Phaidrism

Overview

Phaidrism is a major set of religious beliefs common to space-faring crews, and proposes that a set of extra-physical dimensions, known as radiant dimensions, house logical consequences, complex abstract concepts, and perhaps the soul. Adherents tend to focus on internal reflection, self-awareness and self-care.

Emergent Forms

Plato suggested a theory of forms whereby different instances of similar or identical objects were metaphysically linked through a realm of Forms, where the Form was the ultimate abstract concept of an object and physical onjects of that type were instantiations of that Form. This theory proposed that Forms had primacy and that the physical realm was in some manner secondary.

Physicalists reject Plato's metaphysical model, proposing that only local instantiations of concepts exist, and that multiplesimilar or identical iterations of a concept are because of commonality or genealogy rather than metaphysical linkage. For example, that multiple persons can conceive of the number two is not because of an Ideal concept of the number 2 that they are in some manner accessing, but because either (a) 2 is a logical consequence of common circumstances (e.g. the utility of counting), or (b) the idea is transmitted from person to person, so that both instantiations of 2 are from a genealogical connection. Often physicalists suggest both - the logical meaning of 2 arises from common circumstances, while the particular denotation as '2' is a genealogical (learnt) connection. Physicalists sometimes cite people committing mathematical errors as strong evidence against Platonism, noting that if it were about accessing ideal forms then a mathematical mistake would require an incorrect access of the Form, suggesting a (mistaken) local conceptualisation that is somewhat independent of the realm of Forms. If such a local conceptualisation exists at all, then the realm of Forms is an unnecessary postulation, and one without significant causal power (which they suggest would automatically and ideally correct the mistake).

Phaidrists propose that a type of ideal form does exist, but that it is emergent - it exists, it does not precede the physical realm, and it is distinct from it. Consider how to count to a googolplex using the natural numbers, suggests Phaidrists - a physically impossible task to complete step-by-step, but one which a mathematician can logically accomplish. That is, a mathematician may not physically be able to state every number between 0 and a googolplex, but they can state any number as well as identify its place in the counting sequence, and they can do this without having to have counted to that place in the sequence to "instantiate the sequence" in a manner that physicalists might argue for. For Phaidrists, this implies the existence of a set of numbers from 0 to googol (and beyond) that do not exist in space (as if the mathematician could pluck them from an existing sequence located in space - and for a large enough set of numbers most numbers would be physically impossible to reach) and do not exist in time (as the mathematician cannot physically count to them), but must exist in some other dimension that is neither space nor time.

This other dimension, called a radiant dimension (as the logical consequences radiate out from the physical substrate), comes into being whenever logical necessicity or strict logical implication arises. For example, if a person learns to count, the logical implication of counting using the natural numbers is that they could progress forever, and thus an infinite radiant dimension arises that contains the sequence of natural numbers. Phaidrists state that these radiant dimensions are relatively or completely independent - two different counters will have two different radiant dimensions for the natural numbers. They also claim that the integrity of the dimension is dictated by the rigidity of the "base" in the physical realm - thus a person with a poor grasp of counting will have a radiant dimension that exhibits decay the further it progresses from the source (so that their ability to identify larger numbers is limited in accuracy) or granularity (so that the logical outcomes are fuzzy and probabilistic).

Some Phaidrists limit radiant dimensions to logical implications especially arising from conscious and abstract thought - and therefore generally limited to humans (and any unidentified alien intelligences), while others propose that any computing system - that is, any interacting logic gates, from technological computers to electron interactions - will produce some level of radiance.

Some theorists propose that radiance is similar in nature to the boundary of time, where space and time lose classical meaning.

Transcendence

While the example radiant dimensions of infinite natural numbers is conceptually quite simple, phaidrists propose that complex abstract thinking produces complex radiant spaces that at least match the substrate in complexity, and may exceed it. In fact, these complex radiant spaces may be able to house types of conceptualisation and thinking that physical substrates cannot, meaning that higher level thinking can only occur in radiant spaces. This concept is known as transcendence, and proposes a new radiant substrate for consciousness that does not exist in physical space.

Phaidrists also propose that transcendence implies that radiant spaces can have causal impact on physical spaces - that is, that causality is not restricted to physical space having a causal impact on radiant space (such as its production and possibility bounds), but also that radiant space can have a causal impact on physical space, so that consideration of abstract ideas can lead to behaviour that otherwise could not have occurred. Phaidrists point to the development of language and symbolic communication, complex theory and design, creative imagination, and the ability of human to conceive of counter-intuitive concepts such as the imaginary unit, as evidence of radiant causality.

For some phaidrists, transcendence implies that the radiant space, once developed from the physical substrate, becomes independent of it, so that while input from physical spaces informs the arrangement of the radiant space, the disappearance or destruction of the physical space will not necessarily imply the destruction or disorganisation of the radiant space. This is a heavily debated topic. Some argue that the destruction of the substrate will inevitably and necessarily impact the radiant space and thus reduce its complexity, while others argue that because only logical implication has causal impact on the radiant space, a reduction in physical complexity might "disconnect" the spaces, but will not cause the radiant space to be modelled after the physical space. Thus, the latter argue that consciousness, as a phenomenon that over time largely migrates to the radiant space through transcendence, can survive physical destruction.

Practices

Adherents of phaidrism primarily attempt to develop their radiance. This involves the four practices of radiance: (a) meditative introspection, to understand the geography of their radiance, (b) meditative contemplation, involving review of logical implications and the consideration of complex dilemmas, including logical and moral dilemmas, to develop the foundation of radiance, (c) meditative speculation, including the creation of art and fiction, as well as research and logical speculation, to help give primary to and expand the radiance itself, and (d) meditative disassociation, where the practitioner focuses on being centred in radiance rather than physical space, to ensure the primacy of the radiance over the physical, and to help ensure continuity even given the destruction of the physical.

Meditation that moves one's focus purely to the radiance is known as sublimation, or achieving the sublime. The sublime is a focus on purely mental awareness with no physical awareness, or on peripheral physical awareness (that is, as a type of input to the radiance rather than a direct physical awareness itself). The sublime involves no sense of time or space, but only reason.

Mythological figures

While phaidrism doesn't have any significant historical figures, there are postulations regarding complex radiant forms from the early universe, as well as a series of figures in literature that are associated with them, and together these make up the corpus of mythological figures, used primarily as rhetorical and symbolic devices rather than as literal persons.

Some phaidrists propose that early-universe Boltzman brains would have embodied the new physical laws that were stabilising, and that radiant spaces could have emerged from these brief conscious thoughts. Others postulate that the development of such physical laws would have been a sufficiently novel computation to create a radiant space focused on those laws themselves, generating a radiant exploration of abstract concepts and logical consequences associated with such laws. If these complex radiant spaces modelled conscious thinking in any manner, then they would represent powerful categorical figures that could influence the physical dimensions.

Phaidrist author Metila Kerklan used these ideas when writing The Heretical Dialogues, a set of philosophical dialogues that espouse and explore phaidrist principles and pose many of the most famous (and potentially unsolvable) phaidrist contemplations. The interlocutors of the dialogues are metaphysical beings from the early universe watching over the human species, modelled and named, according to Kerklan, after

chilling characters that I saw in dreams, ones who haunted me the next night and the next, and whose thoughts gave me unwanted sight of the world each day. I sought to exorcise them by giving them shapes and voices and letting their thoughts resound throughout the world, but it did not work.

Claims have been made that Kerklan was working on a second series of dialogues before her death while holidaying at the Blue Cliffs of Staumwin Bea.