The Reluctant Transhumanist; or, There is no Magic Wand

Speaker 1

Our next speaker is going to be Leonard Real. Where is Leonard? He’s hiding over here on the front row. Leonard Riel.

Speaker 1

Leonard is a career diplomat in Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He was raised in Canada. He received a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Brigham Young University, Master of Arts in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent at Canterbury. He has lived on three continents and speaks English, French and Mandarin Chinese. After living in Canada, my wife might not think you speak real French anymore, though. He and his wife, Jennifer, have five children, and they currently reside in Ottawa, Canada.

Speaker 1

Leonard is going to be speaking on his paper entitled The Reluctant Transhumanist, or There Is No Magic Wand.

Leonard Reil

Just wanted to thank those who have spoken and those who have sung before me. It says for a nice tone, and I hope that I don’t ruin it.

Leonard Reil

Today, I’m going to give you the story of my conversion to transhumanism. And to understand this story, you need to understand first that I am at best a reluctant transhumanist. So much so that while I was a founding member of the Mormon Transhumanist Association and was on the first board of directors, and certainly have told people about my affiliation with the MTA. I do not believe I have ever said the words, I’m a transhumanist before, two seconds ago.

Leonard Reil

That being said, I should also add that I, much like Lincoln, believe that all Mormons should be transhumanists. For what else is our faith In a future as immortal, glorified, but still physical beings of flesh and bones, but a transhumanist vision. A vision of humankind transformed into angels or into gods. transcending our current mortal state. To me, the only real question is the process by which the transhumanism occurs and what role we have in it.

Leonard Reil

Now ironically, my conversion to transhumanism happened after the creation of the association, and right about the time I stopped serving on the board of directors. Yet while the timing may seem strange, the stranger part to me is who converted me? And that is my father. And why would that be strange? Because my father had passed away about a decade before.

Leonard Reil

I should be clear that my conversion story is not dramatic. There was no vision and no rays of light. There was just the voice of one crying from the dust.

Leonard Reil

My father knew the gospel well, and if I know anything about the gospel, it is because my parents taught me well, either directly or by their example of learning, by study and by faith. And living in a small town in the Alberta prairies, far away from any significant Mormon presence, my father had to give a lot of talks in church. My father was always preparing talks, walking to school where he worked, driving to the field where he raised bees. My father would be mentally preparing a talk, and during my last few years at home, my father would sometimes discuss his talks with me during that mental drafting stage. And one of those talks sank deep, deep enough that I still remember it a good twenty plus years later. Deep enough that I remembered it one night when discussing with a friend Mormonism and transhumanism.

Leonard Reil

Now, this friend was and is a fervent believer in Mormon transhumanism. You heard from him a few moments ago. And in this particular conversation, had one evening in my in-laws swimming pool. I was expressing my reluctance, trying to explain to him why, despite all of the many ways in which the ideas of transhumanism inspired me, something just didn’t sit right. And while I was trying to explain my reluctance, literally mid-sentence, my father’s words came back to me, like the teachings of Enos’ fathers, coming to him while he was hunting. Son, there is no magic wand.

Leonard Reil

Now I must admit I didn’t really like my father’s talk at first. No magic wand. I’m a Tolkien fan, Dad. There’s real power in the gospel, son, but there’s no magic wand.

Leonard Reil

Now, of course, my father’s talk was not about transhumanism. I doubt he had ever heard the term. His talk was about the core of the gospel, about atonement and redemption. That God would not and could not redeem us by simply waving a magic wand, and poof, suddenly we’re righteous, suddenly we’re perfect. No, God provides us with a Savior, with a good news of repentance and change. That God could only change us if we would let Him, if we would choose to change. Yes, he would save us, but not by magic. There is no magic wand.

Leonard Reil

If we want to be kind, we must become kind. To be more patient, more charitable, more like Christ in any way, we need to actually repent and change. As the prophet Alma said, the same spirit you possess when you die will be the spirit that possesses your body when it rises again. There is no magic wand.

Leonard Reil

My Father’s word had a great impact on me. It helped me understand better the need for repentance and for the power of redemption, not of a magical transformation, but of a joint process with God. In which we could follow the path laid out by Christ, as Joseph Smith put it, a process of progressing rung by rung up the ladder of exaltation.

Leonard Reil

And years later, I found myself with this group of friends talking about the interplay between religion and science, faith and technology, and the amazing potential of progress that was beginning to be seen. And now, with each passing year, is being seen more clearly. What if we could make the deaf hear, and the lame walk, and the blind to see? Would it be any less miraculous if we did it with technology than when Christ did it with the words of his mouth? Well, in one sense, obviously. But to the recipient? You watch a video of someone hearing for the first time in their life thanks to a cognitive impact, and you will see just how miraculous it is. You see someone moving a prosthetic limb with their mind thanks to an implanted processor, and you will see wonder. You see scientists working with 3D printing technology to print functional human organs. For transplant, potentially transforming the lives of millions, these things are happening now, and greater and greater things are coming.

Leonard Reil

What if we could extend the lifespan of mankind? First by years, by a decade. We’re already doing that. What if it were a few decades, or many decades, or centuries? What about resurrection? The first time one thinks of that, it sounds almost ludicrous. But then you let yourself think of it for a moment longer. What if we were able to unlock the keys of life and of death? Certainly, other transhumanists were talking about it, and why shouldn’t we, people whose faith exists in these things, be talking about them too? Will we be able to do it? Should we? I ask again the question: Would it be any less miraculous if we did it through science and technology than if God appeared from the heavens and did it Himself? There is no magic wand.

Leonard Reil

As I talked with my friend, my father’s words kept ringing in my head, and I wondered out loud to him how universal is this principle? The implications seem to hammer down on my reluctance. Did it apply only to the spiritual realm or to the physical realm as well?

Leonard Reil

Now, if you think about it for a moment, that actually seems a little bit strange, doesn’t it? For those things that we can’t feel and touch and see our spiritual state, our inner man, our soul, for those things there’s no magic wand. Transformations must be chosen, worked on, accomplished over time. No magic wand. But for the physical, the things that we do touch and see and feel, oh, yes, God’s got a magic wand for those.

Leonard Reil

What do we read in the Doctrine and Covenants? That to the Lord there is no spiritual and temporal. All things are spiritual. Further, that nothing is immaterial, and that spirit is simply a finer form of matter. or what we call matter is a denser form of spirit. To the Lord it is all one great whole.

Leonard Reil

Would that not imply that if there is no magic wand for the spiritual There isn’t a magic wand for the spiritual, there isn’t a magic wand for the physical either. This seemed in line with classic Mormon teaching that God is a God of law. And that miracles are not a contradiction of the natural law, but rather manifestations of a higher law and usage of natural law. That Jesus’ ascension into heaven, for example, was not a violation Of the law of gravity, but rather gravity was overcome through some use of another natural law that we are ignorant of.

Leonard Reil

Miracles are miraculous Not because of supernatural magic, but rather because we do not understand how God accomplished it. And if it is according to natural law, is it not possible that we could come to understand it? Mormonism’s vision of God working by natural laws, laws that exist but which we may not yet understand, seems to foreshadow Arthur Clarke’s third law. That any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. And I realized that that word, technology, was the key part of my own reluctance because God doesn’t use technology. Or does he?

Leonard Reil

I believe that Jesus Christ was crucified and rose again on the third day. Do I know how? No, and I suspect that neither do any of you. But certainly it had nothing to do with science and technology. Or did it?

Leonard Reil

When I look at the advances that have taken place in the last five years, And then consider the next ten, twenty, fifty years of scientific and technological progress. I see such amazing, beautiful potential. And then I also try to imagine a hundred years, or two hundred years, or five hundred years, or a thousand years. And I ask myself, where will it end? And something seems to whisper that it will never end. Perhaps it is Brigham Young reminding us that this life is part of eternity. And that perhaps the advancements we are making are part of the revelations that God is pouring down not only upon the saints but upon all of humanity.

Leonard Reil

And my reluctant side says that God already has this stuff covered. God already has the power of resurrection. Christ has already been resurrected, and thus clearly we don’t need to figure it out. But what if he wants us to figure it out? What if that is why he did it? To inspire us? Perhaps we are making such amazing progress at such a pace that is amazing today, that what is amazing today will likely look barbarically primitive in a few decades’ time.

Leonard Reil

Yes, resurrection is a gift from God. But so is charity a gift from God. And if charity being a gift does not remove my need to seek after it, to strive to understand it, and to nurture it in my soul Perhaps resurrection is also something that we need to strive after.

Leonard Reil

Similarly, the fact that the eternal gods have done away with hunger and want and have established peace among themselves Does not remove God’s command for humanity to figure out how to do it. He has called us to establish Zion, to work together to overcome hunger and want and war here upon the earth ourselves. And so perhaps the fact that God has already resurrected means does not mean we should not strive to learn how to do so.

Leonard Reil

If we are confident to work with God for our spiritual redemption, Why should we hesitate to work with God for our physical redemption? Why would we strive to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and purge the natural man from the inside, but shrink at the thought of purging the natural man from the outside? Why do we view one as working out our salvation with fear and trembling, and view the other as dangerously trying to play God or to replace him?

Leonard Reil

We say that we have faith in healing, in restoration, in resurrection. And what would James say? Should we have faith without works? Faith without works is dead. If we have faith in these things, should we not seek to manifest that faith through our works, even through science and technology?

Leonard Reil

When we see the current advances being made in science and technology, and when we consider the future potential, do we recoil in fear? Fear that our fellows are trying to replace God with their science? Or do we, as Mormons, look forward with an eye of faith and see the hand of God working with us to bring about his work? The immortality as well as the eternal life of man.

Leonard Reil

That is why my father’s words, there is no magic wand, converted me. Reluctantly, perhaps. But it’s there. He spoke of things spiritual, and his words sunk deep into my soul. And perhaps his words, but perhaps his words spoke of things physical as well.

Leonard Reil

Now it may be that humanity has no need to seek after the fruit of the tree of life, and that God will do all the work of redemption and the resurrection for us. If so, I will joyously receive it from Him. I am confident that God will not be upset at our attempts to understand Him, the universe, and ourselves, and to take that understanding and strive to become more like Him. physically as well as spiritually. Rather, I suspect he will command our efforts.

Leonard Reil

But it may also be that God expects us to use the knowledge that He is pouring out upon us and the visions and hopes and dreams that come with it with us with it. Should we not strive to seek after those visions of transfiguration with wisdom and with charity, and seek to be in all things to be profitable servants? I believe we should strive. And that is why, despite my lingering reluctance, I am a Mormon transhumanist. Because there is no magic wand.

Leonard Reil

I have thirty seconds, I think. If there’s any one, there appears to be a question, so it’s flashing red.

Speaker 3

Leonard, thanks so much for your thoughts. My comment question comes from one of your expressions about if we can do something, should we do it? And especially as it weighs against science and technology. And I also want to tie that into To the length of human life, and under your idea that one day we could live forever, mortally. I’m also thinking about the unintended consequences of what appear to be very good and honorable things. Now right now the life expectancy across the world, at least the free world, is lengthening. Eighty, ninety years is not uncommon. Hospital expenses nationally, and I presume in Canada as well, are going up because people are living longer. If you stretch that too far and people are living forever and new babies are born. I just kind of take this logically further if you can. You now have to have another technology that accommodates An entering population without an exiting one.

Leonard Reil

Yeah. Yeah, and I do not in any way have a good answer for that question. I think those are the type of very serious and very real questions that humanity needs to look at. To me, the short term answer that comforts my soul Is the faith in the divine that is directing us in some way. I wouldn’t claim to know how, and a hope and faith that as we progress in one way, we will continue to have conversations that will push us to progress in other ways as well. And that solutions of one form or another will be found. And it could be as. I mean, there’s always other planets. We can go change those ones. I mean, why not? We could. We change this world, why don’t we change those ones too, and we’ll inhabit them all? I mean, I don’t know. But I think you do raise a very real question, and one that is for me a reason of why we do need to have this association as well as others to talk about what are the impacts of these things and how do we ensure that we address them in ways that are both wise. And charitable