U.S. Transhumanist Party Salon - Eric Hennigan: Computer Science and its Occult

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” So states Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s famous Third Law. On Sunday, July 20, 2025, at 1 p.m. U.S. Pacific Time, the U.S. Transhumanist Party Virtual Enlightenment Salon will delve into this insight further.

In "Computer Science and its Occult," Eric Hennigan, a Software Engineer at Google, explores the intriguing parallels between concepts in computer science and themes found in occult traditions. The talk delves into ideas like "True Names," which in computer science can uniquely identify a thing and provide power over it, much like a memory address. Hennigan also discusses "Sigils," demonstrating how autonomous vehicles can be "trapped" by specific markings or by placing a traffic cone on their sensors, rendering them inoperable. The presentation further examines "Spells" in the context of sorting algorithms and code snippets. Hennigan draws a compelling connection to "The Golem of Prague," comparing the legendary animated clay figure to the modern process of baking silicon into crystal, etching patterns, animating with electricity, and commanding with scripts, ultimately teaching machines to learn, write, speak, and paint. This leads to profound questions about consciousness, ethics in creating sentient beings, and the nature of free will in machines.

Eric Hennigan is a Senior Software Engineer at Google and a Volunteer Genomics Data Scientist at the University of Southern California. He holds Bachelor of Sciences degrees in Applied Mathematics and Physics from University of California Los Angeles, and a PhD in Computer Science from University of California Irvine. He enjoys communicating what he has learned to others and even acted as Instructor of Record for UCI and Cal State Fullerton while still a graduate student. Despite his formal education he recommends self-study as a path to skills improvement.

Watch the first U.S. Transhumanist Party Virtual Enlightenment Salon with Eric Hennigan, held on October 23, 2022, on the subject of historical anti-aging approaches that failed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMod8KtspxQ