Mormon Transhumanism

Mormon Transhumanism seems chiefly headed by the Mormon Transhumanist Association. Mormon transhumanism syncretizes Mormonism and transhumanism.[1] Moromon transhumanism relates parallels between transhumanist ideas, such as the technological singularity, and Mormon teachings.
The Mormon Transhumanist Association (MTA) is a nonprofit organization that syncretizes Mormonism and transhumanism.[1] MTA sees parallels between transhumanist ideas, such as the technological singularity, and Mormon teachings.[2][3] The majority of members are also members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), but the LDS Church is not affiliated with the MTA. MTA is affiliated with the world wide Humanity+ transhumanist organization.[3]The M.T.A. has its roots in the early two-thousands, when the Internet had become a thing of dens and dorm rooms. As access to information expanded, the L.D.S. Church began “having trouble controlling its narratives,” Carl Youngblood, a software engineer and one of the M.T.A.’s co-founders, told me. (Youngblood comes from a long line of Mormons, going back to his great-great-grandfather, an artist, who with Brigham Young’s approval went to study Impressionism in Paris and then returned to Salt Lake City to paint temple murals.) As Youngblood spoke with his tech-literate friends and acquaintances, it became clear to him that many were frustrated with what they perceived as the church’s “loyalty to present status quo”; they longed for radical visions of the future. Their forebears “actually thought that they were building the city of God—literally,” Youngblood said. “They were creating plat maps and actually marking off city blocks.” He added, “We thought, Well, why couldn’t we have that sort of zeal?” As Youngblood recalls, one member of the cohort, a young man named Lincoln Cannon, introduced the group to the idea of transhumanism, which he had encountered on various Web sites. That was the beginning of the M.T.A. Over the next decade, the band of fourteen founders grew to six hundred members, with Cannon as their president.[New Yorker, 2016]In 2006, Lincoln Cannon and thirteen like-minded Mormons founded the MTA in Utah. Lincoln is the organization’s former president, as well as the CEO of Thrivous, a company that sells life extension supplements. While not formally affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the official name for the mainstream Mormon faith), the MTA’s 800 or so members are mostly Mormons in good standing with the church. They are also in good standing with the ragtag assortment of ex-Mormons, other Christians, and secularists that the association attracts. The MTA styles itself as both distinctly and not exclusively Mormon in its approach to transhumanism; the group features secular keynote speakers alongside the faithful at its annual conference in Salt Lake City.[Logicmag, 2019]
== Media ==
* «Mormon Mommies Will Never Die» by Tamara Kneese, Benjamin Peters. 3 Aug 2019, «Logic» Magazine
* New Yorker magazine, 2016
== Notable associates: ==
* Lincoln Cannon
* Blaire Ostler
* Carl Youngblood
== Rhizomata ==
Mormonism; Transhumanism; Christian transhumanism; Christian accelerationism
Category:Christianity