Transhumanist politics constitutes a group of political ideologies that generally express the belief in improving human individuals through science and technology.
The term "transhumanism" with its present meaning was popularised by Julian Huxley's 1957 essay of that name.[1]
Natasha Vita-More was elected as a Councilperson for the 28th Senatorial District of Los Angeles in 1992. She ran with the Green Party, but on a personal platform of "transhumanism". She quit after a year, saying her party was "too neurotically geared toward environmentalism".[2][3]
James Hughes identifies the "neoliberal" Extropy Institute, founded by philosopher Max More and developed in the 1990s, as the first organized advocates for transhumanism. And he identifies the late-1990s formation of the World Transhumanist Association (WTA), a European organization which later was renamed to Humanity+ (H+), as partly a reaction to the free market perspective of the "Extropians". Per Hughes, "[t]he WTA included both social democrats and neoliberals around a liberal democratic definition of transhumanism, codified in the Transhumanist Declaration."[4][5] Hughes has also detailed the political currents in transhumanism, particularly the shift around 2009 from socialist transhumanism to libertarian and anarcho-capitalist transhumanism.[5] He claims that the left was pushed out of the World Transhumanist Association Board of Directors, and that libertarians and Singularitarians have secured a hegemony in the transhumanism community with help from Peter Thiel, but Hughes remains optimistic about a techno-progressive future.[5]
In 2012, the Longevity Party, a movement described as "100% transhumanist" by cofounder Maria Konovalenko,[6] began to organize in Russia for building a balloted political party.[7] Another Russian programme, the 2045 Initiative was founded in 2012 by billionaire Dmitry Itskov with its own "Evolution 2045" political party advocating life extension and android avatars.[8][9]
Writing for H+ Magazine in July 2014, futurist Peter Rothman called Gabriel Rothblatt "very possibly the first openly transhumanist political candidate in the United States" when he ran as a candidate for the United States Congress.[10]
In October 2014, Zoltan Istvan announced that he would be running in the 2016 United States presidential election under the banner of the "Transhumanist Party."[11] By May 2018, the Party had nearly 880 members, and chairmanship had been given to Gennady Stolyarov II.[12] Other groups using the name "Transhumanist Party" exist in the United Kingdom[13][14][15] and Germany.[16]
According to a 2006 study by the European Parliament, transhumanism is the political expression of the ideology that technology should be used to enhance human abilities.[17]
According to Amon Twyman of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), political philosophies which support transhumanism include social futurism, techno-progressivism, techno-libertarianism, and anarcho-transhumanism.[18] Twyman considers such philosophies to collectively constitute political transhumanism.[18]
Techno-progressives also known as Democratic transhumanists,[19][20] support equal access to human enhancement technologies in order to promote social equality and prevent technologies from furthering the divide among socioeconomic classes.[21] However, libertarian transhumanist Ronald Bailey is critical of the democratic transhumanism described by James Hughes.[22][23] Jeffrey Bishop wrote that the disagreements among transhumanists regarding individual and community rights is "precisely the tension that philosophical liberalism historically tried to negotiate," but that disagreeing entirely with a posthuman future is a disagreement with the right to choose what humanity will become.[24] Woody Evans has supported placing posthuman rights in a continuum with animal rights and human rights.[25]
Riccardo Campa wrote that transhumanism can be coupled with many different political, philosophical, and religious views, and that this diversity can be an asset so long as transhumanists do not give priority to existing affiliations over membership with organized transhumanism.[26]
Some transhumanists question the use of politicizing transhumanism.[who?] Truman Chen of the Stanford Political Journal considers many transhumanist ideals to be anti-political.[27]
Democratic transhumanism, a term coined by James Hughes in 2002, refers to the stance of transhumanists (advocates for the development and use of human enhancement technologies) who espouse liberal, social, and/or radical democratic political views.[28][29][30][31]
According to Hughes, the ideology "stems from the assertion that human beings will generally be happier when they take rational control of the natural and social forces that control their lives."[29][32]The ethical foundation of democratic transhumanism rests upon rule utilitarianism and non-anthropocentric personhood theory.[33] Democratic transhumanist support equal access to human enhancement technologies in order to promote social equality and to prevent technologies from furthering the divide among the socioeconomic classes.[34]While raising objections both to right-wing and left-wing bioconservatism, and libertarian transhumanism, Hughes aims to encourage democratic transhumanists and their potential progressive allies to unite as a new social movement and influence biopolitical public policy.[29][31]
An attempt to expand the middle ground between technorealism and techno-utopianism, democratic transhumanism can be seen as a radical form of techno-progressivism.[35] Appearing several times in Hughes' work, the term "radical" (from Latin rdx, rdc-, root) is used as an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the root or going to the root. His central thesis is that emerging technologies and radical democracy can help citizens overcome some of the root causes of inequalities of power.[29]
According to Hughes, the terms techno-progressivism and democratic transhumanism both refer to the same set of Enlightenment values and principles; however, the term technoprogressive has replaced the use of the word democratic transhumanism.[36][37]
Hughes has identified 15 "left futurist" or "left techno-utopian" trends and projects that could be incorporated into democratic transhumanism:
These are notable individuals who have identified themselves, or have been identified by Hughes, as advocates of democratic transhumanism:[38]
Science journalist Ronald Bailey wrote a review of Citizen Cyborg in his online column for Reason magazine in which he offered a critique of democratic transhumanism and a defense of libertarian transhumanism.[22][23]
Critical theorist Dale Carrico defended democratic transhumanism from Bailey's criticism.[39] However, he would later criticize democratic transhumanism himself on technoprogressive grounds.[40]
Libertarian transhumanism is a political ideology synthesizing libertarianism and transhumanism.[28][41][42]Self-identified libertarian transhumanists, such as Ronald Bailey of Reason magazine and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, are advocates of the asserted "right to human enhancement" who argue that the free market is the best guarantor of this right, claiming that it produces greater prosperity and personal freedom than other economic systems.[43][44]
Libertarian transhumanists believe that the principle of self-ownership is the most fundamental idea from which both libertarianism and transhumanism stem. They are rational egoists and ethical egoists who embrace the prospect of using emerging technologies to enhance human capacities, which they believe stems from the self-interested application of reason and will in the context of the individual freedom to achieve a posthuman state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. They extend this rational and ethical egoism to advocate a form of "biolibertarianism".[43]
As strong civil libertarians, libertarian transhumanists hold that any attempt to limit or suppress the asserted right to human enhancement is a violation of civil rights and civil liberties. However, as strong economic libertarians, they also reject proposed public policies of government-regulated and -insured human enhancement technologies, which are advocated by democratic transhumanists, because they fear that any state intervention will steer or limit their choices.[45][46][23]
Extropianism, the earliest current of transhumanist thought defined in 1988 by philosopher Max More, initially included an anarcho-capitalist interpretation of the concept of "spontaneous order" in its principles, which states that a free market economy achieves a more efficient allocation of societal resources than any planned or mixed economy could achieve. In 2000, while revising the principles of Extropy, More seemed to be abandoning libertarianism in favor of modern liberalism and anticipatory democracy. However, many Extropians remained libertarian transhumanists.[28]
Critiques of the techno-utopianism of libertarian transhumanists from progressive cultural critics include Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron's 1995 essay The Californian Ideology; Mark Dery's 1996 book Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century; and Paulina Borsook's 2000 book Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High-Tech.
Barbrook argues that libertarian transhumanists are proponents of the Californian Ideology who embrace the goal of reactionary modernism: economic growth without social mobility.[47] According to Barbrook, libertarian transhumanists are unwittingly appropriating the theoretical legacy of Stalinist communism by substituting, among other concepts, the "vanguard party" with the "digerati", and the "new Soviet man" with the "posthuman".[48] Dery coined the dismissive phrase "body-loathing" to describe the attitude of libertarian transhumanists and those in the cyberculture who want to escape from their "meat puppet" through mind uploading into cyberspace.[49] Borsook asserts that libertarian transhumanists indulge in a subculture of selfishness, elitism, and escapism.[50]
Sociologist James Hughes is the most militant critic of libertarian transhumanism. While articulating "democratic transhumanism" as a sociopolitical program in his 2004 book Citizen Cyborg,[31] Hughes sought to convince libertarian transhumanists to embrace social democracy by arguing that:
Klaus-Gerd Giesen, a German political scientist specializing in the philosophy of technology, wrote a critique of the libertarianism he imputes to all transhumanists. While pointing out that the works of Austrian School economist Friedrich Hayek figure in practically all of the recommended reading lists of Extropians, he argues that transhumanists, convinced of the sole virtues of the free market, advocate an unabashed inegalitarianism and merciless meritocracy which can be reduced in reality to a biological fetish. He is especially critical of their promotion of a science-fictional liberal eugenics, virulently opposed to any political regulation of human genetics, where the consumerist model presides over their ideology. Giesen concludes that the despair of finding social and political solutions to today's sociopolitical problems incites transhumanists to reduce everything to the hereditary gene, as a fantasy of omnipotence to be found within the individual, even if it means transforming the subject (human) to a new draft (posthuman).[51]
See the rest here:
Transhumanist politics - Wikipedia
- Human Genetic Enhancements - A Transhumanist Perspective - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA: Would You Live For 10,000 Years? - Video - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- What If You Could Live for 10,000 years? Q&A with Transhumanist Zoltan Istvan - Video - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- We Are Change Luke ~ Links to Transhumanist Positivity & NWO? Feb 4 2015 - Video - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA: The End of Religion and Review of Lab Rats - Video - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- 10 Insights from The Transhumanist Wager, with Zoltan Istvan - Video - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- DAVE HODGES: THE MASS POISONING OF THE PLANET IS TO FULFILL A TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA - Video - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA: Eliminate Suffering? - Video - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Transhumanist Propaganda as Entertainment - Video - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA: Lab Rats - Rise of the Secret Soldiers - Video - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Vote Zoltan Istvan - Transhumanist U.S. Presidential Candidate For 2016 - Video - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Transhumanist - Video - February 12th, 2015 [February 12th, 2015]
- Transhumanist Values - Nick Bostrom's Home Page - February 15th, 2015 [February 15th, 2015]
- Transhumanist Declaration - Humanity+ | Elevating the ... - February 15th, 2015 [February 15th, 2015]
- Creative AI: The robots that would be painters - February 16th, 2015 [February 16th, 2015]
- Scientists propose 'cortical modem' implant to give you Terminator vision - February 17th, 2015 [February 17th, 2015]
- DARPA's 'Cortical Modem' will plug straight into your BRAIN - February 17th, 2015 [February 17th, 2015]
- TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA: Androgyny and the Antichrist - Video - February 18th, 2015 [February 18th, 2015]
- Alfred Webre:Draco, CIA drive child sacrifice in Religions, Gov, Schools, Wars-Transhumanist Agenda - Video - March 5th, 2015 [March 5th, 2015]
- Transhumanist Propaganda - Video - March 5th, 2015 [March 5th, 2015]
- Transhumanist Extermination Plan, Machine Merge - SteveQuayle - AJShow QC - Video - March 5th, 2015 [March 5th, 2015]
- Africa, Shamanism and The Transhumanist Future with Kilindi Iyi - Video - March 5th, 2015 [March 5th, 2015]
- Theorist to Theorist - Godrules Pt 1 - Transhumanist Confusion - Video - March 5th, 2015 [March 5th, 2015]
- Transhumanist Agenda Revealed - Video - March 5th, 2015 [March 5th, 2015]
- Ask Warren Ellis Your Craziest Questions About The Future - March 10th, 2015 [March 10th, 2015]
- Chappie Satanic Illuminati Transhumanist Agenda EXPOSED - Video - March 12th, 2015 [March 12th, 2015]
- Reply To Face Like The Sun Transhumanist video - Video - March 14th, 2015 [March 14th, 2015]
- Apple Watch Exposed! NWO Conspiracy to Popularize Useless Product for Promoting Transhumanist Agenda - Video - March 14th, 2015 [March 14th, 2015]
- Trending at SXSW: Mind cloning, off-the-grid messaging - Quincy Herald-Whig | Illinois & Missouri News, Sports - March 16th, 2015 [March 16th, 2015]
- Mind cloning, off-the-grid chats & ambient mobile alerts lead chatter at South by Southwest - March 16th, 2015 [March 16th, 2015]
- Tranhumanist CEO Wants to Help You Live Forever - March 16th, 2015 [March 16th, 2015]
- Hottest tech at South by Southwest: FireChat, 'mind cloning' - March 18th, 2015 [March 18th, 2015]
- Humans: The Next Platform - March 18th, 2015 [March 18th, 2015]
- Satanic Illuminati Super Soldier Captain America & MK Ultra Transhumanist Winter Soldier EXPOSED 108 - Video - March 20th, 2015 [March 20th, 2015]
- TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA Androgyny and the Antichrist 720p - Video - March 20th, 2015 [March 20th, 2015]
- TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA Eliminate Suffering 720p - Video - March 20th, 2015 [March 20th, 2015]
- The Everyday Transhumanist | Solve all the Problems! - March 22nd, 2015 [March 22nd, 2015]
- Chappie Satanic Illuminati Transhumanist Agenda EXPOSED 1080p - Video - March 22nd, 2015 [March 22nd, 2015]
- Transhumanist Advert ~ Usain Bolt March 19 2015 - Video - March 22nd, 2015 [March 22nd, 2015]
- TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA The End of Religion and Review of Lab Rats 720p - Video - March 22nd, 2015 [March 22nd, 2015]
- TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA Lab Rats Rise of the Secret Soldiers 720p - Video - March 22nd, 2015 [March 22nd, 2015]
- TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA Would You Live For 10,000 Years 720p - Video - March 22nd, 2015 [March 22nd, 2015]
- Anticipating tomorrows politics, and introducing the Transhumanist Party - Video - March 25th, 2015 [March 25th, 2015]
- EUCACH: Melanie Vritschan homage to Dr Rauni Kilde, whistleblower against Transhumanist Agenda - Video - March 27th, 2015 [March 27th, 2015]
- The Transhumanist Wager- TwinCities+ - Video - March 27th, 2015 [March 27th, 2015]
- Transhumanist politics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - April 8th, 2015 [April 8th, 2015]
- What does transhumanist mean? - Video - April 9th, 2015 [April 9th, 2015]
- Normal day in transhumanist life - Video - April 9th, 2015 [April 9th, 2015]
- The Transhumanist (Original Mix) - Video - April 9th, 2015 [April 9th, 2015]
- Transhumanist Party - Transcending human limitations - Video - April 11th, 2015 [April 11th, 2015]
- The Age of Transhumanist Politics Has Begun - April 13th, 2015 [April 13th, 2015]
- Why Im Running for President As the Transhumanist Candidate - May 8th, 2015 [May 8th, 2015]
- The Transhumanist Party Supports Bitcoin: Zoltan Istvan ... - May 10th, 2015 [May 10th, 2015]
- Transhumanism and the Technological Singularity - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- U.S. Transhumanist Party PUTTING SCIENCE, HEALTH ... - December 21st, 2016 [December 21st, 2016]
- Nick Bostrom's Home Page - December 21st, 2016 [December 21st, 2016]
- U.S. Navy Held Meetings With Transhumanist to Discuss ... - December 22nd, 2016 [December 22nd, 2016]
- H+: True Transhumanism - Essentials | Metanexus - January 12th, 2017 [January 12th, 2017]
- About | Mormon Transhumanist Association - January 12th, 2017 [January 12th, 2017]
- The Transhumanist Wager - amazon.com - January 15th, 2017 [January 15th, 2017]
- An interview with Zoltan Istvan, leader of the Transhumanist ... - January 24th, 2017 [January 24th, 2017]
- Filthy Assistance: Revisiting 'Transmetropolitan: Lust for Life' - ComicsAlliance - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Meet the Body Hacker Trying to Become a Human Vibrator - Gizmodo - Gizmodo - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Editor's Picks #463 - Archinect - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Stunning Transhumanism Dominates New 'Ghost in the Shell' Trailer - Inverse - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Transhumanist politician wants to run for governor of California - Engadget - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Why Elon Musk's transhumanism claims may not be that far-fetched - Wired.co.uk - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Mark O'Connell's Journey Among the Immortalists - The Ringer (blog) - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Zoltan Istvan, Nick Bostrom, and the Anti-Aging Quest - The Atlantic - The Atlantic - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Are We Mature Enough to Deal with Climate Change? - Yahoo News - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Wow! Really? The Hungarian-American Transhumanist Who Wants to Become a CyborgAnd Live Forever - Hungary Today - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Transhumanists, biohackers, grinders: Who are they and can they really live forever? - ABC Online - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- 'They want to be literally machines' : Writer Mark O'Connell on the rise of transhumanists - The Verge - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- 'To Be A Machine' Digs Into The Meaning Of Humanity - NPR - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- The Transhumanist's Quest for Godhood: 'Remember, Thou Art Mortal' - CNSNews.com - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Top 5 Transhumanist Technologies With Major Implications ... - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Michael O'Connor : Does He See Himself being a Transhumanist? - Mobile Magazine - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Transhumanist Wants to Run for California Governor Under Libertarian Banner - The Libertarian Republic - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Is Zoltan Istvan a Libertarian? - Being Libertarian - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Secret to a better life? - Piqua Daily Call - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]