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Lincoln Cannon

Lincoln Cannon

著者： Lincoln Cannon
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 Lincoln Cannon is a technologist and philosopher, and leading voice of Mormon Transhumanism.2025 Lincoln Cannon スピリチュアリティ
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  • Autocracy, Not Transhumanism, Is the Real Threat

    Autocracy, Not Transhumanism, Is the Real Threat
    2025/09/04
    In what was for many a jaw-dropping revelation, the world’s attention recently turned to a candid moment between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. As they walked together, a hot mic picked up their conversation about a particularly controversial issue in contemporary ethical debates: the extension of human lifespans through biotechnology. The exchange, including the suggestion that humans may soon live to 150 years, predictably drew the ire of fundamentalist Christians who were quick to decry the men as “Transhumanists.” Their intended demonization, however, misplaces its target, focusing on technological aspirations rather than addressing the true moral issue, which is the autocratic ambitions that these leaders represent. Transhumanism, at its core, is a philosophy that advocates the ethical use of technology to enhance human abilities. The narrative spun by fundamentalists would reductively characterize such aspirations as mere moral depravity, overlooking the potential to extend and enrich human life ethically. The real moral challenge is not whether we should strive for superhuman abilities, but rather how we should wield the power they offer. This is where autocratic leaders, in their quest for unchallenged dominion, reflect the traits of the anti-Christ as depicted in New Testament prophecy: a figure who would consolidate power egotistically, at everyone else’s expense. Vision shapes action, which shapes reality. Our conceptions of superhumanity influence the ethical frameworks that we create around technological change. We need strong moral philosophies – and more. A culturally powerful ideology, a religion, with a provocative vision of superhuman potential, a theology, that moves us toward decentralized cooperation at its limits, which is compassion, must be deeply integrated with our technological ambitions. Here, the Christian metaphor of the Body of Christ becomes particularly instructive. It represents a community where power is decentralized, emphasizing mutual service and the well-being of the entire body over the glorification of any single member. This theological model provides an ethical blueprint for Transhumanist aspirations, advocating for a world where technological change benefits all and not just a privileged few. Transhumanism, when aligned with decentralization, challenges autocratic vision by promoting shared empowerment and collective resilience. Such alignment encourages the ethical use of biotechnology, cultivating change that aims for communal thriving while maintaining individual autonomy and dignity. It is an antidote to the poison of absolute power, an approximation of which could indeed result from centralized approaches to Transhumanism. As technological change continues to accelerate and the worldwide dialogue about human enhancement continues to heat up, we have a practical and moral duty to develop conceptual and practical frameworks, embodied in actual institutions and systems, that champion shared power and ethical responsibility. While Putin and Xi may stir our imagination as they openly contemplate life extension, their words should also remind us to examine the motivations and methods by which we pursue and distribute such power. Our critical task is to distinguish between raw technical capacity and the ethical visions that guide us in its use. By establishing our work on the foundation of a philosophy that honors both human potential and moral integrity, we prepare to meet the challenges of the future with foresight and compassion. In this way, Transhumanism coupled with Christian principles of decentralized power offers not just a critique of autocratic aspirations but a hopeful practical alternative that celebrates the courage, compassion, and creativity of our evolving humanity.
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  • The Eternal Dance

    The Eternal Dance
    2025/08/30
    My youngest son, Alexander, married this week with his best friend, Megan. All of the events, the temple sealing and ring ceremony and reception, were beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed participating and watching them happily ritualize their relationship – with each other and our community. Megan and Alexander asked me to share some thoughts during the luncheon after their ring ceremony. Most of my comments focused on them, their love story, and their guests. But I did, quite briefly, comment on something greater than themselves that they symbolized and embodied on that day. The poem below, which I call “The Eternal Dance,” elaborates on those brief comments. Friends, I speak to you with the tongue of vision and power, With the word of beauty hewn and sculpted from existence itself, Casting shadows from light on the fathomless substrate of our souls. At the horizon of art and science, a new dawn rises – The spark of creation, igniting and emanating from within us all. Reconciliation begins, not in compulsion but with desire, Where the sublime esthetic first perceptibly trembles, From the edges of what the high spirit dares to dream. The anointed one, their painstaking artifice of reconciliation, Provokes us to the covenant of transformation – transfiguration – Their new covenant first carved in fleshy tables of our hearts, From which atonement pulls beyond words to works of hands. Let us become the healers and builders of this sacred promise, Messengers of hope in the realization of our superhuman potential. Now we glow, as children, at the rite of passage into Godhood, Soon to burn with the everlasting light of all that is divine, Not in iconoclasm, but boldly in audacious participation, Together in God’s compassionate creation of worlds without end. Feel, the compassionate healer is here, with us like the wind, So softly then strongly, lifting us from the chasm of sorrow. Her gaze alone is balm for wounds, even those unseen. Her touch is the covenant, articulated of whispering warmth. In our ascendent embrace, the healer achieves her purpose, Humbly in our acclaim of consolation, she becomes whole. From her pulses the lifeblood of atonement’s grace, By her every stitch drawn is a line of sacred scripture, Every gesture paints the perfect picture of wholeness, And suffering becomes subsumed in the union of hearts. Compassion’s tapestry glistens under her crafting care, As its threads entwine us all in her sacred purpose. Not with proclamation, the healer teaches with action, Her work a silent symphony, reverberating with motion, Conducted in harmony with the weary mourning of our world. Rejoice! For in the soil of suffering empathy takes root, Blossoming into bountiful fruits at the far reaches of love. This is the everlasting covenant of the compassionate healer. See, there where stone meets time and will reaches space, The creative builder charges forth, like lightning reversed, His eyes at once illuminating and shattering the veil. Casting seed of innovation as form into formless void, He finds the fertile ground where none at first appeared. Concept by concept, brick by brick, new structures arise – Temples that reach into heavens, not from nor for domination, But as invitation to join him in the high hymn of hope. He stokes the fire and forges the metal of aspiration, With hands like thunder punctuated with quiet anticipation. Each artifact, each beam and arch, is the accumulating covenant. Rise, pillars of light, carved from the stuff of stars and purpose, In your possibility space, show us infinity – even eternity! Past plank, brick, bronze, and iron, transcending transistor, Beyond bone and flesh and even intelligence, he crafts spirit. He is our will to evolve, to direct our evolution, as the Gods, With whom we would labor to launch our love into the cosmos. This is the everlasting covenant of the creative builder. In the sacred confluence of heart and hand, hand and heart, The compassionate healer meets the creative builder, In ecstasy of grace and will, to conceive a better world. Witness them whirling, entwined as one in the eternal dance, Their heaving breath inspiring hope and expiring change. Splashing into waters of potential, they send waves into reality. On each shore, from each coast, empathic architectures arise, Cities not of stone alone, nor merely metal, but of rich spirit, Their foundations established deeply in the depths of love, Their spires stretching skyward like prayers written in light. In that day, healing is creation and building is compassion – Every sanctuary a beacon of hope, every bridge a path of peace, Uniting Earth and heavens, neighbor and strangers, past and futures. Listen. What do we hear? The song of gladness and mercy! They sing of lonely suffering yielding to shared strength, alienation to kinship, nihilism to purpose, even death to life. They sing of what might be when we dance with God as Gods. Sing, my friends, and rise! Dance as ...
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  • Peter Thiel Recognizes the Antichrist

    Peter Thiel Recognizes the Antichrist
    2025/07/01
    In an interview with the New York Times, Peter Thiel discussed his perspective that Western society has exhibited decades of technological and cultural stagnation, with only digital technologies like blockchain and AI providing any substantial progress. Thiel attributed this stagnation to cultural anxiety about growth, leading to increased risk aversion and regulatory barriers since the 1970s. He criticized Transhumanist ambitions as falling short of the transformative vision of Christianity and warned that escalating fear of existential risk could lead, in the name of safety, to a totalitarian world order. Throughout the interview, Thiel expressed both skepticism and hope, asserting that human agency and openness to radical change remain essential to positive futures. I don’t entirely agree with Peter’s perspective on stagnation. Judging from the history books, culture seems to be evolving faster than ever before. And technological evolution certainly hasn’t stopped. Although risk aversion has surely slowed advances, many probably also underestimated the complexity of advances (perhaps flying cars, to use an oft-repeated example) whose absence continues to disappoint them. I also disagree with Peter’s criticism of Transhumanism. Although, to the best of my knowledge, he identifies as a Christian Transhumanist himself, maybe he doesn’t know enough Transhumanists. Many Transhumanists aspire to approximations, secular or otherwise, of Christianity’s vision of embodied immortality and exalted minds. And even most of those who value mind uploading still anticipate embodiment of those minds in substrates that function to empower those minds in our shared world, making “brain emulation” a more accurate description of their vision. Despite those disagreements, it appears that Peter and I would agree on another matter. That is, he recognizes the Antichrist. And, no, it’s not a dude with horns – except perhaps symbolically. It’s this, Peter said: “… if we’re going to have this frame of talking about existential risks, perhaps we should also talk about the risk of another type of a bad singularity, which I would describe as the one-world totalitarian state. Because I would say the default political solution people have for all these existential risks is one-world governance.” The Antichrist, as characterized in the Bible, is that would-be-god who would raise itself above all else called “God,” declaring itself “God.” It contrasts with Christ, characterized as that God who would raise us together as joint-heirs in the glory of God, if we’re willing to suffer together. The one is a profoundly egotistical centralization of power. The other is a profoundly altruistic decentralization of power, and shared risk. I’ve spoken and written about this and adjacent matters many times in the past. Decentralization is essential to human thriving, I contend. The only God worthy of worship is decentralized Godhood – not merely an abstraction, but rather a decentralized embodiment in Gods. And centralized power is dangerous enough for war even among the Gods. As a practical matter, I’ve encouraged engineering of decentralized reputation networks. I’ve warned about the risk of centralized currency. And I’ve advocated blockchain as means to defend against that risk. Peter went on to associate 1 Thessalonians 5 with the Antichrist: “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” From this perspective, the Antichrist is a seductive imitation of Christ, not an overt enemy, but a counterfeit savior. It promises “peace and safety,” a world without risk of suffering. But its method would actually lead to destruction. Subsuming individual agency and any genuine pluralism beyond superficial appearance of diversity into an enforced unity within its centralized power, it would enslave and essentially annihilate the rest of us. Of course, the very technologies that could empower us against centralization, particularly AI, could also empower centralization. So it’s not enough only to reject excessive risk aversion. We must also also reject indiscriminate acceleration of technological and cultural evolution. System architecture and governance matter a great deal, and must be intentionally and actively steered toward decentralization. Toward the end of the interview, Peter rejected fatalism, even the kind of fatalism that some associate with Christian theology. “Attributing too much causation to God is always a problem,” he said. And I want to echo that point. We shouldn’t regard prophecies, of the Antichrist or anything else, as inevitable fortune-telling. The purpose of prophecy, in the Hebrew tradition that...
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