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For most of recorded human history, the rate of advancement of scientific and technological knowledge during any one human’s lifespan was hardly noticeable. A thousand years could pass with little technological change observable by the average human. In contrast, most of the advanced technology that we use today was developed in the last 100 years, with the current exponential curve starting around the fall of the Roman Empire.

The 2015 Call for Papers for the Transhumanism and Religion Group at the American Academy of Religion is online. The deadline for proposals is March 3rd, 2014, at 5pm EST. For more information, please follow this link: [http://papers.aarweb.org/content/transhumanism-and-religion-group]

Please note that this year, we are also co-sponsoring a special joint session with the Cognitive Science of Religion Group. Our call for papers is as follows:

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One of the goals of transhumanism is life extension enabled by science and technology. What if we could extend lifespans by 50%? What would it mean? What would you do with the time? What difference would it make to your family? How would it feel to tell your children or their children about a time when people died much younger, and watch as they roll their eyes because early death is no longer a part of their worlds? What kinds of benefits would society be able to gain if people could live healthy, longer? What kinds of experiences would be shared? What would result from the added collective wisdom within the culture? Just think of it.

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Register now for the 2015 Annual Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, to be held 3 April 2015 at the Salt Lake City Public Library. We look forward to an inspiring and thought-provoking lineup of music and presentations, including keynote speakers Kristine Haglund and Ralph Merkle.

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I marvel at the creativity I witness from my son’s young and fresh mind. His curiosity and originality unbounded, he darts between Youtube toy reviews, LEGO experiments, and Minecraft explorations. At age 4, he has no limits and can dream up amazing things. Of course he’s impressionable: every subsequent waking hour of his life is shaped by the media of the previous hour. But just as much as he is shaped, he then builds himself as a shaper, a maker.

The Mormon Transhumanist Association will celebrate Future Day on 1 March with a screening of AI Artificial Intelligence at 8pm in Provo UT.

About Future Day

Mormon Transhumanist Association Humanitarian Managers Roger Hansen and Hank Pellissier were recently in Uganda, checking up on the multiple Association-funded projects that are operating there.

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We all, as individuals and members of societies, dedicate a lot of effort to finding ways to cope with the idea of death.

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Unlike traditional Christians, Mormons are philosophical materialists. They imagine a unified cosmos consisting only of matter, bounded by space and time, operating under natural law. Founder Joseph Smith is quoted as saying,

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In my previous post, I talked about Fred Brooks’ insights on the transcendent properties of the creative process -- particularly from his experience with software engineering. He describes the joy of the creative process this way: