Apparently we were meant to push the material paradigm to its logical limits, at which point we begin to see through to the other side. Thus when we push physics to the limit, we begin to see quantum cosmology and anthropics. When we push electronics to the limit we get cyberspace. These new vistas start us on the road back to immaterialism from whence we came.

Bioengineering provides the prospect of the eighth day of creation - our brave new world. In general, though, technology makes us more interdependent which is a prerequisite for spiritual reconnection and reintegration. Certainly in the abduction phenomenon the metaphor of hybridization is very common, although there seems to be little contact with the realities of genetic engineering. Are our new spiritual bodies residing in a test-tube somewhere? Shouldn't this be an oxymoron?

One can easily discern metaphysics in the quantum, but it is much harder to see it in a test-tube. This takes us back to the days of alchemy, perhaps. The leap from a material to a spiritual body is perhaps too traumatic for us to take as a civilization and so we must proceed through the much more laborious process of bioengineering. No free passage to paradise, but this may be an improvement on the apocalypse.

We must also ask if there are to be interdisciplinary efforts that will combine biotech with cyberspace and holistic health into a new paradigm. Will biotech just become a residue of the material paradigm or does it contain the seeds of its own transformation? Is there a quantum body in our future? Will the batteries be included? More thought is in order.

����.

[I left out neuroscience because my original motivation was to consider the conflicts between metaphysics and commerce, and neuroscience is not yet on the commercial radar screen, thank goodness. What follows is just a comment.]

Neuroscience and AI are two other mechanistic paradigms, which, by pushing them to their limit, will help us to more clearly discern the advantages of immaterialism. Quantum computing may temporarily muddy these waters, but that too shall pass -- pass over into a purely immaterial science.

.

rev. 5/29/98