I Finally Figure out What I Want to Be When I Grow Up: An Eschatologist
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Eschatology- is a part of theology concerned with the final events of history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity. This concept is commonly referred to as the "end of the world" or "end times".
It should go without saying that it’s difficult to get noticed on the Internet. Sure, occasionally the Eye of Sauron falls on some hapless individual like Justine Sacco (the young lady who made an ill-considered tweet about AIDS just before departing on an 11 hour flight to South Africa) who ends up with far more negative attention than they ever wanted. But I’m talking about attracting the kind of attention people actually want. Doing that is enormously difficult, and involves a large amount of luck.
That aside, there are things that can be done to increase one’s chances. Long lists of activities designed to attract new people to your material while also retaining the audience you already have. If one were to examine one of these lists, you would find that I do almost none of those things (though I have recently started being active on Twitter). Mostly because they all involve some degree of self-promotion, which generally makes my skin crawl. Though out of all the ways that people promote themselves, there’s one in particular that I find especially annoying. What is this singularly annoying example of self-promotion you ask? To answer that we have to journey back into the beginnings of this blog.
When I was first thinking of creating a blog, my primary goal was to write about the connection between LDS theology, AI Risk and Fermi’s Paradox (topics I have continued to cover). And when I told people about these topics, several of them pointed me in the direction of the Mormon Transhumanist Association (MTA). (It’s been awhile. I bet they thought I forgot about them.) As I investigated the MTA I started noticing a pattern, nearly everyone involved was a self-proclaimed “philosopher”. (I could link to some examples, but it’s not my intention to single out anyone.) This seemed insufferably pretentious, almost a distillation of all the things I find so annoying about self promotion. “Hi I’m <Insert name>. I’ve noticed a (largely unsupported) connection between Mormon Doctrine and Transhumanism. And I can spare the $11 a month necessary for a Bluehost account, this makes me a ‘philosopher’ (you should be imagining Aristotle or Kant at this point) who’s going to unveil the secrets of the future to you.”
Of course, admittedly, it’s also possible I was jealous. They were certainly getting more attention than I was. Also, I would like to be considered a philosopher as well, though, unlike them, I’m far too neurotic to ever think I deserve it. (See: distaste of self promotion.) On top of that, it feels like the sort of thing you have to earn, and if I didn’t feel they had earned it then certainly I hadn’t either.
Beyond my reluctance to do anything resembling self promotion, another thing on the list I refused to do was to pick something to really focus on. Long time readers may have heard me declare several times that I write only for me. This is still true and the only way to write anything good, but it’s also a false dichotomy. Which is to say being passionate about the things I write doesn’t preclude having a focus. And as I said having a tighter focus was another thing that various people who wished me success (or at least claimed to) advised me to do repeatedly. That while what I write is interesting (these are their words not mine), it’s too scattered to attract a dedicated audience.
I mention all of the foregoing because the time has finally come to do both of these things. I’ve decided on a focus and that focus comes with a new occupation. That occupation is not “philosopher”. Which still strikes me as both arrogant and nebulous, no, the occupation I’ve decided to pursue is eschatologist. Yep, after nearly five decades I’ve finally decided what I want to be when I grow up. Also, I think most of the time I’m going to preface it with the word “aspiring”. And then, of course, there’s this entire post offering a long winded back story, leavened with numerous caveats, in case anyone feels I’m being too prideful. Though, there is the slim possibility that I’m erring too much the other way. That I’m being too self-effacing, I have written an awful lot on the subject.
At this point some of you may be screaming, “What subject?!? I don’t actually know what the word “eschatologist” means!” Ahh, yes that’s probably important. An eschatologist is someone who studies eschatology. But you probably already guessed that, and what you’re really interested in is the definition of eschatology. From Wikipedia:
Eschatology is a part of theology concerned with the final events of history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity. This concept is commonly referred to as the "end of the world" or "end times".
In the past eschatology has been almost exclusively a religious term, but as people are starting to realize that there are a lot of ways for the world to end that would have nothing to do with religion, the study of eschatology (even if it’s not labeled as such) has vastly expanded. Now you have things like the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at Cambridge, and books like Our Final Hour and Global Catastrophic Risks, and figures like Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Ćirković (both of whom I quite admire and have mentioned frequently in this space.) Also, despite this modern expansion, I still think religion should be part of the discussion, and as you may have noticed it’s not something I shy away from.
So, I’ve decided on a focus, does this mean there’s going to be a radical shift in the kinds of subjects I cover going forward? Probably not. I don’t think this decision is going to have all that noticeable of an impact. In fact, if I were to say that this blog has always been about eschatology, I don’t think there would be all that much in what I’ve already written to contradict me. Still, I am hoping for additional clarity, a straighter path going forward, and tighter writing in general. Also, as I announced last week, I’m going to spend 2020 focused on writing a book, and this clarification will definitely drive that endeavor as well.
Part of the reason that not much will change, is that I intend to broaden the definition of eschatology both horizontally (to include secular concerns) and vertically (to include not merely the end of the world, but the end of the nation, and beyond that everything which might contribute to either of the foregoing even if that contribution is small.) In other words, this change in focus may seem like a small thing from the perspective of my audience, but I’m hoping that it’s a small thing that compounds, and that five or ten or even twenty years from now a slightly tighter focus will allow me to make a significantly larger impact. Because, while I don’t take the title particularly seriously, I do take the potential threats very seriously, and there are a lot of them. I expect that I’m too worried about most of them, and I hope I’m too worried about all of them, but I doubt it. There are just too many ways for things to go wrong, and only a handful of ways for things to go right.
A final request: I do genuinely want to be as educated and as thoughtful about the study of eschatology (in the very broad sense I’m using the term) as possible. So if you have books you think I should read or education you think I should acquire (I have considered going back to college, but I’m not sure in what) then please pass those suggestions along.
Meanwhile, the jeremiads will continue to flow and I’ll keep sounding the warning about Babylon, whatever form Babylon takes.
This post invites, nay begs people to dismissively respond to everything I write with, “Ok, Doomer” and you have my permission to do so. However, if you’d like to respond more substantially there’s always the comments, also there’s one other thing…. What was it… Oh yeah, donations.