Introduction of the forum founder Michael "Radivis" Hrenka

Hello there, I am Michael “Radivis” Hrenka. Over the course of time I have used a few different labels for myself to give others a truthful impression of what I aspire to be:

  • A thinker
  • A philosopher
  • A utilitarian
  • A transhumanist
  • A constructive philosophical futurist
  • An exaltation injector

My basic goals can be generally derived from three directives:

  1. My main goal is to feel supergood sustainably.
  2. Because I deem the difference between me and other sentient beings as
    fundamentally insignificant, my actual goal is to enable the state of
    feeling supergood sustainably to all sentient beings. (yes, this is a
    version of the bodhisattva ideal.)
  3. Taking on these goals effectively is only possible by having a great impact on
    the world. For this purpose, I try to become the best version of myself
    that is actually capable of facilitating significant positive change
    for all.

Why? What has driven me to choose these directives? It was deep personal suffering! I started suffering from a moderate form of ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) at about the age of 8. That is a badly understood multi-system disease mainly affecting the nervous system, the immune system, and cellular energy production. It diminished my energy level severely. In order to cope with that massively reduced energy level, I had to
compensate by thinking deeply about what and how I do. This has made me a deep practical and theoretical thinker. And it quickly turned me into a passionate philosopher.

My disease coloured my perception of life and the world in deeply dark colours. It amplified my perception of problems and injustices in the world. This has created a deeply seated desire to change the world to the better. And this desire hasn’t ceased to guide me. What has changed is that I have become better at understanding the world and arriving at better ideas about how to change it – and what it actually means for it to become “better”.

Now, I am in the process of recovering from ME/CFS (which requires a huge amount of personal knowledge, effort, and determination), or at least learning how to manage it effectively, so that I only suffer from minor symptoms. This disease had been an unimaginably frustrating obstacle in my journey to have a positive impact on the world around me (or even my own life). But at least, dealing with it has strengthened and improved my character so far that I can face even the most soul-crushing problems and obstructions with near equanimity.

In the course of learning about the possibilities that future technologies will enable, I realized the vast potential that they actually offer. Few people can guess the full extent of the changes that expected technologies such as atomically precise manufacturing and artificial general intelligence can trigger in our world. Futurists, transhumanists, and technoprogressives (myself included) may have a much better picture than others, but even they don’t understand most of the deep implications that may come with these technologies. That’s essentially because these implications are an endless field of possibilities and represent a whole multiverse that can be explored theoretically. Predicting future scenarios with deeply and strongly interrelated changes, which trigger even more highly unpredictable and interconnected changes is virtually impossible. But at least one can try to arrive at better and better pictures of what might be realistically possible. Whether you like it or not, it is inescapable to entertain these mental exercises of expecting intuitively outlandish future scenarios if one wants to even set meaningful long-term goals!

These lines of thinking, among other lines, have led me to my three directives. They also made me think about possible visions and solutions.

My most recent and relevant vision is that of The Universal Upgrade. It’s a historical process – enabled by extremely highly developed technology – with the potential to change almost everything about our environment and even ourselves. Please check out my Introduction to The Universal Upgrade on my blog.

Probably the most relevant solution that I’ve come up with, is the reputation economy system that I call Quantified Prestige. Its main purpose it to enable a change in the economic paradigm that enables us to take full use of a Zero Marginal Cost Society. Ideally, it should provide superior economic and social incentives and let everyone profit from greatly developed collaborative commons. If you are interested in this idea, please check out the documentation of Quantified Prestige.

Because I felt that the current communication platforms for technoprogressives, or social futurists, or even just future conscious people interested in living in a decent world, were not really optimal for productive
discussions, I have created this forum on my private web space. You can learn more about my motivations for this decision in my first blog post about the Social Future Forum.

Occasionally, I might use this forum to share some of my half-baked ideas and thoughts. Please feel free to do the same. Together we can develop ourselves, our idea, and our projects faster and better – and have more fun in the process.

I could certainly write more about myself, my ideas, my affiliations, my visions, and whatnot. But this is an introduction post, so I’ll end here. If you have questions, just ask.

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