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If you created ants, would you let them dream? Why or why not? What do you know or believe about your own dreams? Has that always been the case? When, if at all, did how you feel about your dreams change? What triggered the change? What was the best dream you ever had? Why is that? When do you dream? How is your dream life different than your waking life? Why do you think that is?

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Technology plays a central role in transhumanist narratives -- even to certain degrees of religiosity found in Singularitarianism. Indeed, there are good reasons to view narratives about the emergence of a super-intelligence from a technological singularity to be as transformative as narratives of eternal life or millennialism found in religion. However, what is sometimes missing or seen as a footnote in transhumanist narratives is an equally strenuous focus on compassion, not merely as a byproduct or guide of transhuman technology, but as an author of it.

In the interest of ongoing transparency, the Board of Directors of the Mormon Transhumanist Association is pleased to release the following leadership performance review. Each member of the Board independently evaluated the performance of the Board as a whole and the performance of CEO Lincoln Cannon, who is appointed by the Board to manage the Association. Secretary of the Board, Dorothy Deasy, gathered and compiled the evaluations into a single review, which follows.

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Borg-ham Young

In a previous post, I suggested that the cyborg was a useful myth for post-patriarchal Mormonism. The cyborg is an inseparable union of body and mind, mechanism and person. The cyborg is, in a sense, a refutation of Cartesian dualism. Mormonism can be a uniquely cyborg-affirming religion, because in Mormon theology, pure humanity is already compromised. Personhood is inescapably merged with matter, as even the Mormon “spirit” is material, and the religion’s mythical gods are imagined to be people who learned over eons to control natural forces in advanced ways. In the prior post, I discussed how the cyborg was a feminist myth which seems ready-made for incorporation into ways that Mormons can think about themselves.

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Mormon essayist Kristine Haglund will be a keynote speaker at the 2015 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association on 3 April at the Salt Lake City Public Library.

Kristine is the current editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, an essayist at the weblogs By Common Consent and Times and Seasons, and a noted Mormon historian and cultural commentator. She has suggested that the "experience of independent Mormon publishing [can provide] ... a potential model" for Mormons "at a moment where new kinds of assimilation are called for." Kristine has an A.B. from Harvard in German Studies and an M.A. from the University of Michigan in German Literature. As part of her application for the editor position at Dialogue, she wrote,

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Transhumanist technologist Ralph Merkle will be a keynote speaker at the 2015 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association on 3 April at the Salt Lake City Public Library.

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Kate Kelly, Mormon feminist and co-founder of the Ordain Women movement, was recently denied her excommunication appeal by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her actions toward gender equality were deemed as apostasy and caused her excommunication. I am hurt by this decision and I feel a personal loss as a fellow Mormon.

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We are mistaken, sometimes dangerously so, when we confuse our current understanding with God's absolute and eternal truth. As marvelous as Mormonism is -- and it is marvelous -- it is surely a weak reflection of what God has in store. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)

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Historians of Mormonism have done a lot to bring more "truth" to LDS history. Their efforts, coupled with the global impact of the Internet, have had a lasting impact on our understanding of our past. Mormon history has evolved from "faith-promoting stories" to actual, factual history. And the work of historians — like D. Michael Quinn, Richard L. Bushman, and John G. Turner — has caused important changes in the Church.

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This is not a post about Bill Cosby. It is an article about abusive power because rape is always about power and not sex. This is an issue of equal importance to both men and women because abusive power spawns a culture of violence and a culture of victimization.