From: jimruttshow8596
The concept of a “religion that is not a religion” faces significant questions regarding its scalability across diverse social strata and developmental stages [01:46:50]. Specifically, concerns have been raised about its universal appeal to individuals from varying socioeconomic backgrounds and intellectual capacities [01:46:58].
Addressing Early Criticisms on Scaling
Initial criticisms, notably from Paul Vander Klay and Jonathan Pageau, questioned how such a concept could scale beyond a highly intellectual audience [01:47:23], which could potentially fit in a single football stadium globally [01:47:15]. This concern prompted a shift from an individualistic model to focusing on collective intelligence and distributed cognition [01:48:48].
The Role of Collective Intelligence and Dialogical Practices
The “dia-logos” project was initiated to explore emerging ecologies of practices and rituals that bring collective intelligence into conscious awareness [01:49:11]. Practices like communal singing are seen as ways to foster a sense of “we space” that transcends the sum of individuals [01:48:19]. This “we space” can serve as a normative touchstone for individual practices [01:48:06]. Workshops help onboard people into these dialogical practices [01:48:42].
Historical Precedents for Broad Appeal
Historically, philosophical movements have demonstrated broad appeal. Stoicism, for example, originated as a “heady philosophy” embraced by Roman elites but also influenced Roman soldiers who carried Epictetus’s manual into war [01:49:24]. This suggests that complex philosophical ideas can be presented in accessible ways [01:49:51].
Pedagogical Programs and Diverse Access Points
To achieve wider scalability, various access points and pedagogical programs are being explored:
- Video games: Efforts are underway to create video games that draw young people into the “love of wisdom” and self-knowledge [01:50:08].
- Educational curricula: Ideas are being developed to integrate these concepts into programs like the International Baccalaureate [01:50:19].
- Folk High School System: Collaboration with folk high schools in Nordic countries and North America aims to create sequential learning experiences, both virtual and physical [01:50:31].
- Practical applications: Individuals and groups are crafting ecologies of practices into concrete activities like parkour, rock climbing, and martial arts [01:51:01].
This layered approach aims for a pedagogical continuity, allowing different age groups and intellectual levels to engage with the core principles, similar to how traditional Christianity offered varying levels of understanding from Sunday school to theological scholarship [01:52:22].
Design Principles for Scalability
Scaling this “religion that is not a religion” involves fundamental design principles that shift from traditional approaches [01:53:56].
Moving Beyond Propositional Content
A key error of past approaches, including Axial Age religions, was the over-reliance on the dissemination of propositional knowledge [01:54:49]. This method, while replicable, becomes diluted and disconnected from lived experience, often being outcompeted by science in its own domain [01:55:32]. The focus needs to be on propagating something not propositional [01:55:50].
Engineering for Exponential Returns and Holographic Distribution
The design of this new cultural framework should intentionally incorporate principles of increasing returns to scale, similar to Metcalfe’s Law [01:52:49]. The goal is to create a culture designed to maximize these network effects, aiming for minimal turbulence as growth accelerates [01:56:29].
Instead of a “photographic” (centralized, content-based) approach, the model emphasizes a “holographic” (distributed, context-based) structure [01:53:15]. This means:
- Decentralization: Rejecting centralized control, which tends to produce undesirable outcomes [02:01:04].
- Empowered individuals: Fostering individuals who are sovereign in themselves and choose to engage for intrinsic reasons [02:01:16].
- Meaningful relationships: Focusing on supporting people’s capacity to create meaningful relationships, especially with those they are most likely to bond with (e.g., family, close friends) [01:58:24]. These strong relational lines are the foundation for a culture that can handle rapid Metcalfe’s Law scaling [01:59:15].
- Distributed learning: Creating an environment where individuals share their learnings, wisdom, and solutions to problems in a peer-produced and distributed fashion [02:01:53], leveraging modern technology layers for censorship-resistant and capture-impervious propagation [02:02:00].
This distributed, relationship-centric model creates a self-propagating system where individuals are incentivized to share what they’ve learned because it enhances the quality of their most cherished connections [02:04:39].
Propitious Conditions for Uptake
The current global “meta-crisis” [01:59:57] creates a unique opportunity for this new approach [02:03:08]. The secular world, despite its technological advancements, has failed to provide fulfillment and meaningfully address core human needs beyond basic survival [02:03:17]. The breakdown of old institutions and the obvious shortcomings of modern society drive a search for alternatives [02:03:44]. If the proposed system can genuinely offer solutions to the most challenging aspects of life, it will gain the necessary momentum for uptake and achieve a hyper-combinatorial feedback loop for growth [02:04:02].
The ultimate goal is to present “beautiful ways of life” that draw people in and encourage them to pursue wisdom and live more meaningful, rich, and full lives [02:05:46].