science

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.

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.