The Heavenly Host

The partially examined life raised a question about hell.  What is the deal with hell?

Let's set aside actual God, and instead imagine a weakly God-like being, like Charles Stross' Eschaton, the result of Ray Kurzweil's Singularity.  And, let's imagine that the Eshaton was eager to encompass a greater diversity of personality, because it was working on a Hegelian idea of personality in which singularity provides no opportunity for personhood - only conflict and cooperation and an Other make personhood real.  So, the more people, the more personhood for all (yay), hence greater intellectual horsepower and glory.

This sounds a little like the philosophy from which Ubuntu took its name, so let's further suppose that the Eschaton is Posix compliant and intends to remain so.

Incorporating actually existing human personalities is going to be a problem for the Eschaton.  I would be a terrible resource hog, always wanting to get on with my own projects (CPU resource) and always wanting to store more information (given the size of my personal library of actual books, and my ever increasing storage requirements for podcasts, this seems unarguable). Furthermore, I don't treat people as people very much.  It's why I had to start this echochamber blog so I could say all these boring and confused things to no one.  No one does regard other people properly as people - we all retreat into false certainties. Hegel thinks its just about the last thing a consciousness wants to do, to let others be for themselves and yet embrace them - not to impose on them, and not to reject them in some way.

So what are the options? It can either not incorporate human personalities, or it can incorporate them subject to strict restrictions, or it can incorporate them under some kind of protective special consideration.  I think Hell is the first two options. Either people are left out entirely, or their existence is hedged and frustrated and kept in check.  I think Christianity is like the third option.  By implementing Eschaton as a primary, exemplar human being, a template can be created of how to live excellently but compatibly.

So that's why I think there's a hell. You can't have dodgy, unreconstructed beings run on the bare metal.  The best you can do is furnish them with a 'wrapper' - a cover that renders them compliant.  And if you're going to treat them justly, you can't 'wrapper' them in an identity they reject.  You have to continue to be you, allow them to continue to be them, and be at war.

Which brings me to the pun of the title: 

In the old testament, there are two common pronouns for God: YHWH, which is translated THE LORD (all caps), and Elohim (the heavenly host).  YHWH is 'I am who I am', or 'I am that I am'.  Elohim is a plural form, which suggests an angelic host or horde, sometimes rendered 'The Heavenlies'.  I think there are scholars who argue that these were two separate religions in the proto-israelites, and that they were fused by priests trying to hold the tribe together.  The Lord of Hosts, YHWH Elohim, is a popular form of address.  (Mum, computers that serve files are called servers, or sometimes hosts. They very often use Linux, which is a Posix compliant operating system.)

PS. GWF Hegel is probably turning in his grave. Ditto Charles Stross and Ray Kurzweil in their respective armchairs.

PPS.  Excellent Hegel lectures at Bernsteintapes.com.  Check them out.  Note that JM Bernstein has EXACTLY the SAME ACCENT as DR EVIL.  Very rounded Os. 'Throw me a frickin' bone.'