Freepik, NRAO/AUI/NSF, Jeff Hellerman
Religious Transhumanism
James Carroll
Abstract: Continuing a related topic to the presentation on AI a few weeks ago, we will discuss the implications of a potential future technological explosion for humanity, and religion. Specifically, we will discuss issues such as the Drake Equations, the Fermi Paradox, the Great Filter, and the Simulation Hypothesis. We will also discuss the potential implications for the existence and nature of God, using the "New God Argument".
James Carroll received a PhD in Computer Science with an emphasis on Artificial Intelligence and a minor in Ancient Near Eastern History in 2010 from Brigham Young University. His dissertation was on the Statistics of Machine Learning, and the Computer Assisted annotation of ancient religious texts. As a graduate student he taught classes on Artificial Intelligence, Isaiah, The Book of Mormon, and The Pearl of Great Price in the Ancient Scripture Department. After graduation he worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, first as a post doc, and then as a scientist, where he worked primarily on radiography. He is currently researching the application of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for the analysis of Radiographic Image data. He currently attends the Unitarian Universalist Church of Los Alamos, where he teaches Adult Religious Education classes on comparative religion and the Old Testament. His classes are available online at: https://www.youtube.com/@jlc46
