Archive August 2007
This is an archive of articles that Lincoln Cannon published in August 2007. An annual archive for 2007 is available. And a full archive of all articles that Lincoln has published since 2005 is also available. You may also search for articles and other content that Lincoln has published on any of his websites.
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More Blessed are the Disciples of Life
Today, I came across the blog of Paul Toscano. His relationship with Mormonism is difficult to describe and beyond the scope of what I would like to address in this post. Suffice it to say that he has been deeply influenced by Mormonism, whether or not he yet considers himself ... -
"The Language of God" Influencing Mormon Perspectives
Today at dinner, my mother mentioned that she had recently purchased a book by Francis Collins, a geneticist and head of the Human Genome Project. It’s entitled The Language of God. In the book, Collins argues that respect for science and faith in God are compatible. Coincidentally, upon returning home ... -
Powerful Mormon Myths for the Modern World
Dave Banack, writing for Times and Seasons, asks: What sort of mythology would develop or result from the modern world of our own day? What myths work in the modern world? … Does Mormonism have anything to offer? Does Mormon doctrine or the Mormon worldview provide any mythic frames that ... -
The Work of Immortality is Not Complete
Bill Muehlenberg, in his CultureWatch blog, recently wrote about “The First Church of Transhumanism.” After providing a summary of his perspective on Transhumanism, he writes the following: “The truth is, life extension is already a current reality. Indeed, we will all live forever. But there are just two destinies after ... -
Eternal Recurrence of Our Children
Adam Greenwood at Times and Seasons speculates regarding millennial children. He wonders whether we might have future opportunities to raise new children or experience again the raising of our current children. Among Mormon Transhumanists, we see parallels between the Millennium and the Technological Singularity. The Singularity is a hypothetical period ... -
I'm Insane, Blake Ostler Tells Me
While at the recent symposium organized by the Sunstone Education Foundation in Salt Lake City, I attended a presentation by Blake Ostler. Blake was making an argument about spiritual experience, the details of which are not the subject of this post. During the presentation, he noted that one might appeal ... -
Life Emerging from Eternal Matter
When I think about the origins of life in our time and space, I tend toward a materialistic animism. Matter has all the properties necessary to become life, if only it is organized appropriately. Indeed, from this perspective, there is no line between life and non-life. But rather there’s a ... -
Simulation Argument and Synthetic Worlds without End
The Simulation Argument has been getting a lot of attention since being referenced by the New York Times. Writing for the Daily Galaxy, Rebecca Sato asks, could our lives be a cosmic computer simulation? She concludes with these words: “… our designer might be another virtual being living inside the ... -
The Accelerating Exponent of Kurzweil's Law
Kurzweil’s Law (generalizing from Moore’s Law) observes that technology changes exponentially as new technologies contribute toward increasing the rate of change. In addition to being exponential, however, the exponent itself may increase exponentially, such that we may observe accelerating exponential change or meta-exponential change. One of many examples of exponential ... -
Faithful Science
Jared, a guest blogger at By Common Consent, wonders what “Faithful Science” would look like and how it would be useful. Of course, Mormon Transhumanists have some opinions about that. To begin with, all science is faithful to the extent it is actually adhering to the scientific method. The method ... -
Church Internet Coordinator on Technology for Good
Ronald Schwendiman is the coordinator for the worldwide Internet activities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He presented today at Brigham Young University’s Education Week on the topic of using technology for the good of humanity. Although I was not able to attend the session, I was ... -
Independent Mormon Transhumanists
I’ve been wondering how many independent Mormon Transhumanists are out there, unaware of or uninterested in groups like the Mormon Transhumanist Association. The earliest references to Mormon Transhumanism that I’ve been able to find on the Internet come from 2004, a year and a half before the Mormon Transhumanist Association ... -
Why would God create worlds?
Put another way, why would neohumans run detailed world simulations? Not being neohumans ourselves, we can only speculate. However, it is interesting to extrapolate from the reasons we run (relatively low-detail) simulations today. Flight and automobile simulators have been available both to the military and for entertainment for many years. ...