I am an advocate for transhumanism, rightly defined. I am certainly not a technophobe who perceives all technology to be bad. In my opinion, human technology – like all matter – is a tool that can be used for good or evil. That being said – as an advocate of transhumanism – I cannot in good faith advocate that anyone support the Transhumanist Party that has recently been formed in the United States.
In many ways, it pains me to write these words because I so admire the scientific research and technological work of many of the party’s advisors. But being surrounded by brilliance in advisory roles alone does not an excellent presidential candidate make. That is because such expertise isn’t enough to qualify any person, on their own, to unilaterally define the transhumanist movement. And make no mistake about it; that is the Transhumanist Party’s Presidential Candidate, Zoltan Istvan’s goal.
Istvan knows that he has no real chance of winning the U.S. presidency. He has openly admitted that fact. What he is really concerned about is establishing the larger transhumanism movement defined in radical Atheistic and Nietzschean terms. Put simply – we are witnessing tyranny occurring in the transhumanist movement.
Proof of this resides in the fact that Istvan is intentionally trying to exclude from the transhumanist movement 70+% of Americans that associate themselves as Christian persons who believe in God, another 5+% that identify with a non-Christian religion, and anyone who belongs to the remaining 19+% that might not adhere to organized religion but who still believe in God or at least in the possibility of God. More than that, Istvan goes so far as insinuate that historically the faith of elected officials (those who identify with Protestantism specifically) has overwhelmingly hurt our country. Of course this is not an accusation based on any kind of scientific evaluation or even a vague measure of the sincerity of belief of the persons being accused. That is because Istvan’s run for the U.S. presidency isn’t really even an attempt to put transhumanism in the spotlight – it is merely an attempt to globally claim transhumanism as a primarily Atheistic venture which openly rejects organized religion and God.
In this way Istvan is leading transhumanism down a path of unnecessary demonization. He is pitting the vast majority of Americans (as well the world’s population) against the transhumanism movement. Pretending and advocating unnecessarily and unrightly that transhumanism and religion are adversaries is simply a fallacy.
Fortunately, a growing number of people are beginning to reject Istvan’s version of transhumanism and instead are advocating for an integration of religious thought with transhumanism. In particular, Christianity’s interest and adoption of transhumanism is rapidly growing. Every day more and more religious people are adopting a more nuanced version of transhumanism that implies a discovery of what it might mean to be more fully human “across” the a scope of human possibility.
But, if you needed even more proof that Istvan political aspirations are a tyranny happening in the transhumant movement, then you need only to look to one fact: There has never been any offer on his behalf to hold a Transhumanist Party U.S. Presidential Candidate primary. Even if it meant that Istvan publically entered a primary unopposed and was competing only against write-in ballots – this would have been an action of accountability to the larger transhumanist movement – a pro H+ move. Instead, Istvan started the party and imperiously appointed himself as all U.S. transhumanist’s representative.
Fortunately for the U.S. political system, Americans have a well-documented history of rejecting political tyranny. I have no doubt that such rejection will continue as it pertains to Istvan’s self-imposed presidential candidacy. But whether or not transhumanists will rise up and reject ideological tyranny? That still remains to be seen.
As featured in The Christian Post and Transhumanity.net
I am personally a big fan of the Transhumanist Party ! I like the concept of putting Science and Technology at the forefront of American politics because I personally think that in this century and beyond the only thing that matters is to invest as much as we can in Science and Technology ! All the great development that we have accumulated in this century is due to science and technology! I am a technologist and I will tell you that Zoltan Istvan ideas will go viral ! At first he will have trouble because it’s party is new and needs funds and attention by the public but his ideas are now spreading more than ever.I only want to ask you a question:for how many decades,centuries or even millenniums, religion has promised to the world a better future?
How can you call tyranny a person who in his main agenda has the ambition to put more money in Science,Technology and specially in Healthcare,so people can live better,extend their well-being even to the point of not-dying at all,which personally is one of my greatest ambition in life?
Tyranny, by definition, is an arbitrary or unrestrained use of power. Istvan, as the Party’s Presidential Candidate, has publicly advocated that the government take away current support for disabled persons as well as discriminate against all religious persons. So that is precisely how I can call it tyranny – because, simply put, it is.
Instead of being oppositional to conventional religion, would it not make more sense for tranahumanism to co-opt religion instead? Take the aspects of conventional religion that are compatible with transhumanism and use them to make transhumanist versions of the same religions.
Call it Christianity ver 2.0.
I think what is really driving Istvan here is the more luddite and collectivist aspects of conventional religion. It seems to me the rational choice is to create new religions, based on transhumanist ideas, and use them to start competing for market share from the existing religions.
Istvan is not supported by most of the transhumanist community. His prior supporters are nor his biggest opponents, and his “party” isn’t anything of the kind. I am an officer in the Transhuman National Committee and I can say categorically that we have not endorsed his candidacy, and he has been combative against our community. I personally suspect he is really on a book selling tour disguised as a political campaign.