Transhumanists Disavow Zoltan Istvan Candidacy for US Presidency

Hi Chris. I think I was able to remove your signature.

I will do all I can to keep Zoltan Istvan from ever being the presidential candidate for the US Transhumanist Party or any party, and in fact he should make no decisions on my behalf based on the selfish posts he made on his online social media accounts .

Zoltan Istvan isz an imposter

As a transhumanist Zoltan does not represent me. In fact he damages our cause by scaring potential voters away with his focus on immortality and libertarianism.

Plz God have mercy on me and my family Let thisman SEE ..

I fully agree with this. The transhumanist community needs to disavow this guy. He's not a transhumanist he is a Zoltanist.

about time

Zoltan is a great promoter of Zoltan. He is attempting to use his personal positions as representative of all Transhumanist. In addition, I find the antagonistic undertones to his writings to be unproductive.

He's a con artist basically. With a weird bus.

we dont want your antichrist system

Zoltan has blazed new trails, but he has gone in the wrong direction. He does not represent my form of Transhumanism, nor any form I would wish to follow.

I believe that transhumanist politics must exercise radical democracy instead of an outmoded cult of individuality.

Zoltan Istvan is a good communicator and populariser, but unfortunately he has an autocratic tendency to decide policy on a whim himself, without actually consulting the Transhumanist Party he claims to represent. Moreover, his views are profoundly and deliberately offensive to a significant proportion of bona fide long-time Transhumanists. This explicit rejection of democracy is unacceptable, and a bad advertisement for Transhumanist values.

Taken from here, http://brainblogger.com/2008/11/04/hitlers-guide-to-propaganda-the-psychology-of-coercion/ "The first thing he would do is point out the commonality of the people gathered in the crowd so that he could instantly unify the group. The next step would be to identify a threat to that commonality to put the group on edge, and stir up the emotions of fear and anger. The third and most important step was to invoke a higher power, and appoint himself as an agent of that higher power. If the crowd was able to believe this, then the last two steps were easy: give the higher power’s “solution” to that threat to the commonality, and proclaim that carrying out the solution would be a victory for both the commonality and the higher power." "The first application is to identify when others are attempting to engage in coercion. A political campaign is essentially a huge, protracted exercise in coercion, as is advertising and marketing. Being aware of the tools utilized can be helpful to rise above the influence and encourage others to do the same." -Ardian T.

Mr. Istvan's flavor of Transhumanism is based on these tenets: 1. Keep the dogma simple. Make only 1 or 2 points. 2. Be forthright and powerfully direct. Speak only in the telling or ordering mode. 3. As much as possible, reduce concepts down into stereotypes which are black and white. 4. Speak to people’s emotions and stir them constantly. (especially attention starved transhumanists) 5. Use lots of repetition; repeat your points over and over again. 6. Forget literary beauty, scientific reasoning, balance, or novelty. 7. Focus solely on convincing people and creating zealots. (especially attention starved "intelligent" transhumanists) 8. Find slogans which can be used to drive the movement forward. ...guess which other (in)famous person used this crowd psychology...brainwashing one of the most intelligent races in Europe. This is why I disavow, no other reason.

That a transhumanist would think using the centralized political system to further transhumanism is embarrassing enough. It is the definition of a technocracy, and seems to corroborate the anti-transhuman sentiment that H+ tech will be forced upon people without their consent. Politics sustains itself by creating outgroups and using force. None of this belongs in a transhuman future or in its course.

I thank Zoltan for letting me speak at his first rally and for the amount of energy he contributes to the community. But I agree that his campaign is going in the wrong direction.

I appreciate the efforts that Zoltan is taking. However what I see recently with the method of getting the transhumanist ideas in public view appear to be more circus than serious.

I am signing this petition in support of the move to disavow the presidential candidacy and political movement of Zoltan Istvan. Given the anti-religious, in-egalitarian, and militaristic portrait of transhumanism in Mr Istvan's novel/political manifesto The Transhumanist Wager I believe there is a very real danger of the public conflating transhumanism and techo-progressivism with the views he espouses alone and as a consequence doing much more damage to the goals of the movement than good. In order to ensure this does not happen I believe it is necessary at this early stage to clearly differentiate Mr. Istvan's candidacy and movement from the more liberal, tolerant and non-militaristic currents to which I believe most of those espousing transhumanism and techo-progressivism belong.

What I don't get is, transhumanists are supposed to be elevated thinkers. Yet, there are so many disillusioned Transhumanists out there, they managed to get hypnotized by this anti-christ. (and I'm not religious) Transhumanists working in A.I, no less have fallen prey to the preaching of Jethro Istvan. It's plain to see he's given them what they lacked - Media exposure - and in return they sold their souls to him. A few have now, since shaken off the spell they were under and have come to their senses. Good on them! An appeal to Istvan's minions: Please read between the lines of his book. That's his agenda, nothing less.