Transhumanist Party

The Transhumanist Party is a political party in the United States. The party's platform is based on the ideas and principles of transhumanist politics, i.e., human enhancement, human rights, science, life extension, and technological progress.[3][4][5]

This article is about the political party in the United States. For political parties with the same name in other countries, see Transhumanist politics.

Transhumanist Party
Chairman	Gennady Stolyarov II
Presidential nominee	Charlie Kam
Vice-presidential nominee	Arin Vahanian
Founder	Zoltan Istvan
Founded	October 7, 2014[1]
Ideology	Libertarian transhumanism Extropianism Technogaianism Big tent transhumanism[2]
International affiliation	Transhumanist Party Global
Colors	Black      Orange
Slogan	"Putting Science, Medicine, & Technology at the Forefront of American Politics"
Seats in the Senate	0 / 100
Seats in the House	0 / 435
Governorships	0 / 50
State Upper House Seats	0 / 1,972
State Lower House Seats	0 / 5,411
Territorial Governorships	0 / 6
Territorial Upper Chamber Seats	0 / 97
Territorial Lower Chamber Seats	0 / 91
Website
transhumanist-party.org
Politics of United States Political parties Elections

History

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.[4] The Transhumanist Party has been featured or mentioned in many major media sites, including the National Review,[6] Business Insider,[7] Extreme Tech, Vice,[8] Wired,[9] The Telegraph, The Huffington Post,[4] The Joe Rogan Experience,[10] Heise Online,[11] Gizmodo,[12] and Reason.[13] Political scientist Roland Benedikter said 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."[14]

November 2016 - 2018

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 organisation was restructured. Under Chairman Stolyarov, the party adopted a new Constitution,[15] which included three immutable Core Ideals in Article I, Section I:[16]

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.[17] 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 the basis of which 82 Platform planks were adopted.[18] 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.[19]

In May 2018 the New York Times reported the U.S. Transhumanist Party as having 880 members.[20] On July 7, 2018, the U.S. Transhumanist Party reached 1,000 members and released a demographic analysis of its membership. 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,[21] life extension,[22] art and transhumanism,[23] and cryptocurrencies.[24] Chairman Stolyarov has also hosted in-person Enlightenment Salons, which were aimed at cross-disciplinary discussion of transhumanist and life-extensionist ideas under the auspices of the U.S. Transhumanist Party.[25][26][27]

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.[28] In October 2017 Hank Pellissier founded the "Transhuman Party" following 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 the 'Transhumanist Party' trademark.[29] 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.[2]

By September 2017 the Party had appointed a number of international ambassadors, from Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Egypt, England, Hong Kong, India, Nigeria, and Scotland.[30] On November 9, 2017, in a virtual presentation at 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.[31] 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.[32]

2020 presidential campaign

The Transhumanist Party presidential primary attracted media attention from BioEdge[33] and the Milwaukee Record.[34] While some media outlets reported Zoltan Istvan was considering running again,[35] ultimately he did not join the party's primary. After a protracted primary process with nine candidates, featuring numerous debates,[36] 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.[37] and filed with the FEC.[38] 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.[39] 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.[40] On March 4, 2020, Ben Zion participated in the Free & Equal Elections Foundation's Open Presidential debate in Chicago, Illinois.[41] Zoltan Istvan also participated in the debate, running as a Republican.[42]

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 was declared the replacement presidential nominee and Arin Vahanian the replacement vice-presidential nominee.[43][44] 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.[45]

2020 Transhumanist presidential primary results[46]
Candidate	Round 1			Round 7
	Votes	%	Transfer	Votes	%
Johannon Ben Zion	109	34.9%	+ 51	160	51.3%
Rachel Haywire	72	23.1%	+ 25	97	31.1%
Charles Holsopple	30	9.6%	+ 25	55	17.6%
Kristan T. Harris	35	11.2%	- 35	Eliminated
John J. Kerecz	19	6.1%	- 19	Eliminated
Matt Taylor	17	5.4%	- 17	Eliminated
None of the Above	13	4.2%	- 13	Eliminated
Vrillon	9	2.9%	- 9	Eliminated
Jonathan Schattke	8	2.6%	- 8	Eliminated

Platform

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, the goal is to raise awareness among the general public about how technologies can enhance the human species.[18][47] 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.[48]

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.[49][50] 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 a cultural mindset in America that embracing and producing radical technology and science is in the best interest of our nation and species."[4][51]

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.[3] The party also advocates managing and preparing for existential risks, completely eliminating dangerous diseases, and proactively guarding against abuses of technology, such as nanotechnology, synthetic viruses, and artificial intelligence.[3][4]

The various policy points of 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,[52] 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.[53] In 2018 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.[54]

International analogs

Main article: Transhumanist politics

The Transhumanist Party in Europe is the umbrella organization that supports the national level transhumanist parties in Europe by developing unified policies and goals for the continent.[55][56] Among them is the UK Transhumanist Party, which was founded in January 2015.[57][58][59] 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.[60]

References

1. "Transhumanist Party: About". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
2. "The U.S. Transhumanist Party / Transhuman Party: the Last, Best Hope for Transhumanist Politics". The US Transhumanist Party. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
3. "Ebola and a Transhumanist US President". Psychology Today. October 26, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
4. Istvan, Zoltan (October 8, 2014). "Should a Transhumanist Run for US President?". Huffington Post. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
5. John Hewitt (October 31, 2014). "An interview with Zoltan Istvan, leader of the Transhumanist Party and 2016 presidential contender". ExtremeTech. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
6. Wesley J. Smith (March 3, 2015). "AI Computers Would Just be Machines". National Review. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
7. Preetam Kaushik (February 26, 2015). "Transhumanism in India: Between faith and modernity". Business Insider India. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
8. Zoltan Istvan (January 22, 2015). "The Transhumanist Party's Presidential Candidate On the Future of Politics". Motherboard. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
9. Max Biederbeck (2014). "Wird der nächste US-Präsident ein Cyborg sein?". Wired. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
10. "Joe Rogan Experience #584 - Zoltan Istvan". Joe Rogan Experience. Episode 584. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
11. Roland Benedikter (January 11, 2015). "2014: Drei Schritte zum "Transhumanismus"". Heise online. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
12. Zoltan Istvan (February 23, 2015). "Anti-Aging Experts Made a Million-Dollar Bet on Who Dies Last". Gizmodo. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
13. Zach Weissmueller (February 6, 2015). "What If You Could Live for 10,000 years? Q&A with transhumanist Zoltan Istvan". Reason. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
14. Roland Benedikter, Ph.D., Katja Siepmann and Annabella McIntosh (March 6, 2015). "The Age of Transhumanist Politics Has Begun: Will It Change Traditional Concepts of Left and Right? An Interview with Political Analyst Roland Benedikter". The Leftist Review. Retrieved March 7, 2015.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
15. "Constitution of the United States Transhumanist Party – U.S. Transhumanist Party – Official Website". Retrieved 14 March 2020.
16. Stolyarov, Gennady (2019). "The United States Transhumanist Party and the Politics of Abundance". "The United States Transhumanist Party and the Politics of Abundance". In: Lee N. (eds) The Transhumanism Handbook. Springer International Publishing. pp. 89–149. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-16920-6_5. ISBN 978-3-030-16920-6.
17. "Leadership – U.S. Transhumanist Party – Official Website Archive.org snapshot from 16 January 2018". 16 January 2018. Archived from the original on 16 January 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
18. "U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform – Organized by Subject – U.S. Transhumanist Party – Official Website". Retrieved 14 March 2020.
19. Stolyarov II, Gennady (25 November 2017). "U.S. Transhumanist Party Chairman's Anniversary Message". "We are the first political party in the United States to use ranked-preference voting on its internal ballots."
20. Bromwich, Jonah Engel (19 May 2018). "Death of a Biohacker". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 November 2019. "Gennady Stolyarov II, the chairman of the United States Transhumanist Party, a political organization with close to 880 members that supports life extension through science and technology, had been corresponding with Mr. Traywick since November 2015."
21. "U.S. Transhumanist Party Discussion Panel on Artificial Intelligence – January 8, 2017 – U.S. Transhumanist Party – Official Website". Retrieved 14 March 2020.
22. "U.S. Transhumanist Party Discussion Panel on Life Extension – February 18, 2017 – U.S. Transhumanist Party – Official Website". Retrieved 14 March 2020.
23. "U.S. Transhumanist Party Discussion Panel on Art and Transhumanism – U.S. Transhumanist Party – Official Website". Retrieved 14 March 2020.
24. "U.S. Transhumanist Party / Institute of Exponential Sciences Discussion Panel on Cryptocurrencies – U.S. Transhumanist Party – Official Website". Retrieved 14 March 2020.
25. "Second Enlightenment Salon – Gennady Stolyarov II, Bill Andrews, Bobby Ridge, and Scott Jurgens Discuss the Convergence of Technological Advances – U.S. Transhumanist Party – Official Website". Retrieved 14 March 2020.
26. "Third Enlightenment Salon – Gennady Stolyarov II, Bill Andrews, Bobby Ridge, and Mihoko Sekido Discuss Science-Based Advocacy of Transhumanism and Healthy Living – U.S. Transhumanist Party – Official Website". Retrieved 14 March 2020.
27. "Fourth Enlightenment Salon – Political Segment: Discussion on Artificial Intelligence in Politics, Voting Systems, and Democracy – U.S. Transhumanist Party – Official Website". Retrieved 14 March 2020.
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34. Krulos, Tea (19 September 2019). "Long live candidate Harris, Milwaukee's U.S. Transhumanist Party presidential hopeful". Milwaukee Record. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
35. Bickerton, James (31 March 2019). "US Presidential hopeful issues SHOCK tech warning - 'Democracy might not survive'". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
36. Pearlman, Alex (17 October 2019). "Would You Vote for a President Who Promised Eternal Life". Medium. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
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38. "FEC Form 2 : Statement of Candidacy" (PDF). Retrieved 14 March 2020.
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40. "Princeton Envision Conference". Retrieved 14 March 2020.
41. "Free and Equal Presents Open Presidential Debate: 18 Candidates Confirmed March 4, 2020 2PM CST". Retrieved 14 March 2020.
42. Varine, Patrick. "Lesser-known presidential candidate debate slated for March in Chicago | TribLIVE.com". triblive.com. Trib Live. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
43. Gennady Stolyarov II (June 11, 2020). "United States Transhumanist Party Announces Major Internal Reorganization and Launch Of The Charlie Kam 2020 U.S. Presidential Campaign". Transhumanist Party. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
44. Saturn, William (June 15, 2020). "Reform Party Statement on Live Viewing of Presidential Candidate Q&A Sessions". Independent Political Report. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
45. Bickerton, James (6 July 2020). "Trump challenged by radical presidential candidate hoping to REVERSE ageing". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
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47. "Zoltan Istvan is Running for USA President 2016 - as Transhumanist Party candidate". Brighter Brains. October 8, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
48. Bailey, Ronald (2009). "Transhumanism and the Limits of Democracy". Retrieved 2014-11-09. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
49. John G. Messerly (October 20, 2014). "The Transhumanist Party: Could It Change Our Future?". Humanity+. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
50. Xavier Symons (December 13, 2014). "A transhumanist in conversation". Bioedge. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
51. "The Transhumanist Party: Could It Change Our Political Future?". The Meaning of Life. October 16, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
52. Fuller, Steve (19 December 2016). "Morphological Freedom and the Question of Responsibility and Representation in Transhumanism". Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics. 4 (2): 33–45. doi:10.3384/confero.2001-4562.161206.
53. Fuller, Steve (6 June 2017). "Philosopher's Corner: Does This Pro-science Party Deserve Our Votes? | Issues in Science and Technology". Issues in Science and Technology. 33 (3). Retrieved 7 December 2019.
54. Szabados, Krisztian (2018). "Transhumanist Parties as Niche Parties". Journal of Posthuman Studies. 2 (2): 213–237. doi:10.5325/jpoststud.2.2.0007. JSTOR 10.5325/jpoststud.2.2.0007.
55. The Transhumanist Party Wants You!, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 12 January 2015, retrieved 14 January 2015
56. Amon Twyman (30 December 2014), Humanity+ UK & the (European) Transhumanist Party, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, retrieved 6 February 2015
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58. Amon Twyman (16 January 2015), Candidate wanted for UK Transhumanist Party, Wavism, retrieved 6 February 2014
59. Transhumanist Party Manifesto, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 5 January 2015, retrieved 14 January 2015
60. Twyman, Dr M. Amon (12 October 2015). "Zoltan Istvan does not speak for the Transhumanist Party". Transhumanist Party. Retrieved 7 December 2019.

External links

• US Transhumanist Party - Official Website
• Ben Zion 2020 Official Campaign Website
• US Transhumanist Party - Historic website