Cosmism emerged in Russia before the October Revolution and developed through the 1920s and 1930s; like Marxism and the European avant-garde, two other movements that shared this intellectual moment, Russian Cosmism rejected the contemplative for the transformative, aiming to create not merely new art or philosophy but a new world. Cosmism went the furthest in its visions of transformation, calling for the end of death, the resuscitation of the dead, and free movement in cosmic space.
Cosmism was developed by the Russian philosopher Nikolai Fedorov in the late nineteenth century; he believed that humans had an ethical obligation not only to care for the sick but to cure death using science and technology; outer space was the territory of both immortal life and infinite resources. After the revolution, a new generation pursued Fedorov's vision. Cosmist ideas inspired visual artists, poets, filmmakers, theater directors, novelists (Tolstoy and Dostoevsky read Fedorov's writings), architects, and composers, and influenced Soviet politics and technology. In the 1930s, Stalin quashed Cosmism, jailing or executing many members of the movement.
Today, when the philosophical imagination has again become entangled with scientific and technological imagination, the works of the Russian Cosmists seem newly relevant.
Intriguing ideas although very much in the realms of science fiction.
It's tragic that Stalin was so brutal towards it, but he was brutal to anyone and anything that frightened him and did not fit his imagined "socialist realism". In this case though, ideas that influenced fellow-politicians would be particularly worry the increasingly paranoid dictator.
The idea that death can be "cured" may seem attractive but raises some very awkward questions, and should be considered alongside the point that all organisms, certainly multi-cellular ones, have finite lives.
The more we learn about Outer Space and other planets, the less attractive as potential colonies they are! Even outside of ideas like Cosmism, some do talk of "colonising" Mars, or at least manned scientific expeditions there, but would anyone really want to go to this cold desert with no breathable atmosphere and not much water? How would they be supported there, and how would they return? And Mars is our nearest and only planet that might theoretically be possible for human visits.
Cosmism looks rather like a mixture of religion without a deity, abstract philosophy without too much logic, and science without thought. Interesting to know about, harmless enough in its own way; but not presenting serious proposals for humanity's future.
@Carazaa I know you do. That's fine - but do please remember many other people find their spiritual paths through other faiths, or none, they find just as trustworthy as yours.
@Carazaa Well, yes, that's your belief but you do know that other faiths even exist, and are just as valid for their own followers as yours is for you. Do you not accept that?
Snake oil sales. Indigo children laws of attraction, third eye opening. Stalin was eventually forced to kill them by the score because they were using up what little money was being made under the communist system.
Communism was a total failure from the beginning. The only reason it even lasted a while was sheer economic inertia.
China is collapsing now. Every regular person there knows it. Only the upper level wealthy party people still want it.
@SteelHands Like I said your system is fucked. I'm not from the US and therefore don't have to pay insane amounts of money to get a crappy education. Don't know why people don't stand up for reforms.
@Gloomy Crappy education? I think the US has the best public Universities in the world. I have gone to school in a few countries and when it comes to grammar school in the USA it is more interesting and fun and more student directed than other countries where it is mostly rote and stressful. Test scores don't mean anything since you can't compare oranges and apples since America is a melting pot with many students who don't know English and scores are sometimes low because of this. But I started to love learning in the USA. I had excellent teachers and went to university because of my love for learning.
Fedorov was one of the advocates of cosmism, but did not develop it. The credit for that, goes to evolution of thought around the world, as we approached the end of the 19th century.
The likes of Jules Vernes were not influenced by Fedorov, and more likely influenced him. Interesting though how different perspectives evolved around what's mostly science fiction, and humans asking if there could be something other than God.
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