No Movement without Politics
Transhumanism has existed for about 30 years. Historically it’s been a small movement, but it’s only in the last few years that the party has seen real growth. “All movements that start growing eventually need to enter into the field of politics to make an impact,” remarks Istvan. “ If it’s not making it on…a governmental level...then it’s not making that big of an impact in the political sphere.”
While Istvan realizes that his bid for the 2016 presidency is a long shot – he’s not planning on being in office this next round – the new party’s mission is to grow its numbers over the next 5 to 10 years to the level of the Green- or Libertarian-sized parties, enough to gain the public and the media’s attention.
Influencing the Political Conversation
While Zoltan isn’t betting on becoming President Istvan by next year, he is certainly trying to influence the 2016 elections. “There are a number of important Transhumanist questions that should be addressed. One is designer babies – this idea that you can adjust genetic qualities (sex, hair color, etc.) presents ethical issues.”
The subject is timely and already a hot-button issue. In April, Chinese scientists published the first scientific paper on supposed successful alterations to the DNA of (damaged) human embryos. This finding became public only after the scientists were turned down by the journals Science and Nature, which speaks to the ethical controversy surrounding the technology.
Zoltan describes this as a classical Transhumanist issue, one that doesn’t go very well with diversity, which is a majority social order of the day. “I don’t know if Hilary Clinton or Jeb Bush will be tackling these issues,” he comments. “Abortion is thorny, but this opens up more issues, ” something that politicians, for better or worse, tend to do their best to hedge during campaign season.
Being such a small party, one might wonder how the Transhumanists plan to shake the “sleeping giant” and get their voices heard. “I’m a big believer that media determines much of what we do, and I’m interested in ‘how can we encourage media coverage in a positive light.” Zoltan reveals a bus tour plan (though he politely declined to give any details) that he asserts will be “somewhat sensational and designed to be newsworthy.”
Istvan continues, “If I could be involved in a few debates, enough media coverage, all of a sudden that would be very interesting…Wired Germany did a great piece, what if we had a Cyborg as a President? And I thought, wow that would be a shocking thing…because it presents an image, and gets us thinking about as a species, how do we feel about something that’s not fully human anymore?”
Transcending Religion in Politics
Istvan notes that the party is always looking for events that can move the Transhumanist message forward, and gain some publicity along the way. He “admits” to being an atheist, and clearly proclaims this. “I think I’m the first atheist to do this,” he says. In fact, he believes religion is one of the things standing in the way, at least in America, of broader support of the Transhumanist movement.
Zoltan’s hope is that by getting a broader swath of the population to embrace the principles of Transhumanism, a type of “reverse religiosity” will occur. “We live in a ‘deathist’ culture…we’re trained that we need to die”, he comments, recognizing that the idea of an afterlife encourages this frame of thought. Submitting to death is an idea that is not conducive to Transhumanism, which is all about transcending our species’ current limits, including (one day) death.
In Istvan’s mind, the Transhumanist party is trying to spread a culture that does not take its dictates from religion. He emphasizes that Transhumanism is open to other cultural beliefs and calls it “the least discriminatory political party on the planet”. There is a voiced position by the party to advocate for a more secular-minded approach to forming decisions on policy that affect everything from genetic modification to life extension technologies.
Zoltan believes that “when you’re talking about reason and science, you’re talking about these objective ideas – we accept we want to improve our lives and our bodies because we’re in control of that, and we can use science to do that.”
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IEET Managing Director's Note: IEET does not endorse candidates, but we promote policies that our mission supports. Istvan's platform includes many ideas we agree with, but IEET does not agree with his view - stated in many of his essays - that religions are an obstacle to progress. IEET welcomes people with religious views in its community and we are very happy with our contributing writers who are religious.
