Videos

Neylan McBaine, co-founder and CEO of Better Days 2020, explores how women can live beyond their lifetimes through her work on Utah women’s suffrage history. She identifies six pathways to lasting legacy—participating in dramatic acts, single-minded dedication to a principle, leaving material culture, holding public positions, maintaining written records, and mentoring—illustrated through figures like Emmeline B. Wells, Sarah Kimball, Martha Hughes Cannon, and Seraph Young. McBaine argues that excavating and amplifying these forgotten voices provides precedent and permission for contemporary women, particularly within Latter-day Saint culture, to advocate boldly for themselves and others.

Jeff Beck, a farmer and former research engineer, explores consciousness through the framework of dual aspect monism—the view that mind and matter are complementary aspects of a deeper, unified reality. Drawing on his background in systems dynamics and a transformative personal experience, Beck discusses how this philosophical approach might help bridge the gap between physical brain processes and subjective conscious experience. He examines qualia, the integration problem of consciousness, and proposes that understanding the correlation between subjective experience and physical processes at the molecular level could yield insights into both artificial intelligence and human well-being.

Ben Blair and Carl Youngblood share the stage in this dual presentation from the 2018 conference. Blair delivers a series of meditations—“Blood,” “Exorcising McConkie,” and “The Moral Genius of Christ”—challenging passive interpretations of Christianity that delegate all burden-bearing to Jesus, arguing instead for active discipleship that extends the work of Christ through human hands and advancing capabilities. Youngblood follows with a historical analysis comparing early Christian and Mormon innovation—from medieval agricultural advances to the settlement of the American West—with contemporary institutional complacency, urging a return to the audacious, world-changing mindset that once characterized both traditions.

Blaire Ostler traces the evolution of feminism through its four waves—from suffrage to intersectionality to cyber feminism—arguing that each wave moves closer to transhumanist ideals of genuine gender liberation. She critiques various feminist movements for their shortcomings, including liberal feminism’s adoption of patriarchal structures, radical feminism’s gender essentialism, and the “mean girl effect” of online call-out culture. Ostler argues that transhumanism offers the ultimate form of liberation: morphological freedom that transcends not only socio-political limitations but biological ones as well, enabling diverse forms of embodiment and reproduction. She challenges both feminists to embrace transhumanist technology and transhumanists to learn from feminism’s progress and pitfalls in pursuing liberation.

Bryce Haymond proposes that Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Mormon parallels the medieval alchemical tradition—a process that was both material and spiritual in nature. Drawing on Ann Taves’s materialization theory and Tibetan Buddhist concepts of hidden treasure texts, Haymond suggests Joseph may have created a physical representation of visionary gold plates, believing this act of co-creation would manifest the sacred reality he had seen in vision. The true “philosopher’s stone” Joseph discovered was not literal gold but the spiritual wisdom hidden within human consciousness—a transfiguration from treasure-seeking youth to one who realized that humanity itself is the true gold.

Charles Randall Paul addresses what he calls “teleomachy”—conflict over ultimate purposes—arguing that even in a post-scarcity future, disagreements about “what to do next” will persist among superhuman beings. Drawing on Mormon mythology of the war in heaven, he suggests this conflict prefigures what transhumans will face once material needs are solved. Paul proposes a framework distinguishing enemies, antagonists, agonists, allies, and friends, advocating for “agonism”—a form of respectful rivalry where deep disagreement occurs without coercion. He challenges the notion that knowledge alone ensures good behavior, arguing that what matters most in eternity is the free gift of love from free agents, something even God cannot command.

Chris Bradford explores the tension between technological instrumentalism and genuine human relationship, drawing on Martin Buber’s distinction between “I-It” and “I-Thou” encounters. He argues that a purely technological approach to the world risks reducing people and nature to mere objects, and that Mormon transhumanism must complement its technological aspirations with the cultivation of empathy, charity, and recognition of the divine in others. Bradford contends that the grace saturating the world—visible when our “eyes are opened”—calls disciples of Christ to see and serve God in every neighbor, making the transhumanist project a fundamentally religious endeavor.

Elizabeth Parrish, CEO of BioViva, presents her company’s pioneering work in targeting cellular aging through gene therapy. As a humanitarian entrepreneur and leading advocate for genetic cures, she discusses BioViva’s development of therapies designed to regenerate muscle and tissue at the cellular level. Parrish explores the scientific frontiers of healthy longevity and the potential for biotechnology to extend human healthspan.

This panel discussion features keynote speakers Liz Parrish, CEO of BioViva, and Melissa Inouye, a scholar of Chinese Christianity, exploring the intersection of life extension, gene therapy, and religious meaning. Parrish discusses her company’s work on regenerative gene therapies and the ethics of expanding access to such treatments, while Inouye reflects on how her experience with cancer has deepened questions about embodiment, vulnerability, and divine capacity. The conversation touches on Mormon theology’s unique views of God’s body, suffering, and human potential.

Jaxon Washburn examines themes of transfiguration and divine embodiment in both Hindu and Latter-day Saint traditions, placing the Bhagavad Gita in dialogue with the Book of Moses. He compares the cosmic visions granted to Arjuna by Krishna and to Moses by God, noting how both mortals required supernatural assistance to withstand the divine presence and both experienced profound humility afterward. Washburn argues that these parallel narratives demonstrate how mortal transfiguration precedes cosmic knowledge—a theme central to Mormon transhumanism—and suggests that studying such cross-traditional parallels can deepen Latter-day Saints’ understanding of their own theology of divine embodiment and eternal progression.