2018 Annual Conference: Call for Papers
IMAGE: PHOTO OF WORLDS WITHOUT NUMBERS CONFERENCE APRIL 7
The Mormon Transhumanist Association is pleased to announce that this year's annual conference will take place on Saturday, 7 April 2018, in Provo, Utah. A conference venue will be announced shortly.
The theme of the conference is “Worlds without Number.”
As one of few post-enlightenment religions, Mormonism emerged in a context of exploding human awareness of the surrounding universe, and its canon reflects this. "Worlds without number have I created," wrote Joseph Smith in a revelation on the creation, ". . . and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God" (Moses 1:33, D&C 76:24).
These worlds are reflected not only in the night sky, but also in numerous stories and narratives that humans have recounted to one another from their earliest beginnings. Keenly aware of their own vulnerability and solitude in an ever-expanding universe, they have pondered on the nature of their existence and their relationship to beings both lesser and greater than themselves, adjusting these theologies as they gained greater awareness. Humanity has constantly looked beyond, imagining novel ways of interacting with its environment, new possibilities of being, and summoning its creative powers to articulate these visions in compelling ways.
What stories are we now telling, and what do they say about how we view ourselves and our place in the universe? What stories will we tell, and how will they shape our environment, our future, and the nature of our existence, for good or ill? What stories is it possible to tell, and what innumerable worlds will emerge from them?
PAPER SUBMISSION
We invite you to submit papers for the conference. 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, entertainment, and on society in general. Contributions need not focus only on specifically Mormon religious issues. Papers should be approximately two to seven pages in length and should include full citations, references, footnotes, etc. Presenters are encouraged to make use of multimedia aids, such as slides, to make their presentations more engaging. Potential conference topics include:
Philosophy, Theology and the Sociology of Religion: The secularization hypothesis and its implications for religion and religious organizations; post-secularization; ethics; faith and rationality; religious anthropology; philosophy of religion; scriptural hermeneutics; demythologization; postmodern religion; religious naturalism; social anthropology of technology; sociology of technology; technology and spirituality; feminism and gender issues; technology and gender.
Transhumanism: 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; mind uploading; consciousness; cultural impact of technology; coping with the pace of technological change; neuroscience.
Transfigurism: Human transcendence through ethical and technological advancement; religious transhumanism; 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 New God Argument.
Please send submissions in RTF, PDF, MS Word or Google Doc format to [[email protected]]. 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]. Recordings of presentations from previous years are available on our YouTubechannel.
Important Dates
Conference Paper Submission Deadline: 19 February 2018 Presentation Invitation Notification Date: 26 February 2018 Conference Date: 7 April 2018