Archive 2008
This is an archive of articles that Lincoln Cannon published in 2008. Monthly archives for January 2008, February 2008, March 2008, April 2008, May 2008, June 2008, July 2008, August 2008, September 2008, October 2008, November 2008, and December 2008 are 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's available on any of Lincoln's websites, including social media.
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Responding to Immortality Skeptics
I regularly read the blog of Wesley Smith, an intelligent and good-natured antagonist of Transhumanism. Today he wrote about the ...
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Death of LDS Church President Gordon Hinckley
LDS Church President Gordon Hinckley died today. There’s a Deseret News announcement, which contains some biographical information. In some ways, ...
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The Holy Spirit is an Esthetic
The Holy Spirit is an esthetic that emerges from our environment through our anatomy and into us as individuals and ...
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Are you part of the NeverEnding Story?
For family home evening, we watched the movie, “NeverEnding Story.” It’s the one from the ’80s with a boy who ...
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Sorenson Molecular Genealogy and the Resurrection
Some of you requested more information about the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation. According to its web site, it is the ...
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Chapter Four of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
It’s time to get back to my review of Richard Dawkins’ book, The God Delusion. In this post, I’ll be ...
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How predictable are we?
How predictable are we? When God or a neohuman (choose your favorite word) looks at a group of persons like ...
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Drugs and Prosthetics as Grace
According to CNN, the gunman who shot 21 and killed six students at Northern Illinois University was “‘an outstanding student’ ...
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Visions Toward Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology or molecular engineering (precision manufacturing at the atomic level) will enable us to produce dirt-cheap supercomputers, ubiquitous 100% pure ...
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Religion is Not the Enemy of Nanotechnology
At the IEET, a Transhumanist think tank, Russell Blackford has posted on “Religion and Nanotechnology”. He notes that support for ...
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Opportunities and Risks of Brain-Computer Interfaces
Tired of the mouse? Get ready to control your computer with your thoughts! Later this year, you should be able ...
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Correlation of Mormonism and Scientific Education
Although there may be a general positive correlation between education and secularism, among Mormons there appears to be a positive ...
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Mormon Studies May Improve Science of Theology
I wrote recently about the positive correlation between Mormonism and education. As it turns out, not only are Mormons interested ...
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The Universe IS the Neohuman
I’ve mentioned before, but want to make more explicit here, the idea that there seems to be no reason to ...
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I Am a Child of God
I just finished putting my three-year-old son to bed. When first entering his bedroom, I couldn’t see him. Knowing, though, ...
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Final Message from Arthur C Clarke
Arthur C Clarke, science fiction writer and science popularizer, died in Sri Lanka earlier this week. He leaves with us ...
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A Non-Superlative Disagreement on Human Finitude
Dale Carrico, a lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California Berkeley, is an intelligent and articulate ...
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Atheists All: Brent, Karl, Dale, and I
Brent Allsop, a director of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, describes himself as a Mormon atheist. You may be wondering (along ...
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Clones and Your Evil Twin Brother
Clones are evil! At least, that’s what we’re often told. Popular media generally portrays clones in a negative light, such ...
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10 Parallels of Mormon Thought to Engineering Vision
Next week, I’ll have the opportunity to meet with several Mormon scholars to discuss parallels between Mormon thought and engineering ...
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10 Reconciliations between Brains and Computers
Clark Goble, at his Mormon Metaphysics blog (which I highly recommend), recently posted on the question, “Brains like Computers?” In ...
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James Hughes on Apocalyptic and Millennial Behavior
I just came across an excellent article written by James Hughes, who is a director of the World Transhumanist Association. ...
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The Value of Respect for Diverse Views
I’d like to echo a sentiment expressed today in a press release from the LDS Church. Mormonism, at its best, ...
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Mormon Scholars on Engineering and Mormonism
I participated today in a conference call among several Mormon scholars on the subject of parallels between Mormon thought and ...
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The Creation Argument
I’ve blogged time and again about the Simulation Argument, formulated by Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom. Basically, the argument holds that ...
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What If There's No Extraterrestrial Life?
Transhumanist philosopher Nick Bostrom contributed a recent Technology Review article, entitled “Where Are They?” In it, he writes: “I hope ...
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Misapplied Charges of Hubris
The World Informer blog characterizes Transhumanism as “The Last Temptation of Mankind”. The appeal, of course, is to hubris in ...
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My son asks, what will computers be like in 2033?
My oldest son recently won the science fair with his project on Moore’s Law and accelerating technological change. He and ...
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Persuasive Nanotechnology
Thanks to a post from Michael Anissimov, today I came across an interesting article that proposes some definitions for and ...
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Protecting Primitive Civilizations
Many of us perceive a certain morality in allowing primitive humans to live without interaction with the broader human civilization. ...
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A Mormon Darwinism
On the Mormon blog, By Common Consent, in a post entitled “Towards a Mormon Darwinism”, Steven P asked how readers ...
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Mormon Culture of Education, Technology and Bioethics
The Book of Mormon contains an intriguing story about a man named Lehi, who in ancient times sought guidance from ...
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Ensign on "Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet"
Thanks to David Frischknecht at LDS Media Talk, we have news that the next issue of the LDS Church magazine, ...
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Water on Mars, Little (Green?) Life Forms, and Angels
In response to an article by transhumanist philosopher Nick Bostrom, I wrote recently about the significance of finding basic life ...
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Mormon Theology in Relation to Science and Technology
I often have the opportunity to present to groups interested in learning about parallels between Mormon and Transhumanist views of ...
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Looking for God in the Wrong Places
I recently came across an interesting blog post entitled “An Alien God”, by Eliezer Yudkowsky, who is a transhumanist AI ...
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The Grand Enterprise of Mormonism
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest Mormon denomination, today released a press release on “The Grand ...
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Science Can Inform Mormon Visions of the Future
Recently, a Mormon blogger, R Gary, claimed that “Science is not always a good bet” when considering the feasibility of ...
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Transhumanists Can Love Life and Acknowledge Problems
The Mormon Transhumanist Association received the following email from a site visitor today: “Life is not a problem to be ...
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New God Argument (Version 1.0)
Abstract: If basic life forms are probable then we should trust that advanced civilizations are probable. If any advanced civilization ...
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Are we still Gods in embryo?
I am sometimes disturbed by the observation that our religious tradition, Mormonism, is not unified in faith that we can ...
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Big Thanks to Dan Wotherspoon
Sunstone has announced that Dan Wotherspoon, executive director and editor of Sunstone magazine and symposiums, will be stepping down to ...
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The New God Argument Begins
This is a transcript of the original presentation of the New God Argument by Chris Bradford, Joseph West, and Lincoln ...
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Arresting Jokers in the Houston Airport
I’m sitting in the Houston airport, returning from a family vacation – you know, relaxing from all that hard work ...
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Congratulations to Barack Obama
Congratulations, both to Barack Obama and to us collectively, for his nomination as the presidential candidate of the United States ...
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Cannon's Wager: Bet on Better Works
Will works save you? Some Christians enjoy debating whether good works are necessary for salvation, with responses ranging from the ...
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Implausible Old Gods and Impotent New Gods
A leading evangelical Christian, Albert Mohler, recently wrote a blog entry entitled “New God or No God? The Peril of ...
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When God Remembers Us
The New York Times reports that remembering may be like reliving, from the perspective of the neurons doing the remembering. ...
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Integrating Symbol Systems, Software, and Ideologies
Professionally, I’m a software engineering manager, and the area in which I’ve done the most work is systems integration, particularly ...
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Uchtdorf on Emulating God's Creation and Compassion
On my way out to a soccer game, my wife anxiously showed me some clips of Dieter Uchtdorf, in the ...
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Two Memories of My Father
Several memories of my father have, over the years, grown in importance to me. I’ll share a couple that come ...
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A Mormon Perspective on California Proposition 8
Californians will soon be voting on proposition 8, which would amend their state constitution to define “marriage” as being between ...
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The New God Argument and Heaven for the Non-Religious
I recently received a letter, written neatly by hand and sent through the post (yes, that still happens), from a ...
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You're a Transhuman Web Surfer! Now what?
Alan Leigh pointed out to me an interesting PC Magazine review of Web Surfers Evolving into Superior Humans, a book ...
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Celestial Earth as a Kardashev Scale Civilization
Today, I came across a blog post at Mormon Matters, posing the question, “Is the Internet a Urim & Thummim?” ...
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Congratulations Again to Barack Obama
Congratulations again to Barack Obama, who will be the next President of the United States of America. This is an ...
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Messianic Postures toward Artificial Intelligence
Observing trends in information technology, some researchers conclude that artificial intelligence (AI) will eventually surpass the brightest human minds and ...
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Convergence 08 Artificial Intelligence Panel
The first session of the Convergence 08 conference is focusing on artificial intelligence. While waiting for the session to begin, ...
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Convergence 08 Saturday Unconference
This afternoon, I’ve been bouncing around among unconference sessions. First, I attended a session on balancing spirituality with technology. It ...
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Convergence 08 Paul Saffo Key Note
Paul Saffo was the key note speaker on Saturday, and he endeavored to share some principles of forecasting. He began ...
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Convergence 08 Synthetic Biology Panel
This morning, the Convergence 08 conference continued with a panel of experts on synthetic life. One of the panel members ...
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Convergence 08 Sunday Unconference
Like yesterday afternoon, I participated in unconference sessions this afternoon. First, I attended a session with PJ Manney on empathy ...
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Reproductive Technology and Gay Marriage
I recently came across a document by Margaret A Somerville, which presents “The Case Against ‘Same-Sex Marriage’”. This is, to ...
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Millennial Vegetarians or New Meat Manufacturing?
Mormon prophetic tradition includes the idea that humans (and perhaps other animals) will no longer eat other animals when the ...
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Claus in You
I am Santa Claus. Yes. Whether you believe it or not, and whether you like it or not, I am. ...
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Top 5 Mormon Science and Technology Events from 2008
In celebration of the new year, here’s a look at the top five Mormon science and technology events from 2008. ...