Authors

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists in human history. His contributions to physics fundamentally reshaped humanity’s understanding of space, time, energy, and the cosmos. Born in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire, Einstein developed the special and general theories of relativity, and his mass–energy equivalence formula, E = mc², has been called the world’s most famous equation. In 1921, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, a pivotal contribution to the development of quantum theory. Einstein held academic positions at the University of Zurich, Charles University in Prague, the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and, after emigrating to the United States in 1933, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where he remained until his death. Beyond his scientific achievements, Einstein was a profound philosophical thinker who often reflected on the relationship between science, mystery, and what he described as a “cosmic religious feeling.” He expressed deep reverence for the rational structure of the universe, once stating that “the most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.” While not religiously orthodox, his sense of awe at the intelligibility of nature resonates with transhumanist and theological themes of humanity’s capacity to comprehend and participate in the divine order of creation. Einstein’s legacy speaks powerfully to the Mormon Transhumanist vision: his life exemplifies the extraordinary potential of the human mind to transcend prior limitations, to unveil deeper truths about reality, and to expand the horizon of what humanity can know and become.

Aubrey de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist based in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and Mountain View, California. He is recognized for his work in combating the aging process and is a frequent speaker at events focused on the intersection of science, ethics, and longevity. De Grey serves as the Chief Science Officer of SENS Research Foundation, a California-based nonprofit dedicated to developing and promoting therapies to reverse aging. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research , a leading peer-reviewed journal focused on intervention in aging. De Grey is best known for developing Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), a comprehensive plan for repairing the accumulating molecular and cellular damage that constitutes mammalian aging. SENS breaks aging down into seven major classes of damage and identifies detailed approaches to addressing each one.

Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis (354–430), commonly known as Augustine of Hippo or Saint Augustine, was a theologian, philosopher, and Bishop of Hippo Regius in Roman North Africa. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. Augustine's major works include Confessions , a pioneering spiritual autobiography, and The City of God , a monumental defense of Christianity against pagan criticism following the sack of Rome. His theological contributions shaped doctrines on original sin, divine grace, predestination, and the nature of the Trinity. Before his conversion to Christianity, he explored Manichaeism and Neoplatonism, and his synthesis of Christian doctrine with classical philosophy profoundly influenced medieval thought, the Protestant Reformation, and modern philosophy alike. Augustine's concept of deificatio (divinization) — the idea that humanity is called to participate in the divine nature — resonates with Mormon Transhumanist themes of theosis and the elevation of human potential. His emphasis on humanity's restless longing for God ("Our hearts are restless until they rest in You") speaks to a vision of human beings as fundamentally oriented toward transcendence. However, significant tensions exist between Augustine's theology and Mormon Transhumanist thought. Augustine's doctrine of original sin and total human depravity, his skepticism of unaided human will, and his emphasis on predestination stand in marked contrast to Latter-day Saint affirmations of human agency, moral capacity, and an optimistic anthropology. Additionally, Augustine's commitment to creatio ex nihilo and the absolute ontological distinction between Creator and creature diverges from Mormon theology's more materialist and continuity-oriented understanding of God and humanity. Nevertheless, Augustine's enduring call to seek wisdom, his insistence that faith and reason are complementary, and his vision of humanity's ultimate union with the divine ensure his lasting relevance to conversations at the intersection of faith, philosophy, and human flourishing.

Brigham Henry Roberts (1857–1933) was an English-born Latter-day Saint leader, historian, theologian, and politician who became one of Mormonism’s foremost intellectuals. He served as a member of the First Council of the Seventy for nearly five decades and produced foundational works of Church history and theology that shaped Latter-day Saint scholarship throughout the twentieth century. Born into poverty in Warrington, Lancashire, England, Roberts’s childhood was marked by hardship. His father struggled with alcoholism and gambling, leading Roberts to later describe his early years as “a nightmare” and “a tragedy.” After both parents converted to the Church in 1857, his mother emigrated to Utah in 1862, leaving young Roberts in England. In 1866, at age nine, he walked much of the way across the plains—often barefoot—to reach Salt Lake City and reunite with his family. Roberts graduated first in his class from the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah) in 1878. He served multiple missions, including as president of the Southern States Mission beginning in 1883. During this assignment, he faced the tragedy of the Cane Creek Massacre in 1884, personally recovering the bodies of two murdered missionaries while disguised to protect his identity. Like many Latter-day Saint men of his era, he served prison time for practicing plural marriage. In 1888, Roberts became one of the seven presidents of the First Council of the Seventy, the Church’s third-highest governing body, a position he held until his death. He also served as Assistant Church Historian from 1902 to 1933. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1898, Congress denied him his seat due to national concerns about polygamy—a pivotal moment in early twentieth-century political history. Roberts’s scholarly output was prodigious. He edited the seven-volume History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and independently authored the six-volume Comprehensive History of the Church . His theological masterwork, The Truth, the Way, and the Life , remained unpublished during his lifetime due to debates with Church leadership over his assertions regarding earth’s age and organic evolution. A “defender of the faith,” he argued that religious truth could withstand rigorous academic examination, contributing to the development of Mormon apologetics while maintaining intellectual honesty about challenges to faith.

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath, statesman, scientist, inventor, writer, printer, philosopher, and Founding Father of the United States. Among the most influential intellectuals of the Enlightenment, Franklin earned the title “The First American” for his tireless advocacy of colonial unity and his diplomatic efforts to secure French support during the American Revolution. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Franklin received only two years of formal schooling before beginning work in his father’s candlemaking shop. At age twelve, he became an apprentice to his brother James, a printer, where he developed his love of reading and writing. By age seventeen, he had run away to Philadelphia, where he would build his fortune and reputation. Franklin’s scientific contributions were remarkable. His experiments with electricity, including the famous kite experiment, established the nature of lightning and led to the invention of the lightning rod. He also invented bifocal glasses, the Franklin stove, and the glass armonica. His curiosity extended to oceanography, meteorology, and demography. As a civic leader, Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society, the first lending library, the University of Pennsylvania, and the first fire department in Philadelphia. His wit and wisdom, expressed through Poor Richard’s Almanack, shaped American culture for generations. Franklin’s vision of human progress through science and reason resonates strongly with transhumanist thought. His belief that future generations would master nature, extend human life, and achieve powers beyond imagination prefigured modern discussions of technological enhancement and human flourishing.

Bryce Haymond is an independent scholar and writer exploring the intersection of Mormonism, mysticism, and the potential for human transcendence. His interest in these areas was sparked five years prior to his MTA conference presentation, when he experienced a profound and transformative feeling he describes as an overwhelming creative muse. This experience led him on a journey to understand higher states of consciousness and mystical experiences. Haymond’s research has led him to engage with the work of scholars such as Mark Koltko-Rivera, Hugh Nibley, Margaret Barker, and William Hamblin, focusing on diverse forms of mysticism. He believes there is an ultimate shared divine reality behind mystical experiences. He has distilled his research into a forthcoming book and shares extended versions of his ideas on his website, thymindoman.com. In his MTA conference talk, Haymond described his unique views on the potential of humanity and overcoming assumed limitations.

Chelsea Shields is a biocultural anthropologist, TED Fellow, and researcher whose work explores the evolutionary foundations of religious belief and the physiological power of social connection. Raised in a Latter-day Saint family in Utah, she went on to earn dual PhDs in biological and cultural anthropology from Boston University in 2017. Shields’ academic research focuses on the concept of social susceptibility—how human bodies have evolved to be deeply responsive to social interaction and meaning-making. Over the course of a decade, she conducted extensive fieldwork with Asante indigenous healers in central Ghana, studying the evolution and elicitation of placebo and nocebo effects in ritual healing ceremonies. Her dissertation, “The Social Life of Placebos,” argues that grounding human behavior in social adaptations reveals important discoveries across placebo studies, religion, pain, stress, and empathy. She presented at the 2014 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association on the evolutionary psychology of religion, examining how religious belief functions as a powerful biocultural force—shaping neural development, social bonding, and coping mechanisms—and how understanding these processes is essential for anyone thinking seriously about the future of the human brain and body. Shields is a three-time TED speaker, an advocate for gender equality within religious communities, and founder of Brandthropologie Agency, where she applies her research in social susceptibility and nonverbal communication to brand strategy and consumer research. She lives in Salt Lake City with her family.

David Harold Bailey is a distinguished American mathematician and computer scientist whose work has fundamentally altered the landscape of computational number theory. A pioneer in the field of experimental mathematics, Bailey is perhaps best known for co-discovering the Bailey-Borwein-Plouffe (BBP) formula, an algorithm that allows for the calculation of the n-th binary digit of pi without calculating the preceding digits—a feat previously thought impossible. Born in 1948, Bailey pursued his education at Brigham Young University, where he received his B.S. in mathematics in 1972, followed by a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1976. His career spanned decades at the forefront of high-performance computing, including fourteen years at the NASA Ames Research Center and fifteen years as a Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Bailey’s most famous contribution, the BBP formula, was published in a 1997 paper co-authored with Peter Borwein and Simon Plouffe. This discovery not only revolutionized how irrational constants could be computed but also provided deep insights into the question of "normality"—whether the digits of constants like pi are statistically random. Beyond pure mathematics, Bailey has made significant strides in numerical analysis and parallel computing. He is a co-author of the NAS Benchmarks, a standard metric for assessing the performance of supercomputers, and has conducted critical research into financial mathematics, warning against "pseudo-mathematics" and statistical overfitting in financial markets. A devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Bailey actively works to bridge the gap between scientific inquiry and religious faith. He operates the website Science Meets Religion , where he advocates for the harmonization of modern science—including evolution and cosmology—with theology. He argues that scientific truth and religious truth are complementary parts of a greater whole, a perspective that resonates deeply with the transhumanist pursuit of truth through both spiritual and technological means.

David Brin (born 1950) is an American scientist and science fiction author widely recognized for his explorations of technological progress, accountability, and the future trajectory of human civilization. A physicist by training, with a PhD from the University of California, San Diego, Brin has become one of the most prominent voices in contemporary science fiction, celebrated for works that grapple seriously with the responsibilities that accompany advancing knowledge and power. Brin is perhaps best known for his Uplift series, which imagines a galaxy in which elder species genetically elevate (or “uplift”) younger species to sapience, creating complex webs of patronage and obligation. The series earned him multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and introduced themes that resonate deeply with transhumanist thought: the idea that intelligence and consciousness can be cultivated, expanded, and shared across species, and that such uplift carries profound moral responsibilities. His standalone novel The Postman (1985), later adapted into a film, explores how communities rebuild civilization after catastrophe through acts of hope and civic trust. His nonfiction work The Transparent Society (1998) argues that openness and mutual accountability, rather than secrecy, are the best safeguards for freedom in an age of pervasive technology. Brin is a self-described advocate of the Enlightenment tradition, championing science, democratic governance, and an optimistic but critical view of human progress. He has been vocal in futurist and transhumanist circles, generally supporting the idea that humanity can and should use technology to improve the human condition, overcome biological limitations, and expand into the cosmos. His vision of “otherness”—the moral imperative to consider perspectives beyond one’s own—aligns with broader transhumanist commitments to expanding empathy and capability. From the perspective of Mormon Transhumanism, Brin’s work offers rich resonances: his uplift narratives echo themes of theosis and compassionate creation, wherein more advanced beings extend their capacities to others—a pattern the New God Argument finds deeply meaningful. His emphasis on accountability and transparency complements the Mormon Transhumanist commitment to ethical stewardship of technology. Where Brin’s views may diverge is in his secular, Enlightenment-centered framework; he generally frames progress in terms of human reason and democratic institutions rather than divine grace, prophetic authority, or the restored Gospel. He has at times expressed skepticism toward religious institutions as arbiters of truth. Nevertheless, his abiding faith in humanity’s capacity for moral growth and his insistence that advanced power demands advanced compassion place him in substantial sympathy with the Mormon Transhumanist vision of becoming compassionate creators.

David Elieser Deutsch (born 1953) is a British-Israeli physicist at the University of Oxford, widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of quantum computation. A Fellow of the Royal Society, Deutsch has profoundly shaped our understanding of the physical world and the nature of reality itself. Deutsch earned his PhD from the University of Oxford and has spent much of his career at the Clarendon Laboratory. In 1985, he published a landmark paper describing the first universal quantum computer, demonstrating that a quantum mechanical system could simulate any physical process—a breakthrough that launched the field of quantum computing. He further contributed to the development of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm, one of the earliest demonstrations of quantum computational advantage. His intellectual framework draws heavily on the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics championed by Hugh Everett. Beyond his technical contributions, Deutsch is renowned as a public intellectual and author. His books The Fabric of Reality (1997) and The Beginning of Infinity (2011) weave together quantum physics, epistemology, the theory of computation, and the theory of evolution into a unified worldview. In The Beginning of Infinity , he argues that problems are soluble through the creation of knowledge, and that there is no fundamental limit to human progress—a deeply optimistic vision of unbounded human potential. Deutsch’s philosophy resonates with transhumanist themes central to the Mormon Transhumanist Association’s mission. His conviction that human beings are not cosmically insignificant but are instead “universal explainers” capable of unlimited understanding and transformation of reality echoes theological ideas of theosis and humanity’s divine potential. His insistence that the reach of human knowledge and creativity is genuinely infinite offers a scientific and philosophical foundation for hope in humanity’s capacity to transcend current limitations.