Candidacy - Day 35 - Transhumanism

I am a computer nerd by self-admission. I enjoy being a nerd. I spent over 20 years being an engineering computer nerd. I enjoy even more teaching others to be computer nerds, and did so teaching high school and community college students part-time for over 15 years. So, last year, I started investigating transhumanism. If you would like to find out more about it, there is a web site for an online magazine (where else would a transhumanist group have a magazine??) called Humanity Plus. The URL is http://humanityplus.org/. I even wrote a paper last year on what the Catholic church and theologians think about Transhumanism. If would would like to read it, entitled Christian Transhumanism: An Analysis of Singualarity, Imago Dei, and Teilhard, it is available on this blog here. (Sorry! I was too lazy  to find a place to upload as a pdf file. If you would like a copy, I could email you one.) Anyway, here's what it has to do with my Franciscan journey.

The time has come to begin planning a master's thesis for the theology degree I am pursing at the Franciscan School of Theology (FST). I am beginning the paperwork. Preliminary to choosing a topic, I took a verbal survey of about 20 Franciscan sisters. I explained transhumanism and that I would be interested in doing research on what light Duns Scotus, a 13th century Franciscan theologian, might shed on transhumanist thought. Then I asked the person to vote, either for that or for doing research on the history of the Sisters of St. Francis in this province. Funny, it was unanimous that I should do the history project. I guess none of the sisters are nerds. So, that's what I'm doing.

Dr. Jeff Burns, who is the director for the Academy of American Franciscan History and a professor at FST consented to be my thesis advisor. So, once the semester is over, I will be spending most of my time interviewing as many sisters as who might talk with me, and with their permission archiving the recorded interviews.

Context switch: My friend, Franklin Fong, OFM, does calligraphy as a meditative practice. He gave me one yesterday. It reads: The purpose of life is to live it: explore dream discover Above the calligraphy is the Chinese symbol for prosperity. (Franklin gave the homily at the FST Mass yesterday also. He is one of the most insightful people I know.) Once school is out, I'm going to experiment with making paper that might be useful for calligraphy.

The Chinese character for prosperity is often joined with the character for happiness in both Chinese and Japanese calligraphic scrolls. The idea connotes thriving and well-being. There is an article in today's San Francisco Chronicle focused on just that topic. U.C. Berkeley researchers have started the Greater Good Science Center where they are doing research on the effect of gratitude on our health and well-being. The center has resources for educators and parents as well as a newsletter to help us develop compassion and altruism -- inner states of being that help us to be healthy and giving people. All of this brings me to the story of St. Francis and perfect joy. The story from The Little Flowers of St. Francis is here if you would like to read it. Joy, as well as prosperity, is an internal state of being.