IMAGE: PHOTO OF OUTER SPACE GALAXY

Funny how the lessons of life recur. We see them in one form, glean insights, and years later in a different guise. We build lesson upon lesson and are architects of sorts. From where do the raw materials stem? From where do the lessons which become our personal thesis arise?

IMAGE: PHOTO OF WOMAN PRAYING

While reading some comments on social media concerning prayer, I’ve found that too many of my fellow believers and non-believers have sorely lost sight of the function of prayer.

IMAGE: PHOTO OF WOMAN SELECTING FRUIT AT MARKET

The futurist Ray Kurzweil is not only famous for consistently predicting a technological singularity within decades, but also for his unusual habit of consuming more than 250 supplements per day in an attempt to live to see it. His logic: that if one can live long enough to witness the singularity, one may achieve "longevity escape velocity" and, perhaps, biological immortality (not to mention conscious immortality via mind uploading). While most professing transhumanists cannot afford Kurzweil's fountain-of-youth cocktail, there are many practical, evidence-based interventions that can extend our lives and health.

IMAGE: PHOTO OF RAINBOW BRAIN

portion of actual link network of transhuman wikipedia pages

Often times I get asked, "So, what is transhumanism?" While I'm sure not all transhumanists agree on a single definition, one of the most concise definitions I use is, "The belief that technology can not only improve the human condition but fundamentally change it."

IMAGE: PHOTO OF VIDEO PLAY BUTTON

[NOTE: This is a condensed version of the talk by the same title delivered at the Extreme Tech Conference on July 19, 2015 in Redmond, WA]

IMAGE: PHOTO OF I'M IN SIGN

I'm in. That was my first thought when I read just a couple of pieces about Mormon Transhumanism. It was a Wednesday evening early this summer. I had read a description of Transhumanism in a Huffington Post article:

IMAGE: PHOTO OF JESUS CLASSICAL PAINTING

I more than once have learned that "Blessed" in the Beatitudes is a word that implies the happy state that the Gods are in. What if one were to take this meaning very literally, and set the Sermon on the Mount in the context of the Mormon and Transhumanist ideals of humanity actually approaching or achieving Godhood? Where our Heavenly Father and Mother had parents of their own and went through the same process we are now experiencing? Then the Beatitudes would begin:

IMAGE: PHOTO OF OPEN FALL ROAD

You’ve probably heard the old saying “everyone is born an atheist; we have to be taught religion”. In my case, that might actually be true.

IMAGE: PHOTO OF OLDER WOMAN

I had the opportunity recently to sit down with my wife's 98 year-old grandmother. The occasion was an LDS temple sealing of my niece and her, now, husband. As we waited for the party to arrive, I made my way over to where "GG" (great-grandma) sat next to her rather modern-looking walker which doubles as a portable oxygen system -- a machine extending her life. Once she recognized people who sat down next to her, she was eager to have very lucid and engaging conversation with the wisdom of a 98 year-old smile and laugh.

IMAGE: PHOTO OF PROSTETHIC LEG

It starts with a small opening, not even a wound But the opening grows, intensifies, parts It is the rift of the world; a rift that begins to tear and to bleed and to rend the mind and the lungs and the flesh. We are no longer together, no longer one, no longer whole. Instead there is a rupture so great there is no going back; the history of the world is changing.