Technological Evolution
Technological evolution on this site rejects static views of human nature and affirms ongoing change through culture, biology, and technology. Lincoln presents humanity as actively participating in its own evolution toward superhumanity through practical work, not passive waiting. His articles connect this perspective to Transhumanism, postsecular religion, creation narratives, human evolution in Mormon thought, and spiritual as well as material progress. The topic lists articles relevant to what Transhumanism is and on humanity's combined spiritual and technological evolution.
This is a list of articles that Lincoln Cannon has written about technological evolution. 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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AI Predicts Human Evolution
What will humans look like in the future? Given trends in biological, cultural, and technological evolution, how will humans appear in 10, 100, or 1000 years? I was curious what AI would predict. To figure that out, I used a combination of ChatGPT and Midjourney. ChatGPT takes text prompts and ... -
How to Conduct Future Shock
After watching a demonstration of Sora, Tyler Perry canceled plans for an $800 million expansion of his movie studio. “It’s shocking to me.” Sora is an AI that converts text into video. It’s the latest iteration of development from OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT. If you haven’t yet seen what ... -
Our Spiritual and Technological Evolution
As the line between human and artificial life is increasingly blurred, our apprehension in the apocalypse of intelligence is steadily mounting. This escalating fear may be, even arguably is, inevitable. Humans fear the unfamiliar – the uncharted and only vaguely visible territory of the future toward which we are hurtling. ... -
Potential Is Origin in Religious Transhumanism
This is a transcript of a sermon I gave at the Unitarian Universalist Society of South Valley in Salt Lake City this morning. My friend and fellow religious Transhumanist, Jordan Roberts, invited me to speak on religious Transhumanism and the New God Argument. The congregation was friendly, the music and ... -
Technological Evolution and Postsecular Religion
Humanity is engaged in epochal change, an accelerating technological and cultural evolution with unprecedented risks and opportunities. Among the possibilities is that of creating new tools, processes, and organizations that together serve as infrastructure for helping everyone restore the vitality of their bodies and minds, and improve their capacity to ... -
Letter to a Seminary Teacher on Human Evolution
Dear brother, I’m the father of one of your seminary students. He mentioned to me that a student asked about human evolution yesterday, and that you do not have a favorable opinion of it. I’m writing to share with you my thoughts and feelings on the subject, hoping that you’ll ... -
Evolving Gods and Richard Dawkins
As mentioned before, I’ve repeatedly found inspiration in Richard Dawkins, despite an important difference between us. He’s a devout atheist. And I’m a devout theist. He argues cogently that complex life must have simpler antecedents. And he vigorously attacks contrary theist positions. I agree with him. Interestingly, however, to illustrate ... -
A Mormon View of the Judeo-Christian Creation Story
I recently read news of a creationist museum using billboards featuring cartoon dinosaurs. Yes. That’s religious dinosaurs using cartoon dinosaurs to preach fictional dinosaurs. It prompted, with a friend, an interesting discussion regarding interpretation of the Judeo-Christian creation story. He claimed that the LDS Church (the largest Mormon denomination, of ... -
What is Transhumanism?
Some people don’t like ideological labels. They don’t like their perspectives being categorized, for whatever reason, good or bad. I’m not one of them. I’m comfortable with labels. And I don’t mind being categorized. Of course, it’s a mistake to think any label perfectly describes my perspectives or those of ... -
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 researcher. In the post, Eliezer describes biological evolution and compares it to various ideas of God. In the end, he concludes that evolution is much more like Azathoth, a blind ... -
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 distinguish between a computed world and the neohuman (or posthuman) computing it. As the Simulation Argument goes, if ever we create a significant number of computed worlds then we are ... -
Transfigurism: Mormonism as Religious Transhumanism
This is an edited transcript of a presentation about Mormonism as a Religious Transhumanism that I gave, via my avatar Ahman Hax, on Uvvy Island in the virtual world of Second Life. The occasion was a seminar on Transhumanism and religion. Attendees consisted mostly of secular Transhumanists. I gave a ...