In Brief:
Inverse doing a recap from my AMA on Reddit’s Futurology. My AMA is going on for about another 15 hours, so if you have a question, please chime in there: https://www.inverse.com/article/23120-zoltan-istvan-formula-1-sports-future and here’s the AMA:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/5aq3mw/ama_im_z…manist_us/ #transhumanism #AMA #ScienceCandidate #Election2016
The U.S. presidential candidate has shared some of his future goals ahead of voting day.
Come “ask me anything” right now!!! I’m trying to answer all questions I get asked:
Hi Reddit,
Thank you for having me here. My name is Zoltan Istvan, and I’m a futurist, journalist, and science fiction writer. I’m also the 2016 Presidential candidate for the Transhumanist Party.
For the last 725 days, I have been campaigning full time to spread transhumanism and life extension policies across America and the world. While I never expected to win the US Presidency, my campaign has received a lot of attention—both good and bad—for its emphasis on radical science, technology, secularism, and futurist ideas.
The strength of spinach isn’t only in its nutrients, but also in its ability to be hacked to function as a sensor, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An MIT team used wonder-material carbon nanotubes to give the greens the ability to detect explosives and wirelessly transmit information to a mobile device.
MIT engineers applied a solution of nanoparticles to the underside of the leaves, allowing them to be taken up into the mesophyll layer where photosynthesis takes place. The embedded nanotubes then acted as sensors able to detect nitroaromatic compounds – which are often used in explosives like land mines – in the groundwater taken up by the plants’ roots.
If the chemicals are present in the water the plant is feeding from, the carbon nanotubes in the leaves emit a fluorescent signal that can be picked up with an infrared camera when a laser is shined on the leaves. The researchers hooked up such a camera to an inexpensive Raspberry Pi system and set it to email the user when the compounds were detected.
Posted in biotech/medical, food, geopolitics, internet, transhumanism
My new story for Vice Motherboard on lessons learned running for President as a transhumanist. It’s also my endorsement of a ranked voting system:
Campaigning in Times Square.
With such overwhelming odds against my candidacy and tiny political party from the start, I chose to bypass the battle to get on state ballots and instead focus using media to move the transhumanism movement ahead. After all, only very rarely have third parties in America affected the outcome of the elections anyway. Like it or not, you are stuck with an elephant or a donkey-headed leader.
The good news, though, is the internet is making a run for the presidency a good way to get attention for a cause like transhumanism. It may only take five minutes to file a candidacy form with the FEC to run for US president, but the legitimacy in many people’s minds is real. Some candidates out there are using this for real good for the country, like the Nutrition Party and its candidate Rod Silva, which is trying to improve the way America eats. Or the Marijuana Party, which wants to legalize pot and end the asinine War on Drugs.
Politico: Write a transhumanist in in New York! http://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2016/10…-in-106729 #transhumanism #Election2016 #ScienceCandidate
ALBANY — While Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have debated issues such as immigration, gun control, and health care, neither of them has weighed in on the topic of a bill of rights for cyborgs.
Voters chagrined by that oversight do, however, have another option.
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Last week my presidential candidacy (an openly nonreligious and transhumanist one) got a big boost when it was added to ISideWith, the most popular site for helping to match you with your best candidate. They currently only have 8 candidates featured still running. Take the 3-minute survey on their site to see who you side with now that I’ll be in the results. https://www./ And, I also participated alongside Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Eric McMullin and others in their online debate in real time that tracked the 3rd Clinton/Trump debate last Wed. (I didn’t give many answers as I was in the middle of a campaign event that exact same moment in Baltimore, but I still chimed in some supporting science and reason). My answers start about 15 min into the debate:
http://secure.isidewith.com/debate-stream/20161019
ISideWith shows which political parties, candidates, and ballot initiatives match your beliefs based on the 2016 issues that are most important to you.
Lots of topics discussed including my campaign, transhumanism, and my support of a Universal Basic Income:
We’re with 2016 Presidential candidate, Zoltan Istvan, who is running under the Transhumanist Party. What’s transhumanism? Find out and let us know what your questions are for Zoltan.
