Speaker Selection for Transhumanism and Spirituality Conference 2010

Speaker selection for the Transhumanism and Spirituality Conference 2010 has been completed. As announced previously, the keynote speakers will be Terryl Givens, James Hughes and Max More. Additional speakers are listed below, along with biographical information. Don't miss this excellent speaker lineup. Register today!



Richard L Amoroso

Richard L Amoroso is director of Noetic Advanced Studies Institute, centered on "cosmology of mind". Amoroso is also executive editor of Noetic Press, including the peer reviewed Noetic Journal; author of over 30 technical volumes and over 100 scientific papers on astrophysics, quantum theory, medicine, philosophy of mind and transcendence.

Jason Anthony

Jason Anthony is a religion journalist and games designer. He served as editor of America's oldest religious magazine, and has written widely about the national faith landscape. His experiences at the World Trade Center on 9/11/01 led him to explore next-gen religion through his project, the Ten Year Game.

Lincoln Cannon

Lincoln Cannon is president of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, and co-author of the New God Argument. He's a professional software engineer, Internet marketer and information technologist. He holds a masters degree in business and a bachelors degree in philosophy from Brigham Young University.


Malcolm Dean

Malcolm Dean's research in Cognitive Thermodynamics provides a consistent and scalable physics of cognitive, cultural, and religious systems. Dean is a Research Affiliate of UCLA's Human Complex Systems program and a member of the Brain Research Institute's Higher Cognitive Affinity Group.


Dorothy Deasy

Dorothy Deasy is a Methodist who came to God late in life.  Her study of the Historical Jesus led to an awakening experience that initiated her spiritual journey.  She is in the process of getting her Master’s of Applied Theology from Marylhurst University.


Michael Ferguson

Michael Ferguson is a PhD student at the University of Utah, specializing in neuroimaging. He completed undergraduate training in biochemistry at Brigham Young University, and attended medical school at SUNY Health Sciences Center. He is passionate about the human brain and the potential for transhuman aesthetics to promote prosocial dynamics.


Roger D Hansen

Roger D Hansen has graduate degrees from USU in Civil and Environmental Engineering and an undergraduate degree in History from BYU. He has worked for 30 years as a water resource planner. His blog (rogerhansen.org) is titled “Tired Road Warrior” which explains a lot about his current emotional status.


James Felton Keith

James Felton Keith is an author, economics analyst, engineer, and entrepreneur. Keith's education is rooted in mathematics. He's Chairman of the Enxit Group and a specialist at the Land Policy Institute. His 2010 book Integrationalism: Essays on the rationale of abundance is raising eyebrows in analytic philosophy and ecology communities.


James Mclean Ledford

Author of Technical-Jesus.com and Hyper-Evolution.com, two websites dedicated to Christian Transhumanism. James is also a Nuclear Operations Instructor with 20 years of experience teaching the science, technology, and procedures necessary to safely operate Nuclear Reactors; where effective learning and teaching is critical.


Ugo A Perego

Ugo A Perego is Senior Researcher at Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received a PhD in Human Genetics from the University of Pavia, Italy, and has authored and co-authored numerous publications on the use of DNA to reconstruct ancient population migrations and recent family histories.


Giulio Prisco

Giulio Prisco is a technology consultant, physicist, computer scientist, writer and futurist. He is a director of the IEET and the Associazione Italiana Transumanisti, and was executive director of the World Transhumanist Association. As a founder of the Turing Church, Prisco proposes transhumanist "cosmic visions" as alternatives to major religions.

Travel, Lodging and Tourism for Transhumanism and Spirituality Conference 2010

The Transhumanism and Spirituality Conference 2010 will be held in the Gould auditorium of the Marriott Library on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Friday, 1 October 2010.

The conference web site is now updated with travel and lodging information. The travel information includes maps of the University of Utah campus and the Marriott Library, as well as public transportation routes. For attendees that wish to lodge near the University of Utah campus, we recommend Chase Suites Hotel, Marriott University Park Hotel, Skyline Inn or University Guest House. Register for the conference, and make your travel and lodging arrangements today.

While you're in Salt Lake City, consider visiting some of the historical, outdoor and entertainment attractions in the area. If you have questions or require assistance, don't hesitate to contact the conference organizers. We look forward to seeing you at the conference!

Keynote Speakers for Transhumanism and Spirituality Conference 2010

Max More will replace Natasha Vita-More as a keynote speaker at the Transhumanism and Spirituality Conference 2010. Below is more information about each of the exciting keynote speakers. Register for the conference today!

Terryl Givens

Terryl L. Givens was born in upstate New York, raised in the American southwest, and did his undergraduate and graduate work in Comparative Literature (Ph.D. UNC Chapel Hill, 1988), working with Greek, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and English languages and literatures. As Professor of Literature and Religion, and the James A. Bostwick Professor of English at the University of Richmond, he teaches courses in Romanticism, nineteenth-century cultural studies, and the Bible and Literature. He has published in literary theory, British and European Romanticism, Mormon studies, and intellectual history.

Dr. Givens has authored several books, including The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy (Oxford 1997); By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion (Oxford 2003); People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture (Oxford 2007); The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2009); and When Souls had Wings: Pre-Mortal Life in Western Thought (2010). Current projects include a biography of Parley P. Pratt (with Matt Grow, to be published by Oxford in 2011), a sourcebook of Mormonism in America (with Reid Neilson, to be published by Columbia in 2011), a history of Mormon theology, and a study of the idea of human perfectibilty in the Western tradition. He lives in Montpelier, Virginia.

James Hughes

James Hughes Ph.D., the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, is a bioethicist and sociologist at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut where he teaches health policy and serves as Interim Director of Institutional Research and Planning. He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, where he also taught bioethics at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Dr. Hughes is author of Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future , and is working on a second book tentatively titled Cyborg Buddha. Since 1999 he has produced a syndicated weekly radio program, Changesurfer Radio.

He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of Humanity+, the Neuroethics Society, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities and the Working Group on Ethics and Technology at Yale University. Dr. Hughes speaks on medical ethics, health care policy and future studies worldwide, and appears often on radio and television.

Max More

Max More, PhD, is a strategic philosopher widely recognized for his thinking on the philosophical and cultural implications of emerging technologies. Max’s contributions include founding the philosophy of transhumanism, authoring the transhumanist philosophy of extropy, and co-founding Extropy magazine and Extropy Institute, an organization crucial in building the transhumanist movement since 1988.

Max is been concerned that our escalating technological capabilities are racing far ahead of our standard ways of thinking about future possibilities. Through a highly interdisciplinary approach drawing on philosophy, economics, cognitive and social psychology, and management theory, Max developed a distinctive approach known as the “Proactionary Principle” a tool for making smarter decisions about advanced technologies by minimizing the dangers of progress and maximizing the benefits.

Max has a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from St. Anne’s College, Oxford University (1984-87). He was awarded a Dean’s Fellowship in Philosophy in 1987 by the University of Southern California and received his PhD in Philosophy from USC in 1995.