Videos

Keynote speakers Eric Steinhart and Rosalind Picard join the MTA conference panel for a discussion ranging from the nature of conflict in heavenly realms to the future of religious authority and gender equality in Mormonism. Participants explore how free will and conflicting desires relate to divine love, the material basis of both resistance and cooperation, and whether the “degrees of glory” represent physical separation or states of being. The conversation touches on the evolving role of women in the LDS church, reinterpretations of the family proclamation, and the possibility that radical religious change could occur faster than expected.

Tom W. Bell presents a seven-step philosophical argument exploring whether our universe might be “authored”—created by beings similar to ourselves with advanced technology. Drawing on Nick Bostrom’s simulation hypothesis, Bell argues that if simulated universes are possible, we almost certainly inhabit one, and that such universes would tend toward equality with their creators over time. He proposes that our universe may be “fertile”—capable of reproduction—and suggests that humanity’s purpose may be to help the universe reproduce, finding meaning and fulfillment in the process of creation itself.

Three Mormon Transhumanist Association members explore the intersections of religion, gender, and technology. The first speaker examines how post-secularism challenges the assumption that religion is fading, arguing instead that religion—understood as meaning-making systems—permeates even secular endeavors like environmentalism and science. A second presenter deconstructs binary notions of gender, highlighting biological complexity, transgender identity, and how reproductive technologies may expand possibilities for procreation beyond traditional forms. The final speaker delivers an allegorical “open letter to the lost children of Mormonism,” using Nietzsche’s three metamorphoses to describe the journey from orthodoxy to disaffection, calling for reconciliation with the “sacred feminine” to find a path forward.

Christopher Bradford’s presentation explores the intersection of transhumanism and Mormonism, focusing on the potential for technological advancements to enhance human experience and align with Mormon eschatology. He introduces the Mormon Transhumanist Association, an organization dedicated to integrating religious values into the transhumanist movement and bridging gaps between faith and science within Mormonism. Bradford emphasizes the importance of understanding exponential growth, using Moore’s Law and illustrative examples to highlight the rapid pace of technological change and its profound social and economic implications, urging a prophetic response to these advancements.

Cynthia Bailey Lee, computer science lecturer at Stanford University, addresses the underrepresentation of women in technology and presents a hands-on solution designed for LDS stakes. She explains how girls drop out of STEM around middle school age, partly because computing isn’t framed as helping others—a motivation research shows strongly drives girls. Lee describes an activity she developed where Young Women learn basic coding concepts (RGB color codes, ASCII binary) and then teach Activity Day girls, framing the experience as service rather than self-interest. The program includes making binary-coded name bracelets as “talismans against the patriarchy” and requires no coding knowledge from adult leaders. Lee argues that financial independence through tech careers would transform Mormon women’s power both in their marriages and in the church.

Jake Spurlock, a software engineer at Wired, examines how technology has historically disrupted religion—from the Gutenberg press enabling the Reformation to the internet challenging institutional control over information. He traces this pattern through Mormon history, from the printing of the Book of Mormon to the church’s contemporary efforts to manage its online presence through search engine optimization. Spurlock argues that in an age when “information wants to be free,” the church must embrace transparency and education rather than attempting to control the message, ultimately suggesting that truth emerges triumphant through open competition in the marketplace of ideas.

Software engineer Michelle Glauser recounts her journey from a Mormon upbringing in Salt Lake City—where career conversations for girls centered on marriage and motherhood—to becoming a Python developer in San Francisco. Despite early interests in computers, she never saw tech as a viable path until discovering Hackbright Academy. Glauser co-created the viral #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign to challenge stereotypes about who belongs in technology, and she now advocates for coding education and more intellectual conversations with girls and women in Latter-day Saint communities.

Robert A. Rees explores how technology functions as a “two-edged sword” in Mormonism—enabling both the spread of the gospel and the proliferation of harmful content like pornography and cyberbullying. Drawing on historical examples from Cain’s tools to modern surveillance, he examines how the LDS Church has embraced technological innovation while also warning members of its spiritual dangers. Rees argues that without cultivating what he calls “human technology”—love, compassion, and empathy—our mechanical and digital advances become mere “improved means to unimproved ends.”

This presentation reframes the Atonement of Jesus Christ as an “instrumental cause”—focusing on the behaviors it should promote rather than treating it as an abstract object of worship. The speaker argues that conventional approaches to the Atonement tend toward passivity or self-centered repentance, whereas Jesus’s example calls believers to take active responsibility for evil and death in the world. Drawing on Rilke’s poetry and contrasting Jesus with Eichmann’s refusal of moral responsibility, the talk urges a shift from worshiping the Atonement to practicing it through direct engagement with human suffering.

Brent Allsop presents a theoretical framework for scientifically detecting and measuring qualia—the subjective qualities of conscious experience like redness or pain. He argues that bridging the “explanatory gap” between physical brain states and conscious experience requires developing proper mapping functions that translate between neural activity and qualitative experience. Using a simplified three-color world as a thought experiment, Allsop demonstrates how scientists might detect inverted qualia between individuals and “eff the ineffable” by establishing direct brain-to-brain connections that share elemental conscious experiences.