Videos

Dr. Scott Stornetta, whose pre-Bitcoin research constitutes three of the eight citations in the Bitcoin white paper, shares the spiritual backstory of blockchain’s invention. While working to prove that immutable digital records were impossible without trusted central authorities, he experienced a breakthrough insight: “What if we made the entire world the witness?” He frames blockchain as an “inverse panopticon” where collective witnessing eliminates the need to trust privileged authorities. Drawing on Latter-day Saint scripture about surety and abundance, Stornetta cautions against technological utopianism while affirming blockchain’s potential to end asymmetric information access—yet emphasizes that empathy, not technology, is the true superpower that triumphs over every obstruction.

A panel discussion featuring Dr. Tomicah Tillemann, Laura Shin, and Dr. Neal Davis explores the intersection of faith, blockchain technology, and the future of society. Tillemann, whose grandmother was a Holocaust survivor who found reconciliation in Mormonism’s teaching that Christ is Jehovah, discusses how blockchain enables new forms of organization beyond the traditional corporation. Shin, host of the Unchained podcast, observes parallels between Mormon values and blockchain’s emphasis on decentralization and inclusivity. Davis advocates for transhumanism that emphasizes the “humanism,” using technology to fulfill rather than supersede human nature. The panelists offer advice to Mormon transhumanists: occupy the unique intersection of faith and technology where breakthroughs occur, go all in on faith, and move from descriptive aspiration to prescriptive action by building concrete projects.

Dr. Suzanne Harrison, a Utah state legislator and physician, discusses innovative policies the Utah legislature has implemented to address healthcare, water conservation, and business development. She highlights her work establishing the National Diabetes Prevention Program for Medicaid patients—a lifestyle intervention that saves $2,500 per patient and proves more effective than medication. Harrison also describes new water conservation legislation to save the Great Salt Lake and the creation of a regulatory sandbox that allows businesses to innovate with reduced regulatory burden, including recent bills enabling cryptocurrency tax payments and establishing a blockchain task force.

Tom W. Bell, a legal scholar at Chapman University, presents his work on decentralized governance through special jurisdictions and open-source legal systems. He describes three projects where he has helped implement ULEX, an open-source legal operating system: Prospera in Honduras, the Catawba Indian Nation’s Green Earth Zone in South Carolina, and the Free Society Project. Bell argues that these “common law zones” offer an alternative to traditional nation-states by providing flag-free, internationally recognized legal frameworks that optimize for economic development and individual liberty while respecting the sovereignty concerns of host nations.

Dr. Tomicah Tillemann presents three principles for navigating a decentralized future. He argues that authority—long centralized in governments, banks, and religious institutions—is being radically democratized through Web3 technologies. Drawing parallels to the 1830 restoration of priesthood authority, Tillemann contends that communities will become the cornerstone of value creation, replacing the atomized, surveillance-driven models of Web2. He frames the current digital landscape as a form of feudalism and points to Ukraine’s use of blockchain for crowdfunding and data preservation as evidence that decentralized tools can replenish societal trust.

Vinay Gupta, founder of the blockchain company Materium and inventor of the Hexayurt refugee shelter, introduces the concept of “moral computing”—using technology to address the “moral toxins” that accumulate when consumers unknowingly support exploitative labor practices or environmental harm. He argues that while supply chain information about products already exists, it remains siloed within distant organizations, leaving consumers unable to make informed ethical choices. By combining blockchain’s transparency with Gandhian principles of fair trade, Gupta envisions a future where purchasing automatically triggers offsetting actions—like carbon credits—and where machine-readable specifications allow people to automate their moral preferences, filtering out goods produced under questionable conditions.

This MTA podcast episode features a live-streamed discussion among Mormon Transhumanist Association members. The conversation covers a range of topics relevant to transhumanist thought and Mormon theology, exploring questions at the intersection of technology, faith, and human potential. As a community-focused format, the podcast provides an informal setting for association members to engage with ideas central to the MTA’s mission of ethical technology use in the pursuit of human flourishing.

Caleb Jones explores how video game environments model humanity’s relationship with nature, distinguishing between passive worlds that serve merely as resources and active worlds that create feedback loops with players. Drawing on Linda Chang’s book Playing Nature, he analyzes games from Minecraft’s indifferent landscape to ECO’s sophisticated ecological simulation, using frame analysis to uncover their ontological, normative, and strategic assumptions. Jones connects this to Mormon transhumanism by mapping the Transhumanist Declaration and Mormon Transhumanist Affirmation onto this framework, suggesting that virtual worlds could teach ecological concepts and embody a distinctly Mormon transhumanist environmental ethic.

This closing session roundtable discussion from the 2020 MTA conference explores the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on global interconnectedness. Participants highlight encouraging developments—from a seventeen-year-old creating a widely-used pandemic dashboard to international cooperation on medical technology and the rapid expansion of remote work and education. The conversation turns to what the MTA can do during the crisis, with participants emphasizing the need to balance transhumanist optimism with genuine empathy for those suffering, the importance of understanding exponential growth’s implications, and the opportunity to strengthen the broader transhumanist movement through increased virtual collaboration.

Jeff Beck, a farmer and technologist, explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and agriculture. He discusses how modern farming is moving beyond monocultures and factory farming toward complex systems that leverage AI for precision agriculture—including targeted weed control, predictive maintenance through vibration sensors, and drone-based surveillance for crop monitoring. Beck emphasizes the distinction between natural and artificial intelligence, noting that farmers already use automated systems like robotic milking machines, while emerging technologies from companies like Blue River (acquired by John Deere) enable real-time plant species identification for selective spraying.