# Humanity+ and the Transhumanist Declaration

The Transhumanist Declaration, one of the Mormon Transhumanist Association's two official position documents, presented word for word with an elaboration of each of its eight points.

A Brief History of the Declaration
The Transhumanist Declaration
The Transhumanist Declaration was originally drafted in 1998 by an international group of philosophers and scientists—including Nick Bostrom and David Pearce—under the auspices of the World Transhumanist Association (WTA). It was revised to its current eight-point form in 2009, when the WTA rebranded as Humanity+. The Declaration lays the foundation for a vision of Transhumanism that is widely accepted by transhumanists today, enumerating both goals to strive for and practices to achieve them.The Mormon Transhumanist Association’s relationship to this document runs deep. The MTA was founded on 3 March 2006 and formally affiliated with the World Transhumanist Association on 6 July 2006, making the Declaration a founding commitment of the Association from the very beginning. The MTA affirms the Declaration not out of institutional deference, but because its aspirations converge with Mormon teachings about eternal progression, theosis, and compassionate creation. You don’t have to hold a secular worldview to embrace the Declaration. Its aspirations are practical ones—wellbeing, the extension of human capability, attention to risk, inclusive deliberation—and Mormon theology arrives at the very same aspirations along its own path.The Transhumanist DeclarationWe elaborate on each point of the Declaration below. As with our approach to the Affirmation, this elaboration is illustrative rather than prescriptive: it represents one way Mormon Transhumanists understand the Declaration, not the only way.Point 1Humanity stands to be profoundly affected by science and technology in the future. We envision the possibility of broadening human potential by overcoming aging, cognitive shortcomings, involuntary suffering, and our confinement to planet Earth.The first point commits us to using science and technology to expand human potential and curtail the effects of old age and other forms of human suffering. For Mormon Transhumanists, this vision resonates with prophetic anticipations of transfiguration, immortality, and resurrection. Overcoming aging, involuntary suffering, and even our confinement to one world are not foreign ambitions grafted onto Mormonism; they echo the scriptural promise that “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26).Point 2We believe that humanity’s potential is still mostly unrealized. There are possible scenarios that lead to wonderful and exceedingly worthwhile enhanced human conditions.The second point expresses a belief that humanity’s potential is still largely unrealized. Mormonism teaches the same in theological terms: we are children of God, with a divine inheritance scarcely begun. The doctrine of eternal progression frames human potential as effectively inexhaustible—an open frontier rather than a fixed allotment.Point 3We recognize that humanity faces serious risks, especially from the misuse of new technologies. There are possible rea