What if the best prophecies are fulfilled? What if the worst are avoided? What if, by the grace of God, we make heaven on Earth? What will that look like? Such questions come from one of my favorite professional anthropologists, Jon Bialecki. He has been studying and writing about Mormon Transhumanism. In fact, he has a book on the subject that’s currently in peer review. And I’m looking forward to reading it. Jon is the kind of anthropologist who embeds himself within the culture he’s studying. So he’s been involved in events of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. That has included speaking at our conferences. And, most recently, he led a discussion at an association meetup. The subject of discussion was speculation about the future in Mormonism, both broadly and in Mormon Transhumanism specifically. He wanted to explore how speculation about the future affects our intellectual, religious, and spiritual lives. And we ended up discussing some of the social and political aspects of speculation among Mormons. Importance of Speculation Because Mormon Transhumanists are opinionated, the discussion never advanced beyond Jon’s first question. He asked: “How important is speculation about the future to you? Before joining the MTA? As an MTA member? In your daily life?” One of the most memorable ideas that my parents taught me as a child was the doctrine of theosis. It’s the idea that humanity can and should become God. In the Christian interpretation, it’s not about replacing God but rather about joining God. And it’s not merely about individuals, but also about how communities can join with God together. This idea had abiding impact on me from childhood to the present. Even when I lost my faith in God during young adulthood, inspiration from the doctrine of theosis persisted with me. I doubted that God existed. But I trusted that humanity could and should still work to embody the characteristics and capacities that we attribute to God, particularly as exemplified by Jesus Christ. Because of that abiding and forward-looking inspiration, I frequently imagined how we might realize such hope. And I was never satisfied with passive possibilities of God doing all the work. Maybe God would. But to the extent that we don’t know, shouldn’t we be wondering how to proceed with whatever knowledge, abilities, and tools that we have available to us? To the extent God exists, we should discover and join God. To the extent God doesn’t exist, we should create and become God. Both require work. And work begins with speculation, before proceeding to experimentation and application. For various emotional and rational reasons, I eventually regained my faith in God. But inspiration from the doctrine of theosis hasn’t changed. And the accompanying motivation to speculate hasn’t changed. If anything, my inclination to speculation has only increased as my sense of the practicality of the hope has increased. Confidence in Speculation Out of curiosity, I asked Jon to share the questions that we didn’t have time to discuss. He kindly did that. They’re presented below, along with my answers. “How certain are you about your vision of the future? What is the ‘range of variance’ about the future, for lack of a better word?” I’m not certain. I’m a philosopher. “Certainty” is kind of a bad word. Sure. Like everyone else, except on reflection, I dogmatize like an infallible pope. So sometimes I may sound or even feel certain. But when I’m being careful, I can deconstruct anything. That doesn’t mean I should. Unfortunately or otherwise, I learned this from difficult personal experience. The only end to the path of deconstruction is the one that ends our ability to deconstruct. At some point, to persist, we must turn around, trust something even if only provisionally, and build from there. Don’t, however, confuse my rejection of certainty for a lack of confidence. In many contexts, I probably have more than my fair share of confidence. And I unabashedly advocate ...