Call for Papers for 2014 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association
We cordially invite you to submit papers, artwork, photography, poetry, and music for the 2014 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, which will be held on April 4th, 2014, in Salt Lake City, UT. The aim of this conference is to address the many issues and topics that lie at the intersection of technology and religion, and their impacts on society, and culture including art, music, and entertainment. Contributions need not focus only on specifically Mormon religious issues.
Selected artwork will be displayed at the venue during the conference. Poetry and music may be chosen to be presented or performed during the conference (similar to the choral performances last year).
Papers should be approximately two to seven pages in length.
Authors of accepted papers will be given either 5 or 15 minutes to present the ideas in their papers at the conference depending on whether their papers are accepted for a short or for a long presentation.
A selection of the best of these contributions (including the poetry and artwork) will subsequently be published in the conference proceedings, which will be made available online and potentially in print form. Therefore, papers should be written with the intent of eventual publication in mind (full citations, references, footnotes, etc.). Authors whose papers are selected for publication will be given an editor to work with, to prepare their final paper for publication.
Among the suggested topics are:
Mormonism Religion, Anti-Religion and Fundamentalism; Authentic Mormonism; God, Gods and Godhood; Trusting and Being Christ; From the Fullness of Times to the Millennium; Immortality and Eternal Life in Worlds without End; Gender, Sexuality, and Mormonism; Race and Mormonism; Mormonism and Technological Change; The Future of Mormonism
Transhumanism Transhuman-ism and Trans-humanism; Evolution and the Great Filter Argument; Moore’s Law, Kurzweil’s Law and the Technological Singularity; The Pace of Technological Change; Evolution; The Evolution of Technology; Simulation Argument; Solar Energy; Genome Sequencing; Synthetic Biology; 3D Printing; Genetics and Biotech; Nanotech and Molecular Machines; Robotics and Artificial Intelligence; Substrate Independent Minds; Uploading; Consciousness; Cultural Impact of Technology; Helping Humans Adapt to the Pace of Technological Change; Equal Access to Technology; Ethical Challenges Presented by New Technology; Technology and the Underprivileged; Technology and the Developing World
Transfigurism Rejecting Fundamentalism; Rejecting Anti-Religiosity; Transfigurist Science; Transfigurist Politics; Transfigurist Art; Promoting Benevolence; Promoting Creativity; Engineering Transfiguration; Engineering Resurrection; Engineering Renewal of this World; Engineering Worlds without End; The Faith Assumption; The Angel Argument; The Benevolence Argument; The Creation Argument; The New God Argument; Morphological Freedom in Religion; Cognitive Liberty in Religion
Please send submissions in RTF, PDF, or MS Word format to [[email protected]], by email attachment. Include author's full name, contact information, and title.
Some funding is available to reimburse portions of travel for presenters. Please indicate interest in being considered for travel support in the submission email.
For more information, visit the official website of the Mormon Transhumanist Association at [transfigurism.org].
Important dates Conference Paper Deadline: February 1st. Presentation Notification Date: February 20th. Conference Presentation: April 4th, 2014 Best Paper Awards: May 1st, 2013 Final Editing of Best Papers: May 1st - September 1st, 2013 Camera Ready for Published Papers: September 1st, 2013
For further conference related questions please contact [[email protected]]. For further publication / formatting questions, please contact the publication editor, James L. Carroll, at [[email protected]].