The Octagod was first created on 8/8/88
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The symbol of the Octagod goes hand in hand with the verbalization “Emergence, DNA, The Brain, The Book, The Macrocosm, The Microcosm, The Big Bang and What the Big Bang came from”. It’s a religious meme that, like Jesus, creates a psychologically digestible intermediate that connects you to the broader reality in which you reside.
With the Octagod the Big Bang is God. And naturally, it follows that its spirituality comes from an understanding of the Big Bang and what it means to you. As a psychological contract with the Universe the Octagod encourages you to explore what it means to have religious feelings about the layers of existence, which include culture, life in general, and the Big Bang from which all this emerged.
Living with a sense of God is good for you. But I feel this sense should flow seamlessly into my thoughts of scientific truth. The Octagod serves as a blended memetic object of religious faith in something bigger than myself. A faith in the complicated Universe that surrounds me. A faith that securely, and truthfully, places me into the Universe from which I emerged.
Understanding existence isn’t easy. The process is natural enough. But the thoughts don’t come naturally. With the beginning it starts as the hard physics of quantum-gravity and string theory, then quickly, nuclear physics and relativity. There’s the flow of energy, feedback and the origin of the elements, chemistry and then the beginning of life. Finally we get to evolution, evolutionary theory, and the truth of human nature. Contemplating all of these thoughts, and more, is the spirituality of the Octagod.
The Octagod is a complicated, blended, religious meme based on science. An object of faith. An ever increasing framework. A single thought couched in ever widening arenas. Arenas that reach from the present moment, all the way into the Multiverse.
The Octagod was invented around 8/8/88. It was a personal invention that came out of an interest in science and religion which in turn emerged from an interest in art and technology. It emerged from a interest in two ways of thinking which are generally thought of as incompatible. It tunnels through the gap between our objective and subjective landscapes. It’s a blend of science and religion that helps me do better art.
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The Octagod, with its eight meanings, is an invented symbol. It doesn’t dig a ditch and it won’t make you bed. It’s just a way of thinking. But I will tell you this, if you take it seriously, if you believe it’s basically true, and think about it, it will change your life. The Octagod is a representation. But deep time is real.
As for this sticker offer. First let it be said I don’t do anything on social media. It may not be healthy. And I don’t think it makes you happier. So I keep it all at arms length. I keep to myself. I study science, and I pursue truth by making art, mostly technology sculpture and a developing brand of science cartooning. There is no religious organization.
This being said I do believe that the Octagod is a general good. It’s centered my own life in a way that’s deeply pleasing and fundamentally good. So I’d be more than happy to send you stickers and communicate electronically. Who knows what will grow from this:
Why we need a symbol for The Big Bang
Having a working symbol of The Big Bang is like having that picture of the Earth in space. It’s an image that gives perspective. The Octagod, like that image of the Earth, is a visualized and condensed set of thoughts that makes many things clear;
- EMERGENCE We emerged from The Big Bang. The Universe emerged from something. Protons emerged from quarks. The stars and elements emerged from hydrogen. Chemistry emerged from the elements. Reproducing life emerged from chemistry. Evolution emerged from life. And humans emerged from the process of evolution.
- IT’S A MEME ABOUT MEMES The most radical thing about The Octagod is that it’s a meme about memes. By pointing to a time before memes existed it gives them their context and implies that everything you are, at least in a cultural sense, is intrinsically arbitrary. And to some extent small.
- WE ARE BOTH LARGE AND SMALL One of the problems with having “up-ness”, “sky” or even astronomy as a religious ideal is that it tends to make you feel small. The symbol of The Octagod reminds us that we are somewhere in the middle. Somewhere between the size of a subatomic string and the observable Universe. Somewhere between the size of an atom and a galaxy. We are made of trillions of cells. And as life, we are very old.
- FACTS MATTER The Octagod is a faith statement based on eight hard to dispute facts. It tries to be a testament to truth, science and the scientific method. Science, like evolution, is the Universe seeing itself.
- MATH MATTERS The middle symbols of “greater than” and “less than” indicate that mathematics is an intrinsic part of the universe.
- EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION MATTER The symbol implies the process of gravitational collapse as it occurs in an expanding Universe.
- SMALL MAKES LARGE AND VISA VERSA For example planets emerge from atoms, as well as galaxies. Or our bodies are made from cells, as well as a larger evolutionary process. Sometimes this is called “upward causation” or “downward causation”. The symbol represents both.
- THE OCTAGOD IS POETIC The Octagod is a poetic, mildly religious meme, based on science. It relates life to the Universe. And the beginning of the Universe to the emergence of the present moment. And just like seeing the Earth in space, it’s a thought that connects you to the Universe and the great beyond, both inner and outer.
"The Science and Religion as Art Book"
This comes from the world of art. A science and religion cartoon book self published in 1985. Three years before The Octagod was created.
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