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47-572: The Transhumanist Party was founded in 2014 by Zoltan Istvan . Istvan became the first political candidate to run for office under the banner of the Transhumanist Party when he announced his candidacy for President of the United States in the United States presidential election of 2016 . As part of his campaign Zoltan and a cadre of transhumanist activists and embedded journalists embarked on

94-496: A GoFundMe campaign to achieve success in raising $ 5,820 to provide funding for the orphanage. TransVision Humanity+ (also Humanity Plus ; formerly the World Transhumanist Association ) is a non-profit international educational organization that advocates the ethical use of technologies and evidence-based science to improve the human condition. Humanity+, Inc. originated as an organization under

141-500: A philosophical science fiction novel. In late 2014, Istvan announced he was running for President of the United States in the 2016 election . He ran for his own Transhumanist Party to raise awareness for transhumanist politics issues but did not place his name on any state ballot. Later, in 2017, Istvan ran for Governor of California in the 2018 election as a member of the Libertarian Party . In 2019, Istvan ran for

188-456: A "Federal Land Dividend". Under this program, the government would allocate monthly payments to households by leasing out federal land. In his debut editorial for Reason magazine, he argued that reparations for harm caused to marijuana users during the federal government's War on Drugs may be appropriate. He suggested reparations could be paid as tax credits or through the sale of federal lands, so as not to put further burden associated with

235-803: A 68 acre island in Nova Scotia, Canada in the Atlantic Ocean. After publishing The Transhumanist Wager , Istvan began actively promoting transhumanism and other futurist issues via speeches, media interviews, activism and his writings. Istvan's writings and ideas on transhumanism, philosophy, atheism and futurist issues have been featured in major media Istvan has also written for Gizmodo , New Scientist , Salon , TechCrunch , The Daily Dot , International Business Times Singularity University's Singularity Hub , TechInsider , Newsweek , Futurism and Slate . Istvan gives talks on futurist and transhumanist topics, which include speeches at

282-511: A bus shaped like a casket—the " Immortality Bus "—across the United States. Istvan planned the bus tour to raise awareness of life extension. At the end of the Immortality Bus tour, Istvan delivered a "Transhumanist Bill of Rights" to the U.S. Capitol. His 20-point platform includes a universal basic income, increased funding for space travel and taking money from the military and putting it into science and medicine. In February 2016, it

329-481: A cellular culture of his own skin cells which reportedly were grown in the lab of a startup he is affiliated with, Quixotic Life Sciences. In a statement disavowing the stunt published on the USTP website, it was noted that USTP officers “previously warned Ben Zion that he would be disavowed if he pursued this reckless project.” The USTP's 2024 presidential candidate is Thomas Ernest Ross, Jr. Tom Ross won with 62.02% of

376-612: A cultural mindset in America that embracing and producing radical technology and science is in the best interest of our nation and species." In terms of foreign policy and national defense, the party wants to reduce the amount of money spent on foreign wars and use the money domestically. The party also advocates managing and preparing for existential risks, eliminating dangerous diseases, and proactively guarding against abuses of technology, such as nanotechnology , synthetic viruses , and artificial intelligence . The USTP expressly supports

423-542: A demographic analysis of its membership. [1] This analysis showed that 704 members, or 70.4%, were eligible to vote in the United States, whereas 296 or 29.6% were allied members. During this time, the Transhumanist Party hosted several expert discussion panels, on subjects including artificial intelligence, life extension, art and transhumanism, and cryptocurrencies. Chairman Stolyarov has also hosted in-person Enlightenment Salons, which were aimed at cross-disciplinary discussion of transhumanist and life-extensionist ideas under

470-523: A four-month journey in the coffin-shaped Immortality Bus , which traveled on a winding cross-country route from San Francisco to Washington D.C. The Transhumanist Party has been featured or mentioned in many major media sites, including the National Review , Business Insider , Extreme Tech , Vice , Wired , The Telegraph , The Huffington Post , The Joe Rogan Experience , Heise Online , Gizmodo , and Reason . Political scientist Roland Benedikter said

517-436: A reasoning human being loves and values life, they will want to live as long as possible—the desire to be immortal. Nevertheless, it's impossible to know if they're going to be immortal once they die. To do nothing doesn't help the odds of attaining immortality—since it seems evident that everyone will die someday and possibly cease to exist. To try to do something scientifically constructive towards ensuring immortality beforehand

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564-628: A think tank and NGO dedicated to helping African youth. While at the helm, he visited Kigali, Rwanda, and South Africa, and helped organize the GEN4IR Global Summit, a conference titled "Accelerating Our Singularity Future for Development in Africa," which featured many Transhumanist luminaries. Tom also produced the TAFFD's "Magazine of the Future". Ross is the author of Open-Source Citizen: And Other Essays and

611-399: A trademark dispute with Zoltan Istvan's continued ownership of the 'Transhumanist Party' trademark. In response to Pellissier, the U.S. Transhumanist Party published its FAQ, where a significant portion was devoted to explaining the history of the U.S. Transhumanist Party, its current interactions with Zoltan Istvan and the scope of his involvement, and the reasons for his continued ownership of

658-508: Is an American transhumanist, journalist, entrepreneur, political candidate, and futurist. Formerly a reporter for the National Geographic Channel , Istvan now writes futurist , transhumanist , secular and political-themed articles for major media, including The New York Times . He believes transhumanism will grow into a mainstream social movement in the 2020s. Istvan is the author of The Transhumanist Wager ,

705-740: Is the most logical conclusion. Istvan is the creator of the concepts of Theistcideism, Omnipotism, the AI Imperative, the Singularity Disparity, Speciation Syndrome, Post-earthism, Delayed Fertility Advantage, and Jethro's Window, a possible solution to the Fermi Paradox . Istvan is also a populizer of AI Day, the transhumanist olympics, the Jesus Singularity, cryothanasia a robot AI President, and quantum archaeology (technological resurrection). Istvan proposed and developed

752-696: Is the umbrella organization that supports the national-level transhumanist parties in Europe by developing unified policies and goals for the continent. Among them is the UK Transhumanist Party, which was founded in January 2015. In October 2015, Amon Twyman, the party's leader at the time, published a blog post distancing the UK party from Zoltan Istvan's campaign. Zoltan Istvan Zoltan Istvan Gyurko , professionally known as Zoltan Istvan (born March 30, 1973),

799-637: The Free & Equal Elections Foundation 's Open Presidential debate in Chicago, Illinois. Zoltan Istvan also participated in the debate, running as a Republican. On June 12, 2020, it was announced that Ben Zion had left the Transhumanist Party, with him declaring that his belief in Techno-progressivism was incompatible with the party and that he would instead be pursuing a run for the Reform Party nomination. Kam

846-622: The Republican Party's nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election against President Donald Trump . Zoltan Istvan was born in Los Angeles in 1973 to his Hungarian immigrant parents Ilona and Steven (István) Gyurko. He was a nationally ranked swimmer and waterpolo player in his youth. Istvan later graduated from Columbia University in New York City with a degree in philosophy and religion. During his freshman year, Istvan

893-548: The TransVision 2017 conference in Brussels, Belgium, Chairman Stolyarov gave an overview of the U.S. Transhumanist Party's achievements in 2017 and future aspirations. On March 31, 2018, Chairman Stolyarov was interviewed by Nikola Danaylov, a.k.a. Socrates, of Singularity.FM during a three-hour session, the longest of all of Danaylov's interviews. The Transhumanist Party presidential primary attracted media attention from BioEdge and

940-674: The US6 trilogy of science fiction novels. Tom Ross's campaign has three major initiatives: the Earthling Initiative, the Artisanal Intelligence Initiative, and the Extraterrestrial Initiative. To demonstrate his commitment to AI governance, Ross appointed an AI campaign manager early in his campaign. Tom Ross has done numerous media appearances, including with John Kerecz of OSH Radio, [2] Peter Clarke of

987-880: The World Bank , World Economic Forum (Global Future Council), Congreso Futuro, Moogfest, the World Future Society 's annual conference, and Financial Times Camp Alphaville conference. He appeared in the 2016 documentary The Future of Work and Death . In October 2014, Istvan announced that he was "in the very early stages of preparing a campaign to try to run" for U.S. President in 2016. He stated that his goals would be to support scientists in "overcoming human death and aging within 15–20 years" to encourage Americans to embrace "radical technology and science" and to set up safeguards against dangers including potential abuse of such technology. In October and November 2014 interviews, Istvan explained that he aimed to unify

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1034-529: The 'Transhumanist Party' trademark. The Transhuman Party became defunct in late 2017 due to lack of activity and its domain name and Facebook page were acquired by the US Transhumanist Party. By September 2017 the Party had appointed several international ambassadors, from Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Egypt, England, Hong Kong, India, Nigeria, and Scotland. On November 9, 2017, in a virtual presentation at

1081-480: The 21st century, as modern man confronts the finitude of life, everyone faces a Transhumanist Wager, a concept that is explored in his science fiction novel of the same name . The Transhumanist Wager follows from a life philosophy Istvan calls Teleological Egocentric Functionalism (TEF). Istvan summarizes the Transhumanist Wager as follows: TEF is predicated on logic, a simple wager that every human faces: If

1128-811: The FEC. Shortly thereafter, film producer, entrepreneur, and longevity organizer Charlie Kam became Ben Zion's running mate. On October 19, 2019, Ben Zion spoke to the DC Transhumanists meetup in Arlington, VA. On November 3, 2019, he spoke at the Foresight Institute 's Vision Weekend Event in San Francisco. On November 24, 2019, he spoke to undergraduates at Princeton University as part of the Princeton Envision conference. On March 4, 2020, Ben Zion participated in

1175-510: The Milwaukee Record. While some media outlets reported Zoltan Istvan was considering running again, ultimately he did not join the party's primary. After a protracted primary process with nine candidates, featuring numerous debates, Johannon Ben Zion was elected as the party's nominee. After winning the primary, Ben Zion gave his acceptance speech at RAAD Fest 2019 in Las Vegas. and filed with

1222-628: The Team Futurism, [3] Newton Lee (Chairman of the California Transhumanist Party), [4] and philosopher Jonathan M.S. Pearce. His campaign has been covered in Decrypt.io , Scientific Inquirer , and New York City News . A core tenet of the USTP platform is that more funding is needed for research into human life extension research and research to reduce existential risk . More generally,

1269-568: The Transhumanist Party adds value to the overall goals of transhumanism. Istvan resides in Mill Valley, California with his wife, who is a physician, and his daughters. He identifies as an atheist. In February 2015, he helped launch BiZoHa, the world's first free-thinker orphanage, in Mukhoya, Kasese district , western Uganda . Istvan's promotional article on the topic in Vice 's Motherboard , helped

1316-529: The US Transhumanist Party's platform have attracted both praise and criticism from sociologist Steve Fuller . For example, Fuller has praised the centrality of morphological freedom in the US Transhumanist Party's bill of rights, but on the other hand he has also written that the party is too critical of the US Department of Defense, which he argues could be an ally for some transhumanist initiatives such as human enhancement and existential risk reduction. In 2018

1363-575: The appropriate application of technology to maximize human potential, Humanity+ encourages knowledge of and respect for the diversity of life forms on Earth. In 2006, William Saletan reported a political struggle within World Transhumanist Association that erupted in 2004 largely between the libertarian right and the liberal left resulting in a centre-leftward positioning that continued to polarize politics under its former executive director James Hughes . The field of medicine

1410-530: The auspices of the U.S. Transhumanist Party. On August 11, 2017, at the RAAD Fest 2017 conference in San Diego, California, Chairman Stolyarov gave an address entitled "The U.S. Transhumanist Party: Pursuing a Peaceful Political Revolution for Longevity", which provided an overview of the U.S. Transhumanist Party's key principles and objectives. In October 2017 Hank Pellissier founded the "Transhuman Party" following

1457-493: The basis of which 82 Platform planks were adopted. The U.S. Transhumanist Party holds votes of its members electronically and is the first political party in the United States to use ranked-preference voting method with instant runoffs in its internal ballots. In May 2018 the New York Times reported the U.S. Transhumanist Party as having 880 members. On July 7, 2018, the U.S. Transhumanist Party reached 1,000 members and released

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1504-716: The concept of a Longevity Peace Prize at the XPRIZE Foundation in 2019. Writing for The New York Times opinion section, Istvan argued conservatives should consider supporting artificial wombs to move the abortion debate forward. Istvan also argued to allow surfing during the Covid lockdowns in The New York Times Opinion section. Istvan authored an article entitled "Transhumanism and Theistcideism" for publication in Pandeism: An Anthology (2017). Istvan wrote

1551-509: The drug war on taxpayers. In December 2017, Istvan announced he was considering running for the Libertarian Party 's Presidential nomination. In March 2019 during an interview on the Bread and Circuses podcast, Istvan told Caleb Salvatore and Nick Koehler that he was again considering a run for President. Istvan announced a run for the Republican nomination on November 19. Istvan states that in

1598-631: The fields of computer science, AI, nanotechnology, and philosophy. At its inception, WTA officials considered that social forces could undermine their futurist visions and needed to be addressed. A particular concern is the equal access to human enhancement technologies across classes and borders. To increase longevity and boost physiological processes, this also involves targeted improvements and therapeutic interventions. Cochlear implants and genetic engineering are two examples of medical innovations, as are wearable technology like smart phones. In opposition to anthropocentric hegemony and in favor of

1645-526: The formation of the Transhumanist Party in the USA was one of three reasons transhumanism entered into the mainstream in 2014, creating "a new level of public visibility and potential impact." Following the end of the 2016 presidential election, after Zoltan 's 2016 presidential campaign was completed, Gennady Stolyarov II became the Chairman of the party, and the organization was restructured. Under Chairman Stolyarov,

1692-696: The goal is to raise awareness among the general public about how technologies can enhance the human species. Democratic transhumanists and libertarian transhumanists tend to be in disagreement over the role of government in society, but both agree that laws should not encumber technological human progress. The Transhumanist Party platform promotes national and global prosperity by sharing technologies and creating enterprises to lift people and nations out of poverty, war, and injustice. The Transhumanist Party also supports LGBT rights, drug legalization, and sex work legalization . The party seeks to fully subsidize university-level education while also working to "create

1739-418: The name World Transhumanist Association. In 1998, the World Transhumanist Association (WTA) was founded by Nick Bostrom and David Pearce . In 2002, it was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. WTA began working toward the recognition of transhumanism as a legitimate subject of scientific inquiry and public policy , and to add to the academic presence already created by Extropy Institute in

1786-1231: The party adopted a new Constitution, which included three immutable Core Ideals in Article I, Section I: New positions were founded, including Pavel Ilin became Secretary, Dinorah Delfin Director of Admissions and Public Relations, Arin Vahanian as Director of Marketing, Sean Singh as Director of Applied Innovation, Brent Reitze as Director of Publication, Franco Cortese as Director of Scholarship, and B.J. Murphy as Director of Social Media. Restructured advisor positions included Zoltan Istvan as Political and Media Advisor, Bill Andrews as Biotechnology Advisor, Jose Cordeiro as Technology Advisor, Newton Lee as Education and Media Advisor, Keith Comito as Crowdfunding Advisor, Aubrey de Grey as Anti-Aging Advisor, Rich Lee as Biohacking Advisor, Katie King as Media Advisor, Ira Pastor as Regeneration Advisor, Giovanni Santostasi as Regeneration Advisor, Elizabeth Parrish as Advocacy Advisor, and Paul Spiegel as Legal Advisor. The U.S. Transhumanist Party held six Platform votes during January, February, March, May, June, and November 2017, on

1833-509: The party as a whole was reviewed favorably as an example of a successful "niche" party by Krisztian Szabados, a director at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University . Affiliate parties exist in the states of Arizona , California , Colorado , Illinois , Kentucky , Maryland , Michigan , Minnesota , Nevada , New York , North Carolina , Texas , Virginia , Washington and Washington DC . The Transhumanist Party in Europe

1880-411: The rights of Artificial General Intelligence entities that are sentient and/or lucid. The Transhumanist Bill of Rights Version 3.0 recognizes 7 levels of sentience and requires entities to exist at level 5 or higher to be considered as having rights. At level 5, the main criterion is that the entity be "lucid", meaning the entity is "meta-aware", or aware of its own awareness. The various policy points of

1927-550: The short fictional story "The Jesus Singularity" on a religious AI that goes rogue and destroys the world. It was published in Vice magazine. Istvan has a chip implanted in his hand and consulted with the U.S. Navy on broad about the use of the implant in humans. According to Istvan's novel, the three laws of Transhumanism are: Within the transhumanist community, reactions to Istvan's U.S. Transhumanist Party have ranged from enthusiastic to sharply critical. Some transhumanist critics, such as Peter Rothman, have questioned whether

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1974-683: The transhumanist community, which otherwise was splintered, and to establish a single voice. He said great changes in society could happen and that Transhumanism could provide ideas, safeguards and policies. He said the aim for a Transhumanist Party would be to get onto as many state ballots as possible. In March 2015, Istvan reported progress in organizing a campaign and explained his wish to get major candidates to address issues. He hoped to be included in some debates, at least with third parties. He himself had funded nearly all of his campaign's expenses to date and he noted donations were needed. Istvan helped to publicize his campaign in late 2015 by driving

2021-484: The votes cast in the U.S. Transhumanist Party electronic primary held May 14-22, 2023. After winning, Ross selected Daniel Twedt to be his vice-presidential running mate. Tom Ross serves as Director of Sentient Rights Advocacy at the USTP and Daniel Twedt serves as Director of Citizen and Community Science. Mr. Ross was formerly President and CEO of the Transdisciplinary Agora for Future Discussions (TAFFD's),

2068-568: The war in Kashmir was made into a documentary, Pawns of Paradise , distributed by Janson Media. Australia's The Age has acquired non-exclusive Australian rights to the show. According to Istvan, he invented, pioneered and popularized the extreme sport of volcano boarding . Istvan is an entrepreneur who works in real estate. He also owns vineyard properties in Mendoza, Argentina, Bordeaux, France, and California's Napa Valley. Istvan owns

2115-580: Was arrested by undercover cops for selling $ 80 worth of marijuana to fellow students. His arrest and subsequent felony conviction, which was later dismissed and expunged, influenced how he views the U.S. government's war on drugs . Istvan was an online and on-camera reporter for the National Geographic Channel . His writings have appeared in a blog of the San Francisco Chronicle , and Outside . His work has been covered in publications such as The Huffington Post . Istvan's coverage of

2162-522: Was declared the replacement presidential nominee. In June 2020 Charlie Kam participated in a panel with London Futurists and in July 2020 his campaign received press coverage in the Daily Express . On August 21, 2020, Kam announced his selection of Elizabeth (Liz) Parrish as his vice-presidential running mate. A few days after his departure from the party, Ben Zion published a video purporting to show him eating

2209-707: Was reported that Istvan was likely to vote Democrat , placing himself "somewhere between Bernie and Hillary in terms of political ideologies", but later in 2016 he also wrote articles supporting Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson . On October 15, 2016, Istvan stated on his social media accounts that he would be voting for himself. Istvan was not on the ballot in any state, though he claimed to have substantial potential write-in backers. Istvan emphasized science, technology, longevity, transhumanism and Libertarian values in his California gubernatorial run, along with support for basic income . He suggested basic income could be paid for without raising taxes through

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