AI, Cyborgs, & Transhumanism

A Christian Response

Description

Advancements in artificial intelligence, robotics, brain-computer interfaces, and other technologies not only threaten but, indeed, promise disruption. Significant resources and slick public relations campaigns are dedicated to justifying the development of these and other advances in technology and to strongly encourage adoption without discretion.

How should Christians respond to technologies that, on the one hand, allow the blind to see and the lame to walk and, on the other hand, seek to enhance our finite human capacities, even going so far as to enable us to live forever as digital selves?

This four-week cohort will provide an overview of human-interfacing technologies. We will address the potential consequences of embracing artificial intelligence, robotics, and cybernetics (the merging of the human and the machine) and the technologies related to them. We will also look at how the motivations and desires of transhumanists are related to the goals and design of these emerging technologies. Importantly, we will evaluate human-interfacing and human-enhancing technologies from an evangelical Christian perspective.

As with any relatively new and rapidly developing technology, some parts of this study will necessarily be speculative as we attempt to anticipate scenarios that are likely to develop. The goal is to take what we know from the past to prepare us for the future. Dr. Eppinette has spent more than two decades speaking, teaching, and writing on emerging technologies and has developed content specifically for this interactive cohort.

The underlying impetus to pursue human-interfacing technologies holds a powerful sway in our culture. Nevertheless, our Christian faith has resources for responding to these emerging and potentially disruptive technologies.

In addition to being able to participate in live discussion at the end of every session, those who register for AI, Cyborgs, and Transhumanism will receive a free copy of The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity by Jason Thacker.

AND complimentary access to The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity’s 32nd Annual Conference, Living in the Biotech Century: The First 25 Years.

Details

4 Weeks
Tuesdays
May 6 – 27, 2025
3:00 – 4:30 PM CST
Live Q&A

Instructor

Matthew Eppinette

Cost

$199

Organizers

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity

Whats Included

Cohort Schedule

Week 1

Introduction and Overview: Framing the Subject

First, we will look at how artificial intelligence, cybernetics, and the impetus toward transhumanism and posthumanism fit into the larger context of general technological development. In addition, we will introduce ways in which our Christian faith provides a framework for evaluating these and other emerging technologies. Finally, we will take a bird’s eye view of the coming weeks’ topics. (Each week’s gathering will include at least 30 minutes for questions and answers.)

Week 2

What’s So Intelligent about Artificial Intelligence?

In our second week together, we will look at where artificial intelligence came from, its promises, and what perils might arise as this technology advances. We will use the framework outlined in Week One to evaluate AI from a specifically Christian point of view.

Week 3

Brain-Computer Interfaces, Robots, and Cyborgs, Oh My!

Beyond AI, there is a push for merging the human and the machine via technologies like brain-computer interfaces, robotics, and cybernetics. What is the impulse behind technologies that interface with the human body, and how might Christian wisdom direct our thinking about it?

Week 4

What’s next for Humanity? A Christian Response

All the technologies we have covered in the first three weeks, and others we haven’t mentioned, are being adopted by some as a means to progress to the next stage in evolution and usher in a so-called post-human future. What should we know about this transhuman movement? What does the Christian faith have to say in response? (This week will include an extended Q&A period.)

Instructor

Matthew Eppinette, MBA, PhD (Fuller Theological Seminary), is the Executive Director of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity (CBHD), a research center alongside Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Trinity Law School. He is also an Affiliate Professor of Bioethics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and editor of the open-access, peer-reviewed publication Dignitas.

Dr. Eppinette spent seven years working in IT before switching to a career in bioethics. He now has more than two decades of experience in the field of bioethics, writing, teaching, and speaking on a wide variety of topics.

Among his publications are chapters in Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends, The New Media Frontier, and Taking Persons Seriously: Where Philosophy and Bioethics Intersect. He is the editor, alongside Dónal P. O’Mathúna, Bryan A. Just, and Wilson Jeremiah, of Bioethics in Real Life. His writing can also be found in Newsweek, The Christian Post, and World. In addition, Dr. Eppinette has co-written and co-produced six documentary films that address issues in bioethics. He and his wife, Ginger, currently reside in suburban Chicago.