Ontology
Ontology on this site addresses what exists and how persons, Gods, spirits, bodies, and communities relate within reality. Lincoln's articles explore Mormon ontology of God, spirit as information, ontological matrices, and superintelligent posthumanity as a framework for understanding divinity. He connects ontological questions to ethics, desire, consciousness, and decentralized Godhood. The topic lists articles relevant to metaphysics at the intersection of religion, technology, and philosophy.
This is a list of articles that Lincoln Cannon has written about ontology. 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.
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How to Know God
The scriptures say a lot about God. God is the greatest intelligence (Abraham 3:19). God has a tangible body (D&C 130:22). God works within a community of Gods (Abraham 4:1). And God is present in and through the world itself (D&C 88:6). God is courageous (Moses 7:28). God is compassionate ... -
What Is True and Good?
Consequent to discussion about epistemology at a meetup of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, a friend asked me to remind her of my definitions of “truth” and “good.” This article will serve that purpose. It will also provide a brief account of esthetics. I use the concepts associated with these words, ... -
Why Are We Not Already Gods?
My friend asks “why we are not Gods yet?” Or, to use secular language, why aren’t we already superintelligence? “We have ALL had eternity already to strive, so why ain’t we all the way to the top of tops of tops already?” My friend’s question arises from reflection on a ... -
What Is Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness?
Few use consistent coherent vocabulary to talk about AI. In particular, we tend to be careless or ignorant about important distinctions between intelligence and consciousness, and about the inexhaustibly vast possibility space for kinds and degrees of both. There’s not necessarily one right definition of “intelligence” or “consciousness.” But some ... -
Decentralization of God
In the Apocalypse, we read that Christ offers us a crown, and invites us to sit together on the throne of God. We read that Christ would make us kings to God. These iron age signs and tokens of governance, Christ would decentralize. If we’re able to imagine that, we’re ... -
Ethics as Dimensions of Desire
You and I begin with desires, physical and spiritual, that we seek to fulfill as the purpose of our respective lives. To the extent that we fulfill these desires, we experience joy. To the extent that our desires conflict, within ourselves or between each other, we experience misery. We may ... -
Mormon Bodies and Mind Uploading
Mormonism is relatively unique among world religions in its regard for bodies. Where most major religions consider bodies to be temporary or inhibitive, Mormonism considers bodies to be eternal and empowering, and potentially divine. This provides strong common ground with physicalist philosophies generally, and particularly with Transhumanism. Even the radical ... -
God is Superintelligent Posthumanity
I often position Mormon theology in terms of “superintelligent posthumanity.” This provides a bridge of understanding between Transhumanism and Mormonism. It can also provide a bridge of understanding between Transhumanism and broader Christianity, insofar as Mormonism illustrates an interpretive approach to Christian authoritative tradition. Recently, after reading one of my ... -
Mormon Ontology of God and Synthesis in Superhumanity
Stop a Mormon on the street, and ask her to describe God. She might say something like, “God is our Heavenly Father, an embodied glorified being, who created our world and loves us immeasurably.” That’s an accurate account of Mormon theology, so far as it goes. And yet there’s more ... -
Ontological Matrices
These matrices help me visualize categories, or relations between key concepts, as I understand and use them in my writing. Relations are both within and between matrices. For example, here’s a relation within a matrix: individuals are to communities as anatomies are to environments. And here’s an example of a ... -
Bednar Suggests Spirit is Information
At a recent LDS Church meeting for young adults, Elder David A. Bednar commented on technology, and implied that spirit is information. Here is an approximate transcript of a portion of his talk: “We live in a time when technology can be used to replicate reality, to augment reality, and ... -
Fashion of the Gods
The day will come that we adorn ourselves epistemically as today we do esthetically. We are already learning to do so ethically.