Authors

Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) was a British mathematician and writer widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer, a visionary who glimpsed the computational future nearly a century before the machines that would realize it. Born Augusta Ada Byron, the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron, Lovelace was raised by her mother Anne Isabella Milbanke, who deliberately cultivated in her a rigorous education in mathematics and science—partly, it is said, to guard against the romantic temperament of her absent father. That tension between poetic imagination and mathematical precision became her defining characteristic rather than her contradiction. Introduced to Charles Babbage in 1833, she became captivated by his proposed Analytical Engine. In 1843 she translated Luigi Menabrea’s account of the Engine from French, appending her own notes—nearly three times the length of the original—that described, among other things, an algorithm for computing Bernoulli numbers. This is now recognized as the first published algorithm intended for execution by a machine. Lovelace’s most striking contribution was not the algorithm itself but the conceptual leap it represented. She understood that the Analytical Engine could manipulate symbols according to rules, not merely numbers—that it was, in principle, a general-purpose engine of thought. She also recognized its limits: the machine, she wrote, could only do what we know how to order it to perform. That sober, precise boundary-drawing between tool and mind was itself a kind of philosophical precision that still shapes how we think about artificial intelligence. Her imagination ranged freely across what such an engine might compose, calculate, and create, anticipating by more than a century the questions that animate the intersection of computation and human cognition. From a Mormon transhumanist sensibility, Lovelace’s life embodies the conviction that intelligence—cultivated, disciplined, and applied to the highest tools available—is itself a sacred work. Her synthesis of mathematical rigor and imaginative reach, her insistence that the engines of computation might serve art and music as readily as arithmetic, resonates with a theology that treats creativity and intelligence as attributes of divinity in which humans genuinely participate. She died at thirty-six, leaving a legacy that took more than a century to be fully recognized—a reminder that the seeds of transformation are often sown long before the harvest is visible.

Adam Davis is a physicist and educator. He received his degree from Case Western University and currently teaches physics at Wayne State College. His academic pursuits extend beyond conventional physics into areas that bridge science and theology, particularly within the context of Latter-day Saint beliefs. Davis’s interests lie in exploring the concept of “spirit matter,” a topic central to Mormon theology. He approaches this subject through a scientific lens, seeking to develop models and frameworks for understanding its nature and properties. His work examines the theological necessity of spirit matter and considers its implications for human advancement and the attainment of divine potential. At the Mormon Thought & Engineering Vision conference held in 2009, Davis presented his perspectives on spirit matter, acknowledging the limited understanding currently available while emphasizing the importance of continued exploration. He examined scriptural and anecdotal accounts, including descriptions of spirit bodies and the spirit world, to inform his approach and stimulate further discussion on this complex topic—ultimately suggesting that no current models are completely adequate. Davis served on the MTA Board of Directors for several years.

Adam Miller is a philosopher, educator, and author whose work serves as a bridge between contemporary continental philosophy and Latter-day Saint theology. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and earned his master’s and PhD in philosophy from Villanova University. Miller currently serves as a professor of philosophy at Collin College in McKinney, Texas, where he also directs the college’s honors program. Miller is a leading voice in the “new Mormon theology” movement, characterized by a rigorous yet accessible approach to religious thought that often operates outside traditional institutional hierarchies. His scholarship draws heavily on the work of French philosophers such as Alain Badiou and Bruno Latour to re-examine Mormon metaphysics. In works like Speculative Grace: Bruno Latour and Object-Oriented Theology , Miller explores an “object-oriented” ontology, proposing a theological framework where grace and agency are embedded within the material relationships of the world—a perspective that resonates with discussions regarding the nature of matter and intelligence found within transhumanist discourse. A prolific writer, Miller has authored numerous influential books that challenge readers to engage deeply with scripture and tradition. His Letters to a Young Mormon is widely regarded for its candid and pastoral approach to questions of faith and agency. He has also produced a series of “urgent paraphrases” of biblical texts, including Grace Is Not God’s Backup Plan (Romans) and Nothing New Under the Sun (Ecclesiastes), which seek to unveil the tremendous power of ancient scripture for modern audiences. His engagement with secular culture is evident in The Gospel According to David Foster Wallace , a text praised by The New York Times for its “incantatory and gorgeous” prose. Beyond his writing, Miller has played a pivotal role in shaping the infrastructure of modern Mormon studies. He co-founded Salt Press, an independent publisher of Mormon theology later acquired by Brigham Young University’s Maxwell Institute. He also founded and serves as co-director of the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar, an annual colloquium that fosters collaborative, close readings of scripture. Through these efforts, Miller has cultivated a space for rigorous theological experimentation, emphasizing a “theology of the present” that calls for active, transformative engagement with the divine in the here and now.

Alan Wilson Watts (1915–1973) was a British-born American philosopher, writer, and speaker best known for popularizing Eastern philosophy—particularly Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism—for Western audiences. He remains one of the most influential interpreters of Asian religious thought in the twentieth century. Watts began his career in England, where he was involved with the Buddhist Lodge in London. He later moved to the United States, briefly serving as an Episcopal priest before leaving the ministry to pursue a broader philosophical vocation. He became a professor and dean at the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco and authored over twenty-five books, including The Way of Zen (1957), Psychotherapy East and West (1961), and The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966). His lectures, many of which survive as recordings, continue to reach millions worldwide. Watts’s central teaching—that the individual self and the universe are fundamentally one—resonates with Mormon Transhumanist themes of theosis and the expansive potential of consciousness. His insistence that human beings are not merely in the universe but of it, expressions of a deeper cosmic process, parallels the tradition’s interest in humanity’s divine trajectory. However, significant differences exist. Watts generally rejected the concept of a personal God, viewing divinity as an impersonal process rather than a being with whom one could have a relationship. He was skeptical of doctrines of sin and moral depravity, seeing guilt as a psychological obstacle rather than a theological reality. He also questioned the Western emphasis on individual free will, favoring a view of spontaneous action aligned with Taoist wu wei . Despite these divergences, his lifelong project of dissolving boundaries between the sacred and the secular, the human and the divine, offers rich material for dialogue with Mormon Transhumanist thought.

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist whose work transformed humanity’s understanding of space, time, energy, and matter, making him one of the most consequential scientific minds in recorded history. Einstein developed the special theory of relativity (1905) and the general theory of relativity (1915), the latter offering a geometric account of gravity that replaced Newtonian mechanics at cosmological scales. His famous mass-energy equivalence, expressed as E=mc², opened new vistas in physics and eventually in energy technology. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, a cornerstone of quantum theory. Einstein held positions at the Swiss Federal Patent Office, the University of Zurich, the German University in Prague, ETH Zurich, and the Prussian Academy of Sciences before emigrating to the United States in 1933, where he joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton until his death. Beyond equations and thought experiments, Einstein was a deeply reflective thinker on the relationship between human intelligence and ultimate reality. He resisted the label of atheist, describing his orientation instead as a posture of humble wonder before a universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws—laws our limited minds only dimly understand. He held that science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind, insisting the two must work hand-in-hand. This is not the posture of a secularist who has set metaphysics aside; it is the posture of someone who treats the intelligibility of the cosmos as a moral and spiritual provocation. That sensibility finds natural resonance with the Mormon transhumanist conviction that creation, intelligence, and Godhood are continuous rather than severed—that the universe’s deep order is something we are called to investigate, participate in, and ultimately embody. Einstein did not share Mormon theology, but his insistence that wonder before the cosmos is practically indistinguishable from religious seriousness, and that the advance of knowledge is bound up with something larger than mere utility, speaks across that distance. His life’s work stands as a testament to the proposition that rigorous intelligence and reverent imagination are not opposites but partners in the long, unfinished project of understanding our place in a universe of staggering complexity and beauty.

Alexei Turchin (born 1973, Moscow) is a Russian independent researcher, author, and transhumanist thinker whose work concentrates on existential risk, life extension, and the theoretical and technological pathways to human resurrection. Educated in physics and art history at Moscow State University, he has been an active figure in the Russian transhumanist movement since 2007 and a contributor to the Arch Mission Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving human knowledge across deep time. Turchin has written extensively on what he frames as a multilevel strategy for immortality: Plan A (defeating aging), Plan B (cryonics), Plan C (digital immortality), and Plan D (multiverse or quantum immortality). His philosophical work engages questions of personal identity, the nature of the connectome, and the informational basis of human consciousness—arguing that death is, at its core, a loss of information, and that resurrection is therefore a project of information reconstruction. Drawing on the Russian cosmist tradition, especially Nikolai Fedorov’s vision of the universal resurrection of the dead, Turchin argues that a sufficiently advanced superintelligent AI could simulate all of human history in enough detail to reconstruct every person who ever lived, transferring them into personalized continuations of existence. This vision resonates deeply with Mormon transhumanist hopes for technological resurrection and the redemption of the dead. At the 2019 Mormon Transhumanist Association Conference, themed “Redeeming Our Dead,” Turchin presented these ideas directly, proposing that benevolent superintelligences—far outnumbering malevolent ones across the universe—would be the natural agents of such a project. His work treats moral seriousness as inseparable from technical aspiration: questions of consent, unnecessary suffering, and the ethics of simulated existence are not afterthoughts but load-bearing concerns. In this sense, Turchin exemplifies the cosmist conviction that intelligence, at sufficient scale, becomes a redemptive force—a conviction that Mormon transhumanism, with its own doctrine of eternal progression and compassionate creation, finds deeply familiar.

Allen Hansen was raised in northern Israel within the LDS faith, an experience that has profoundly shaped his academic and personal interests. His interdisciplinary scholarship spans a wide range of subjects, reflecting his diverse background and intellectual curiosity. Hansen’s research interests are particularly focused on the intersection of Mormonism, Judaism, and Biblical studies, with a keen interest in late antiquity. He also has scholarly interests in journalism, as well as Eastern European and Middle Eastern studies. This breadth allows him to explore unique connections between seemingly disparate fields. Hansen also brings a practical dimension to his scholarship through interests in business management and positive psychology, both of which he frames through the lens of Zion — exploring how organizational design and individual well-being might serve a larger communal vision. This thread of his work aligns naturally with the Mormon Transhumanist Association's broader project of bridging faith and posthumanism.

Allen Leigh is a veteran software engineer, electrical engineer, and author whose work seeks to harmonize the rigors of technical science with the principles of Latter-day Saint theology. With a professional career spanning forty-four years in the software industry and a background in electrical engineering, Leigh brings a pragmatic, systems-based perspective to religious inquiry, focusing on the structural mechanics of creation and eternity. Leigh’s intellectual contributions are best encapsulated in his book, One Mormon’s View of the Science-Religion Debate and the Quest for Eternity . In this text, he navigates the often-contentious boundary between empirical evidence and spiritual belief, arguing that the two disciplines are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary frameworks for understanding the universe. His work suggests that the perceived rift between science and religion often stems from a misunderstanding of the methodologies inherent to both. A key figure in discussions on Mormon Transhumanism, Leigh has applied his technical expertise to theological cosmology. His presentation at the MTAConf 2009 entitled “God, the Perfect Engineer” focused on the concept of “engineering design cycles”—the iterative processes used to plan, build, test, and refine complex systems. Leigh proposed a model in which God functions as a Master Engineer, utilizing similar design cycles in the creation of the earth. This framework raises profound questions regarding the nature of divine omnipotence and the practical realities of creation. By drawing parallels to earthly engineering projects—which are subject to constraints, iterations, and the risk of failure—Leigh investigates whether the creation of the earth followed a similar, non-linear path. He challenges his audience to consider if a divine creation project could, in theory, fail, and what the implications of such a failure would be for our understanding of God’s plan. Through this lens, Leigh encourages a view of the cosmos that appreciates the intricate, perhaps even experimental, nature of existence.

Ally Isom is a business and community leader with a diverse background spanning public service, corporate strategy, and political engagement. Currently a Republican candidate for the United States Senate in Utah, she brings a wealth of experience to the political arena. Isom has demonstrated a commitment to fostering authentic human connection, a theme echoed throughout her work and personal interests. This dedication aligns with the Mormon Transhumanist Association’s focus on leveraging technology to enhance human potential and spiritual growth. Prior to her senatorial bid, Isom held prominent positions in Utah state government, including Deputy Chief of Staff and spokesperson for Governor Gary Herbert. She also served in public affairs, communication, and branding roles within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her career transitioned into the private sector, where she served as Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer and, eventually, acting executive officer for Evok Nano, a company focused on innovation and technology. Isom’s presentation at MTAConf 2022 highlighted the vital importance of human connection, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. She explored the neuroscience behind connection, emphasizing its role in strengthening the immune system, promoting mental and emotional well-being, and fostering spiritual growth. This perspective resonates with transhumanist ideals of enhancing human capabilities and experiences through technology and community engagement. Outside of her professional life, Isom enjoys a variety of activities, including riding, hiking, cooking, and indulging in her favorite dish, mole poblano, preferably enjoyed on a beach with a good book. She is married to Eric and they have four children and five grandchildren.

Amit Goswami is a scientist and researcher who challenges mainstream scientific materialism, particularly in its application to consciousness, health, and healing. He advocates for the integration of spirituality with medicine and seeks to demonstrate the importance of consciousness in these areas—a view often dismissed by conventional scientific paradigms. Goswami draws heavily on the principles of quantum physics to argue for a reality where consciousness plays a fundamental role. He posits that the prevailing materialistic worldview, which treats the body and mind as mere machines, inhibits our understanding of health, healing, and the human experience. He believes that quantum physics offers an alternative perspective, one that acknowledges the subjective aspect of consciousness and its potential impact on our well-being. At a 2013 conference jointly organized by the Integrative Health Network and the Mormon Transhumanist Association, Goswami presented on “Quantum Physics, Consciousness and Health.” He emphasized the disconnect between the implications of quantum physics and its public perception, suggesting that media and academia have perpetuated materialistic concepts to the detriment of a more holistic understanding of consciousness and its potential for influencing health and personal agency. His work attempts to bridge the gap between scientific inquiry and spiritual understanding, encouraging a reevaluation of the role of consciousness in our lives.