Gennady Stolyarov II

The following is the draft sample ballot generated thus far as a compilation of the suggestions provided during the 15-day exposure period for the first set of U.S. Transhumanist Party platform planks. The exposure period will continue until 12:01 a.m. U.S. Pacific Time on January 15, 2017, and comments will continue to be solicited until that time, with any further reasonable suggestions incorporated into the draft sample ballot until the end of the exposure period.

The draft sample ballot is a work in progress and will be revised on this page as further input is received. The purpose of releasing the sample ballot at this time is to provide insight into the structure of the voting and the options that have already been generated, so as to enable any interested members of the Transhumanist Party to read and understand the available options and propose further refinements and alternatives.

After the exposure period, a 7-day electronic voting period will occur from 12:01 a.m. U.S. Pacific Time on January 15, 2017, to 12:01 a.m.  U.S. Pacific Time on January 22, 2017. Instructions for electronic voting will be sent to members of the U.S. Transhumanist Party via e-mail. All individuals who are members of the U.S. Transhumanist Party as of the end of the exposure period and who have expressed agreement with its three Core Ideals will be eligible to vote thereafter.

Electronic voting will be conducted by a ranked-preference method on individual sections where more options are possible than would be accommodated by a simple “Yes” or “No” vote.  Members should keep in mind that the ranked-preference method eliminates the incentives for strategic voting – so members are encouraged to vote for the options that reflect their individual preferences as closely as possible, without regard for how other members might vote.

NOTE: The titles of the questions and potential Sections are descriptive and informational only and will not appear in the final adopted platform planks (which will be incorporated into Article IV of the U.S. Transhumanist Party Constitution). They are intended as concise guides to the subject matter of the questions and potential Sections. Likewise, the letters assigned to Sections within this ballot will not reflect the numbering of the final adopted provisions, which will depend on which Sections are selected by the membership.

NOTE II: The inclusion of any proposals on this ballot does not indicate any manner of endorsement for those proposals by the U.S. Transhumanist Party at this time – except to place those proposals before the members to determine the will of the members with regard to whether or not the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform should incorporate any given proposal.

Draft Sample Ballot

Proposed Platform Sections

Question I. Section A. Privacy Rights

Rank-order the Section A Options that you support. Choose “1” for your most highly favored option, “2” for your second-most highly favored option, etc. You may include the option for “No Section of this sort” in your rank-ordering, and it does not need to be your most favored option if you do so. (For instance, some voters might favor some options but think that no language is preferable to some of the other options.)

If you choose “Abstain”, then do not rank-order any options, as you will be considered to have skipped this question.

☐ Option A-1 [Based on Section XIX of the Nevada Transhumanist Party Platform]. The United States Transhumanist Party strongly supports individual privacy and liberty over how to apply technology to one’s personal life. The United States Transhumanist Party holds that each individual should remain completely sovereign in the choice to disclose or not disclose personal activities, preferences, and beliefs within the public sphere. As such, the United States Transhumanist Party opposes all forms of mass surveillance and any intrusion by governmental or private institutions upon non-coercive activities that an individual has chosen to retain within his, her, or its private sphere. However, the United States Transhumanist Party also recognizes that no individuals should be protected from peaceful criticism of any matters that those individuals have chosen to disclose within the sphere of public knowledge and discourse.

☐ Option A-2. The United States Transhumanist Party strongly supports individual privacy and liberty over how to apply technology to one’s personal life. The United States Transhumanist Party holds that each individual should remain completely sovereign in the choice to disclose or not disclose personal activities, preferences, and beliefs within the public sphere. As such, the United States Transhumanist Party opposes all forms of mass surveillance and any intrusion by governmental or private institutions upon non-coercive activities that individuals have chosen to retain within their private spheres. However, the United States Transhumanist Party also recognizes that no individuals should be protected from peaceful criticism of any matters that those individuals have chosen to disclose within the sphere of public knowledge and discourse.

☐ Option A-3. The United States Transhumanist Party strongly supports the liberty over how to apply technology to oneself and the privacy rights of any sentient entities to personal data, genetic material, digital, biographic, physical, and intellectual enhancements, and consciousness.

☐ Option A-NO. No Section of this sort.

Question II. Section B. Anti-Bigotry

Rank-order the Section B Options that you support. Choose “1” for your most highly favored option, “2” for your second-most highly favored option, etc. You may include the option for “No Section of this sort” in your rank-ordering, and it does not need to be your most favored option if you do so. (For instance, some voters might favor some options but think that no language is preferable to some of the other options.)

If you choose “Abstain”, then do not rank-order any options, as you will be considered to have skipped this question.

☐ Option B-1 [Based on Section XXX of the Nevada Transhumanist Party Platform]. The United States Transhumanist Party abhors all racism, nativism, xenophobia, and sexism. Accordingly, the United States Transhumanist Party condemns any hostile discrimination or legal restrictions on the basis of national origin, skin color, birthplace, ancestry, gender identity, or any manner of circumstantial attribute tied to a person’s lineage or accident of birth. Furthermore, the United States Transhumanist Party strongly opposes any efforts to close national borders, restrict immigration of peaceful individuals, or deny opportunities to individuals on the basis of ethnicity, race, or national origin. The United States Transhumanist Party unequivocally condemns all demagogues who seek to segregate individuals on the basis of national origin, race, or ethnicity. In particular, The United States Transhumanist Party opposes movements describing themselves as “white nationalism”, “America First”, “race realism”, and the “alt-right” – as well as the counterparts of those movements in other countries.

☐ Option B-2. In addition to supporting the freedoms within the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, the United States Transhumanist Party emphatically supports the freedom of enhanced or augmented sentient entities to live free from ridicule, discrimination, abuse, or enslavement by any person, group, entity, or government. Accordingly, the United States Transhumanist Party also strongly supports legal immigration without bias. Furthermore, the United States Transhumanist Party ardently supports inclusiveness of all sentient entities.

☐ Option B-3. The United States Transhumanist Party is an egalitarian institution and believes in individual freedom of association sans coercion or violence. The United States Transhumanist Party holds that governments should not make rules either opposed to or in favor of groups or individuals based on circumstances of their birth. No government decisions should be made based on race, sex, or other circumstances of birth beyond individual control.

☐ Option B-4. The United States Transhumanist Party is an egalitarian institution and believes in individual freedom of association sans coercion or violence. The United States Transhumanist Party holds that governments should not make rules either opposed to or in favor of groups or individuals based on circumstances of their birth. No government decisions should be made based on race, sex, or other circumstances of birth beyond individual control. Accordingly, the United States Transhumanist Party is opposed to policies such as affirmative action or legally mandated restroom gendering, as such policies also represent legislation that puts people into categories and divides them based on circumstances beyond their choosing. The United States Transhumanist Party also supports freedom of association and holds that individual actions should not be censured so long as they are not violent or coercive to other individuals, even when they may contravene the ideals articulated herein.

☐ Option B-5. The United States Transhumanist Party supports acceptance, tolerance, and inclusivity of individuals and groups of all races, genders, classes, and peaceful religions, creeds, and ideologies. Accordingly, the United States Transhumanist Party condemns any hostile discrimination or legal restrictions on the basis of national origin, skin color, birthplace, ancestry, gender identity, or any manner of circumstantial attribute tied to a person’s lineage or accident of birth. Furthermore, the United States Transhumanist Party strongly opposes any efforts to enforce said restrictions regardless of cause or motivation thereof.

☐ Option B-NO. No Section of this sort.

Question III. Section C. Benefits and Risks of Technologies

Rank-order the Section C Options that you support. Choose “1” for your most highly favored option, “2” for your second-most highly favored option, etc. You may include the option for “No Section of this sort” in your rank-ordering, and it does not need to be your most favored option if you do so. (For instance, some voters might favor some options but think that no language is preferable to some of the other options.)

If you choose “Abstain”, then do not rank-order any options, as you will be considered to have skipped this question.

☐ Option C-1 [Based on Section XXVIII of the Nevada Transhumanist Party Platform]. The United States Transhumanist Party holds that the vast majority of technologies are beneficial to human well-being and should be enthusiastically advocated for and developed further. However, a minority of technologies could be detrimental to human well-being and, as such, their application, when it results in detrimental consequences, should be opposed. Examples of such detrimental technologies include nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, mass-surveillance systems such as those deployed by the National Security Agency in the United States, and backscatter X-ray full-body scanners such as those used until 2013 by the Transportation Security Administration in the United States. Furthermore, the United States Transhumanist Party is opposed to the deliberate engineering of new active pathogens or the resurrection of once-existing pathogens, whose spread might not be able to be contained within laboratory settings. While it is impossible to un-learn the knowledge utilized in the creation of such technologies, the United States Transhumanist Party holds that all such knowledge should only be devoted toward peaceful, life-affirming, rights-respecting purposes, going forward.

☐ Option C-2. The United States Transhumanist Party unequivocally supports the advancement of technologies that benefit sentient beings’ wellness and extension and expansion of life. We enthusiastically advocate continued research and development that is devoted toward peaceful, life-affirming, and rights-respecting purposes. However, we stand against technologies that are detrimental to sentient entities. We stand opposed to the use of chemical, biological, and nuclear warfare tactics and devices that only bring death and destruction.

☐ Option C-3. The United States Transhumanist Party advocates caution in the development of technologies that may pose a threat to human life but does not seek to ban their development, as all technologies and science can have value, and often the specific uses are not known before a given technology and its derivatives are developed.

☐ Option C-NO. No Section of this sort.

Question IV. Section D. Nuclear Disarmament

Rank-order the Section D Options that you support. Choose “1” for your most highly favored option, “2” for your second-most highly favored option, etc. You may include the option for “No Section of this sort” in your rank-ordering, and it does not need to be your most favored option if you do so. (For instance, some voters might favor some options but think that no language is preferable to some of the other options.)

If you choose “Abstain”, then do not rank-order any options, as you will be considered to have skipped this question.

☐ Option D-1. In recognition of the dire existential threat that nuclear weapons pose to sapient life on Earth – including as a result of such weapons’ accidental deployment due to system failures or human misunderstanding – the United States Transhumanist Party advocates the complete dismantlement and abolition of all nuclear weapons everywhere, as rapidly as possible. If necessary for geopolitical stability, synchronized multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation treaties should be pursued, strengthened, and accelerated in the most expeditious manner. If, however, multilateral agreements among nations are not reached, then the United States Transhumanist Party advocates that all nuclear powers, especially the United States and Russia, should undertake unilateral nuclear disarmament at the earliest opportunity in order to preserve civilization from accidental annihilation.

☐ Option D-2. The United States Transhumanist Party opposes nuclear proliferation and endorses mutual nuclear-disarmament treaties.

☐ Option D-3. In recognition of the dire existential threat that nuclear weapons pose to sapient life on Earth, the United States Transhumanist Party advocates the eradication, disarmament, dismantlement, and abolition of all nuclear weapons worldwide.

☐ Option D-NO. No Section of this sort.

Question V. Section E. Replacement of the Military-Industrial Complex

☐ Option E-1. [Based on Section XVI of the Nevada Transhumanist Party Platform] The United States Transhumanist Party supports the replacement of the military-industrial complex with concerted research efforts to cure cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and other illnesses that kill far more Americans than any terrorist or foreign government. Any increase in government funding to disease-research efforts should be offset by a greater reduction in military spending.

☐ Option E-2. The United States Transhumanist Party supports the reduction of military expenditures on unnecessary items and the excessive costs that the United States military often incurs for items that could be procured less expensively. Reductions in unnecessary military spending would enable an increase in funding for concerted research efforts to cure cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and other illnesses that kill far more Americans than any terrorist or foreign government.

☐ Option E-3. The United States Transhumanist Party opposes military expansion in the United States and seeks a reduction in size and funding to the military. Funding released by such reduction may be utilized to expand valuable scientific and technological research. The United States Transhumanist Party does not, however, advocate for the abolition of the military in its entirety.

☐ Option E-4. The United States Transhumanist Party supports concerted research in effort to eradicate disease and illness that wreaks havoc upon and causes death of sapient beings. We strongly advocate the increase and redirection of research funds to conduct research and experiments and to explore life, science, technology, medicine, and extraterrestrial realms to improve all sentient entities.

☐ Option E-NO. No Section of this sort.