Templeton Research Lectures Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, Arizona State University

The previous work of project director Hava Tirosh-Samuelson has paved the way for a serious academic analysis of the cultural significance of transhumanism. That work focused primarily on movements and trends within the United States, and only touched on the European discourse on human enhancement and converging technologies. Europe is also a site for leading intellectual developments regarding postsecularism. In order to engage European intellectuals who are at the forefront of this scholarship and to expand the reach of the project, we plan to hold an interdisciplinary, international research conference in Germany to reflect on the connection between secularized religion and technological innovation. This conference will gather leading social theorists, humanists, theologians, specialists in technology and science policies, and other public intellectuals to explore the social, cultural, and religious ramifications of transhumanism. The conference is being organized in collaboration with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology’s Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (KIT-ITAS) and will be held in the Karlsruhe-Heidelberg region on July 8-9, 2013. Christopher Coenen with KIT-ITAS is serving as the conference coordinator.

The previous work of project director Hava Tirosh-Samuelson has paved the way for a serious academic analysis of the cultural significance of transhumanism. That work focused primarily on movements and trends within the United States, and only touched on the European discourse on human enhancement and converging technologies. Europe is also a site for leading intellectual developments regarding postsecularism. In order to engage European intellectuals who are at the forefront of this scholarship and to expand the reach of the project, we plan to hold an interdisciplinary, international research conference in Germany to reflect on the connection between secularized religion and technological innovation. This conference will gather leading social theorists, humanists, theologians, specialists in technology and science policies, and other public intellectuals to explore the social, cultural, and religious ramifications of transhumanism. The conference is being organized in collaboration with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology’s Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (KIT-ITAS) and will be held in the Karlsruhe-Heidelberg region on July 8-9, 2013. Christopher Coenen with KIT-ITAS is serving as the conference coordinator.

The term "transhumanism" denotes an ideology of extreme progress, giving coherence to the accelerated pace of advances in science and technology. As a future-oriented outlook, transhumanism offers a vision of and for humanity in which genetically enhanced humans will live extremely long, intensely happy lives, free of pain and disease. In this imagination of the future, humans will be liberated from the constraints of embodiment and will triumph over death by uploading the mind into machines.

Transhumanism is, fundamentally, an eschatological narrative with ramifications that go well beyond the transhumanist community itself. It draws together a range of religious and secular motifs around an ideology of innovation, thereby giving rise to distinctive social practices, norms, policies and institutions with implications for human flourishing now and into the future. Some of the questions to be examined during this workshop include:

1. How does the transhumanist (religious?) narrative about the posthuman future stimulate technological innovations?
2. To what extent does the techno-social imagination illustrate the hybridization of religious and secular discourses?
3. What are the social and political ramifications of the transhumanist project, especially for liberal democracies?
4. Does transhumanism manifest the post-secular moment?
5. How should we study socio-technical imaginaries comparatively?
6. How do transhumanism and posthumanism reconfigure the relationship between modernism and postmodernism?

Prior to the conference, a faculty seminar will be engaging these questions by focusing on the works of Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, Cary Wolfe, and some essays about socio-technical imaginaries by Sheila Jasanoff, William Bainbridge, and Ilya Klieger and Nasser Zakariah.

Recommended reading includes: Jürgen Habermas, The Future of Human Nature (2003) Jürgen Habermas, An Awareness of What is Missing: Faith and Reason in the Post-Secular Age (2010) Cary Wolfe, What is Posthumanism? (2010) Charles Taylor, Modern Social Imaginaries (2003)

Introduction- Ben Hurlbut

Robert M. Geraci

4/9/12 - 10:15am - 11:00am

"It's Virtually the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine): Games, Play, and the Transhuman Inclination"





Colin Milburn

4/9/12 - 11:00am - 11:45pm

"Molecular Necromancy: Nanoscience and the Postmortal Conditionon"

William Grassie

4/9/12 - 11:45am - 12:30pm

Closing Discussion

The term "transhumanism" denotes an ideology of extreme progress, giving coherence to the accelerated pace of advances in science and technology. As a future-oriented outlook, transhumanism offers a vision of and for humanity in which genetically enhanced humans will live extremely long, intensely happy lives, free of pain and disease. In this imagination of the future, humans will be liberated from the constraints of embodiment and will triumph over death by uploading the mind into machines.

Transhumanism is, fundamentally, an eschatological narrative with ramifications that go well beyond the transhumanist community itself. It draws together a range of religious and secular motifs around an ideology of innovation, thereby giving rise to distinctive social practices, norms, policies and institutions with implications for human flourishing now and into the future. Some of the questions to be examined during this workshop include:

1. How does the transhumanist (religious?) narrative about the posthuman future stimulate technological innovations?
2. To what extent does the techno-social imagination illustrate the hybridization of religious and secular discourses?
3. What are the social and political ramifications of the transhumanist project, especially for liberal democracies?
4. Does transhumanism manifest the post-secular moment?
5. How should we study socio-technical imaginaries comparatively?
6. How do transhumanism and posthumanism reconfigure the relationship between modernism and postmodernism?

Prior to the conference, a faculty seminar will be engaging these questions by focusing on the works of Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, Cary Wolfe, and some essays about socio-technical imaginaries by Sheila Jasanoff, William Bainbridge, and Ilya Klieger and Nasser Zakariah.

Recommended reading includes: Jürgen Habermas, The Future of Human Nature (2003) Jürgen Habermas, An Awareness of What is Missing: Faith and Reason in the Post-Secular Age (2010) Cary Wolfe, What is Posthumanism? (2010) Charles Taylor, Modern Social Imaginaries (2003)






Introductions by Linell Cady and Hava Samuelson.

Ronald Cole-Turner

4/9/12 - 8:30am - 9:15am

"Conflicting visions: speciation and hybridization in religious and secular eschatologies"

James Hughes

4/9/12 - 9:15am - 10:00am

"The Politics of Transhumanism and the Techno-Millennial Imagination, 1626-2030"

Philip Clayton (Ph.D., Yale University) is a philosopher, theologian and public intellectual specializing in the entire range of issues—ethical, political, and theoretical—that arise at the intersection between science and religion. Over the last several decades he has published and lectured extensively on all branches of this debate, including the history of modern philosophy, philosophy of science, comparative religions, and constructive theology. Addressing the cultural battle over the relationship between science and religion, Clayton argues that rejecting the scientism of Dawkins, et. al., does not open the door to fundamentalism. Rather, a variety of complex and interesting positions are being obscured by this fight. By drawing on the resources of the sciences, philosophy, theology, and comparative religious thought, Clayton shows how the compatibility of science with religious belief may be integrated across a variety of fields, including emergence theory, evolution and religion, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience and consciousness.

Steven P. Goldberg (Georgetown University) is James M. and Catherine F. Denny Professor of Law at Georgetown University. He is best known for his work at the intersection of law, religion, and science. His books include Bleached Faith: The Tragic Cost When Religion is Forced Into the Public Square (2008), Seduced By Science: How American Religion Has Lost Its Way (1999), and Culture Clash: Law and Science in America (1994), which won the Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award. Following graduation from Yale Law School, he was a law clerk to D.C. Circuit Chief Judge David L. Bazelon and to U. S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. He then worked as an attorney with the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. At Georgetown Law, Goldberg has served as Associate Dean and has won the Frank F. Flegal Award for Outstanding Teaching.