This document summarizes Giulio Prisco's presentation at the TransVision 2019 conference in London. The presentation discusses transhumanist concepts including using technology to improve the human condition, the possibility of achieving ultra-advanced technologies like indefinite life extension and mind uploading, and how sufficiently advanced technologies may be indistinguishable from magic or God. It also discusses how transhumanism relates to religion and different visions of using future technologies to become immortal or resurrect the dead. Prisco is optimistic about long-term scientific and technological progress enabling achievements beyond our current understanding.

1. More things in heaven and earth
Gods by any other name
TransVision 2019
London, July 6–7, 2019
Giulio Prisco

2. There are more things in heaven and
Earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
(William Shakespeare, Hamlet)
A rose by any other name would smell as
sweet.
(William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)
Since we are in London…
Let’s pay homage to Shakespeare!

3. Transhumanism: My simple definition
Transhumanism: Common sense on steroids
Using
technology
to improve
the human
condition
is DOABLE
And
GOOD

4. Ultra-tech will be achieved eventually
BUT PROBABLY NOT SOON
Indefinite life extension,
Superintelligent AI,
Mind uploading,
... And all that
... And much more

5. FAR

6. So will the Universe end in a big crunch, or in an
infinite expansion of dead stars, or in some other
manner? In my view, the primary issue is not the mass
of the Universe, or the possible existence of
antigravity, or of Einstein’s so-called cosmological
constant. Rather, the fate of the Universe is a decision
yet to be made, one which we will intelligently
consider when the time is right.
(Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines)
in the long term
But Kurzweil is right…

7. Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic.
(Arthur C. Clarke)
Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial
intelligence or far future human is
indistinguishable from God.
(Michael Shermer)
are scientific concepts
Magic technology and God

8. [They] had learned to store knowledge in the
structure of space itself, and to preserve their
thoughts for eternity in frozen lattices of light…
Now they were lords of the galaxy, and beyond the
reach of time…
And if there was anything beyond that, its name could
only be God. (Arthur C. Clarke, 2001)
A vision for our long-term future
Uploading to the fabric of spacetime

9. Using magic technology to become
Gods is DOABLE and GOOD
Transhumanism++, on steroids
I AM very optimistic for the long term

10. We will develop spacetime engineering and scientific
"future magic" much beyond our current
understanding and imagination.
Spacetime engineering and future magic will permit
achieving, by scientific means, most of the promises
of religions - and many amazing things that no human
religion ever dreamed. Eventually we will be able to
resurrect the dead by "copying them to the future".
My cosmic visions
We’ll remake the universe, resurrect the dead

11. Technological resurrection
aka “quantum archeology”

12. More things in heaven and earth
We are not yet in contact with ultimate reality
The outstanding achievement of twentieth-
century physics is not the theory of relativity
with its welding together of space and time,
or the theory of quanta with its present
apparent negation of the laws of causation,
or the dissection of the atom with the
resultant discovery that things are not what
they seem; it is the general recognition that
we are not yet in contact with ultimate
reality. (Sir James Jeans, 1930)
2019: + QFT, SM, black holes, quantum
matter, strings, more dimensions…

13. Gods by any other name
Scientific conceptions of God

14. Transhumanism ⬅️ ➡️ Religion
Religion ⬅️ ➡️ Transhumanism
Turing Church
turingchurch.net
Christian Transhumanist
Association
christiantranshumanism.org
Mormon Transhumanist
Association
transfigurism.org

15. Gods by any other name (1)
The good old simulation hypothesis

16. Simulation cosmology
is essentially equivalent to religion
These simulators would have created our world, they would
be able to monitor everything that happens here, and they
would be able to intervene in ways that conflict with the
simulated default laws of nature…
An afterlife in a different simulation or at a different level of
reality after death-in-the-simulation would be a real
possibility. It is even conceivable that the simulators might
reward or punish their simulated creatures based to how they
behave. (Nick Bostrom)

17. God by any other name (2)
Frank Tipler’s Omega Point cosmology

18. God by any other name (3)
Self-consistent causal loops across time
God
Man

19. Gods by any other name (4)
SUPER strings: Bulk beings, brane engineers

20. Gods by any other name (5)
God-like Mind in the fabric of spacetime

21. The mind is part of the Mind
After death the mind is still in the Mind

22. Wishful thinking?
Y E S !!!

23. Everything that is worthy and good
starts with wishful thinking

24. Wishful thinking (plus hard work)
got us to the Moon 😥 50 years ago 😥

25. Back to Earth: The relevance of
transhumanism++ to key issues of the present

26. Key issues
of the present and near-term future
• There’s NOT ENOUGH wishful thinking!
• Many are losing the sense of a wonderful, enchanted
frontier.
• Many are losing the sense of transcendental hope and
meaning.
• Many don’t dare to hope in survival after death, and live in
existential despair.
• Without hope in survival after death, some could
recklessly pursue very dangerous paths to immortality
here and now.

27. Hope in afterlife is our best protection against
the reckless pursuit of superintelligent AI
[Superintelligent AI] could almost
certainly devise means to
indefinitely prolong the lives of the
then still-existing humans… or
helping them shuffle off their mortal
coils altogether by uploading their
minds to a digital substrate. (Nick
Bostrom)
[Superintelligent AI] is the single
biggest existential crisis that we face
and the most pressing one… I think
the danger of AI is much greater
than the danger of nuclear
warheads. (Elon Musk)

28. See my book for more!
Thank you very much! Questions?