsewhere in Mormon scripture: by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. And Joseph Smith taught, you have got to learn to be gods yourselves by going from one small degree to another, from a small capacity to a great one.

Caleb Jones

From a transhumanist or futurist perspective, Mormonism is capable of projecting through models like Kardashev’s scales or Ray Kurzweil’s Epochs of Evolution. It would be interesting. Could you meet a Mormon from one of these other type of civilizations? As we go from a small capacity to a great one, we can trust in our potential to progress into post-humanity and beyond.

Caleb Jones

John A. Witzow, a Mormon apostle, described the role of evolution plays in this process. He said, Under the law of evolution, man’s organization will become more and more complex. That is, he will increase in his power of using intelligence until in time he will develop so far that in comparison with his present state he will be a god. That’s the old school Mormonism there. That even God, mic drop right now, that even God became God through this process of continuous progress and change. I absolutely love John A. Woodsow. And the New God argument outlines some of the profound theological and philosophical transhumanist implications of this kind of post-human progress.

Caleb Jones

Simple iterative recursive functions. I’m doing all right on time. One of the amazing aspects of fractals is that their infinite diversity and complexity are expressed as remarkably finite and simple equations. Mormonism strongly infers that God is not only the author of laws, but governs himself according to eternal law. All kingdoms have a law given, and there are many kingdoms, for there is no space in which there is no kingdom, and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or lesser kingdom. Perhaps this fractal of Godhood is expressed by some finite set of self-referential laws, out of which emerges infinite and recursive variety of mind and creation.

Caleb Jones

This fractal paradigm can be seen here in this visualization I put together a while back about the new God argument. And with benevolence and post-humanity leading to further created environments. which leads to further created the emergence of beings and humanity, which likewise is able to evolve to post-humanity, with those red destructive off-ramps and risks at each phase.

Caleb Jones

Mormonism’s fundamental laws anchor to a process of faith, repentance, baptism baptism, or I say ritual here, and revelation, all in a framework of moral agency and charity centered on faith. Christ. This creates very awe-inspired attitudes towards what it is exactly that God is accomplishing with us by introducing us to these eternal laws. that breathes new life into Scripture and the title Law Giver. Did he invent these laws? Or was it through his imbibing these laws that he became a God? Mormonism strongly leans towards the latter, with John A. Witsow stating, quote, the great laws of nature are immutable, and even God cannot transcend them, end quote. And it shines light on how the pattern plays out in the iterative generations of our families and genealogies.

Caleb Jones

This all comes back to the man-God continuum previously explained. From a fractal perspective, here we are in this environment that’s on an edge of some infinitely small arc in some larger curve, which is on a leg that juts out from a larger arc, ad infinitum, the structures, patterns, and contours are familiar and have been playing out over infinite eternities. and iterations. God sees in us the ability to continue the growth of this divine fractal onwards forever, bringing with us the unique and coeternal diversity and identity only we possess. Remember, not invented, discovered. We stand between infinities, and God is fully invested in our exploring the continuation of the fractal pattern, which has brought him to where he is. And he lovingly guides us to escape the dark, destructive, void and terminous edges of that fractal we would wander into if left to our own devices, even when that guidance requires significant sacrifice. On his part.

Caleb Jones

Finally, aesthetic quality. Fractal aesthetics And theological aesthetics have an interesting intersection here. I’m going back to Arthur C. Clarke again here. He made this observation: why do these strange patterns have such an appeal? Indeed, the mandelbrot set does seem to contain an enormous amount of mandalas or symbols, and an ecclesiastical design, such as stained glass windows, particularly in Islamic art. You can find many echoes of the Mandelbrot set centuries before it was discovered.

Caleb Jones

The Mormon temple ritual and aesthetic has profound infinite self-referential qualities. Ritual in general is cyclic and self-referential, and as the participant performs and reperforms the ritual, new interpretations and patterns and symbols continuously unfold. Layering on top of this, the Mormon temple aesthetic folds this ritual back onto the self-referential expression of genealogies. This allows the power of the symbolism and ritual to resonate and echo across generations of mankind, both forward and backward in time. This creates a kind of universal, familial, exalting mandala.

Caleb Jones

Mormon cosmology, ontology, and symbolism provide a rich foundation where diversity and discipleship can be infinite in variety within the domain of the gospel. Elder Uchdorf recently explained this principle. While the atonement is meant to help us all become more like Christ, it is not meant to make us all the same. Sometimes we confuse differences in personality with sin. This line of thinking leads some to believe that everyone should look, feel, think, and behave like every other. This would contradict the genius of God. I can continue with the quote here.

Caleb Jones

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are united in our testimony of the restored gospel and our commitment to keep God’s commandments. but we are diverse in our cultural, social, and political preferences. The Church thrives when we take advantage of diversity. While things like unity and testimony and commitment to keep God’s commandments are likely a core part of what might be a Mormon fractal expression, Moral agency and individual spiritual identity are what allow the flourishing of infinite variety that gives Mormonism its aesthetic quality.

Caleb Jones

Freeman Dyson, in his book Infinite in All Directions, puts it this way: Diversity for me is the chief source of beauty and value in the natural universe around us, in the governance of human societies, in the depths of our individual souls. the profusion of stars and galaxies in our skies, the profusion of bugs and beetles in our garden, and the profusion of human genius in our arts and sciences all proclaim that God loves diversity.

Caleb Jones

Just to wrap up here, I’m almost out of time. I’ll just get down a little bit here. The language of Mormonism itself is rich with fractal symbolism, that man-God continuum, co-eternal ontology and identity, line upon line, generations of God, infinite variety. Transgenerational salvation, rich repeating temple symbolism and ritual, many degrees of salvation, etc. Mormonism fits nicely inside this framework.

Caleb Jones

Or excuse me, transhumanism fits nicely inside this framework that seeks to bridge human and post-human realities, often by leveraging feedback loops between us, our tools, our environment, and our creations. And Mormon has built into its foundations the idea of continuous revelation, that additional modalities, laws, truths, and symbols to understand, recontextualize, and express our faith. can be expected and even celebrated. And as the symbols in Mormonism’s founding are reflected upon in relation to the truths they signify, I believe the additional focus and resolution that a symbolic framework like fractal geometry provides can serve to greater amplify those founding messages of Joseph Smith and those truths. Thank you.