From UU Boca Raton: 'Augmented Humanity'

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In keeping with the Soul Matters theme of Transformation, UU Boca Raton staged the opening scene of Darwin's Edge as part of a service Sunday that my friend Ron Roth produced and titled "Augmented Humanity."
 
They did a great job with this "exploration in spiritual creativity" as four members entered the pulpit to perform our projected introduction of ThinkPal, the first whole-brain interface with AI, to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Southern Adirondacks on February 29, 2032. 

Here's the easy-to-browse text of the scene as these characters performed it. 

Our congrats to Ron for spearheading the production, Rev. Kathy Tew Rickey for narrating it, and to the four actors who, as 2032 Analogs, brought our characters to life: 

  • John Bostrom as "Rev. Pete" Gilman

  • Erich Landstrom as Michael  Carmody 

  • Marina Machado as Sarina Rao

  • Donna Musial as Theresa Ruiz Sanchez

The question-and-answer session provides a compelling snapshot of concerns raised by one group of religious progressives on the threshold of what all can see is going to be a period of human history more transformative than the Industrial Revolution or the arrival of the printing press.  Elon Musk's announcement of the first installation of Telepathy in a human subject is a harbinger of what's to come and a signal that we must now regard with utmost seriousness Nita Farahany's warnings about the threats that neurotechnological advances pose for our cognitive liberties while also considering such technologies' great potential for humankind.