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Presentation at Sunstone West Symposium on 30 Jan 2016 in Berkeley, CA. Presentation begins at minute 17:04. Text below.

Imagine you’re an infant that just left your mother’s womb. You are being welcomed into the world by eager parents. A plethora of possibilities and opportunities await your exploration. Upon your delivery they look at your nude body and note the aesthetics of your genitalia. The doctor announces, “It’s a girl!” In this fractional moment, a socially constructed gender has become your assumed destiny.

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Dear friends and members of the Mormon Transhumanist Association,

Ten years ago, fourteen of us founded this association: Andrew West, Brent Allsop, Cameron Dayton, Carl Youngblood, Cherie West, Chris Bradford, Cory Funk, Gary Parker, Joseph West, Karl Hale, Leonard Reil, Lincoln Cannon, Marcus Flinders, and Martin Wood. Although we hear from some of these founders more often than others, all remain members of the association today.

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In my previous post I wrote about how the infinite diversity and independence of Mind could be considered one of the most valuable things in the universe. Something which can help us address the rhetorical question posed in Psalms:

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When I first began my circular questioning, asking what Gods within nature would look like, and what kind of cosmos would result in the Gods I believe in from scripture, I had no idea how much it would change my understanding of theology. Perhaps the strangest thing is the beautiful imperfections I now see in the heavens.

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Registration now for the 2016 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association!

The 2016 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association will be held on Saturday 9 April 2016 from 9:00am to 9:00pm in Provo, Utah, at the Provo City Library. Speakers will present on the themes of Mormonism, Transhumanism and Transfigurism, with particular attention to topics at the intersection of technology, spirituality, science and religion. The conference is open to the public.

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Mormons and Modernism: Modernism, Secularism — and the Mormon Response?

Thinkers as diverse as Charles Taylor, Marcel Gauchet, John Milbank, Mark Lilla, and Louis Dupré have written about the origins of the modern period—the radical change in thought and society from the medieval period to the modern that occurred gradually and culminated in the sixteenth century. Modernism brought us the renaissance, modern science, the birth of the modern state and democracy, as well as, ultimately, what Nietzsche called “the death of God.” In the twentieth century, questions arose about modernism, such as “How should we understand its grand narratives?” and “What have been its costs to human being?” Recognizing both modernism’s difficulties and achievements, if we cannot think against or beyond modernism, can with think within it?

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Long live Han Solo. We love the space pirate. That’s because he was a reluctant hero.

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Lincoln Cannon, president of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, is featured at Ozy in an article on “The Intersection of Tech and Church“, part of a series that explores the Big Ideas shaping our tech-driven future.

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Whether humankind began among higher apes or as enlightened, ensouled images of God, one thing is clear to me: as long as humankind has existed, it has been transhumankind. What that means is that to be human is to continue to evolve, not just biologically as critters do, but mentally and techno-organically. This isn’t generally acknowledged. An unspoken assumption pervades our discussions on transhumanism: that our foray into merging with technology and changing humanity into something new is somewhat recent, a product of the Information Age or, at most, the Industrial one.

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This post is part of a series of personal narratives written by members of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. Each tells their story of how they became a Transhumanist. Guest: Andrea Loper Johnson.

Now that I have your attention ...