Here is how the event is described by its organizers:

The mission of Future Congress is to serve as an educational source for accurate, comprehensive and Biblically consistent information spanning a wide range of fields and regarding the end times in which we live.

The conference began with a short welcoming speech from the Mayor of Branson, Raeanne Presley, followed by opening remarks from Tom Horn. According to Tom, the event is comprised of the world’s foremost authorities on conference subjects and is intended to serve as a response to questions people have about the issues.

One of the first things I noticed about this event that differs from others I have attended on emerging technologies is that there are children here. While I understand that most of the conferences I attend are academic or professional, and ideological differences aside, it is nice to see parents wanting their children to be exposed to new ideas on emerging technologies.

I look forward to a conference where I can bring my kids to rub elbows and listen to the great minds in person. A big reason I am who I am today is because my mother incorporated me into her exposure to ideas such as these, and this conference is one she definitely would have taken me to as a child.

One of the common themes of the conference is to take complex ideas and make them accessible to everyday people. Another theme is to frame everything within an Evangelical Christian perspective. This theme was most prominent since, throughout the conference, the Bible was the ultimate proof. Physics, biology, politics, non-Christian religions -- whatever the topic was, it was ultimately put to the Biblical test. Ironically, where errors in Biblical prophecy are acceptable or overlooked, this same truth does not apply to the scientific world. The scientific burden of proof is much less lenient in the eyes of this community.

With that said, here are four presentation summaries from the past day and a half. I hope you find them as interesting to read as I did to see and hear.

The Creature From Jekyll Island – A Second Look at the Federal Reserve

Speaker: Ed Griffin

Griffin’s presentation was about the evils of the creation of the U.S. Federal Reserve. He talked at length about the six men who, under great secrecy at Jekyll Island, created the Federal Reserve Act. These six men were all high-ranking bankers that together possessed “a quarter of the wealth of the entire world”. (Griffin said he has ample documentation that this information is true). According to Griffin, the secrecy they took was because they would not have been able to get their bill passed had Congress known it was orchestrated by bankers.

Griffin said it was at this point that the free market was abandoned and banking cartels were embraced. Coincidentally, the “Federal Reserve System is a cartel” because the President is told whom to nominate, while the Federal Reserve appoints and chooses the President. The election, you ask? That is just something to make the whole democratic process look good to the people who think they have a choice in the system. (Apparently, the Dairy Association is also a cartel because they pushed for government pricing regulations on the price of milk to quash independent, cheaper milk distributers).

After establishing the way the Reserve came into being, Griffin went on to explain that the Reserve gets their money by creating it out of nothing and that this is OK with Congress. Again, he said, the idea that there is a need to go through Congress to get approval for more money is just a way to make the whole process look good; in fact, they will just make money again out of nothing. As for boom/bust cycles, they are a result of “unbridled socialism.” The rescue packages are just legalized plunder.

According to Griffin, the American dollar is going to the dustbin unless the two-party system is broken. His solutions are to get out of debt, buy tangible goods, and be a part of the solution. The suggestion is to recapture the system.

The Coming Replacement Humans

Speaker: Tom Horn

Tom Horn’s talk was reminiscent of ideas I heard from my mother and speeches she exposed me to as a kid. It’s obvious he was once a preacher since he is quite charismatic. He began his presentation with a brief discussion on the power of words and how through our choice of words, topics can be made accessible to the everyman. His job is to make it easy. Tom believes that we are entering into a transitional state because we have the bio-technological tools now to do so, and he wants to inform people about it.

His presentation was about the way humans are going to create a new species through biotech, nanotech, cognitive technology, and so on. His description of genetic engineering, chimeras, and super-fill-in-the-blank future humans would be nothing new to those of you reading this blog. What was different was his rhetoric, which is one of shock, indignation, and motivation.

For example, when talking about the bioengineering of soldiers, he refers to them as “Terminators.” Other cinematic image references included Splice, The Island of Dr. Moreau, brief Matrix image reference, The Fly, Jurassic Park, and I am Legend -- all dystopic representations of what can go wrong with technology. Good mental image choices if you want people to be afraid of a topic that most are already not familiar with.

His aim was to try to convince the audience about the seriousness of the coming technological singularity and transhumanism. Being (I assume) the only H+ person in the audience, I was curious where this was going. He discussed projects such as the extension of personhood rights to non-humans/animals not currently protected by the law. There was a reference to the transhumanist biogenetic ideal as a parallel to the eugenics of the past, and creating Human 2.0 that God did not make or intend to be made. Those working in bioengineering he referred to as "benevolent overlords."

To be fair, he is keeping up with the news and is clearly looking at what transhumanists have to say about him online and at conferences. In particular, James Hughes and Max More did not make a good impression when they spoke at the Transhumanism and Spirituality conference in October 2010.

IEET Fellow Patrick Lin, and the blog article he posted about Tom Horn, was the standout mention with Tom telling the audience that the IEET website was shut down [which is not true] because of all the traffic that went from Tom’s website to Patrick’s blog post. For Tom, as he saw it, this was a victory. They get more traffic than the IEET, and Patrick “going ballistic” was not harmful to them. From Tom’s perspective it is an ideological battle of young minds, and although currently the church might be losing, “If we engage, we win.”

Women’s Luncheon

I was leery about attending the “women’s luncheon,” but when it came time, I decided I should go and eat with my designated gender. Two very nice women came and sat down next to me since I was by myself. They were friendly enough and made sure that I was included in their conversation.

To one of the sweet women, I tried to mention that I was with the IEET (this was right after Tom Horn’s presentation, mind you) and was looking at the issues from the other side. However, I think she only caught the part where I said I used to be a Lutheran. We then had a long discussion about Lutherans, Baptists, and Pentecostals. I did not push the issue. I was a Lutheran many years ago, and I went to numerous churches to be exposed to different types of faiths, so I took the opportunity to talk about that. We joked, it was fun, and really that was it until the last half-hour when Nita Horn, Tom Horn’s wife, got up to speak.

She did not talk about the fear of emerging technologies or of a coming doom. She talked from her heart about her life struggles and how she found her faith. I must admit she had me on the verge of tears through almost her whole talk. As with all the speakers, I can only go on what they say, and what she said came from a very personal place.

It was an inspirational story on how faith got her through her life to where she is. It was not what I expected, but since I have been here, it was a welcome reprieve of an open-heart. It is another side to the discussions, and despite the ideological differences, we are all people with an interest in emerging tech.

It was then quite striking to go from this pleasant luncheon to the next presentation where the feeling I was left with was much different.

Countering Common Evolutionary “Proofs” in Biology Textbooks

Speaker: Keith Robinson

Keith Robinson opened his presentation by saying he is a high school teacher and a science fiction author of three books. He mentioned that he does not, however, actually teach biology. This was intriguing to me since he was getting ready to talk to us about what biology teachers teach kids about evolution. I looked him up on Google later, and it turns out he is a music teacher. Nevertheless, he began his talk by pretending to be a high school biology teacher giving us a simulated biology lecture on evolution and the ‘proofs’.

At the conclusion of his mock presentation, he reminded us that things are not always as they seem and laid out his three logical counter-arguments to the ‘proofs’:

1) Interpretation - the proofs can be interpreted differently by different people.

2) Misrepresentation - results can be misleading and misrepresented by the teacher or by scientists.

3) Falsification - the data could be false or falsified.

After going through some specific examples of how a Bible believer can challenge evolution, he closed with a supportive thought for the people in the audience suggesting that they have nothing to fear from science. All they need to do is research to see that there are other interpretations and to let no one take them captive.

Conclusion

So, that’s an overview of my experience from the first two days of the conference. Today I’m doing an interview with Tom Horn, and I may have more to say following that and after attending three more presentations.