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The Mormon Transhumanist Association is pleased to announce the renewal of its affiliation with Humanity+. Formerly the World Transhumanist Association, Humanity+ and the Mormon Transhumanist Association first affiliated in 2006. Humanity+ discontinued all affiliations in April 2010, while reassessing its goals and criteria for affiliations. In the renewed affiliation, the Mormon Transhumanist Association and Humanity+ will work together to support discussion and public awareness of emerging technologies, defend the rights of individuals to adopt technologies that expand human capacities, anticipate and propose solutions for the potential consequences of emerging technologies, and actively encourage and support the development of emerging

TransVision 2010 is a global transhumanist conference and community convention, organized by Giulio Prisco with the collaboration of the Italian Transhumanist Association (AIT) and an Advisory Board. The event will take place on October 22, 23 and 24, 2010 in Milan, Italy with many options for remote online access. Visit the conference web site for information on registration and remote viewing.

On 23 October at 6pm CEST (10am MDT), Lincoln Cannon will give a remote presentation on Transfigurism.

Humanity+ has officially opened registration for its next conference, Humanity+ @ Caltech: Redefining Humanity in the Era of Radical Technological Change. Humanity+ @ Caltech^[2][2] will take place on December 4-5 (Saturday/Sunday), at the Beckman Institute at Caltech in Los Angeles, California. Speakers^[3][3] will include many of the top visionaries and leaders of the transhumanist community, as well as new voices from the worlds of science, art, media and business.

The Humanity+ @ Caltech program^[4][4] will be divided into four main sessions, each one of which will cover a key area of transhumanist thought:

Dr J Hughes chats with Terryl Givens, professor of Literature and Religion at the University of Richmond and a scholar of Mormon theology. They discuss the doctrine of theosis, the Mormon Transhumanist Association, and the Mormon church’s position on women, homosexuality and race.

Says Dr Givens,

TransVision 2010 is a global transhumanist conference and community convention, organized by several transhumanist activists, groups and organizations, under the executive leadership of the Italian Transhumanist Association (AIT) and with the collaboration of an Advisory Board. The event will take place on October 22, 23 and 24, 2010 in Milan, Italy with many options for remote online access.

While Transvision 2010 is not organized by or connected with Humanity+ (formerly WTA), the organizer of most previous Transvision conferences, we wish to thank the Humanity+ Board for allowing the use of the name.

H+ Magazine today published an interview with Lincoln Cannon, president of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. In the interview, Lincoln shares thoughts on parallels between Mormonism and Transhumanism, including Mormon views of the afterlife, immortality and contemporary ethical issues raised by emerging technology. He also discusses Mormons in science and technology, passages of the Book of Mormon with Transhumanist themes, and hopes related to a Mormon futuristic transhuman utopia.

The Mormon Transhumanist Association will sponsor two sessions at the upcoming Sunstone symposium at the Sheraton Hotel in Salt Lake City, 5-7 August. You may pre-register for the conference^[7][7] on the Sunstone web site.

8Roger Hansen on “Toward a Mormon Theological Justification for Environmental Activism”* Response by Dan Wotherspoon Saturday, 7 August at 8:45am

The Mormon Transhumanist Association is pleased to announce that its web site is now hosted on a new server with refreshed content. The new server will enable the site to scale to a larger audience. The refreshed content reflects the latest association news and events. The association thanks Carl Youngblood, director and webmaster, for the time and effort he has donated to make this happen. As always, we invite you to email [[email protected]] with any feedback regarding the MTA web site.

Each year, the Mormon Transhumanist Association holds an election for three of the nine seats on its board of directors. This year, voting members of the association elected Bryant Smith, David Foster and Michael Ferguson to serve as directors for the 2010 - 2013 term. Karl Hale, previously a director, will continue to serve in the appointed office of Treasurer.

Humanity+ terminated its affiliation program on 6 April 2010. Consequently, the Mormon Transhumanist Association and Humanity+ are no longer affiliated. Over the next few weeks, this change will be reflected on the MTA web site and in the MTA constitution, pending amendment by voting members of the association.

Here is a copy of the termination notice:

IMAGE: PHOTO OF CODY OF TERMINATION NOTICE

Affected by this change, former affiliates of Humanity+ include:

BLTC Research Immortality Institute Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology The Longevity Meme Mormon Transhumanist Association The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence Transhumanist Arts and Culture