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Chapter 7. Utilitarianism and "Men Like Gods": The Ethics of the Future

7.1. Ethics Without a Overseer: Farewell to the Morality of Fear

In the economic system, integrity rested on two crutches: the fear of the law (prison) and the fear of poverty. Humans were forced to "be good" at the barrel of a financial gun. Yet, as soon as "officials" found a way to bypass the rules, morality instantly crumbled. As Andrei Domrachev noted in Noocracy, this was the ethics of slaves, not creators. The Noosphere introduces the Ethics of Resonance:

  • The Internal Compass: In a world where the Base Level (Status 1–10) is guaranteed forever, you no longer need to steal to survive. The only scarcity is Respect and Status (UC). These cannot be faked, as System Control (SC) sees the real results of your actions.
  • The Profit of Being Human: We are moving from "thou shalt not steal" to "create, because it is your path to greatness." Being an egoist in the Noosphere is a mathematical error. An egoist hoards resources, reducing the network's efficiency, and their UC immediately begins to melt. This is the dawn of H.G. Wells' concept of "Men Like Gods": a God is not one who punishes, but one who creates.

7.2. Rational Utilitarianism: Happiness as a Calculation

The old understanding of Mill's utilitarianism boiled down to the phrase: "The greatest good for the greatest number of people," which often turned into a justification for sacrifice. The Noosphere proposes Developmental Utilitarianism.

  • The Formula of the Common Good: The SC calculates every action along the vector of entropy reduction. If your decision helps millions raise their UC, your personal success becomes colossal. In this system, your interests and the interests of humanity coincide 100%.
  • The Value of Every "Cell": The happiness of the majority is impossible if the minority suffers. Every "Bad" (-) signal from an individual is a sign of a glitch in the system's calculations. The Noosphere strives for homeostasis, where every mind finds its point of realization.
  • Rational Priority: If the scales hold a "palace for one" versus "clean water for a region," the SC chooses the region. This is not leveling; it is the rewarding of the best: it is profitable to do good, because it is the only way to reach the status of a Navigator.

7.3. Overcoming Instincts: From "Animal" to "God"

The economic system is based on a "market of instincts": greed, fear, and dominance are exploited for profit. We are deliberately kept in the state of a "rational beast" to make our behavior easier to control. The Noosphere is a project for a conscious exit from biological captivity, as predicted by Ivan Efremov in The Hour of the Bull.

  • Intellectual Hygiene: Once the Base Level is secured, hoarding and aggression are recognized as software errors of an old code. They do not bring happiness; they only bring disease and the degradation of one's UC.
  • Creative Sublimation: We redirect the instinct for dominance into the channel of competitive discovery. To be "first" in the Noosphere means to be the first to find a cure or launch a farm on an asteroid. This provides the same surge of triumph hormones but creates the world instead of destroying it. This is a transition to an ethics of responsibility, where you feel the planet's pain as your own.

7.4. Sport in the Noosphere: The Cult of Strength and Beauty

Under capitalism, sport became a "vanity fair" where athletes are used as living billboards, and records are set at the cost of disability. In the Noosphere, sport is the basic hygiene of the Mind, realizing the ancient ideal of the harmony of body and spirit.

  • Body as an Instrument: If we strive for the status of "Men Like Gods," our body must be a perfect conductor of will. Weakness and neglect of the organism lower your UC, as you distract system resources toward your own treatment. Maintaining physical form is an ethical duty.
  • Sporting UC: The SC records your achievements. If you train others or maintain exemplary health, your Status grows. We have removed "gladiatorial fights" for medals, replacing them with the mastery of body control.
  • The Contest of Minds (Techno-Athletics): New types of sports emerge: magnetic glider racing, hackathons for solving ecological problems, and augmented reality (AR) games where muscles work in sync with neurons. We do not "fight an opponent"; we overcome our own limits.

7.5. Educating the Creator: The School of Responsibility

Current upbringing has been replaced by drill-training: a child was taught not "to be human," but "to be a successful competitor." They were forced to memorize moral rules while the real world taught them cunning and unscrupulousness. The Noosphere destroys this hypocrisy, creating an environment where ethics is the shortest path to success. Abraham Maslow wrote that only in safety does a personality begin to strive for higher meanings.

  • Lessons of Real Contribution: Education is built on participation in the affairs of society. A child sees how their small deed (a planted tree or a solved task) is immediately reflected in their Children's UC. This forms a stable neural connection: "I am useful — the world becomes better — my status grows."
  • Ethics without Punishment: We have no "failing grades." There is only the Utility Coefficient. If a child commits a destructive act, the System Control (SC) does not "punish" but visually models the consequences: "Look, because of your action, a resource was wasted, the comfort of others decreased, and your access to complex tools is temporarily limited." We do not "teach" ethics; we immerse people in it through the experience of an RBE.

7.6. The Code of Super-Ecumenism: Dismantling the Religious Inferno

The transition to Noocracy requires cleansing the spiritual sphere of the "viruses" of the economic system, which pitted believers against each other for the sake of control. In the Noosphere, fanaticism and religious pride are recognized as forms of destructive behavior. We implement the Code of Super-Ecumenism, drawing on Vladimir Vernadsky's ideas regarding the unity of the human spirit. The Six Rules of Rational Faith:

  1. Tolerance
  2. Mutual Understanding
  3. Mutual Respect
  4. Equality
  5. Forbearance
  6. Self-Improvement

The position "my faith is true, and others are false" is recognized as Intellectual Pride and is blocked by the SC as an attempt to introduce entropy into society.

  • The Economy of the Temple: A religious organization ceases to be a commercial enterprise. Its existence is justified only by real spiritual utility.
  • Confession UC Calculation: The SC analyzes the "social echo" of a community: do the congregants become more creative and peaceful? Based on this confirmed UC, the confession receives access to the Noosphere's resources (construction, daily life, literature). We transform religion into a tool for harmonization, where the temple is a place for the growth of the Spirit, not for lobbying.

7.7. Public Evaluation: Reputation as a Physical Law

Reputation has always been a marketable commodity: it was purchased through PR or "laundered" via charity. In the Noosphere, Public Evaluation is a rigorous mathematical filter. This is a practical development of Hannah Arendt’s ideas regarding the transparency of action as the foundation of authentic politics.

  • Transparency of Action: Every significant action is recorded in the SC. If you solve a systemic problem, hundreds of "Good" (+) validations from people (backed by their own UCs) create a powerful reputational impulse. Your authority grows organically.
  • Veto of Conscience: If an individual with a Status of 90 commits a base act, an avalanche of "Bad" (-) evaluations from colleagues and the SC will crash their UC instantly. No past merits grant a right to current unscrupulousness. In the Noosphere, lying is technically unprofitable — your Status is visible to everyone via biometrics, and it is impossible to hide it.

7.8. Noocratic Justice: Court Without Judges

Capitalism gave rise to a caste of lawyers who, for money, turn black into white. The SC collects objective data, and conflicts are resolved through Algorithmic Arbitration, excluding the human factor and emotions. This is the realization of Norbert Wiener’s "cybernetics of society."

  • Accounting for Vectors: If a dispute over a resource arises, the SC does not listen to speeches. It analyzes: whose project will yield a greater increase in the society's total UC? Which claimant has a higher confirmed experience (UC)? The winner is determined by the logic of efficiency, not connections.
  • Exclusion of Vengeance: In the Noosphere, there is no "punishment" in the sense of inflicting suffering. If you cause harm, the system isolates you from critical resources and transfers you to a lower level for retraining. The goal is not to "repay evil with evil," but to restore the utility of the "network node."
  • Homeostasis of Justice: Justice in the Noosphere is the return of the system to equilibrium via the shortest path. We have removed bribery and bias from the process, leaving only the logic of the prosperity of Reason.

7.9. Overcoming Egocentrism: The "I" as a Part of the Noosphere

Egoism is natural for living organisms as a tool for survival. Yet, as a society, we became a civilization only by helping one another. Under capitalism, the individual pitted themselves against society, attempting to wall themselves off with fences of property and bank accounts. This created a "besieged fortress" psychology. However, humans are social beings, and the transition to Network Consciousness — where the interests of the individual and the planet do not conflict but resonate — yields a colossal growth effect. As Peter Kropotkin wrote, biologically, we are stronger specifically in symbiosis.

  • The Dissolution of Self-Interest: When all basic resources (Levels 1–10) are guaranteed, "hoarding for oneself" becomes biologically meaningless. You cannot eat more than your organism allows. The only things that can be infinitely accumulated are Reason and Recognition.
  • Happiness in Resonance: Developmental utilitarianism states: your pleasure from creation (e.g., from launching a purification system) is multiplied by the number of people whose lives it improved. The System Control (SC) records this "technical feedback," raising your UC.
  • Personality as a Node: Egoism in the Noosphere is as if a brain cell tried to steal glucose from a neighboring cell. This leads to the illness of the entire brain and the death of the cell itself. We do not "kill" the individual; we allow them to become truly great through the scale of their impact on the world.

7.10. The Psychology of the Creator: The End of the "Curse of Labor"

The unfair compensation of useful and necessary professions turned labor into a punishment that everyone dreamed of escaping — to do less and get more. In the Noosphere, the concept of "doing nothing" disappears, as it leads to depression and a drop in Status. Creativity becomes the highest form of play, as described by Johan Huizinga and Hermann Hesse.

  • Play as a Method (Homo Ludens): The scientist, engineer, or artist engages in their work not because they "must," but for the sake of supreme intellectual enjoyment. Your UC is merely a counter in this great game of discovery.
  • The Death of Procrastination: When you see the instant response of the system and a real result (a cleared forest or a functioning magnetic drive), you have no desire to "put it off until later." You exist in a State of Flow, where the activity itself is the reward.
  • Shifting Rhythms: The ethics of the future recognizes: a creator needs periods of contemplation. If you pause to reflect on an idea, your status transitions to Temporary, granting you the right to "silence." Society respects your internal search just as much as your external activity.

7.11. Noospheric Hierarchy: Authority vs. Power

It is crucial to distinguish between "power" in the economic system and "authority" in the Noosphere. Power rested on money, violence, and the manipulations of officials. Authority in the Noosphere rests on proven wisdom and physical contribution. This is the practical realization of Plato’s ideas in The Republic regarding philosopher-kings.

  • The Navigator as a Servant: Individuals with a status of 90+ possess colossal access to resources, not for personal enrichment, but to ensure the stability of the system. Their ethics represent the highest form of utilitarianism. They cannot make a decision beneficial to them personally but harmful to society, as the SC (System Control) would instantly block such a vector.
  • Voluntary Subordination: We listen to the Navigator not out of fear, but because their UC confirms it: they see deeper into the system. It is like in a high-level scientific laboratory: everyone listens to the Master voluntarily.
  • Equality in Dignity: Despite the difference in UC (10 or 90), a human's basic dignity is inviolable. A Navigator cannot "fire" you from life or humiliate you — doing so would instantly crash their own ethical rating within the SC.

7.12. Biosphere Ethics: Expanded Utilitarianism

Currently, we view nature as a "free warehouse." In the Noosphere, utilitarianism takes the next step: we include all living things on the planet in the formula of the "common good." This is the true status of "Men Like Gods" — not a tyrant, but a guardian of the biosphere.

  • Rights of Living Matter: The SC analyzes the consequences of every project for ecosystems. If the construction of a transport hub destroys a unique biocenosis, the project receives a "Bad" (-) status. Your UC falls if you ignore the biological balance.
  • Minimization of Suffering: We strive to reduce the total amount of pain in the world. This leads to a partial move away from industrial livestock farming and a transition toward nutrient synthesis.
  • Restoration as Virtue: The highest UC is awarded to those who return life to where it was destroyed. To revive a desert or clean a river is an act of supreme creation. We are no longer the "crown of creation"; we are the Reason of Nature itself, its instrument of protection and development.

7.13. Information Conscience: Responsibility for the Word

Currently, the truth is not always profitable, while lies can be highly lucrative; advertising and propaganda help extract massive profits and manipulate the masses. In the Noosphere, information is energy, and every individual is responsible for its purity with their Status. This is the practical embodiment of Ray Bradbury’s ideas in Fahrenheit 451, but with a vector toward protecting the truth rather than destroying it.

  • Veracity Coefficient: System Control (SC), through cross-verification algorithms and expert evaluations from Navigators, verifies public data. If you disseminate knowingly false or destructive information, your UC decreases automatically. In the Noosphere, a lie is "informational junk" that litters the planetary brain.
  • The Death of Manipulation: The SC makes the emergence of populists impossible, as any promises are instantly compared with real resources. Sincerity becomes the most effective strategy: "Men Like Gods" do not lie, because lying is a sign of weakness and scarcity—neither of which exists in the Noosphere.

7.14. Noospheric Aesthetics: Beauty as Utility

In the financial system, beauty is considered an "excess" — we live in gray boxes because it is "cheap," and if you want beauty, you must pay. In the Noosphere, Beauty is the highest form of Utility. As Ivan Efremov wrote, beauty is the highest degree of expediency.

  • Harmony of Environment: The SC evaluates the aesthetics of projects. If a building is harmoniously integrated into the landscape and utilizes natural forms, it increases the psychological comfort of people and their UC. An architect receives a bonus for beauty and well-thought-out solutions.
  • Art as Energy: The creation of an artist or musician is work aimed at the ordering of chaos in minds. The SC records this resonance, and the creator’s status grows alongside that of the engineer.
  • Personal Aesthetics: In the Noosphere, there is no need for "brands," but there is a need for self-expression. Your appearance and home are your personal work of art. We remove the ugliness of the old world: industrial zones become techno-parks, and cities become gardens. Beauty is a physical sign of a correctly structured, high-energy system.

7.15. Longevity and Meaning: The Psychology of the Infinite Path

Health and medicine have been powerful financial tools. Insurance, inheritance, and the "rejuvenation" industry for the elite are all links in the same chain. Humans were conditioned to believe life is short, so they must "grab" as much as possible here and now. This bred the psychology of a temporary worker. The Noosphere changes the very horizon of planning, realizing Viktor Frankl’s ideas of a life guided by meaning.

  • The Death of "Time Scarcity": With the transition to medicine utilizing the most advanced technologies, the span of active life doubles, and in the long term, extends by centuries. When you have 200–300 years ahead, the need for haste and aggression disappears. You begin to think in categories of centuries.
  • The Ethics of Immortality: "Men Like Gods" are those who have outgrown the biological fear of death. Your UC in the System Control is your digital footprint that outlives the body, guiding future generations. This provides a sense of belonging to eternity.
  • The Right to Departure: Utilitarianism recognizes that Reason has the right to determine the end of its own path. If the mission is complete, the transition to a state of permanent rest (P-UC) occurs in an atmosphere of deepest respect. In the Noosphere, it is beneficial to live long; with each decade, your UC grows through experience, making you an indispensable Navigator.

7.16. Social Resonance: Why Harming Another is Harming Yourself

Capitalism formed the illusion that one could build happiness on another’s grief if one had enough security. In the Noosphere, this is physically impossible. This is the practical application of Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene, reinterpreted through the prism of network utility.

  • Empathy Coefficient: The SC, through biometric sensors, records the overall psychological climate. If you raise your status by suppressing others, the SC detects a growth of "entropy" in your environment.
  • Feedback Loop: The growth of entropy around you automatically applies an Entropy Penalty Multiplier to your UC. You literally "suffocate" in your own negative environment. To grow further, it becomes vital for you to change your behavior from destructive to creative.
  • Empathy as a Navigation Tool: In this system, compassion is not a weakness but a skill of a Navigator. He who feels the system's pain better offers more precise solutions. We are building a world where kindness is pragmatic: harming another is like hitting your own fingers with a hammer.

7.17. Noospheric Sovereignty: Who Makes the Final Decision?

The most difficult ethical question of the future is: how to resolve a dispute if two Navigators (Status 95+) propose opposite paths of development? The old system resolved this through wars or the will of the "majority," which was often wrong. The Noosphere introduces the Arbitration of Supreme Expediency, drawing on Stafford Beer’s cybernetics.

  • Future Modeling: The SC simulates the consequences of both decisions centuries ahead. The vector that ensures the maximum resilience of the biosphere and the potential for UC growth for all of humanity is chosen.
  • The Right to a Local Experiment: If both paths are viable, the Noosphere allocates resources to implement both in different city-nodes. Time and practice are the only judges. The one whose UC proves higher becomes the global standard.
  • The Death of Authoritarianism: No "genius" can impose their will by force. If society does not accept an idea (a mass "Bad" response), the project stops. A Navigator must be able to inspire, not command. This is the true power of Reason.

7.18. The Code of Non-Interference: Respect for the Private Path

Currently, we are subjected to psychological pressure from all sides; the economic system has invaded private life, imposing the roles of a "compliant consumer." We are evaluated by our convenience for corporations and power. The Noosphere introduces the Ethics of Individual Sovereignty, protecting your inner world from any dictate.

  • Privacy of Thought: The SC analyzes your actions and physical results but never invades your motives unless they translate into destructive action. Your brain is your fortress.
  • The Right to a "Search Error": If your project fails, it does not make you an "outcast." Utilitarianism recognizes that the path to discovery lies through trial and error. A negative result in science is also a contribution to the knowledge base. Your UC will not collapse from an honest failure.
  • Freedom from Crowd Evaluation: Your Status depends on objective utility, not on whether your neighbors like you. You can be a reclusive genius — if your product is valuable, your access level will correspond to your genius. We remove the "dictatorship of the majority," replacing it with the unity of diversity.

7.19. Consumption Ethics: Rational Asceticism

For the last half-century, status was confirmed by "redundancy": the more you could throw into the trash, the richer you were deemed to be. This was ethical madness. In the Noosphere, Rationality is the new luxury.

  • The Beauty of the Minimum: A person with a high UC (e.g., 80) does not strive to fill their home with golden statues. Their Status is confirmed by their access capabilities. They do not need to "store"; they need to "utilize the best." True aristocracy of the spirit in the Noosphere is the ability to solve great tasks while sufficing with what is necessary and sufficient.
  • Energy Footprint: Consuming more than necessary when there is no functional need is a sign of low UC and weak intellect. System Control (SC) gently corrects the behavior of "gluttons," showing them how their inefficiency hinders the development of the entire network.
  • Quality over Quantity: One perfectly designed tool that lasts forever is ethically superior to ten disposable ones. This is utilitarianism in action: maximum utility with minimum pressure on the environment. We are changing the psychology of a "junk owner" into the psychology of a "master of tools." In this system, you take pride not in how many things you have, but in how elegantly and effectively you manage the planet's resources.

7.20. The Global Relay: Debt to the Future

In the mad race for money, we live by the principle of "after us, the deluge," consuming the resources of future generations to plug budget holes. The ethics of the Noosphere is built on Intergenerational Accord, as predicted by Ivan Efremov.

  • A View through Centuries: Every major decision passes a test: "How will this affect people 500 years from now?" If a project yields a benefit today but creates a problem a century later (like nuclear waste buried at the bottom of the ocean), it is blocked by the SC.
  • Inheriting the World: Our task is to pass the planet to our children in a better state than we received it. The restoration of forests and oceans is not "charity," but a direct duty of the temporary operators of the Noosphere.
  • Immortality through Contribution: You live forever through the results of your labor. In a world without money, this is the only thing that makes sense. We are building a relay-civilization where everyone is a link in the infinite chain of Reason. The transition to "Men Like Gods" is not a matter of "kindness," but a matter of supreme efficiency. The Ethics of the Noosphere wins because:
  • It makes honesty mathematically profitable.
  • It transforms creation into the highest pleasure.
  • It unites the interests of the individual and the planet.
  • It grants every human the status of a Creator, not a slave.