Transhumanist conference explores cryptocurrency, blockchain and… theology? – TechBuzz News

Note: Advance registration for the MTA Annual Conference ends today, February 15, 2022. The conference will be held on Saturday, March 19, 2022 at the Provo City Library. The first 200 to register will receive Laura Shin’s new book “The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze.” Use code TBFRIEND at checkout for 20% off conference site.

The perennial discussion of humanity’s origin, destiny, and place in the universe is perhaps the oldest and most enduring of any human question.

The current dialogue about blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized networks is one of the newest and hottest topics in the proverbial public square.

An upcoming conference in Provo aims to bring these seemingly disparate topics together. The March 19 event in Provo promises thought-provoking conversations and colliding ideas, with speakers among the leading thinkers in the increasingly significant field of distributed ledger technology.

“One of our great values ​​at the MTA is the concept of friendship and building bridges across ideological divides,” says Carl Youngblood, President and CEO of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. “So let’s get a lot of people who don’t normally talk to each other to get together in the same room and share weird ideas.”

For many who hear the Mormon Transhumanist Association for the first time, the initial reaction is something akin to confusion. What exactly is the Mormon Transhumanist Association?

Let’s start with the most esoteric word contained in that title. Transhumanism is a philosophy that examines how humanity could (and perhaps should) thoughtfully use technology to transcend current limitations such as aging and intelligence. The movement was first catalyzed in the 1990s by British philosopher and technologist Max More, himself a former speaker at the MTA’s annual conference.

According to Youngblood, the Mormon Transhumanist Association (MTA) is a nonprofit organization “dedicated to radical human development through the compassionate use of science and technology.”

Youngblood, a software engineer who got into blockchain technology early in 2010, co-founded the group in 2006 with colleague Lincoln Cannon. Both men are Provo residents and former BYU students. Despite (or perhaps because of) the arcane topic, the MTA has had active participation and ongoing meetings for at least the past decade. MTA members run the religious and ideological gamut, from strict Sunday School orthodoxy, to those only peripherally familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The site continues: “Although we are neither a religious organization nor affiliated with any religious organization, we support our members in their personal religious affiliations, Mormon or otherwise, and encourage them to adapt transhumanism to their unique situations.”

Youngblood says the upcoming conference is ideal for anyone interested in blockchain technology, but is quick to point out: “It’s not just for the crypto brothers. There’s discussion about ways in which society is transformed by these technologies, such as new ways of organizing ourselves in terms of corporate governance, public sector governance, economic development, international development and how we can help people out of poverty through some of these technologies.” Of course there will also be discussion about the “philosophical and ethical ramifications, and also on some of the potential theological implications of the notion of decentralization, for example, people interested in religion and Mormonism in particular, but anyone who loves philosophy or religion, would find some interest in the very idea that perhaps decentralization is necessary for them. human beings can develop their full potential.”

Each year the conference brings together a series of qualified speakers from the religious and technological fields. Past speakers include religious scholars such as Riccardo Bushmann, Rosalynde Welch, Adam MillerAND Melissa Inouye, each with a background and emphasis with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the eponymous “Mormons” of the MTA. From a technological and transhumanist perspective, past speakers include longevity researcher Aubrey DeGray, transhumanist philosopher and cryonics researcher Max More, and cryptographer Ralph Merkle. Merkle was the inventor of cryptographic hashing and co-inventor of public key cryptography, technologies critical to basic Internet security, as well as the burgeoning cryptocurrency and blockchain space.

This year’s conference will focus on the “Decentralization of Power” and new forms of governance. Keynote speakers include Laura Shin, former Forbes senior editor and award-winning podcast host and author, and Tomicah Tillemann. Shin launched the “Unchained” podcast in 2016 and has become one of the most prominent journalists exploring cryptocurrency and related topics. Tillemann is a public policy expert with a crypto venture fund led by former a16z partner Katie Haun. Tillemann previously worked with the State Department and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Additional speakers include:

• Tom W. Bell, Professor of Law at Chapman University
• Ben Blair, co-founder and president of Newlane University
• Lincoln Cannon, co-founder of the MTA, founder and CEO of Thrivous
• Neal Davis from Urbit Foundation
• Vinay is the founder and CEO of Mattereum
• Ally Isom, Republican candidate from Utah for the US Senate
• Evan McMullin, former CIA officer, independent candidate in Utah for the United States Senate
• Kurtis Lockhart, director of research at Institute of Paper Cities
• Jonathan Jardine, executive director of Valero Energy Corporation
• Matthew Memmott, Senior Technical Advisor at Alpha technology research
• Jon Ogden, author and co-founder of UpliftKids
• Bernardo Vicente, Payments Analyst at With confidence
• Sarah Wiley is the vice president of product development at Genesis Block
• James Wigginton, solicitor at Downey Brand LLP

Those interested can register on the conference website and use the code TBFRIEND for a 20% discount on conference site.

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