Videos

Peter Wicks, a mathematician and policy researcher who describes himself as an atheist, offers a sympathetic but critical examination of religious transhumanism. While acknowledging that religious transhumanists can serve as valuable bridges to religious communities and as dissenting voices within the predominantly secular movement, he warns that religious language may lack the precision needed to navigate toward a transcendent future. Wicks identifies several “limiting beliefs” to avoid—including assumptions that faith must mean belief in God, that transcendent experiences require religious interpretation, and that aesthetics and emotion must be channeled through spirituality—and urges all transhumanists, religious or otherwise, to question even their most cherished beliefs.

Richard Bushman traces the heritage of Mormon transhumanism back through John Widtsoe and B. H. Roberts, who believed Mormonism’s “eternalism”—its rejection of creation ex nihilo—made it uniquely compatible with science. Bushman poses the provocative question: “Are there laboratories in heaven?” He outlines three models for how human science might relate to divine knowledge—textbook study, investigative learning, or a “plural science” where our discoveries possess unique value. If science reveals eternal truths, he concludes, then seeking knowledge becomes not just fun speculation but a serious religious obligation.

A playful musical parody of the Gershwin classic “They All Laughed,” rewritten with Mormon Transhumanist Association in-jokes. The lyrics celebrate doubted visionaries—from Columbus and Edison to Gordon Moore and Steve Jobs—and conclude with the transhumanist punchline: “They all say we’ll never be immortal, darling. Let’s show them how.”

Terryl Givens traces the intertwined history of theosis (becoming like God) and premortal existence from Plato through the early Church Fathers, showing how Tertullian and others rejected preexistence precisely because it implied equality with God—a blurring of the creature-creator divide. He argues that contemporary anxiety about theosis rests on mistaken assumptions about divine power, suggesting instead that God’s nature, as revealed in Joseph Smith’s vision of Enoch, is defined by infinite empathy and suffering rather than sovereignty. This reconception, Givens proposes, aligns with recent theological shifts toward a “suffering God” and opens space for a theosis grounded not in dominion but in compassion.

Adam Davis explores the tension between materialism and free will within a Latter-day Saint framework. He outlines the “basic argument” against free will—that we cannot be ultimately responsible for our actions unless we are the cause of ourselves—and suggests that Mormon theology offers a unique solution through the doctrine of uncreated, eternal intelligences. Davis argues that for intelligent matter to serve as the genuine source of agency, it must receive information simultaneously rather than sequentially, and he proposes that quantum superposition may provide the mechanism by which perception and memory can interface with an irreducible core of agency. He concludes that artificial intelligence, being created rather than uncreate, likely cannot achieve true free will.

Adam Davis, a physicist at Wayne State College, explores the concept of spirit matter—a theological necessity in Latter-day Saint belief—through a scientific lens. He examines three models: the “mirror model” (spirit matter mirroring physical matter), the “computational model” (spirit matter as information-based reality), and the “phase model” (different states of matter interaction). Finding problems with each approach, Davis concludes that while no current model fully explains spirit matter, continued exploration through eliminative reasoning can help narrow the focus toward viable theories.

Allen Leigh compares God’s process of creation to the engineering design cycle, arguing that God is “the perfect engineer” who works within eternal natural laws rather than creating those laws from nothing. Drawing on LDS scriptures, he proposes that God organized preexisting matter according to eternal principles—much as human engineers design devices using known physical laws. Leigh addresses whether God’s creation could fail, noting that Alma taught God would “cease to be God” if certain moral laws were violated, but concludes that the scriptures and God’s track record of creating “worlds without number” provide assurance of divine reliability.

Carl Youngblood presents an introduction to Mormon transhumanism, drawing parallels between LDS doctrines and transhumanist concepts. He examines how Mormon teachings about the dispensation of the fullness of times, the millennium, immortality, and eternal progression align with transhumanist ideas about technological epochs, the singularity, and posthuman potential. Youngblood explains exponential growth through parables both ancient and modern, discusses how miracles may have natural explanations yet to be discovered, and explores the simulation argument’s theological implications. He concludes by reflecting on tensions between passive faith in future redemption and the active work transhumanism suggests we must undertake to achieve God’s purposes.

This Q&A session addresses a variation of the Fermi paradox in light of Ray Kurzweil’s sixth epoch of evolution, in which the universe “wakes up” and becomes infused with intelligence. If an advanced civilization could theoretically awaken the universe, why is it not already awake? One panelist suggests that such awakening would proceed outward from wherever a civilization originated, potentially far from us, and is limited by the matter available in the universe. Another panelist offers a provocative alternative: perhaps advanced civilizations do communicate with us, but through means we struggle to verify—namely, the long history of humanity’s claimed contact with the divine. These experiences, dismissed by thinkers like Nick Bostrom, might actually constitute evidence of communication from advanced beings that we will only fully recognize when we ourselves become “neo-humans” or gods.

Carl Youngblood draws striking parallels between Mormon theology and transhumanist thought, demonstrating how concepts like the “dispensation of the fullness of times” correspond to technological epochs, the millennium to the singularity, and the Mormon doctrine of becoming gods to transhumanist visions of posthumanity. He explains exponential growth through vivid examples—from rice on a chessboard to Moore’s Law—and argues that by 2045, a thousand dollars will buy computing power exceeding all human brains combined. Youngblood suggests that Mormonism can inform transhumanism with its emphasis on love and inclusive access to technology, while transhumanism can invigorate Mormon faith by providing rational foundations for doctrines of resurrection and immortality.