Omega Point
Description
1.
Omega point is a term invented by French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe the ultimate maximum level of complexity-consciousness, considered by him the aim towards which consciousness evolves. Rather than divinity being found "in the heavens" he held that evolution was a process converging toward a "final unity", identical with the Eschaton (theology and with God. According to Chardin and the Russian scholar and biologist Vladimir Vernadsky (author of The Geosphere 1924 and The Biosphere 1926), the planet is in a transformative process, metamorphosing from the biosphere into the Noosphere. (excerpted from the Wikipedia).
De Chardin's ideas, like the Noosphere and the Omega point, certainly influenced a lot the more mystical crew of cyberculture. It's easy to see in noosphere the prefiguration of the Web, and in the "omega point" the idea of the Net becoming a god-like sentient, an idea already present in William Gibson's trilogy. This "digital chardinism" is certainly one of the motors of the "free" ideology. One may find De Chardin's influence on people like John Perry barlow, for instance, who said: ""Teilhard's work is about creating a consciousness so profound it will make good company for God itself."
Now, de Chardin "omega point" was restricted to earth. Currently, some transhumanists thinkers like Frank Tipler name "omega point" a state of superintelligence existing at the end of the universe.
2. From the Wikipedia:
"The Omega Point is a supposed future when everything in the universe spirals toward a final point of unification. The term was invented by the French Jesuit Catholic priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955).[2] Teilhard argued that the Omega Point resembles the Christian Logos, namely Christ, who draws all things into himself, who in the words of the Nicene Creed, is "God from God", "Light from Light", "True God from true God", and "through him all things were made".[3] In the Book of Revelation, Christ describes himself thrice as "the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end". The idea of the Omega Point is developed in later writings, such as those of John David Garcia (1971), Paolo Soleri (1981), Frank Tipler (1994), and David Deutsch (1997).
...
According to Teilhard, evolution does not end with mankind and Earth's biosphere evolved before humans existed. He described evolution as a progression that begins with inanimate matter to a future state of Divine consciousness through Earth's "hominization".[9] He also maintained that one-cell organisms develop into metazoans or animals, but some of the members of this classification develop organisms with complex nervous systems. This group has the capability to acquire intelligence. When Homo sapiens inhabited Earth through evolution, a noosphere, the cognitive layer of existence, was created. As evolution continues, the noosphere gains coherence. Teilhard explained that this noosphere can be moved toward or constructed to be the Omega Point or the final evolutionary stage with the help of science.[10] Teilhard refers to this process as "planetization". Eventually, the noosphere gains total dominance over the biosphere and reaches a point of complete independence from tangential energy forming a metaphysical being, coined the Omega Point."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Point)
Etymology
From the Wikipedia:
"Teilhard de Chardin was a paleontologist and Roman Catholic priest in the Jesuit order. In France in the 1920s, he began incorporating his theories of the universe into lectures that placed Catholicism and evolution in the same conversation. Because of these lectures, he was suspected by the Holy Office of denying the doctrine of original sin. This caused Teilhard to be exiled to China and banned from publication by Church authorities.[7] It was not until one year after his death in 1955 that his writings were published for the world to read. His works were also supported by the writings of a group of Catholic thinkers, which includes Pope Benedict XVI.[7] His book, The Phenomenon of Man, has been dissected by astrophysicists and cosmologists to be a theological or philosophical theory that cannot be scientifically proven. Teilhard, who was not a cosmologist, opens his books with the statement:
... "if this book is to be properly understood, it must be read not as a work on metaphysics, still less as a sort of theological essay, but purely and simply as a scientific treatise".