 So does anybody have any questions for these three any more questions? I know that Some people have a lot of questions for Ted. Oh go ahead. Okay here. Maybe this one is for Ted About the basics of transhumanism. What's the role of consciousness evolution in? If there is any concept Let's give us one second. We're gonna get the volume going here testing one testing two You can help me by telling me What you mean by consciousness? Evolution if it's what I think it is Consciousness evolution part of the co-evolution concept Was there before transhumanism entered into the conversation? Right now I don't see a connection unless somebody knows more Tell me what you mean by consciousness evolution Yeah, well, I think that the consciousness evolution consciousness co-evolution It's been around for about four decades or so and Is shared by new age a spirituality here with some components from India Surya Robinda would be a good example of that where you have Evolution and then what he called? Involution as matter and spirit gained a higher level of emergent holism and I think that that was just independent of the rise of the transhumanism movement and The transhumanists are really concerned about intelligence And not necessarily I think what what the consciousness movement really had in mind namely that Profound inner sense of my unity with with all material things That's something real quick and The text it's not out there, but I'll get it it's by Ted Chu that we were talking about before that's a core premise of his of his idea of transhumanism and he calls it conscious evolution 2.0 so this is the new phase of transhumanism and As part of this is interesting that Barbara Marx Hubbard who kind of really coined the term conscious evolution Has teamed up with Ted Chu and they're going to be speaking around the country together on evolution of consciousness and and conscious evolution as the new the new phase the next phase of transhumanism take another question I'm going to touch this afternoon on My interest in consciousness and what it could mean for transhumanism. I will get into that at 4 4 30 Whenever I end up up there Related to that question was my question regarding the Turing test I I'm wondering if you see the Turing test as as Assuming something not exactly established in terms of the the mind-body problem I Have a feeling that they're that there could be something more to us than Newtonian and If that's the case while we're while we're trying to find out how to Enhance ourselves or perpetuate ourselves with technology if we skip that part We might find that we have an automaton that looks a lot like us or that is having some of our information characteristics, but might the light may go out for who we are and I'm not talking about magic. I'm talking about something that might require a deeper physics The point I had intended to make was really a very limited one namely Noreen Hertz felt Was advocating that we have an interactive or a relational understanding of the human mind and She thought rightly or wrongly she thought The very fact that we employ the Turing test to find out whether something is intelligent or not Fits the relational model I'm not in a position to judge as to whether or not the Turing test should play this decisive a role within computers Question in the back Hi, I'm real interested in your the radical Proposition you put forth that the Christian Trinity Now includes the sacred feminine which sort of historically has not been part of it And how that might change the narrative in the future This is for Byron I think we didn't get to that those slides, but the your answer book states that that the Divine person The creator is both male female at the local universe level At the transcendental central of the universe level. There's no gender differentiation in deity But the local space-time creators are common pairs So Adam and Eve are like a reflection of the pair and in the rancher book There's the mother Jesus there's there's a female Jesus and a male Jesus so the incarnation of Jesus is Incarnations are what males can do the 80 males and Females don't incarnate. They don't have to incarnate because in the rancher theology all of space is the feminine So they're already incarnate so the males incarnate into that so there's two teachings as the feminine Gaia aspect and there's the masculine Aspect of deity so it's it's very much in the theology a question over here. Oh, I'm far back We'll do one two three. Okay. Hi. Thank you. I'm curious. So I Think a lot of us turn to religion whether it's like a personal practice of yoga or an organized religion like Islam To make sense of our suffering and hopefully to bring about its end and I'm just curious if you could speak to what? terrorism and the other Philosophies being presented what they kind of offer us in this space-time what this means for many living humans Given you know where we are today as a planet and people So I mean first thought I had was you know off what what does terrorism have to offer in this space? I mean, I thought we're like referring to some type of miracle or something that terrorism could perform but I mean It does I mean terrorism doesn't offer anything super natural like mainly yoga and And the truth of terrorism are just for Inspiration and for physiological stress relief and that combined with a belief Belief said about the ultimate destiny of the universe would be more meaningful You know for people today as opposed to you know Other forms of ancient yoga based off of ancient traditions which don't resonate with modern people's values as much We'll take one back here and we've got two there and then Hi, I'm Wesley Smith. I'm going to be writing about this conference the first things magazine Which is a more or less conservative religious journal and I'm I Think Jason really hit what I have been sensing all morning is that? I've always thought transhumanism has been a way of trying to replace What has been lost with the loss of religious faith in the secular world and Jason has said We're going to make up our own religions And and then have subgroups that will interact with each other Which I thought was right on the nose and I would like to ask Ted It seems to me that what's happening in this approach is that rather than having people Adhere to the maxims of their faith. They're having their faith Adhere to their own personal maxims. I'd like your comment on that. I want to be certain. I've got your question correct Wesley in my Description of the religious dimensions of transhumanism am I saying that and now could you just repeat that? So that I'm sure I got it Nicely done. That was a good slide. Yeah It seems what I what I'm sensing is that Rather than having In terms of the transhumanist approach rather than people Fitting themselves into the faith precepts of their faith They're having their faith. They're fitting their faith into their own desires their own beliefs and so forth So that it's it's really you could end up with If you really went all the way 300 billion I'm not 300 billion seven billion different religions if each person creates their own faith and invents their own religion and Their own idea of transcendence whether it's material or or its spiritual You're not going it's kind of like an anarchy in a sense. That is I will make my religion what I want it to be I will decide what right and wrong is based on what I want as opposed to say the traditional monotheistic face where people Fit themselves to the precepts of their faith I think that That would fit what? Jason Had described about himself if Jason felt like he needed after trying existing religious Options he needed to create his own if that were to be a generalizable principle. Yeah, we'd have seven billion religions I Think there's a coherence to transhumanism. There's a handful of fundamental philosophical or doctrinal commitments Ultimate reality is physical It's evolutionary It's got a past and the future you and I are morally obligated to Enhance the evolutionary future so it would seem to be that Even though there are no creeds Although the transhumanist manifesto comes close to being a creed you would either say yes I believe in transhumanism or no I don't So I don't see that as a person making up his or her own Religion, but it's actually joining a movement or staying out of a movement. I Think in the larger context especially after the Second World War, but it was already going on in the late 19th century that as Western culture becomes more and more sci-an-tized and materialized and People begin to drift away from classical religious traditions Judaism Christianity and to a lesser extent Islam Many of the things that we had gotten from these religious traditions now we asked science and technology to deliver we asked Actually a number of things in our secular life for the most part nationalism and patriotism give us a lot They give us a substitute religious community for example, but when it comes to Salvation good health well-being human fulfillment Science and technology just look like they can deliver What our religious traditions used to promise but for one reason or another we we don't think we can get from them I think that's what's going on and transhumanism is not unique in that regard. It's an example of a number of secular ways of thinking in which discarded religious beliefs come back in a disguised sci-an-tized Form I think that that's that's what I see So I had real quick for what it's worth your answer book is anti Dogma and states very explicitly no creeds Everyone is encouraged to create a personal philosophy of religion in their special sections the ranch book about that and it discourages priest priests and cults and States all of this is a framework. It's not a belief system to utilize for your own personal spiritual philosophy Which is God-centered? No, I think the Unitarian Universalist Church is the best model for allowing, you know large variety of diverse belief systems like Encouraging everyone to pursue their own spiritual path and you know, yes, seven billion people can have seven billion different varieties of spiritual beliefs and Also like addressing You know religious transhumanism as being an answer to Life's problems. I like part of my speech was also not just about providing a new answer but also rebelling against the secularization of popular culture and the apparent nihilism in a lot of the pop culture Memes and ideas that we're supposed to Be Be passionate about like a lot of the music that's on the radio today. That's popular and I think you know a lot of religious communities feel the same way that they want to keep their kids away from you know, listening to Jason Derulo's songs and And I think there definitely could be the same thing is this existing within transhumanism Jason, let me ask you about your own existential working this Through what? dissatisfies you about the secular interpretation of things is it's meaningless it is nihilistic and to some extent transhumanism Risks that but transhumanism finds meaning in evolutionary Direction Now when you Created your own religion. Did you have to invent your meaning or were you able to find? meaning In short, I did both You know, I looked for similar ideas in Nikolai Fyodorov Shri Arupindo and also terrorism when I found out about it and You know to the extent that people's ideas are always the same but always evolving I didn't create my own religion I just you know Created a hybrid version of previous traditions just like the hegelian dialectic But in a sense, I did create my own tradition in that the exact same thoughts were not thought of before Go about two minutes one here and then we have time one in the front Yeah, hi I'm new to transhumanism. So my first exposure to it was the very first conference in San Francisco So I could be wrong in my assumption, but what it seems In my exposure to it, there's a lot of emphasis on for example human extension There's lots of talk about an end the individual And there's lots of talk about humankind. There's really not a lot of addressing of actual groups within societies and cultures Groups that are typically discriminated against we could cut that up by looking at race Gender and class in America So I guess my question is is, you know, if if there are these great Technologies that can achieve life extension so on and so forth What's to stop there from? That groups Historically not able to access things like even health in the United States. What's what's what is transhumanism? I guess have to I haven't heard anything that transhumanism has to offer philosophically in addressing these kinds of inequalities and Inequal access to these new technologies. So I guess I was wondering Particularly to Ted and Jason, but perhaps also you as well You know for one what can religion or historical religions offer in terms of some kind of social justice? Aspect what can they offer to transhumanism and also what can terrorism? offer to address inequalities and access to these potential life-enhancing technologies Actually, this is probably a better question for Hank Than it is for me because I have to be descriptive But if I were a transhumanist, I would answer you this way that the fundamental Structure of the trami transhumanist thought is from the individual to the whole and you're talking about groups in between dominant groups subordinate groups rich groups poor groups Discrimination injustice Transhumanist is going to say look with our technology. We're going to improve the climate the environment We're going to improve what happens in the inner life There is nothing that would lead directly to Changing the injustices between groups and segments of society Traditional religions can be very concerned about injustice. Why well They came out of tribalism for the most part. They're used to one group and relating to another group So issues of social justice are going to be much more on the minds of traditional religions Then they will on the minds of transhumanists. That doesn't mean transhumanists are immoral I'm just saying that happens to be where I think the vision is at work and Jason I don't know if you think like I do or Well, actually terrorism has a ritual. That's exactly what you described there in March There's something called the freedom sader based on the Jewish Passover Seder and in that Seder We in terrorism recount tales of freedom from slavery and also Connect that to how society is currently advancing through Telecommunications and more interconnectedness and more awareness of each other and more boundaries being broken such as, you know those in the transgender community and I know that's part of how we can connect the past to the future as far as you know past religious traditions and You know a new synthesized religion, which is you know becoming popular today It was putting on my transhumanist hat. I think of transhumanism as unsustainable because it does not have this outreach in the sense of social gospel Christianity to the masses to To the poor it is nothing like that and I think it's hopeful that you guys are thinking about that but otherwise it is in In the future The elitism of transhumanism become more and more salient if you want to see an example of that at the thrive Movement comm website is a pretty big attack against my author Ted Chu by Foster gamble because this is an elitist Ideology will be imposed on on the masses and there's nothing in it for the poor for the oppressed In fact, it's going to be a tool of oppression So I think it's really a highly volatile situation with transhumanists in the future as as there's a global you know upsurge against Technological elitism, which is the way it's going to be perceived outside of forums like this Ted Chu speaks of the worship of Evolution itself cosmic evolution should be worshiped so it's post-human because Evolution goes beyond the human so this is easily misunderstood And I I want to tell you that he is a humanist But you don't get that unless you do your homework so he's now being depicted as an oppressor and I think there's a big correction that has to come in transhumanism and this conference is an example of that correction actually