Fun Theory is the field of knowledge studying how to design for fun in future society: it deals in questions such as "How much fun is there in the universe?", "Will we ever run out of fun?", "Are we having fun yet?" and "Could we be having more fun?"

From The Fun Theory Sequence:

Many critics (including George Orwell) have commented on the inability of authors to imagine Utopias where anyone would actually want to live. If no one can imagine a Future where anyone would want to live, that may drain off motivation to work on the project. The prospect of endless boredom is routinely fielded by conservatives as a knockdown argument against research on lifespan extension, against cryonics, against all transhumanism, and occasionally against the entire Enlightenment ideal of a better future.

Fun Theory is also the fully general reply to religious theodicy (attempts to justify why God permits evil). Our present world has flaws even from the standpoint of such eudaimonic considerations as freedom, personal responsibility, and self-reliance. Fun Theory tries to describe the dimensions along which a benevolently designed world can and should be optimized, and our present world is clearly not the result of such optimization. Fun Theory also highlights the flaws of any particular religion's perfect afterlife - you wouldn't want to go to their Heaven.

The argument against Enlightenment

Some critiques of transhumanism (and related fields such as cryonics or lifespan extension) suggest that human enhancement would be accompanied boredom and the end of fun as we know it. For example: "if we self-improve human minds to extreme levels of intelligence, all challenges known today may bore us." Likewise, "if superhumanly intelligent machines take care of our every need, it is apparent that no challenges nor fun will remain."

However, we can work towards determining whether and how the universe will offer, or whether we ourselves can create, ever more complex and sophisticated opportunities to delight, entertain and challenge ever more powerful and resourceful minds.

The concept of Utopia

Transhumanists are usually seen as working towards a better human future. This future is sometimes conceptualized, as George Orwell aptly describes it, as Utopia:

"It is a commonplace [view] that the Christian Heaven, as usually portrayed, would attract nobody. Almost all Christian writers de

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Embodiment