Perfection and optimization are terms that originate in moral and metaphysical discourse. Perfection refers to something having been fully accomplished, to something in a state of completion. Perfection connotes maturity, development, the absolute, flawlessness, purity. By contrast, optimization refers to the best or most favorable state. Optimization is more sober, even pragmatic. Ignoring thorny questions about essence or purity, optimization is content to play the cards as they lay, making the best use of them. For perfection, only one position matters, the developmental goal or end. Optimization also focuses on a single position, only slightly different: the maxima (or minima) selected among a set of possible states. The essay proposes a third term, absolution. Absolution means to unloosen something from guilt or obligation. Absolution creates a general climate of guiltlessness, which, ironically, can only exist once sin becomes absolute (whether it be original sin or climate catastrophe and mass extinction).
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