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Category: geopolitics – Page 20

A critical article on my work by The Rouser with some mangled facts in it for effect. But still worth reading: https://rousernews.com/2017/05/08/why-zoltan-istvan-isnt-a-true-libertarian/ #libertarian #transhumanism

Zoltan Istvan is a journalist and blogger who strongly supports transhumanism, a concept that promotes the idea that humans can utilize the advancement of technology in order to live forever. His rise to stardom began after writing a controversial sci-fi novel called The Transhumanist Wager, but he is also well known due to some of his rather outlandish statements. In 2016, Istvan ran as an independent candidate for president with very little support. He is now running for California governor as a libertarian, and though he is promising a libertarian platform, some of his ideals and scientific views seem to promote another worldview. This could be because he lacks experience of either a scientific or political background.

While transhumanism promotes the idea that humans can advance technology to eventually live forever, it also suggests that this goal will be achieved without any ethical consequences.

Its proponents believe that humans will take this next step through robots, which will require a rewriting of ethical codes for the new species. Most transhumanists also avoid mentioning the ethical problems of making civilization hackable or the potential of a technological enslavement. Unfortunately, some people, like Istvan, are actually going into politics based off of this transhumanist mindset.

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A nice new write-up on my governor run: https://humanityplus.wordpress.com/2017/04/24/this-transhuma…alifornia/ #transhumanism

It’s a good time to be a transhumanist politician. As faith in the political establishment declines, new technologies, from gene editing to artificial intelligence, are transforming our lives faster than ever. The transhumanist author and politician Zoltan Istvan agrees. He thinks the time is ripe for pro-science and technology governance, and for leaders who will embrace the technologies that could fundamentally transform our conceptions of what it means to be human.

Istvan is a maverick who appears to thrive in an ‘outsider’ role. He self-published a sci-fi novel, The Transhumanist Wager, in 2013, which became a surprise bestseller on Amazon. In 2016, he made an unlikely run for US president as the leader of the Transhumanist Party. Now, he’s making a bid for Governor of California in the 2018 election under a Libertarian Party ticket.

As a libertarian, Istvan believes in promoting “maximum freedom and personal accountability,” a sentiment that gels well with his championing of human enhancement technologies and robot and cyborg rights.

Like all transhumanists, Istvan believes in using science and technology to enhance human capabilities and transcend current biological limits. He wants to be smarter, live longer, and eventually merge with advanced technologies to become a posthuman being—one that is impervious, or at least resilient, to aging, and most mortal risks.

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Podcast on transhumanism and libertarianism with Cuddle Pile (their show is also on iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, etc). It’s a fun interview.

Cuddle Pile 27 Libertarianism & Transhumanism (with Zoltan Istvan and Tempest McGee)

Here it is! The moment we have all been waiting for! ZOLTAN ISTVAN calls into the show! AKA the guy Tony voted for in the 2016 Presidential election. Now he is running for Governor of California!

Also joining us is Tempest McGee. You might remember us mentioning her on the Valentine’s Day episode. We referred to her as “X-Files” girl. What does she have to do with Zoltan? THEY’RE BOTH LIBERTARIANS! What is a Libertarian? Tune into find out!

00:00 Intro

Continue reading “27 — Libertarianism & Transhumanism (with Zoltan Istvan and Tempest McGee)” | >

New article by Transhumanist Party:

Gennady Stolyarov II

The Spring 2017 issue of the magazine Issues in Science and Technology, published by the National Academy of Sciences, features an article by Professor Steve Fuller, the Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. This article, entitled “Does this pro-science party deserve our votes?” discusses the Transhumanist Party from the time of Zoltan Istvan’s 2016 run for President.

In this article, which offers both positive discussion and critiques of Istvan’s campaign, Professor Fuller writes:

What Istvan offered voters was a clear vision of how science and technology could deliver a heaven on earth for everyone. The Transhumanist Bill of Rights envisages that it is within the power of science and technology to deliver the end to all significant suffering, the enhancement of one’s existing capacities, and the indefinite extension of one’s life. To the fans whom Istvan attracted during his campaign, these added up to “liberty makers.” For them, the question was what prevented the federal government from prioritizing what Istvan had presented as well within human reach.

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This is a fair enough article, though I believe I’m more Libertarian than it paints me. I think a lot of people forget or simply don’t know my book The Transhumanist Wager (how I started my futurist career back in 2009) is known by many as transhumanist libertarian manifesto. Also, ideas from my past political campaign do not always correspond to my current gubernatorial run:

Like many libertarians, I was initially excited when Zoltan Istvan announced his candidacy for Governor of California.

Istvan is the founder of the Transhumanist Party and author of “The Transhumanist Wager,” which is considered a manifesto on transhumanist philosophy. The basic premise of transhumanism is that the next step in human evolution will be to improve our bodies and expand our lifespan with radical technology, eventually leading towards immortality. While he still needs to obtain the nomination, having someone announce their intents this early gave me hope that maybe the party would have a shot at making an impact in the California mid-terms.

As I learned about his transhumanist ideas, I became increasingly hopeful that his views on radical science and medical technology would be able to appeal to the far-left base of California and introduce a wider range of people to libertarianism. However, after doing some research I’m not so sure Istvan is the best candidate to represent the Libertarian party.

On the surface, the former presidential candidate seems to align with the libertarian views of bodily autonomy (transhumanists call it morphological freedom) and the non-aggression principle, he even called himself a left-libertarian on the Rubin Report.

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It’s now out in print. It’s great to see my past presidential campaign for the Transhumanist Party getting this type of formal recognition. The Transhumanist Bill of Rights, the Transhumanist Wager concept, Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson considering me as a running mate, Immortality Bus, and my #libertarianism are all mentioned. http://www.academia.edu/32185481/Does_this_pro-science_party_deserve_our_votes

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I thought this interesting enough to share:

Zoltan Istvan

Zoltan Istvan was my favorite presidential candidate in 2016. He toured the country in a bus modeled to look like a coffin, with the message that death is a curable disease.

And it’s not just people on the fringe who are involved in the anti-aging cause. There is a sister company of Google called Calico whose goal is “tackling aging.”

Ray Kurzweil, inventor, senior engineer at Google and holder of 21 honorary doctorates, has written a book called Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. At age 69, he expects technology to improve enough in his lifetime that he will live forever. (In the meantime, he takes extremely good care of himself!)

But hold on a second. While we’re waiting for Istvan, Calico, and Kurzweil succeed, let’s take a moment to ponder the possible dystopian consequences.

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Transhumanism appearing in the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) magazine: Science…

Modern technology and modern medical practice have evolved over the past decades, enabling us to enhance and extend human life to an unprecedented degree. The two books under review examine this phenomenon from remarkably different perspectives.

Mark O’Connell’s To Be a Machine is an examination of transhumanism, a movement characterized by technologies that seek to transform the human condition and extend life spans indefinitely. O’Connell, a journalist, makes his own prejudices clear: “I am not now, nor have I ever been, a transhumanist,” he writes. However, this does not stop him from thoughtfully surveying the movement.

The book mostly comprises O’Connell’s encounters with transhumanist thought leaders in an assortment of locales ranging from lecture halls to Silicon Valley start-ups to transhumanist conferences and even the campaign trail, where O’Connell interviews Zoltan Istvan, a transhumanist and 2016 U.S. presidential candidate whose goal is “to promote investment in longevity science.”

O’Connell’s interaction with Max More, the president and CEO of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the world’s largest commercial cryopreservation facility, is particularly timely, because the legal, social, and ethical issues related to cryopreservation are far from settled. Likewise, as O’Connell notes, the promise of cryonics relies on the improbable notion that science will someday enable reanimation.

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Various transhumanism stories newly out or reshared:

https://mysteriousearth.net/2017/02/23/two-americans-aim-to-…-implants/ &

http://3dpromote.com/zoltan-istvan-nick-bostrom-and-the-anti…-atlantic/ &

http://www.hashtagy.net/en/news/zoltan-istvan-ran-for-presid…ork-times/

According to The Mirror, the two men are looking for a doctor who is skilled enough and willing to propel them into the matrix. The procedure itself has a high risk of failing, since the technology at hand hasn’t been tested before (at least on humans).

If they come out of this alive, the two men will be able to establish a direct communication route with the first forms of artificial intelligence that’s currently available. This “cranial chip” may provide the first step towards creating “the matrix.” If this proves to be successful, the unprecedented advantages will probably tempt others to undergo the same surgery, and eventually have the entire population plugged into this new reality.

Continue reading “Two Americans Aim to Plug Into the ‘Matrix’ through Black Market Brain Implants” | >