Archive

Lincoln Cannon, president of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, will give a presentation and a Q/A session in Second Life on 30 March at 10:00 AM PST (11 AM Mountain Time), at the virtual headquarters of SL-Transhumanists.

Abstract: Transhumanism is compatible with at least some religious forms, as illustrated by parallels between basic Transhumanist ideas and an authentic interpretation of Mormon metaphysics, theodicy, eschatology and soteriology. These parallels also provide a basis from which to judge the relative compatibility of other religious forms, such as Christianity, with Transhumanism.

SUNDAY - 30 MARCH

1000 AM - 1200 PM SLT

On Saturday, March 15, from 1-3pm (Second Life time) at the Central Nexus in Extropia Core, the Salon Spotlight Guest will be Soren Ferlinghetti (Robert M Geraci). Robert M. Geraci is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College in New York City. He studies the interactions of religion, science and technology with particular emphasis upon robotics, artificial intelligence and (more recently) online gaming. he has conducted fieldwork at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute and in Second Life through discussions and interviews.

The Mormon Transhumanist Association will be hosting the next in their series of monthly round table discussions on 15 March 2008. Subsequent discussions will be held on the third Saturday of each month. This month’s discussion will be focused on WNYC: Radiolab Podcast “Mortality” which features discussions of mortality by anatomy professor Leonard Hayflick and geneticist Cynthia Kenyon, among others. The podcast can be downloaded here^[1][1]. Andrew West, Director of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, will moderate the discussion.

The Mormon Transhumanist Association will be hosting the next in their series of monthly round table discussions on 23 February 2008. Subsequent discussions will be held on the third Saturday of each month. This month’s discussion will be focused on The Sunstone Classic Podcast “Mormonism and Science: Issues for the Coming Century” which features Duane Jeffery, professor of zoology at Brigham Young University. The podcast can be downloaded here. Andrew West, Director of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, will moderate the discussion.

The Mormon Transhumanist Association has updated its RSS feeds to use the FeedBurner service. If you are subscribed to our RSS feeds, please update the links in your RSS aggregator to use the new links, specified below. If you are not already subscribed to our RSS feeds, try subscribing to these links in Google Reader^[2][2] — you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it!

Mormon Transhumanist Association Blogs — this feed includes announcements from the association, as well as posts from individual members:

[http://feeds.transfigurism.org/MormonTranshumanistAssociationBlogs]

The Mormon Transhumanist Association will be hosting the first of a series of monthly round table discussions on 19 January 2008. Subsequent discussions will be held on the third Saturday of each month. This month’s discussion will be focused on Nick Bostrum’s Fable of the Dragon Tyrant which is available on Dr. Bostrum’s homepage. Andrew West, Director of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, will moderate the discussion.

Five World Transhumanist Association Board members’ terms expire this month, and eight candidates are standing for election to replace them. WTA Board members set policy goals and oversee their implementation, contributing with their experience and expertise to the WTA’s work. The term of service for these seats is two years, which for these five open positions means Jan 20, 2008 - Jan 19, 2010. Voting in this election is open to all voting members of the association in good standing as of 7pm EST/midnight GMT of Saturday January 5th, 2008.

Dear Fellow Transhumanist,

Be a part of Transhumanist history!

Bill Faloon of Life Extension Foundation and Brian Cartmell of Cartmell Holdings, LLC, have generously offered to help us kick off our first fundraising event by matching your donations up to $25,000 until January 31, 2008.

We need 250 members to give $100 each, so your donations can be doubled. This is a unique opportunity we cannot afford to miss!

This money will fund three projects necessary for the WTA’s survival against a well-funded, organized, and vocal opposition. We intend to spread our memes through:

1. H+ Quarterly Digital Magazine

The Mormon Transhumanist Association is now in Facebook!

Facebook is a social networking tool that enables you to share news, pictures, links and videos with your friends, and to make some new friends along the way. It’s also a great way to express ideas and let others know what you think about Mormon Transhumanism.

The Mormon Transhumanist Association seeks to promote awareness, particularly among Mormons, of opportunities and risks associated with advances in science and technology. To that end, the association has begun to aggregate blogs that cover both Mormonism and science or technology. You can view the aggregation here [Jan 2009]:

[http://transfigurism.org/blogs/default.aspx?view=mormonism]

Here is a list of the blogs that are currently being aggregated:

Joel Dehlin - The CTO of the LDS Church shares perspectives on leading the technological efforts of the church.