Transumanar

Parallels and Convergences: Mormon Thought and Engineering Vision

The Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies in the School of Religion at Claremont Graduate University is pleased to sponsor a conference on: Parallels and Convergences: Mormon Thought and Engineering Vision.

The Howard W Hunter Chair is interested in expanding the discussion of Latter-day Saint (LDS) perspectives on the attributes of God and the potential of man through a variety of innovative directions. One of the directions to be explored is whether there is a possible resonance between Mormon and engineering thought. An assumption can be made that, according to LDS understanding, God is the architect of the Creation and the engineer of our bodies and spirits. Man, on the other hand, is believed to be capable of growing to become like God. The theological question is: where does engineering fit in the convergence of these two realms? Abstract deadline: 2008 December 1 (extended abstract). Conference: 2009 March 7 (Saturday). See the conference website for more.

In the image above I am visiting the Mormon island in Second Life, and in the image below I am discussing Mormonism with a LDS activist in their warm and cozy little church.

I am interested in the LDS (aka Mormonism) because as most readers know I am very fond of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, of which I am a proud member though I am not a Mormon and I have never visited Utah. Mormon Transhumanists, and to some extent all Mormons, don’t insist on a supernatural God outside the universe and are quite open to the possibility of a natural God existing and evolving within the physical universe described by science. Mormon transhumanists demonstrate the possibility of peaceful coexistence of science and religion. See my article on The New God Argument at Sunstone 2008 for more thoughts.

The theological question is: where does engineering fit in the convergence of these two realms? My answers:

Some entities equivalent to the traditional religious notion of God may emerge by natural means, within the physical universe, by agency of naturally evolved beings that may well be ourselves. These entities may somehow make their influence felt in past regions of spacetime and, in some sense, engineer our bodies and spirits. In this scenario it is easy to see where engineering fits: our descendants will engineer God(s), or become God(s). I think we will engineer our future evolution far beyond our current condition of human1.0 fleshers, seamlessly merge with the Artificial Intelligences that we will create (Moravec’s Mind Children) and go out in the Universe to do great things. The Order of Cosmic Engineers has been recently created to promote this cosmic vision and program.

Or, with a logic similar to that outlined in The New God Argument at Sunstone 2008: we may be conscious beings in a synthetic word computed by a higher level of reality, and we may soon develop the capability to
compute our own synthetic realities populated by sentient beings. Let’s then, treat them as we would like to be treated ourselves by our makers. I have explored these possibilities, which may be blended and merged in many ways, in my 2004 article on Engineering Transcendence.

Posted by eschatoon on 09/06 at 08:44 AM
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