August 10, 2019 – As part of the action plan previously announced by the U.S. Transhumanist Party / Transhuman Party (USTP) to elevate the tone of the 2019 campaign season, current USTP Presidential primary candidates Rachel Haywire, Johannon Ben Zion, and Charles Holsopple met via conference call with USTP leadership on August 9, 2019, and arrived at 13 major points of agreement and commitment, which shall hereafter be termed the Codex of 13 Expectations (C13X).

The USTP leadership and the candidates hope that the commitments of the C13X can enable all of the candidates’ supporters and other observers of this election to de-escalate tensions and observe principles that enable the most constructive possible outcomes to be achieved, irrespective of which candidate wins the election. Furthermore, the C13X is anticipated to serve as a model of desirable behavior to the new candidates who enter the race while enabling each of their candidacies to be a positive experience for all.

Codex of 13 Expectations (C13X) – U.S. Transhumanist Party Candidates’ Agreement of August 9, 2019

1. The candidates agree and the USTP expresses its official position that Rachel Haywire is not a Nazi, not a fascist, and not alt-right. All persons are hereby put on notice that the USTP considers this position to be supported by ample evidence of Rachel Haywire’s own public statements, which have included strong criticisms of Nazism, fascism, and the alt-right. While the USTP cannot control or police the speech of individuals, it does urge the critics of Rachel Haywire to refrain from applying such labels to her, as doing so devalues the seriousness of the harm inflicted by actual Nazi, fascist, and alt-right movements.

2. The candidates agree that any manner of false flagging of content is completely unacceptable and a violation of freedom of speech. The candidates urge all of their supporters and all other persons to desist from such false flagging. Candidates who distribute promotional or information content regarding their campaigns or regarding transhumanist ideas more generally deserve the opportunity to have that content seen and considered on its merits.

3. The candidates agree to refrain from asking their supporters to initiate any hostile actions against other candidates or those other candidates’ supporters. Any coordination of mass hostile action against persons holding different political opinions or candidate preferences is considered unacceptable during this campaign season.

4. The candidates agree to adhere to the principle of proportionality. If faced with frustrating, offensive, or even more damaging conduct by others, the candidates will only respond up to the level of the offense or damage caused by such conduct and will endeavor to avoid overreaction or disproportionately strong retaliation.

5. The USTP will crowdsource the questions for the Third Virtual Debate among the candidates, and the candidates agree to focus on civil, substantive, high-minded answers to those questions during the debate.

6. The candidates agree to collaborate in order to set a positive and constructive tone for the remainder of the USTP primary season, especially in any external portrayals of the process and of the USTP to the general public or to some subset of the general public. The candidates shall not disparage the USTP and shall address any grievances internally to the USTP leadership rather than escalating them to the public realm.

7. The candidates agree to keep the communication amongst themselves and with USTP leadership more professional and more formal. While this does not necessarily bar any method of communication, structured and thoughtfully worded e-mails are preferable to a string of text messages. Professional, formal communications allow for more thought to be invested in both composing and responding to correspondence and rationally considering the nature of any given situation that might arise, instead of being instantaneously reactive on the basis of often flawed first impressions.

8. In recognition that any winning candidate would need to secure the support of at least 25 percent of the then-existing USTP membership, each candidate agrees to pay attention to the concerns and sentiments of USTP members in general, including members who are not supporters of that candidate and members who might disagree with that candidate.

9. The candidates agree not to focus their election rhetoric on controversies unrelated to the USTP or to the ideas of transhumanism – including any matters related to Jeffrey Epstein or the history of Humanity+, which are not actionable issues in this election and are not germane to the value that transhumanist ideas and policy proposals could bring to the public. The candidates agree to refrain from any rhetoric that undermines the perception of transhumanism in the public eye.

10. When faced with multiple hypotheses and incomplete facts regarding any given situation, the candidates agree to thoughtfully consider all reasonable hypotheses and not to immediately attach themselves to the most egregious or extreme hypotheses.

11. The candidates agree to give individuals whom they encounter during the campaign season the benefit of any doubt regarding those individuals’ motivations, even if those individuals’ conduct appears to be less than ideal.

12. The candidates agree to keep superlongevity or significant life extension as a significant area of focus of their campaigns.

13. The candidates agree to work to expand the reach of the transhumanist movement and USTP by building alliances with various futurist and future-oriented organizations and other groups which may implicitly align with the values and goals of transhumanists.