[extropy-chat] Seminar on Transhumanism and Religion in Second Life later tonight

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

Seminar on Transhumanism and Religion in Second Life

http://transumanar.com/index.php/site/seminar_on_h_and_religion_in_sl/

Sunday, April 29, 2007

10am SLT-PST, uvvy island in SL

Speakers:

Lincoln Cannon, President, Mormon Transhumanist Association

Extropia Dasilva, Fascinating and Mysterious Virtual Personality.
Extropia is a "transhumanist avatar" who writes some of the best mind
expanding stuff about first and second life, the universe and
everything.

James Hughes, Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging
Technologies. James will present his paper The Compatibility of
Religious and Transhumanist Views of Metaphysics, Suffering, Virtue
and Transcendence in an Enhanced Future.

Giulio Prisco, Executive Director, World Transhumanist Association.
Giulio will summarize his article/book precis Engineering
Transcendence.

I made the final preparations for the Seminar on Transhumanism and
Religion in Second Life (beginning in 3 hours) and uploaded slides for
all presentations. Extropia Dasilva will not use slides. We made all
voice stream tests. The only technical challenge for this event is
coordinating sound streams from different remote locations, but we did
not have any problems in tests. James Hughes and Lincon Cannon will
use the Shoutcast plugin for Winamp to stream to our Shoutcast server,
and I will use Nicecast on a Mac to do the same.

My presentation begins, as usual, with a personal introduction slide
where I say that I am with the WTA but am now speaking on behalf of
Giulio Prisco, Giulio Perhaps (my avatar in SL), Yours Truly, the Fat
Ugly Guy here (my avatar again) and Myself. I will, in fact, present
my own views on transhumanism and religion, which are not and cannot
be represented as official WTA views. I think the "cosmic" part of
transhumanism *is* an alternative to religion, firmly based on the
scientific worldview, but able to provide much of what most people
search in a religion.

James has a monster presentation, a must see. Lincoln's presentation
is also very interesting. I look forward to seeing you all tonight at
the seminar.