The Mormon Transhumanist Association has established a presence in the virtual world of Second Life to facilitate interaction among its worldwide membership. The association's conference center is located in the dome of a space station orbiting above the Inspired Technologies office tower on the Mormon island of Adam ondi Ahman [Jan 2008: Our Second Life conference center location has since changed.]. Please visit any time, and look forward to announcements about association events in Second Life!

The Mormon Transhumanist Association will be hosting the next in their series of monthly round table discussions on 17 May 2008. Subsequent discussions will be held on the third Saturday of each month. This month's discussion will be focused on "Beyond the Atheism-Religion Divide", Krista Tippets' "Speaking of Faith" inteview with Author, Harvey Cox. The podcast can be downloaded here. Andrew West, Director of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, will moderate the discussion. The event will be held in the conference hall of the Arnell-West building located at 3441 S 2200 W, Salt Lake City, Utah, just southeast of the E-Center. The discussion will begin at 7:00 PM Mountain Time. Light refreshments will be served.

The Mormon Transhumanist Association will be hosting the next in their series of monthly round table discussions on 19 April 2008. Subsequent discussions will be held on the third Saturday of each month. This month's discussion will be focused on the film Lorenzo's Oil, which we will be screening as a part of the event. Andrew West, Director of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, will moderate the discussion. The event will be held in the conference hall of the Arnell-West building located at 3441 S 2200 W, Salt Lake City, Utah, just southeast of the E-Center. The film will begin at 7:00 PM Mountain Time with discussion immediately following. Light refreshments will be served.

Lincoln Cannon, president of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, will give a presentation and a Q/A session in Second Life on 30 March at 10:00 AM PST (11 AM Mountain Time), at the virtual headquarters of SL-Transhumanists.

On Saturday, March 15, from 1-3pm (Second Life time) at the Central Nexus in Extropia Core, the Salon Spotlight Guest will be Soren Ferlinghetti (Robert M Geraci). Robert M. Geraci is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College in New York City. He studies the interactions of religion, science and technology with particular emphasis upon robotics, artificial intelligence and (more recently) online gaming. he has conducted fieldwork at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute and in Second Life through discussions and interviews. In addition to publishing a number of essays on religion and robotics, he has just finished a book on the subject (tentatively titled Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality) and is planning a new book about religion and online games. More information is available on the Finding Sophrosyne blog.

The Mormon Transhumanist Association will be hosting the next in their series of monthly round table discussions on 15 March 2008. Subsequent discussions will be held on the third Saturday of each month. This month's discussion will be focused on WNYC: Radiolab Podcast "Mortality" which features discussions of mortality by anatomy professor Leonard Hayflick and geneticist Cynthia Kenyon, among others. The podcast can be downloaded here. Andrew West, Director of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, will moderate the discussion. The event will be held in the conference hall of the Arnell-West building located at 3441 S 2200 W, Salt Lake City, Utah, just southeast of the E-Center. The discussion will begin at 7:00 PM Mountain Time. Light refreshments will be served.

The Mormon Transhumanist Association will be hosting the next in their series of monthly round table discussions on 23 February 2008. Subsequent discussions will be held on the third Saturday of each month. This month's discussion will be focused on The Sunstone Classic Podcast "Mormonism and Science: Issues for the Coming Century" which features Duane Jeffery, professor of zoology at Brigham Young University. The podcast can be downloaded here. Andrew West, Director of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, will moderate the discussion. The event will be held in the conference hall of the Arnell-West building located at 3441 S 2200 W, Salt Lake City, Utah, just southeast of the E-Center. The discussion will begin at 7:00 PM Mountain Time. Light refreshments will be served.

The Mormon Transhumanist Association has updated its RSS feeds to use the FeedBurner service. If you are subscribed to our RSS feeds, please update the links in your RSS aggregator to use the new links, specified below. If you are not already subscribed to our RSS feeds, try subscribing to these links in Google Reader -- you'll wonder how you ever got along without it!

The Mormon Transhumanist Association will be hosting the first of a series of monthly round table discussions on 19 January 2008. Subsequent discussions will be held on the third Saturday of each month. This month's discussion will be focused on Nick Bostrum's Fable of the Dragon Tyrant which is available on Dr. Bostrum's homepage. Andrew West, Director of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, will moderate the discussion. The event will be held in the conference hall of the Arnell-West building located at 3441 S 2200 W, Salt Lake City, Utah, just southeast of the E-Center.The discussion will begin at 7:00 PM Mountain Time. Light refreshments will be served.

Five World Transhumanist Association Board members’ terms expire this month, and eight candidates are standing for election to replace them. WTA Board members set policy goals and oversee their implementation, contributing with their experience and expertise to the WTA’s work. The term of service for these seats is two years, which for these five open positions means Jan 20, 2008 - Jan 19, 2010. Voting in this election is open to all voting members of the association in good standing as of 7pm EST/midnight GMT of Saturday January 5th, 2008. Voting will take place from Monday January 7th, 2008 to 7pm EST/midnight GMT of Sunday January 13th, 2008. If you are a voting member and do not receive a link to the balloting on Monday please contact the Assistant Director. Note that all voting members of the Mormon Transhumanist Association are voting members of the World Transhumanist Association.