Become a Member Support Our Work Apply to GTU

CTNS News

October 23, 2019

Through a Techno-Mirror Darkly: Created Co-Creators, AI and Consciousness Uploading

CTNS Public Forum with Levi Checketts, Tuesday November 5th, 7pm

Dinner Boardroom, Graduate Theological Union Library, 2400 Ridge Road Berkeley, CA 

Free and open to the public.

In Technology and Human Becoming, Philip Hefner posits the idea of the “techno-mirror,” a reflection of human understanding of human nature through the technologies we create. Artificial Intelligence research, from its earliest days in the work of Alan Turing, has reflected this more appropriately than perhaps any other technology. The goal of “Good Old Fashion AI” researchers like Marvin Minsky was to create a...

September 12, 2019

Fall 2019 D'Arpino Essay Contest

Addressing the possibility that an accessible source of extraterrestrial intelligence knows that we are here on Earth, this contest asks you to answer the following questions: ​How can we on Earth access that extra-terrestrial source? ​ Is there a scientific way to empirically test and observe whether said extraterrestrial intelligence can be experienced by us? Can you propose a doable experiment that we can apply without causing harm to anyone? In your judgment, is there any connection between this extraterrestrial intelligence and the biblical God thought by Christians to be that...

July 30, 2019

D'Arpino Essay Contest Awarded

Adriel P. Ramirez, Master’s Degree in Hindu Studies student at the GTU, has been chosen as the D’Arpino Essay Contest winner for his paper, “Be Loved and Love: The Nature of the Divine-Human Relationship.” The composition highlights various dimensions of love coming from Divinity with respect to the Caitanya School of Kṛṣṇa bhakti. The school proposes that elements of the Divine-human relationship reflect relationships within our world as illuminated by the natural sciences. Analysis of these relationships and demonstration of what is most valued to our world is undertaken. Assimilation of...

July 25, 2019

2019 Townes Fellowship Winners

CTNS is pleased to announce this year’s winners of the Charles H. Townes Graduate Student Fellowship in Theology and Science!  This year’s winners are Hannah Pheasant and Andrew Younan.  Hannah is a Ph.D. candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies with areas of focus including critical theory, ethics, philosophy of language, philosophy of technology and political theory.  The paper she submitted with her application is entitled, “Looking Back in Order to Look Forward,” which is part of a larger project, “The Colonization of the Digital Sphere.”  Fr. Andrew Younan, is a Ph.D. candidate with a...

July 25, 2019

Welcome to the New CTNS Website!

Welcome to the new CTNS website!  We have worked with San Francisco Bay Area website design and development company, T324, Inc. to design a new site with a fresh look, and easier access to all the great online content CTNS has to offer. We have intentionally designed the new site to highlight CTNS’s connection to the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) and have streamlined the website to make navigating much easier. We’ve revamped the look of the website, including structure, font, images, and much more. Let us know what you think, and what further improvements we can make. The redesign was...