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MPA Materialism
Galactography > Sephirotic Empires > Mutual Progress Association
Culture and Society > Metaphysics > Philosophy
Culture and Society > Metaphysics > Philosophy
 Image from Steve Bowers |
MPA Matterialism is an ideological-cultural stream dominant in the MPA. It has been said that unlike the other empires, the MPA was created first, then its guiding philosophy. The original member worlds were more unified by their interest in counteracting the emerging empires, especially the NoCoZo, Conver Ambi and Solar Dominion, than creating a common culture. However, the memetic isolation caused by their refusal of the other empires was a fertile breeding ground for an unique culture.
MPA Materialism emerged from the practical interests of the age of expansion, the Void Cathedralism of Qristan Kemshola and the technoaesthetics of the Mandragor artist clade at Kiyoshi. It proclaims the divinity and aesthetics of matter and engineering: the world is an interactive process, constantly ongoing and evolving. It is the duty of intelligent beings to make use of their intelligence to participate in this process, adding their own artistic touches to the universe.
MPA Materialism does not explicitly claim that supernatural or non-material concepts are meaningless, but rather considers them to be represented in matter (in the extended sense of matter as everything physical, including energy and spacetime) - nothing can exist that is not material, but the material world has endless possibilities and even if most of these are currently merely potential they can be manifested through action.
Everything in the world is raw material for creation. That other creations are included in new creations is natural, and constructing grand edifices based on many lower levels is a way of mirroring the structure of the universe. Hence technology, which is usually highly hierarchical and modular, is especially divine. To limit conflicts and unaesthetic destruction ethics is necessary; in MPA materialism ethics is a subset of aesthetics rather than the reverse or independent.
Materialists strive to reshape the world into a statement that expresses their individual and collective aesthetics. While the MPA megaprojects have attracted most interest, far more effort goes into crafts, design and everyday action. Various Zarathustran-inspired schools of practical awareness teach how to fully experience the consciousness of action, and are complemented by the extensive reality-aesthetic academies most mainstream MPA citizens belong to.
Related Articles
- Materialism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Religious or philosophical system that asserts that the physical universe of matter and energy, is the only reality. Popular in a number of polities and empires. The most widespread and popular is MPA Materialism, which asserts that the material world has endless possibilities and these can be manifested through action.
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Development Notes
Text by Anders Sandberg
Initially published on 08 December 2001.
Initially published on 08 December 2001.
