Tag: transparency

The U.S. Transhumanist Party Endorses Jennifer A. Huse for Mayor of Camden, New Jersey

The U.S. Transhumanist Party Endorses Jennifer A. Huse for Mayor of Camden, New Jersey

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The U.S. Transhumanist Party is pleased to announce the endorsement of our first candidate during the 2021 election season – Jennifer A. Huse – who is running for Mayor of Camden, New Jersey. See the website for Ms. Huse’s campaign.

Our electronic vote of the members, which took place on April 23-30, 2021, led to an overwhelming endorsement of Ms. Huse’s candidacy by 91.9% of the members who cast their votes.

The vote totals are as follows:

Question: Shall the U.S. Transhumanist Party endorse the candidacy of Jennifer A. Huse for Mayor of Camden, New Jersey?

 

Watch the U.S. Transhumanist Party Officers’ interview of Jennifer A. Huse, conducted on February 15, 2021, by U.S. Transhumanist Party Chairman Gennady Stolyarov II, Director of Applied Innovation David Shumaker, and Director of Energy Issues John Kerecz.

On April 29, 2021, Jennifer Huse was interviewed by U.S. Transhumanist Party Regeneration Advisor Ira Pastor on the Progress, Potential, and Possibilities program. Watch this interview on YouTube here.

On Sunday, May 2, 2021, at 1 p.m. U.S. Pacific Time, the U.S. Transhumanist Party is holding a Virtual Enlightenment Salon with Jennifer Huse to give our members the opportunity to ask her further questions and discuss key transhumanist political issues with her. Follow the link above to watch the livestream of the Virtual Enlightenment Salon or the subsequent recording.

We hope to be able to endorse other candidates during the 2021 election season as well.  If you would like to be considered as a candidate for endorsement by the U.S. Transhumanist Party, please e-mail Chairman Gennady Stolyarov II with an expression of interest. Describe the office for which you plan to run, your background and qualifications, your platform, how it relates to the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform, and what motivated your interest in running with the endorsement of the U.S. Transhumanist Party. Please check our Candidate Eligibility Criteria in Article VII of the U.S. Transhumanist Party Constitution.

A Summary of the USTP’s FDA Reform Panel – Article by Dan Elton

A Summary of the USTP’s FDA Reform Panel – Article by Dan Elton

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Daniel C. Elton, Ph.D.

The U.S. Transhumanist Party livestreams special Enlightenment Salon events every Sunday at 4 p.m. on YouTube. Two weeks ago, on April 4. 2021, the USTP organized a special Enlightenment Salon panel event on FDA reform. In addition to myself, the following people participated on the panel, which was moderated by USTP Chairman Gennady Stolyarov II:

  • Prof. Alex Tabarrok, Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics, George Mason University
  • Dr. Max More, President Emeritus, Alcor Life Extension Foundation
  • Jim O’Neill, CEO, SENS Research Foundation
  • Dr. Edward Hudgins, Founder, Human Achievement Alliance
  • Prof. Garett Jones, Mercatus Center, George Mason University
  • Will C. , Medical Student and Blogger

The entire panel was probably the most information-dense event the USTP has done. I kicked things off by giving a short presentation, which I managed to blaze through in 15 minutes. (The slides can be viewed here.) The presentation set the stage for a very informative and productive discussion.

My only regret was that we didn’t have any women on the panel. However, during the course of researching my presentation, I found out about the work of Dr. Mary J. Ruwart. Dr. Ruwart estimated the number of people who die every year from FDA delays to be around 150,000 per year in her book Death by Regulation. So, I am happy to announce that Sunday, April 25th, from 4 – 6 p.m. Eastern Time, 1-3 p.m. Pacific Time, the USTP will be doing a special Virtual Enlightenment Salon with her.

Here is the recording of the FDA reform event. At 00:05:00 my presentation kicks off:

I’ve written a summary of the major points each of the panelists (and two others) made during approximately the first hour of the session. These are heavily paraphrased. (Instead of providing direct quotes, I shortened what was said in most cases while maintaining the core meaning of what was communicated.) I have put my own comments in italics.

Prof. Alex Tabarrok:

  • The FDA can approve a bad drug (Type I) or fail to approve a good drug (Type II). If they approve a bad drug, people who were affected will go on Oprah, and there will be huge backlash. If they don’t approve a good drug, there is no backlash. The invisible graveyard is a statistical reality, but it’s hard to see. This can be seen easily by asking people to name a time when the FDA approved a bad drug (or a drug with unexpected side effects). Lots of people can think of something. Many point to Thalidomide, which is actually a drug that was approved in Europe and caused birth defects. Thalidomide, incidentally, has many important applications but was not approved by the FDA until 1998.
  • When you have a Type I error, you learn something — we learn about the harms of a drug, and we change our behavior. With a Type II error we never learn anything. We can’t see the consequences of a failure to approve, and even worse, we can’t see the many drugs that never even made it to FDA-mandated trials in the first place because they were deemed too risky to justify the cost.
  • Reciprocity is a sensible reform that is one of the most feasible.
  • The FDA likes to think they are the “gold standard” for drug approval. Yet, people in other countries don’t worry about whether drugs are FDA-approved. For food safety we already have reciprocity with Canada.
  • The FDA has been working for 40 years on new standards for approving sunscreens. So Europeans have much more advanced sunscreen than the US.
  • If aspirin were invented today, it probably wouldn’t be approved.
  • One thing U.S. policymakers have done already, which is probably the smartest thing they have done in a while, is PEDUFA (Prescription Drug User Fee Act). The drug developers pay an extra tax as long as approvals are sped up. The FDA was happy because they got to expand their bureaucracy, and drug companies were happy because they could get to market faster.
  • In the EU the EMA “farms out” reviews to private companies. (So the EMA is more like “an approver of approvers”). Private companies can do a good job – for instance, look at Underwriters Laboratories in the realm of electrical devices. (If you look at many electrical devices, you may see a “UL” seal.) Many major companies like Amazon won’t carry devices unless they are UL-approved.
  • There is no formal process whereby where if a disease is more deadly, then the standards should be lowered to speed approvals. For instance, for pancreatic cancer, which often kills within 6 months, the standards should be lower (and more risk should be tolerated), since patients have less to lose. For something like acne treatment, the standards can be much higher. The FDA recognizes this to some extent in practice, but it’s totally informal – technically it’s not supposed to happen. However they could do this formally and adjust the required statistical significance levels. They could use Bayesian statistical techniques as well.
  • There’s no route to approve a drug for anti-aging. If a company wants to do R&D on anti-aging therapeutics, there is not a clear route for approval.

Dr. Max More:

  • We should keep in mind full abolition of the agency as a long-term goal. [My response: I am against full abolition, but I agree with this. Everyone should at least consider abolition, and if they are against it, explain in some detail why the government needs to be involved versus using private-sector companies and tort law. Going back to first principles regarding the role of government is healthy, especially in places like Washington, D.C., where government institutions are taken for granted and not questioned as much as they could be.]
  • We should keep in mind Milton Friedman’s statement that expecting the FDA to behave differently than it does is like expecting a cat to bark (Note: He said this in a 1973 Newsweek column.) We can’t just say, “We want the FDA to do X”; we have to make sure incentives are in place so people actually do the things we want. Legal mandates can help, but it’s easy for people to skirt around them if the proper incentives don’t exist.
  • We are facing an enormous cultural barrier when it comes to reforming the FDA and CDC. We don’t have a proactionary culture anymore; we have a very fear-based culture, and a simple solution to it does not exist. However, we have a good opportunity right now just like the AIDS activists had a good opportunity in the 1980s.
  • The proactionary principle is a “grab-bag” of tools based on a certain value perspective which basically says that progress is fundamentally good. We aren’t omniscient, so we have to learn by doing. As Alex Tabarrok said, you can’t really learn things without making mistakes. It’s impossible to make progress, like some rationalists believed, by just sitting in chairs and thinking carefully. We have to become empirical. You can “look before leaping”, but you also have “look while leaping” and adjust how you land, to use a crude metaphor.
  • Cost-benefit analysis is a basic approach that is used in many organizations but doesn’t seem to be used as much in government agencies. It shouldn’t be controversial. Mandating cost-benefit analyses would be a step towards using ideas from the proactionary principle.
  • We should institutionalize the Devil’s Advocate procedure and institutionalize respectful disagreement. Instead of having the most powerful person in the room getting what they want railroaded through, we should require debate and motivate decision makers to ponder both sides. Other approaches could help, such as reference class forecasting, structured argumentation techniques, auditing procedures, and auditing review panels.
  • Reciprocity seems like a no-brainer that is relatively easy to achieve, and would greatly reduce costs.
  • Besides getting out these great ideas, we need to figure out how to get people to follow those ideas. Laws can help, but people can choose to not follow them. How do we put “bite” into laws? I think an annual audit on the FDA’s decision making would be a good idea. Importantly, the auditor’s report should be made public. The auditors should come from a variety of institutions, for instance a variety of think tanks from different sides of the political spectrum.

Gennady Stolyarov II:

  • The USTP agrees that abolishing the FDA should not be out of the question. In our Platform, Section CXVIII states:

Section CXVIII [Adopted by a vote of the members during March 25-28, 2020]: Given the extreme delays, bottlenecks, and expenses created by the mandatory approval processes on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the United States Transhumanist Party supports abolishing the FDA and replacing it with a Radical Life Extension Administration (RLEA), whose mandate would be to prioritize the rapid development of potential disease cures, treatments, and vaccines – including any possible cures or vaccines for COVID-19, as well as treatments to mitigate and reverse the disease of biological aging, the major risk factor for COVID-19. The RLEA would allow the marketing and collection of patient data on any potential cure, treatment, or vaccine which has passed affordable safety testing at a reasonably acceptable threshold.

Jim O’Neil:

  • I’ve had the pleasure of working with the FDA quite a bit, and in my experience most of the people there are very smart, and they actually believe in approving things, contrary to what it may look like from the outside.
  • The problem is that incentives matter, and the FDA is a central point of failure.
  • When someone has a severe side effect from a drug, the FDA Commissioner gets hauled in front of several Congressional Committees and is interrogated. When someone dies because something wasn’t approved, there’s total silence in Washington. We should blame Congress, not the FDA, for that incentive being in place.
  • Individuals respond to the institutional incentives, but they also have personal incentives. A lot of people want to be the next whistle-blower who finds the next thalidomide and calls a halt to it. Both of these are pretty severe and would affect even the most principled person in ways they couldn’t even detect.
  • I disagree with Alex that “FDA not recognizing aging as a disease is a major problem.” In order for the FDA to reasonably measure success of any therapy, there must be metrics and biomarkers. It’s not the FDA’s job to do all the scientific work to develop biomarkers for aging. That’s the job of the science community and the NIH to some extent. There are epigenetic clocks, but we need a lot more work on those. Those clocks can then be run through the FDA’s biomarker approval program.
  • The second thing I disagree with is Dan’s idea of making the FDA independent from HHS. I think that would make things worse.
  • My favorite approval ideas fall under the category of “progressive approval” or what Dan calls “tiered approval”. Contrary to what the FDA often thinks, doctors and patients are capable of processing information and making risk-benefit calculations using their knowledge about the specific situation they are in. The more information provided and the more transparency, the better. The FDA should focus back on their original mission of safety and purity. I absolutely support repealing the 1962 Kefauver-Harris Amendments.

Prof. Garett Jones:

  • I come at this as an macroeconomist. I think we can learn from what economists have learned about central banks around the world. The FDA should be as independent of congress and the president as central banks are or as judges are.
  • The Federal Reserve is a panel. That’s how we run the SEC, the FEC, the Federal Reserve, and the Supreme Court. There seems to be some magic to having a panel — it’s probably giving us a bit of the Law of Large Numbers in decision-making.
  • Another aspect of these panels is they have long terms. They are probably going to be serving under a few different Presidents. As I say in my book 10% Less Democracy, “short terms make short-term thinking”. Political independence can lead to decision-making independence, and we have evidence that’s a good thing.
  • Discussions in institutional reform have “high marginal product” right now, as an economist would say. Congress moves slowly, but Congresspersons tend to look for big opportunities for reform a couple years after a crisis. The Federal Reserve was established in 1913 but was born out of the Panic of 1907. Six years was how long it took between a huge financial crisis and Congress getting around to making some reforms. We saw something similar after the global financial crisis – it took about 2-3 years. The ideas that people are discussing now will be part of the information ecology of the next few years in Washington, D.C.
  • These ideas of long terms, independence, and panels are a good path for decision making. I am an unreformed Tabarrokian, so I agree with everything Alex Tabarrok has written about FDA reform (chuckle). What I want to push here is institutional reforms that seem to work in a wide variety of settings. A little more financial and legal independence will lead to a situation where Congress is less of a source of fear for FDA officials.
  • A lot of people on social media have told me that the President is in charge of the FDA. These people have never actually talked to anyone who worked on Capitol Hill — agencies live in fear of their Congressional overlords. They live in fear of the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House, who have power over their budgets. They also know that if they make a mistake, they can be hauled up before Congress and fired ignominiously.
  • There is a risk that a more independent agency may misuse its freedom. However, in practice, if we look at the data, independent agencies with long terms have high benefits and low costs.
  • It’s fun to complain about the FDA, but it’s wise to complain about Congress.

Dr. Ed Hudgins

  • We’ve been talking about how FDA regulators are always in fear of Congress. What I want to see are FDA regulators in fear of patients who want to get access to medications at less cost and quicker.
  • One of the most egregious examples of defining efficacy was when the FDA decided that 23andme could not offer advice on whether someone was prone to breast cancer. Essentially they thought that women were too stupid to understand the information and would rush out to get a double mastectomy without getting a second opinion.
  • Another example is in 1989-1990 when they wanted to classify a urine sample cup as a “class A medical device”, in the same category as a heart valve.
  • In April 2019, the FDA stated that it wants to regulate artificial intelligence as a medical device.
  • There are many consultants now, whose entire job is to help companies get through the FDA bureaucracy. So there’s a whole industry now just to help people get through the FDA — and that’s part of the problem now, too.
  • The “Free to Choose Medicine” idea should be at the top. Something like this was created around 1992 during AIDS crisis. Congress stepped in and put pressure on the FDA to do something. What they did was create a parallel track where sufferers could access a particular medication for AIDS during the three years it was being tested. 12,000 people took advantage of that, so there are 12,000 people who are not in the invisible graveyard as a result.
  • The idea of a parallel track has been put forward by Bart Madden. Data from people on that track would be put into a public real-world database.
  • There are alternatives to randomized controlled trials (RCTs). If observational data is put into a public database, then doctors can look at that data and make informed recommendations. Drugs would be able to fail quicker, too.
  • In the case of AIDS, it was patient groups that besieged the FDA’s buildings. In light of COVID-19, and people seeing that the system isn’t working for them, we have an opportunity now to push for change.
  • There’s momentum for FDA reform building off of the right-to-try legislation that has been passed in many states. In Texas and North Carolina there are strong pushes to broaden right-to-try to people like patients with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Will C.

  • The AIDS-FDA story is a little more nuanced than was described by Ed Hudgins and Max More. We all know about the militant groups like ACT-UP which pressured the FDA in the 1980s. However in the mid-1990s there developed a few counter-movements against that. One group was called Treatment Action Group, and they pressured the FDA to move slower because they felt the FDA was approving HIV/AIDS treatments that didn’t actually have much benefit.
  • A good book is Malignant by Vinay Prasad. It documents how, over the last twenty years or so, the FDA has lowered the standards for many cancer drugs. They often are approving drugs based on surrogate endpoints and biomarkers, and then the drugs don’t go through follow-up studies to show if they have actual clinical benefit. So there has been a natural experiment where we tried to lower the standards for cancer drugs, and it doesn’t seem to have worked very well. Of course, I’m not an economist, so there might be a way of adding up the costs and benefits where the marginal benefits have outweighed the costs.
  • The FDA had many failures during COVID-19. The first big one was with testing, both with the FDA and the CDC. Others were the decision to delay the approval of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (by about 4-6 weeks), and the decision not to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine, which hasn’t had any transparency. Finally, there was a complete lack of experimentation with human challenge trials. What all of these share is there has been very little transparency and not much good reporting on these issues. There have not been any thorough investigations from journalists, and we don’t really know what’s going on. Before attempting reform we need to first go and find out what went wrong during COVID-19. We need a non-partisan investigation of all of these issues. We need to utilize Freedom of Information Act requests. We need to find out how Trump was involved, why approvals took the amount of time they did, etc.

Dr. Natasha Vita-More

  • Cosmetics does not need FDA approval pre-marketing. It only needs post-market approval if the company says something in their marketing materials that could be misleading. There are many doctors pushing crack cosmetic treatments and behaving in a very “loosey goose-y”. I have a hard time understanding how they get away with these things, unless there are big-monied interests behind them.
  • We all know about Theranos. In 2015 they got FDA approval for one of their tests. There’s clearly an imbalance here – many life-saving treatments struggle to get approval, but a company which is completely fraudulent like Theranos was able to get approval. [My response: This is a great point! Theranos did receive approval, but only for their Herpes test. If I recall correctly, this test was done with conventional laboratory equipment rather then their special “minilab” device, a fact which Theranos hid from investors. Theranos also utilized a loophole to sell tests without FDA approval.]

Dan Elton, Ph. D., is Director of Scholarship for the U.S. Transhumanist Party.  You can find him on Twitter at @moreisdifferent, where he accepts direct messages. If you like his content, check out his website and subscribe to his newsletter on Substack. 

U.S. Transhumanist Party Vote on the Question of Endorsing Jennifer A. Huse for Mayor of Camden, New Jersey

U.S. Transhumanist Party Vote on the Question of Endorsing Jennifer A. Huse for Mayor of Camden, New Jersey

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The U.S. Transhumanist Party will hold an electronic vote of the membership for a seven-day period ending on 6:01 p.m. U.S. Pacific Time on Friday, April 30, 2020, on the question of whether to endorse Jennifer A. Huse, who is running as an independent candidate for Mayor of Camden, New Jersey, in 2021.

Registered U.S. Transhumanist Party members as of 12:01 a.m. U.S. Pacific Time on Friday, April 23, 2020, would be able to cast their ballots on this question and will be sent their ballots via e-mail.

See Jennifer Huse’s campaign page here.

Watch the U.S. Transhumanist Party Officers’ interview of Jennifer A. Huse, conducted on February 15, 2021, by U.S. Transhumanist Party Chairman Gennady Stolyarov II, Director of Applied Innovation David Shumaker, and Director of Energy Issues John Kerecz.

Highlights from Ms. Huse’s campaign website include the following (see additional issues here):

Healthy Life Extension Initiatives for All

We aim through a variety of initiatives, combined with human health services and biological sciences, to bring Camden to the top quality of health known to us at this time and to continue to progress in every possible endeavor to bring our citizens the highest and longest length of life in the world. We will explore every possible avenue through collaboration with leaders in health industries from around the country and world together with all of our valued Camden health professionals and researchers to work on this as a top priority.

We seek to provide the people of Camden with access to information, medicines, technology, and research as each develops. This includes offering transparency in health-related and all of our initiatives through new communication technologies and expansion of existing communication technologies for all people.

We aim to provide the community of Camden with the highest quality of water in the world. We firmly believe that water is life and essential to all persons’ quality of life and the quality of life of the planet itself. We will immediately undertake every possible opportunity to deliver top-quality water to all people of Camden.

We aim to collaborate with the small business owners of Camden to deliver an abundance of nutritious food to the community of Camden through Vertical Farming and other initiatives.

Please see our Food for All Initiative.

We aim to provide quality, nutritious food for the people of Camden through any initiatives we can possibly secure and in collaboration with experts from around the country and world. We aim to provide opportunities to our valuable industrial partners to participate in these efforts in order to bring them to the forefront of their industries and enhance all of our health and wellbeing.

Our administration values the health, wellbeing, and abundance for all of the people of Camden above all other things. We consider quality of life to be an essential and equal part of life extension.

One of our most immediate concerns has to do with Housing for All.

Every day that someone is without safe and secure housing, they are at risk of unnecessary sickness and death. We feel that without this basic need, the people of Camden are placed under unnecessary suffering and stress. We wish to explore every avenue to solve this issue entirely and permanently for all the people of Camden.

See our Housing for All Initiative.

We aim to help all households feel secure by having all of their utilities consistently connected so fear and stress do not cause detriment to their quality of life. We will explore all possible aid and programs throughout the entirety of our administration to make sure none of the households in Camden go without basic needs such as working utilities.

  • Parallel in U.S. Transhumanist Party Values and Platform:  The United States Transhumanist Party supports concerted research in effort to eradicate disease and illness that wreak havoc upon and cause 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. [Article VI, Section V]

Ending The War on Drugs

The War on Drugs has repeatedly been proven to be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of people around the world. Our administration aims to work together with our local law enforcement to continue ending The War on Drugs locally in Camden, NJ. For years, our police have worked to help make Camden safer and more prosperous. We look to encourage and promote this loving, respectful, and effective way of policing throughout our beautiful city.

We look to continue exploring every possible avenue in regard to full decriminalization and legalization of all drugs found to be beneficial to human systems. We support the right to try any medication that may be able to improve the pain and suffering a person is experiencing within their own body.

We no longer want anyone to live in fear of arrest, detention, hefty legal and other fees, loss of time with loved ones, lowered quality of life, etc., simply for the choice of medicine they wish to put into their own bodies.

We no longer want persons that wish to work in industries that supply medicines to live in fear of arrest, detention, hefty legal and other fees, loss of time with loved ones, lowered quality of life, etc., or have to risk inferior medicines because of restricted access.

We wish all persons that may have been hurt by the war on drugs to be able to work in the legal industries through training incentives and employment opportunities.

We wish to expunge as many nonviolent drug charges as possible and will seek to help to the extent of our local powers in all areas. This is already being done in cities all over the country, and we will pursue all possible avenues to accomplish this. We aim to work together with others by looking into any other cases where persons from Camden may need assistance in regard to legal matters.

  • Parallel in U.S. Transhumanist Party Values and Platform:  Section XIV [Adopted by a vote of the members during March 26 – April 1, 2017]: The United States Transhumanist Party supports an end to the costly drug war, which is often an infringement upon the lives and liberties of innocent citizens who do not use drugs but fall victim to militant enforcement of drug prohibitions. The United States Transhumanist Party supports legalization of mild recreational drugs such as marijuana.

Participatory Governance

Our administration works for you! We would like for each and every one of the people of Camden to present us with any issues that you would like to see strategic solutions applied to. Upon being elected, we will put in as many avenues as possible for our valued residents to be able to present and possibly work on solving issues together along with our administration.

We aim to be as accessible as possible to all of the people of Camden, viewing each and every one of you and the quality of your health and life as our most important priority. We look to make sure that everyone has internet capabilities. We will seek to provide each person with online access through their home or by ensuring they have smartphone technologies available to them. Through new newsletter and paperless electronic alert systems, we will be able to inform all of the people of Camden of new grants, employment opportunities, health advances, and more. This will enable all people to be informed of our continued progress in our city.

We aim to achieve competence in all decision making together with maximum courtesy and empathy to ALL persons. We intend to initiate systems to allow for all of the people of Camden to be able to speak their concerns about the issues they and the city are facing. This will be set up through a variety of options including new contact methods in many departments, appointment scheduling, and problem-solving-related events. We are also interested in any persons who wish to help work on the issues themselves or may have ideas on how to improve the issues important to them.

  • Parallel in U.S. Transhumanist Party Values and Platform:  Section XIII [Adopted by a vote of the members during March 26 – April 1, 2017]: The United States Transhumanist Party supports the involvement of intelligent laypersons in the political process to counteract and neutralize the influence of politically connected special interests and their paid representatives. The United States Transhumanist Party supports all electronic and other technologies that can inform and empower intelligent laypersons to monitor and contribute to political discussions and decisions.

Education for All

Our administration seeks to develop, together with our existing educational systems and the Center for Scientific Solutions, a path for all interested people of Camden to obtain education for as long as they wish to pursue it.

We also look to bring in the most progressive education system reforms and support for students and educators possible.

Our administration looks to work together with our valued Department of Education and educators to develop all of Camden’s educational systems together with experts from around the country and allies from around the world in every subject and field.

For more information on our Center for Scientific Solutions, click here.

  • Parallel in U.S. Transhumanist Party Values and Platform:  Section XII [Adopted by a vote of the members during March 26 – April 1, 2017]: The United States Transhumanist Party holds that present and future societies should provide education systems accessible and available to all in pursuit of factual knowledge to increase intellectual acuity; promote critical thinking and logic; foster creativity; form an enlightened collective; attain health; secure the bounty of liberty for all sentient entities for our posterity; and forge new ideas, meanings, and values.The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to reduce the cost of education while improving its access. In particular, the United States Transhumanist Party supports freely available, open-source, methods of learning, teaching, credentialing, and cultural creation that integrate emerging technologies into every facet of the learning process. The United States Transhumanist Party primarily advocates private innovation to deliver such educational improvements, but also advocates the application of these improvements to all publicly funded educational institutions. The United States Transhumanist Party holds that every person should aspire toward intellectual, moral, and esthetic enlightenment and sophistication and should contribute toward bringing about a new Age of Reason, where the highest reaches of intellectual activity are attainable and eagerly pursued by the majority of the population.

The Center for Scientific Solutions

The future of Camden…The future of the World!

We aim for collaboration in this endeavor with award-winning city and community designers. It is one of our goals to offer new disaster-resistant residences and other designs to protect against extreme weather conditions. We will obtain opportunities by reaching out to every grant provider and organization available to develop the most advanced technological systems worldwide.

We aim to become prime examples of accessible displays of water, sewer, and electrical systems. We look to advance Camden’s air, soil, and water to optimal levels. Furthermore, we aim to create advanced school curriculum designs.

In collaboration with partners from around the world, we will test and advance solutions for improving our current social systems and introducing new technological solutions. The Center for Scientific Solutions will create an evolving social blueprint upon which we will work on all feasible and beneficial scientific solutions to the issues our city faces, while developing technologies that can also be used for other parts of the Nation and World. Our administration will work hand in hand together with the Center for Scientific Solutions to bring the highest quality of life to all residents of Camden and to serve as an example and innovator of progress throughout the nation and the world.

  • Parallel in U.S. Transhumanist Party Values and Platform:  Section IX [Adopted by a vote of the members during February 16-22, 2017]: The United States Transhumanist Party supports all emerging technologies that have the potential to improve the human condition – including but not limited to autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, economical solar power, safe nuclear power, hydroelectricity, geothermal power, applications for the sharing of durable goods, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics, rapid transit, 3D printing, vertical farming, electronic devices to detect and respond to trauma, and beneficial genetic modification of plants, animals, and human beings.
U.S. Transhumanist Party Condemns Egregious and Intentional Misinformation from Biohackinfo and Nick Sobriquet

U.S. Transhumanist Party Condemns Egregious and Intentional Misinformation from Biohackinfo and Nick Sobriquet

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October 22, 2019 – The United States Transhumanist Party / Transhuman Party (USTP) unequivocally condemns the false, invented, and malicious allegations contained in two recent articles – one by the pseudonymous authors Glyph and CyphR on the yellow-journalism “Biohackinfo” website, and another by the pseudonymous Nick Sobriquet, published in the Trigger Warning magazine edited by Rachel Haywire. These articles are part of a deliberate, coordinated attack on the transhumanist movement and the many decent, distinguished, accomplished, and benevolent people working within it. These articles also contain numerous outright lies and other half-truths and cherry-picked facts distorted beyond recognition. The USTP is of the view that the authors of these articles are well-aware that they are lying and are using the lies in order to sow chaos and exact vengeance for their side’s loss in the recent USTP Electronic Primary. These tactics – precisely the ones which led these detractors’ side to lose in the Electronic Primary – are despicable, unconscionable, and immoral. They must be exposed and called out as such wherever they are encountered. Furthermore, the content of the Biohackinfo and Sobriquet articles is libelous and defamatory. While the USTP does not consider it worthwhile to initiate legal action in response to these libels (at this time and barring further provocation), the USTP instead endeavors to bring the actual facts of relevant matters to light – for, echoing the words of Justice Louis Brandeis, sunlight is the best of disinfectants, and transparency on the part of the USTP is hoped to thwart the proliferation of the falsehoods spread by Biohackinfo and Sobriquet.

The USTP is the largest transhumanist political organization in the world – a non-monetary organization staffed entirely by volunteers and devoted to advocacy of emerging technologies, life extension, and rationality. Those who are interested in what the USTP actually stands for, can readily find out by consulting our Values, Platform, Transhumanist Bill of Rights, and FAQ.

The USTP Electronic Primary, which concluded on September 30, 2019, was the most open and transparent election known to USTP leadership. Extensive vote results were published on October 1, 2019, confirming Johannon Ben Zion’s victory in the election, including a PDF file illustrating the breakdown of the votes received for each ranking of each candidate, the instant-runoff process, and the validation of the accuracy of the calculations through the independent, open-source Instant-Runoff Voting Tool. A spreadsheet of all individual (anonymized) votes was also published, containing all of the calculations performed in connection with every single vote as part of each round of instant runoffs. Any person who voted in the primary may request that the USTP leadership provide that person with his/her/its randomly assigned Voter ID, using which that person could confirm the presence of his/her/its vote among the published results. During the election, all votes that were submitted electronically were manually validated by USTP leadership (the Chairman, overseen by four USTP Officers – the only individuals to ever have access to the names and e-mail addresses of the individuals who voted) to ensure that the votes originated from registered USTP members. Apart from several instances of unintentionally cast duplicate votes, which were discarded, there were no observed irregularities during the voting process. No candidate or side in this election perpetrated any manner of fraud, falsification, or attempts to enlist non-members to vote.

Unfortunately, Rachel Haywire, who did not win the election by any set of rules (ranked-preference, Condorcet, plurality), and, rather, finished in second place, did not accept defeat gracefully. Her responses and those of some of her supporters, rather, have been contrary to the expectations to which candidates specifically agreed in their Declaration of Interest forms when putting themselves forward for candidacy. These expectations included the following:

(6) The candidate must agree to participate in the USTP Endorsement and Electronic Primary process as set forth herein and to respect the outcome of that process, no matter whether or not the candidate is ultimately endorsed to run for the office of President of the United States.

(9) The candidate must agree to work collaboratively with the USTP during the campaign season and not to disparage the USTP as well as not to work contrary to the interests and goals of the USTP during that time.

Instead, certain supporters of former Candidate Haywire, including Sobriquet and the Biohackinfo authors, have decided to take it upon themselves to conduct a follow-on campaign of dishonesty and sensationalism, and gather their band of few followers to viciously attack the USTP in an undignified manner through yellow journalism and toxic lies.

USTP Secretary Pavel Ilin expressed a commonly held sentiment among the USTP members when he stated, “I love transgressive arts as a form of protest against oppression. But, as with any tool, there are appropriate uses of that tool. Creating chaos is good to resist totalitarian regimes, but it’s not productive when you have a voice and can play on a common cultural field along with other players. During the recent primary election, Rachel Haywire had access to all communication channels on the same terms as every single candidate. If you lost, you lost, you can be unhappy with that, but this is objective reality. Accusing people around without presenting any evidence will not help restoring any sort of justice. I against othering of anyone but I would like to call Rachel Haywire to seek a communication channel and form which will not push people away from her and will not hurt public image of transhumanism.”

The allegations in the Biohackinfo and Sobriquet articles are based on several “big lies” which were invented by the purveyors of the allegations and spread by means of a small circle of supporters of the Haywire campaign citing one another, thereby creating the appearance (but only a flimsy appearance) of a diversity of sources, which all stemmed from the same origin.

One big lie – which the USTP deplores and repudiates in full – is any assertion of a connection with convicted criminal, eugenicist, and suicidist Jeffrey Epstein, a man whose behavior in life and in death showed him to be the antithesis of a transhumanist and whom the USTP condemned unequivocally on August 5, 2019, while not even having been aware of Epstein’s existence prior to revelations of his misconduct by major media outlets. Allegations of Epstein’s connections to transhumanism were contrived by sensation-seeking journalists and spread by conspiracy-theorists seeking to undermine the image and reputation of transhumanism. Of course, the USTP leadership expressed staunch opposition to this hostile ploy and would not countenance it among USTP members or candidates. Associating transhumanism with Epstein unjustly and cynically smears the names of thousands of innocent, hard-working, innovative individuals who likewise deplore Epstein’s crimes.

While Epstein may have donated $100,000 to the Humanity+ organization – which is entirely distinct from the USTP – around 2011 (long before the USTP existed), there is absolutely no evidence of any continued or subsequent involvement of Epstein with any transhumanist organization, including Humanity+. Furthermore, on August 4, 2019, Humanity+ issued a statement which explained that Epstein’s donation had long ago been spent on AI research that “is diametrically opposed to the exploitative and abusive behaviors of Mr. Epstein that were recently revealed in the news. At the time [Humanity+] accepted this donation, Humanity+ had no knowledge of Mr. Epstein’s horrific alleged criminal activity, and we strongly condemn it.” While the USTP will let Humanity+ speak for itself on this matter, the above-quoted statement does not suggest any malfeasance, and no evidence has surfaced to the contrary since that statement was made. The Biohackinfo article is intentionally misleading in using statements such as that “The New York Times revealed that Humanity Plus, a transhumanist organization ran by Max More and his wife Natasha Vita-More, was so deep with Epstein that he was paying the salaries of some of its members, including its Vice-Chairman Ben Goertzel.” The only person known to have had his salary paid by Epstein was Ben Goertzel – and even this occurred without any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. Yet by using the phrasing “some of its members, including […] Goertzel”, the Biohackinfo article intentionally impugns Max More and Natasha Vita-More by association, despite an absolute lack of evidence of any specific connection between them as individuals and Epstein. The USTP condemns this underhanded manner of aspersion against individuals without evidence. Similar despicable rhetorical tactics are found throughout the Biohackinfo article.

Another big lie is the assertion USTP’s decision on August 6, 2019, to postpone the Electronic Primary from August 10 to September 22 was somehow influenced by another organization or its leadership, or intended to derail the prospects of a particular candidate. Nothing could be further from the truth. The decision to extend the primary season and allow new candidates to announce themselves was made by USTP Chairman Gennady Stolyarov II after close consultation with the USTP Officers. All candidates, and all representatives of external organizations, were surprised by the decision’s announcement. The extension of the primary was motivated by the recognition that the chaos sown on social media by those who spread malicious and unsubstantiated allegations about an Epstein-transhumanism connection, made it physically impossible to prepare the ballots in time for August 10, while much of the USTP leadership’s time and attention was diverted toward policing various interactions among candidates and their supporters to prevent a degeneration into pandemonium. The primary was extended because those spreading false allegations created an environment that made it impossible for an orderly, rational vote to take place. As the USTP announcement on August 6, 2019, explained, “Because of this focus on crisis response, our limited resources are strained at this time, and thorough preparations for the election will take a longer time period.” Furthermore, USTP leadership recognized that “This is a time period when tempers are hot, a situation which is uniquely unsuited to thoughtful political decision-making. It is necessary to allow time for tempers to cool and for thoughtful analysis to occur on all sides regarding the candidates, their positions on the issues, and how the ideas of transhumanism could best be advocated for during the 2020 election cycle.” USTP leadership vowed that “The requisite civility needs to be restored to this primary election season, and, accordingly, the USTP leadership will work closely with the candidates to do so. The tone of this primary election season will be reset to align with the USTP’s values of thoughtful, rational, ethical, and policy-focused discourse.” The introduction of new candidates to the process was motivated by the USTP responding to concerns from many of its members, who did not perceive any of the original three candidates with enthusiasm and who sought other options. Notwithstanding, the introduction of new candidates did not undermine the prospects of the original three candidates, who were the only candidates remaining after Round 7 of the instant-runoff process.

The Biohackinfo article erroneously alleges that “The decision to allow more candidates to run was even more Machiavellian, as it split the votes.” This allegation is based on a complete misunderstanding of the ranked-preference voting system, where “vote-splitting” is not a consequential phenomenon, since a voter is asked – and in the USTP Electronic Primary, required – to rank-order all of the choices. After several of Rachel Haywire’s supporters declared their candidacies (an entirely optional action on their part, and one supported by Rachel Haywire), a voter who genuinely preferred those candidates could simply rank Rachel Haywire immediately below them – so that if/when those candidates were eliminated in instant runoffs, a vote for any of those candidates would subsequently be reallocated to Rachel Haywire. As the USTP leadership repeatedly explained on its website, social media, and e-mail communications pertaining to the election, “ranked-preference voting eliminates the incentives for tactical / strategic voting. By rank-ordering all options, you can comfortably put your genuine first choice first, no matter how other people are likely to vote. You are strongly encouraged to vote your conscience and give us your genuine preference order. This will maximize the probability of an outcome that you will find reasonable.” The Biohackinfo authors deliberately ignored this basic fact about how ranked-preference voting worked in order to contrive their “vote-splitting” allegation.

To support their bizarre allegation that the USTP had become “controlled” by Humanity+, the Biohackinfo authors stated that “Natasha Vita-More and others at Humanity Plus had started interfering with the primaries by endorsing BenZion”. A reasonable person will fail to understand how endorsing a candidate – which is any individual’s right in an election – would constitute interference. Natasha Vita-More and several other persons in leadership positions at Humanity+ also happen to be voting members of the USTP, independently of their roles at Humanity+. Endorsing and voting for candidates is their right as USTP members and would be entirely within the rules of any free and open voting system. No officer of Humanity+ had any privileged access to the USTP Electronic Primary results or any ability to alter or manipulate them. Only the USTP Chairman and four USTP Officers had the ability to view the names and e-mail addresses of individuals who cast votes.

Dinorah Delfin, the USTP Director of Admissions and Public Relations, explained that “Allegations about the USTP being under Humanity+ management are false and misleading – these are two different and separate organizations. I have volunteered for the USTP and its management team for almost two years. Fellow USTP Officers and I communicate extensively to make decisions about our initiatives and course of action, which also includes establishing strong bonds with any Transhumanist organization focused on educating and forwarding our shared cause of making accessible to everyone life extension and other transhumanist technologies. Allegations of conspiracy and foul play are not only false, but also undermine all of our efforts to make Transhumanism accessible for people even in the most remote areas of the world who are seeking for ways to regain hope in humanity and in our ability to help the world become a better place for all. Transhumanism is about improving the human condition, and while these false allegations show the worst of human nature, they also represent an opportunity to gain new insights and perspectives towards more conscientious self-actualization.”

When faced with countless lies, the best defense is to provide evidence for the truth.  No, there were no “paper-thin Facebook accounts from Bangladesh” (the USTP has a well-established application and verification process, and this process has been documented not just on social media, but also on the USTP website). Indeed, the USTP only has four members from Bangladesh, and only one of those members – a frequent poster on the Transhumanist Party Facebook group and a loyal and valued member of the USTP – voted in this election. Aspersions that there were “bought votes for [Candidate Ben Zion] from Bangladesh” are not only false – but they also smack of racist and nativist prejudice. The truth is that the sole USTP member from Bangladesh who voted annoyed Rachel Haywire and some of her supporters because of his imperfect English and the techno-optimist flavor of his posts, and therefore Rachel Haywire and her supporters invented the assertion that votes from Bangladesh were purchased. In fact, no money changed hands among any candidates and their supporters during the course of this election.

There were no “countless polls” that indicated a Haywire lead. Rather, there was just one completely informal, unscientific Facebook poll, not sanctioned by USTP leadership, which was initiated as a curiosity by former Candidate Kimberly Forsythe, who herself later removed the poll after realizing the potential of such polls to be gamed and to provide misleading information. Rachel Haywire and her supporters spread the poll amongst their circles and stacked the poll in their favor – even though a Facebook poll has no means to prevent non-members from voting, and thus many of the approximately 41 votes cast for Haywire in that poll were from friends of Haywire who were not members of the USTP. Those who allege that the poll had any manner of significance fail to understand that the vast majority of the USTP membership did not follow day-to-day developments on Facebook and thus had no awareness of the poll. Furthermore, Rachel Haywire garnered 72 actual votes during the election, which was greater than her count in the poll – but her base of support primarily revolved around her Facebook circles, while other candidates were able to attract support from a broader base of individuals, many of whom do not necessarily spend significant amounts of time on social media. Regardless, the unscientific and subsequently removed poll played no role in any subsequent actions by the USTP leadership, which would have been the same had there been no poll, or had the poll displayed different counts.

Furthermore, contrary to allegations in the Sobriquet and Biohackinfo articles, there was no “Chosen One” (in fact, the USTP had reprimanded several candidates publicly for policy violations, including the candidate who eventually won), and the results were posted publicly for everyone to see, along with the objective metrics and scientific process used to conduct the entire voting campaign.

The Biohackinfo article decisively undermines its credibility when it asserts that Johannon Ben Zion was “ordained” “[a]t an unknown “transhumanist” festival that is a bland, blatant rip off of Haywire’s Extreme Futurist Fest”. That festival is RAADfest – the premier festival for supporters of life extension and world-class scientists to meet, share ideas, meet with tens of journalists and documentary filmmakers, and deliver presentations which subsequently enjoy worldwide reach. At the 2019 RAADfest in Las Vegas, Nevada, renowned speakers such as Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Dr. Bill Andrews, Liz Parrish, Dr. Jose Cordeiro, Dr. Ray Kurzweil, Dr. Sandra Kaufmann, Dr. Gregory Fahy, and tens of other world-class scientists, doctors, and advocates communicated with over a thousand attendees – and the many recordings of their remarks will reach hundreds of thousands more. Disparaging RAADfest as an “unknown transhumanist festival” is so misguided as to be ludicrous; indeed, this is the reason why the Biohackinfo authors did not mention it by name. Had they mentioned it, their article would have immediately been recognized as a disingenuous hack job by anyone who knows anything about transhumanism and life extension. Those who would like to view Johannon Ben Zion’s acceptance speech at RAADfest – which was seen live by over one thousand attendees and was met with a standing ovation – may do so here. (A further, professionally produced version of the recording is also forthcoming.)

By making wild and unsubstantiated claims and engaging in extraordinary leaps in logic, making repeated false accusations, engaging in character assassinations, and insulting and alienating a large number of USTP Officers, members, and potential members, while attempting to throw the entire organization into disrepute, Rachel Haywire and some of her supporters provoked so much ill will and aversion, that a large number of people – 57 out of 312 voters – ranked Rachel Haywire in absolute last place (below the “None of the Above” option). This was the downfall Sobriquet mentions in his article – a downfall brought upon by vicious, delusional, and irrational behavior that was completely devoid of reality and dignity, and which alienated Haywire and her followers from significant constituencies among the USTP membership.

The idea that the Transhumanist Party, a private organization run entirely by volunteers, and which has no assets, no income, and no method for accepting donations, is an “elite cabal” or “beholden to the global mega-rich” is not only completely false, but is an insult to the hard-working men and women who have donated countless hours of their personal time to advocate for goals such as curing disease and alleviating poverty, at great personal expense and opportunity cost. It is deeply reprehensible for Sobriquet to allege that “Beneath the surface of this movement lay a viper’s nest of ego, scandal, and filthy stinking money” – when absolutely no money was involved in the USTP election.

Sobriquet then alleges that “purges” began as soon as allegations about Epstein “came out”. In fact, there were no purges – just the expulsion of three repeat troublemakers who were former members of the USTP, as well as several other non-USTP members who had been added to the Transhumanist Party Facebook group by Rachel Haywire and her supporters due to a since-fixed error in the moderation settings. One of the banned individuals was a deranged troll who alternately went by the names Dominique Davis and Sebastian Lenoir, and who began harassing USTP members and Officers with completely unfounded and contrived allegations of despicable Epstein-like behaviors. On August 21, 2019, USTP Chairman Stolyarov made an announcement of the banning of Davis/Lenoir, which included the following remark:

I am convinced at this point that anyone alleging that the despicable behaviors of Jeffrey Epstein have any parallel in the transhumanist movement is making such allegations out of malice. Accordingly, I declare a zero-tolerance policy toward such allegations within this group. Any person making an allegation of pedophilia against a member of the USTP will be instantly banned from this group and from the U.S. Transhumanist Party. Such allegations are false, and those making them know them to be false. Moreover, any sensible person knows them to be false. False and malicious allegations are contrary to the USTP’s Community Guidelines and to the Constitution of the U.S. Transhumanist Party. Moreover, they are civil offenses under United States law.

There is only one possible intention of those who make allegations of pedophilia against innocent individuals – and that is to tarnish those individuals’ reputations out of spite and a desire to destroy. It is not only proper to ban those who seek to do so – it is absolutely necessary to preserve decency and civilized order and prevent the ruination of innocent lives.

Another individual who had been banned from the U.S. Transhumanist Party was Nick Sobriquet himself, but not until he had engaged in concerted trolling for a month. When the USTP extended its time window for candidates to declare themselves, Sobriquet – a citizen of the United Kingdom and ineligible for the Presidency of the United States – applied as a “National Bolshevist” candidate, espousing authoritarian and totalitarian views inimical to transhumanism. On August 13, 2019, after

the USTP leadership rejected his farcical “candidacy” based on its ineligibility and incompatibility with the USTP’s values, Sobriquet made a post which included a meme depicting angry, armed skeletons, a sickle-and-hammer flag with a design evocative of the Nazi flag, and the words “NAZBOL GANG ASSEMBLE” – clearly, everything that transhumanism is not. Throughout August and early September 2019, Sobriquet continued to post hostile memes of the “Nazbol” and “Trazbol” (Sobriquet’s invented “Transhuman Bolshevism”) varieties. Per the USTP leadership’s understanding, Sobriquet is not an actual national socialist but was rather, in a trollish fashion, using memes and tactics he knew to be antithetical to transhumanism in order to disrupt and undermine the discourse within the Transhumanist Party Facebook group. Nonetheless, he was tolerated for a long time with only written warnings and moderation of his posts.

The last straw regarding Sobriquet’s behavior came after the USTP leadership issued a formal warning to Rachel Haywire on September 6, 2019 – also for spreading various false allegations (documented in the warning). In the subsequent discussion thread, Sobriquet falsely accused the USTP leadership of being in the “pocket” of nefarious “interests” – even though, as was subsequently again pointed out to Sobriquet, the USTP is a non-monetary organization and is not influenced by money in making its decisions. Despite this, Sobriquet continued to impugn the integrity of USTP leadership by making accusations of “sinister behavior” and stating, absolutely without evidence, that “There are many ways in which a man can be bought and sold. Non-monetary organisation or not.” Sobriquet was specifically warned that casting these unsubstantiated and insulting aspersions would lead to his expulsion, but immediately afterward, he asserted that the USTP Chairman had no integrity – at which time Sobriquet was indeed banned – not because of that isolated statement, but because of the accumulation of hostile activities and unjustified aspersions that preceded it and were pushed by it over the edge of acceptability. After the conclusion of the election, Chairman Stolyarov specifically offered Sobriquet the option to rejoin the USTP, after Sobriquet made a post which suggested that he might accept the election results with grace. Sobriquet, however, politely declined – a decision which the USTP respected. It is unfortunate, however, that Sobriquet departed from his temporarily more high-minded tone by authoring an article filled with cynical and egregious libels.

Yet another individual banned from the USTP was Michael Lorrey, a former member who erroneously but insistently accused the USTP of violating federal law, even though the USTP was not conducting a federal election. As Chairman Stolyarov expressed, “There are, at this stage, no candidates running for federal office that have been endorsed by the USTP. This is a purely internal, advisory vote of a private organization, bound solely by that organization’s rules.” Yet Michael Lorrey, out of a misguided extreme nationalism, demanded that the USTP disenfranchise all of its Allied Members or else face a complaint from Lorrey to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). It was the threat of an FEC complaint, which would be a hostile legal action, which led Lorrey to be banned, since an individual demonstrating the intent to take hostile legal action against the USTP thereby places himself in opposition to and thus outside of the USTP. The USTP’s policy of allowing Allied Members to vote in the USTP’s internal elections had been contained in Article II, Section VIII, since November 2016, and had been prominently publicized since that time (including on the USTP’s Membership Application Form) such that Lorrey should have been aware of it from the onset of his membership. It is clear that Lorrey – who made the demand that the USTP verify voters’ citizenship using a blockchain – a completely impractical and extremely resource-intensive task for a relatively small, non-monetary organization, and furthermore a demand that would expose many individuals’ sensitive private information to an immutable presence on a blockchain – simply sought to derail the election altogether through his demand and threat. Lorrey’s threat was particularly malicious and frivolous in light of the fact that the FEC itself acknowledges on its own website that U.S. Supreme Court precedent in the case of Bluman v. FEC (2011-2012) supports the legality of the USTP’s approach toward Allied Membership – given that the USTP’s Allied Members do not contribute any money to the USTP or to any candidate but rather only offer their volunteer services in the form of advisory voting and other input of ideas:

Generally, an individual (including a foreign national) may volunteer personal services to a federal candidate or federal political committee without making a contribution. The Act provides this volunteer “exemption” as long as the individual performing the service is not compensated by anyone.  […]

In a decision that was later affirmed by the Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the foreign national ban “does not restrain foreign nationals from speaking out about issues or spending money to advocate their views about issues. It restrains them only from a certain form of expressive activity closely tied to the voting process—providing money for a candidate or political party or spending money in order to expressly advocate for or against the election of a candidate.” Bluman v. FEC, 800 F. Supp. 2d 281, 290 (D.D.C. 2011), aff’d 132 S. Ct. 1087 (2012).

At no point was any individual banned from the USTP for merely discussing a subject, offering a civil opinion, or disagreeing with the USTP leadership on an idea or course of action. All banned individuals engaged in some combination of wildly false allegations, threats of hostility, unrestrained name-calling, trolling, and denunciations of the USTP as a whole.

Sadly, with the sort of behavior Nick Sobriquet, the Biohackinfo authors, and their ilk have been demonstrating, it would be difficult for them to call themselves transhumanist, because not only are they not interested in improving the human condition (their actions to date have resulted in much harm, rather than benefit), but also because their words and actions represent some of the egregious human failings that transhumanism endeavors to overcome. In fact, to call them transhumanist would be to call coal a clean form of energy, or to suggest that lions are herbivores, or to say that tabloid journalism (precisely what Sobriquet and Biohackinfo have engaged in) is a form of art.

Furthermore, Sobriquet errs in asserting that “There was no constitution, no checks and balances, and no mandate.” The USTP Constitution can be found here for all to see, and the checks and balances and mandate stem from the same fair, transparent, democratic election process which the likes of Nick Sobriquet and the Biohackinfo authors seek to disparage and undermine. Yet, in spite of these aspersions, the USTP succeeded in carrying out its 2019 Electronic Primary election and endorsed a candidate in accord with the decision of the majority of our members.

As Arin Vahanian, USTP Director of Marketing, noted, “We are the thoughts we have, the beliefs we hold, the words we speak, the actions we conduct, and to a large extent, the way we treat other people, especially the needy. A faction of detractors has shown a callous and blatant disregard for the truth, and through toxic, irrational, and belligerent behavior, insulted countless people and unfortunately damaged the transhumanist movement in the eyes of the general public. We must rise above this manufactured chaos and show that we stand for more than this. We stand for goals such as curing disease, improving the human condition, and making the world a better, safer, kinder place for all humans, and not just a select few.”

Sobriquet is correct when he states that people should be better. He, the Biohackinfo authors, and Rachel Haywire should start by denouncing propaganda, chaos, libel, and slander, and then by apologizing for the reprehensible aspersions they have cast against innocent and decent human beings who earnestly desire and work toward a better world.

“No, there is no ‘filthy stinking money’, as Sobriquet suggests, but there is filthy stinking behavior perpetrated by a few individuals whose very goal is pandemonium and plunging the entire movement into chaos and ignominy,” remarked Vahanian. “This is an outcome that no genuine transhumanist will stand for. We call upon our community to remain focused on our goal of improving the human condition, through acts of kindness and benevolence and through a dedication to science, technology, and the arts, as we move toward the betterment of humanity.”

Do not believe malicious lies from disreputable sources. Look around this website, and find out for yourself what the U.S. Transhumanist Party / Transhuman Party actually stands for. If you like what you see, join us for free here. 

Transhumanist Ideas for Reforming Political Processes and Improving Government Accountability – Presentation by Gennady Stolyarov II

Transhumanist Ideas for Reforming Political Processes and Improving Government Accountability – Presentation by Gennady Stolyarov II

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Gennady Stolyarov II

On February 13, 2019, Gennady Stolyarov II, Chairman of the U.S. Transhumanist Party / Transhuman Party, spoke to the Young Americans for Liberty Chapter at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in a wide-ranging discussion on the intersection of technology and politics and the types of reforms that could pave the way to the new technological era of major progress and radical abundance. Watch Mr. Stolyarov’s presentation on YouTube here.

Mr. Stolyarov discussed policy positions from the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform, such as support for ranked-preference voting, greatly lowered ballot-access thresholds, simultaneous nationwide primaries, shorter campaign seasons, AI-assisted redistricting, germaneness rules for legislation, minimum consideration timeframes for amendments, and the general desirable shift in the balance away from special-interest lobbies and toward intelligent laypersons.

See Mr. Stolyarov’s presentation slides here.

Become a member of the U.S. Transhumanist Party for free, no matter where you reside. Apply here in less than a minute.

Watch Mr. Stolyarov’s interview of Ray Kurzweil at RAAD Fest 2018.

Watch the presentation by Gennady Stolyarov II at RAAD Fest 2018, entitled, “The U.S. Transhumanist Party: Four Years of Advocating for the Future”.

Fifth Enlightenment Salon – Discussions on Longevity, Gene Therapy, Overcoming Disabilities, Animal Lifespans, Education, and Privacy

Fifth Enlightenment Salon – Discussions on Longevity, Gene Therapy, Overcoming Disabilities, Animal Lifespans, Education, and Privacy

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Gennady Stolyarov II
Bill Andrews
James Kohagen
Bobby Ridge
John Murrieta

On October 13, 2018, in the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment and its furtherance today, Gennady Stolyarov II, Bill Andrews, James Kohagen, Bobby Ridge, and John Murrieta met for the fifth interdisciplinary discussion – hosted by Mr. Stolyarov – on science, culture, education, advocacy, and policy. Subjects discussed included the following:

– The recent RAAD Fest 2018 in San Diego
– Developments in the field of gene therapy
– Advances in epidural stimulation for treating and overcoming spinal-cord injuries
– Long-lived organisms and their similarities and dissimilarities to humans
– How animal experiments can become more humane
– How contemporary science still has far to go to accumulate even fairly basic information about certain organisms
– How the study of lifespans can be included in educational curricula starting at early childhood
– Whether privacy will remain in a more technologically interconnected future.

Join the U.S. Transhumanist Party for free, no matter where you reside by filling out an application form that takes less than a minute.

Find out about Death is Wrong – the illustrated children’s book on indefinite life extension.

Results of Platform Vote #5 and Adopted Sections

Results of Platform Vote #5 and Adopted Sections

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Gennady Stolyarov II

The U.S. Transhumanist Party conducted its sixth vote of the members and the fifth vote on its platform planks on June 18 through June 24, 2017. Official ballot options can be found here.

Detailed results of the voting have been tabulated here. In one instance, where no majority was reached in the first round of voting, options were selected based on the ranked-preference method with instant runoffs.

As a result, the following sections of Article III of the U.S. Transhumanist Party Constitution were adopted.

Section XLVII: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to have bills proposed without sub-sections or provisions unrelated to the main subject of the bill. A single-subject or germaneness rule for bills would:

  1. Simplify bills, rendering them more accessible and less convoluted;
  2. Enable a focused vote for or against a bill without the possibility of having to accept or reject an embedded unrelated provision; and
  3. Prevent an unrelated provision from being buried within a bill as a possible tactic to have it passed.

Section XLVIII: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to limit protectionism and subsidization of an industry or group of companies. The exception to this would be that of extenuating circumstances, such as natural disasters or catastrophes, in which case a limited window of support could be approved. The United States Transhumanist Party understands that in a free-market society, private businesses, in order to continue their existence, ought to adapt to market changes instead of being shielded from such changes.

Section XLIX: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to increase autonomy of individuals to decide over their own bodies and holds that individuals should have the legal right to undertake procedures including gender reassignment, hysterectomies, vasectomies, technological augmentation, cosmetic alterations, genetic enhancements, and physical supplementation at or after the age of 18 years, as long as this does not create health hazards or threats to other individuals.

Section L: The United States Transhumanist Party supports the autonomy of an individual to decide on the continuation of that individual’s own life, including the right to choose or not to choose life-extending medical treatments. The United States Transhumanist Party does not consider it practicable or desirable for suicide to be illegal but discourages suicide from a moral standpoint, and furthermore considers that the legal right of suicide should only pertain to the individual and should not extend to any euthanasia or direct administration of a life-ending substance or procedure by any other person. The United States Transhumanist Party has grave concerns with anybody but the individual acting to hasten the end of that individual’s life.

Although each individual should be free to decide upon the duration of his, her, or its own life, the United States Transhumanist Party supports cultural changes and discussions that would encourage all individuals to undertake life-prolonging choices and activities. Advances in medical technology would facilitate more open-ended lifespans and would enable individuals to choose either finite or indefinite lengths of their lives. However, if individuals are recognized as having this autonomy, the United States Transhumanist Party is interested in persuading as many people as possible to decide to preserve their irreplaceable lives instead of hastening their end.

With regard to any legalization of assisted suicide or measures to provide patients with life-ending prescriptions, the United States Transhumanist Party supports stringent legal safeguards to ensure that each individual patient’s choice with regard to such matters is entirely free and uncoerced, and that there is no steering of any particular individual toward a life-ending choice by family members, medical practitioners, health insurers, activists, or any other individual or organization standing to benefit financially from the end of a patient’s life. However, efforts to persuade an individual to prolong his, her, or its life should not be restricted.

The United States Transhumanist Party opposes the emergence of any financially motivated lobby or industry whose primary business model would be assisted suicide or euthanasia, as the existence of such a lobby could create incentives and policies to steer people toward life-ending choices, including through legislation that might favor such “choices” in not-quite-voluntary situations. Instead, any prescription for a life-ending substance should only be provided as an incidental service by a patient’s primary-care physician, with the express written consent of at least one other unaffiliated physician, and the substance in question should only be allowed to be self-administered by the patient directly after a pre-defined time period since the obtaining of the prescription. Once the substance is prescribed, no medical practitioner should be permitted to benefit financially based on any specific choice of the patient to self-administer the substance to end the patient’s life. This position should not be construed to restrict any non-financially motivated political advocacy on the subject of assisted suicide, which involves individuals expressing their views on this subject in a public forum, when those individuals do not stand to gain financially from others choosing to obtain a life-ending substance.

Section LI: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to establish a cross-border or international organ-donation system so that organ donors who wish to do so may donate their organs in a foreign country. This could pertain to Americans working or traveling in foreign countries, but also foreigners or travelers who pass away within U.S. borders. This system would be particularly useful for saving lives with organs that have a very short preservation duration, and would take too long to be sent to the country of the donor’s nationality.

Section LII: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to increase the ability for public sousveillance on the functioning of government officials, in particular those who may propose laws, during negotiations and deliberations on proposing bills and national and international trade agreements. Furthermore, the United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to make the current hosting of live-streams from United States Congress more user-friendly and accessible to the public, accompanied by links to proposed bills where applicable.

Section LIII: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to have a mandatory standard clause or affidavit, affirming that a Representative, Senator, or other Legislative Branch lawmaker proposing a piece of legislation, such as a bill in Congress, has no conflict of interest between serving the public and serving other parties, such as special-interest groups. The clause would have to be signed and dated by the representative before the legislation is allowed to be proposed.

Section LIV: The United States Transhumanist Party supports increasing broad accountability of Federal Government departments, agencies, and entities, especially those tasked with national security and / or criminal investigations, to the United States Congress. Currently some agencies may receive government funding without any accountability as to what the funding is used for, often based on arguments that this information is ‘classified’ or ‘may not be revealed in the interest of national security’. This is irresponsible use of taxpayer money.

The United States Transhumanist Party does acknowledge that such entities or agencies may have security concerns regarding the publication of details of their budget plans. As such, the United States Transhumanist Party supports setting up a special non-partisan security budgetary review committee where more details of budget plans would have to be provided before considering to provide funds to an agency or entity.

Section LV: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to consolidate and reduce some redundancies among agencies and entities tasked with national security and law enforcement, as well as to reduce the number of such agencies and entities currently in operation. However, while supporting the elimination of parallel redundancies which can create problems, the United States Transhumanist Party recognizes that certain types of hierarchical redundancies can help with quality control.

Section LVI: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to ensure that no United States Representative or Senator may be obstructed in their ability to vote on any piece of legislation, or be kept from the Senate or House of Representatives for intra- or extra-curricular political-party activities which interfere with their primary task as representatives of the people within government. For example, protections should exist to prevent situations where Representatives or Senators are forced by their political parties to do fundraising calls during a vote on a bill.

Section LVII: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to restrict and limit civil asset forfeiture laws, and other laws that assist law-enforcement agencies in circumventing the Fourth Amendment, such as asset seizure, or detainment or arrest in situations where no criminal charges have been filed, except as part of an active interrogation of a person suspected of a crime or unless the person detained or arrested poses a clear and probable danger of inflicting physical harm upon others or their property.

Section LVIII: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to investigate questionable, but currently legal, actions by law-enforcement agencies that have over time garnered critical attention by the public. The safety of the public could benefit from such actions being revisited or revised to limit abuse and to close legal loopholes.

Section LIX: The United States Transhumanist Party considers it important for impartial, objective investigations of alleged police and other law-enforcement misconduct to be pursued. While law-enforcement agencies should not be prohibited from internally investigating potential abuses within their own ranks, such investigations should never be considered exclusive or conclusive, and further external checks and accountability should be instituted. As part of providing such checks and accountability, investigations regarding police misconduct, criminal activity, felonies, and misdemeanors should, in addition to any internal investigation, also be investigated by a different source – for example, a different police department, or a district attorney for a different area assigned to lead the investigation. The intent of this requirement is to limit the possibility of favorably biased or preferential treatment of a member of a given law-enforcement agency by that person’s colleagues, and to restore confidence by the public that an investigation into police misconduct is done as objectively as possible.

Section LX: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to limit the possibility for police, district attorneys, and judges to favor one another through mutual “back-scratching” accommodations which may cause a particular criminal matter to be resolved in a manner inconsistent with the true facts of the situation or the requirements of applicable law.

Section LXI: The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to prevent members of Congress from receiving special benefits, subsidies, and tax breaks that other citizens do not receive, and that are not necessary to function as a member of Congress. This limitation would pertain, for example, to health-care subsidies that are inaccessible to other citizens. However, this limitation would not prevent members of Congress from obtaining working conditions and job-related benefits of the sort which are broadly available, without regard to rank or degree of influence, to other Americans working within the private or public sectors.

Section LXII: The U.S. Transhumanist Party supports efforts to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to uphold the Rights of the Child as prescribed therein. This would include abolishing the death penalty for minors federally.

The United States Transhumanist Party, however, opposes restrictions on the rights of parents to choose to homeschool their children in any manner that respects the children’s basic freedom of conscience. Any ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child should not be construed to restrict any peaceful, rights-respecting practice of homeschooling.

Section LXIII: The United States Transhumanist Party opposes those specific cultural, religious, and social practices that violate individual rights and bodily autonomy. Examples of such unacceptable practices are forced marriage (including child marriage), male and female genital mutilation, and honor killings.

Official Ballot Options for Platform Vote #5

Official Ballot Options for Platform Vote #5

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The 7-day electronic voting period on the fifth set of proposed platform planks of the U.S. Transhumanist Party (17 potential planks in total) will occur from 12:01 a.m. U.S. Pacific Time on June 18, 2017, to 12:01 a.m.  U.S. Pacific Time on June 25, 2017. All members of the U.S. Transhumanist Party who have applied before 12:01 a.m. on June 18, 2017, will be eligible to vote, as long as they have expressed agreement with the three Core Ideals of the Transhumanist Party or have otherwise been rendered eligible to vote at the discretion of the Chairman.

All members who are eligible to vote will be sent a link to an electronic submission form whereby they will be able to cast their ballot.

When you are voting, it is strongly recommended that you keep this page of official ballot options and the submission form open simultaneously in different windows so that you can reference the relevant options as you vote on them. Due to space limitations, the submission form does not list the entire text of all the options.

It is also recommended that you set aside at least thirty minutes to consider and vote on all of the options and read their text closely, as some of the options contain minor variations upon other options. 

For some questions, electronic voting is  conducted by a ranked-preference method on individual articles 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.

Results of the voting will be tabulated during late June 2017, with the intent to announce the results approximately 7 days after all votes have been submitted.

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 III 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.

 

 

Voter Identification

E-mail address

Provide the same e-mail address you used to register for U.S. Transhumanist Party membership. Your ballot will be cross-referenced to our membership rolls, and only ballots with matching e-mail addresses will be counted.

What is your name?

At minimum, first and last name are required, unless you are publicly known by a single-name pseudonym which is not itself a common name. Your identity will not be publicly disclosed by the Transhumanist Party, unless you choose and/or authorize its disclosure. Only other members of the Transhumanist Party will be able to see that you voted, but not how you voted. The nature of the selections made by the members may be disclosed, but, if they are, each individual vote will not be associated with the identity of the voter but rather will be presented in an anonymized manner.

Navigate the Options

Question I. Section E5-A. Germaneness / Single-Subject Rule for Bills
Question II. Section E5-B. Opposition to Protectionism and Subsidies
Question III. Section E5-C. Bodily Autonomy
Question IV. Section E5-D. Autonomy to Decide on the Continuation of One’s Own Life
Question V. Section E5-D. Ancillary Provisions Regarding Autonomy to Decide on the Continuation of One’s Own Life
Question VI. Section E5-E. International Organ-Donation System
Question VII. Section E5-F. Sousveillance of Government Officials in a Lawmaking Capacity
Question VIII. Section E5-G. Affidavit of Public Interest for Lawmakers
Question IX. Section E5-H. Accountability of Security Agencies to Congress
Question X. Section E5-H. Accountability of Security Agencies to Congress. Qualifying Language on Budgetary Review Committee
Question XI. Section E5-I. Reduction of Redundancies among Security and Law-Enforcement Agencies
Question XII. Section E5-J. Protection Against Obstruction of Congresspersons’ Ability to Vote
Question XIII. Section E5-K. Opposition to Civil Asset Forfeiture, Asset Seizure, and Excessive Detainment
Question XIV. Section E5-L. Investigation of Questionable Law-Enforcement Activities
Question XV. Section E5-M. Position on Internal Police Investigations of Misconduct
Question XVI. Section E5-N. Limitations on Favor-Trading Among Police, District Attorneys, and Judges
Question XVII. Section E5-O. Opposition to Special Benefits for Members of Congress
Question XVIII. Section E5-P. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
Question XIX. Section E5-P. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Qualifying Language on Homeschooling
Question XX. Section E5-Q. Opposition to Rights-Violating Cultural, Religious, and Social Practices

Proposed Platform Sections

Question I. Section E5-A. Germaneness / Single-Subject Rule for Bills

Shall the following language be adopted as a new Section within the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform?

“The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to have bills proposed without sub-sections or provisions unrelated to the main subject of the bill. A single-subject or germaneness rule for bills would:

  1. Simplify bills, rendering them more accessible and less convoluted;
  2. Enable a focused vote for or against a bill without the possibility of having to accept or reject an embedded unrelated provision; and
  3. Prevent an unrelated provision from being buried within a bill as a possible tactic to have it passed.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question II. Section E5-B. Opposition to Protectionism and Subsidies

Rank-order the Section E5-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 E5-B-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to limit protectionism and subsidization of an industry or group of companies. The exception to this would be that of extenuating circumstances, such as natural disasters or catastrophes, in which case a limited window of support could be approved. The United States Transhumanist Party understands that in a free-market society, private businesses, in order to continue their existence, ought to adapt to market changes instead of being shielded from such changes.

☐ Option E5-B-2. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon, with Complete Rejection of Economic Protectionism and Subsidization without Subsidies for Extenuating Circumstances] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to abolish economic protectionism and refrain from subsidizing any industry or group of companies. The United States Transhumanist Party understands that in a free-market society, private businesses, in order to continue their existence, ought to adapt to market changes instead of being shielded from such changes.

☐ Option E5-B-NO. No Section of this sort.

Question III. Section E5-C. Bodily Autonomy

Shall the following language be adopted as a new Section within the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform?

“The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to increase autonomy of individuals to decide over their own bodies and holds that individuals should have the legal right to undertake procedures including gender reassignment, hysterectomies, vasectomies, technological augmentation, cosmetic alterations, genetic enhancements, and physical supplementation at or after the age of 18 years, as long as this does not create health hazards or threats to other individuals.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question IV. Section E5-D. Autonomy to Decide on the Continuation of One’s Own Life

Rank-order the Section E5-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 E5-D-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports the autonomy of an individual to decide on the continuation of that individual’s own life.

☐ Option E5-D-2. [Expanded Version with Clarification Regarding Suicide] The United States Transhumanist Party supports the autonomy of an individual to decide on the continuation of that individual’s own life, including the right to choose or not to choose life-extending medical treatments. The United States Transhumanist Party does not consider it practicable or desirable for suicide to be illegal but discourages suicide from a moral standpoint, and furthermore considers that the legal right of suicide should only pertain to the individual and should not extend to any euthanasia or direct administration of a life-ending substance or procedure by any other person. The United States Transhumanist Party has grave concerns with anybody but the individual acting to hasten the end of that individual’s life.

☐ Option E5-D-NO. No Section of this sort.

Question V. Section E5-D. Ancillary Provisions Regarding Autonomy to Decide on the Continuation of One’s Own Life

If Section E5-D regarding the autonomy to decide on the continuation of one’s own life is adopted as part of the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform, shall any of the following ancillary provisions be appended to that Section?

Select all the options you support. (You can select multiple options for this question.)  Any option receiving the majority of votes cast will be included in the ultimately adopted plank, unless Option E5-D-NO prevails in the vote on Question IV above. If you do not favor any of the options below, then you may leave this question blank.

☐ Ancillary Provision E5-D-i. Cultural Promotion of Life. Although each individual should be free to decide upon the duration of his, her, or its own life, the United States Transhumanist Party supports cultural changes and discussions that would encourage all individuals to undertake life-prolonging choices and activities. Advances in medical technology would facilitate more open-ended lifespans and would enable individuals to choose either finite or indefinite lengths of their lives. However, if individuals are recognized as having this autonomy, the United States Transhumanist Party is interested in persuading as many people as possible to decide to preserve their irreplaceable lives instead of hastening their end.

☐ Ancillary Provision E5-D-ii. Protection of Uncoerced Patient Choice. With regard to any legalization of assisted suicide or measures to provide patients with life-ending prescriptions, the United States Transhumanist Party supports stringent legal safeguards to ensure that each individual patient’s choice with regard to such matters is entirely free and uncoerced, and that there is no steering of any particular individual toward a life-ending choice by family members, medical practitioners, health insurers, activists, or any other individual or organization standing to benefit financially from the end of a patient’s life. However, efforts to persuade an individual to prolong his, her, or its life should not be restricted.

☐ Ancillary Provision E5-D-iii. Opposition to Financially Motivated Lobbies and Steering Toward Life-Ending Decisions. The United States Transhumanist Party opposes the emergence of any financially motivated lobby or industry whose primary business model would be assisted suicide or euthanasia, as the existence of such a lobby could create incentives and policies to steer people toward life-ending choices, including through legislation that might favor such “choices” in not-quite-voluntary situations. Instead, any prescription for a life-ending substance should only be provided as an incidental service by a patient’s primary-care physician, with the express written consent of at least one other unaffiliated physician, and the substance in question should only be allowed to be self-administered by the patient directly after a pre-defined time period since the obtaining of the prescription. Once the substance is prescribed, no medical practitioner should be permitted to benefit financially based on any specific choice of the patient to self-administer the substance to end the patient’s life. This position should not be construed to restrict any non-financially motivated political advocacy on the subject of assisted suicide, which involves individuals expressing their views on this subject in a public forum, when those individuals do not stand to gain financially from others choosing to obtain a life-ending substance.

Question VI. Section E5-E. International Organ-Donation System

Shall the following language be adopted as a new Section within the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform?

“The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to establish a cross-border or international organ-donation system so that organ donors who wish to do so may donate their organs in a foreign country. This could pertain to Americans working or traveling in foreign countries, but also foreigners or travelers who pass away within U.S. borders. This system would be particularly useful for saving lives with organs that have a very short preservation duration, and would take too long to be sent to the country of the donor’s nationality.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question VII. Section E5-F. Sousveillance of Government Officials in a Lawmaking Capacity

Shall the following language be adopted as a new Section within the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform?

“The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to increase the ability for public sousveillance on the functioning of government officials, in particular those who may propose laws, during negotiations and deliberations on proposing bills and national and international trade agreements. Furthermore, the United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to make the current hosting of live-streams from United States Congress more user-friendly and accessible to the public, accompanied by links to proposed bills where applicable.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question VIII. Section E5-G. Affidavit of Public Interest for Lawmakers

Shall the following language be adopted as a new Section within the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform?

“The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to have a mandatory standard clause or affidavit, affirming that a Representative, Senator, or other Legislative Branch lawmaker proposing a piece of legislation, such as a bill in Congress, has no conflict of interest between serving the public and serving other parties, such as special-interest groups. The clause would have to be signed and dated by the representative before the legislation is allowed to be proposed.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question IX. Section E5-H. Accountability of Security Agencies to Congress

Shall the following language be adopted as a new Section within the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform?

“The United States Transhumanist Party supports increasing broad accountability of Federal Government departments, agencies, and entities, especially those tasked with national security and / or criminal investigations, to the United States Congress. Currently some agencies may receive government funding without any accountability as to what the funding is used for, often based on arguments that this information is ‘classified’ or ‘may not be revealed in the interest of national security’. This is irresponsible use of taxpayer money.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question X. Section E5-H. Accountability of Security Agencies to Congress. Qualifying Language on Budgetary Review Committee

If Section E5-H on the accountability of security agencies to congress is adopted, shall the following caveat be inserted?

“The United States Transhumanist Party does acknowledge that such entities or agencies may have security concerns regarding the publication of details of their budget plans. As such, the United States Transhumanist Party supports setting up a special non-partisan security budgetary review committee where more details of budget plans would have to be provided before considering to provide funds to an agency or entity.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question XI. Section E5-I. Reduction of Redundancies among Security and Law-Enforcement Agencies

Rank-order the Section E5-I 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 E5-I-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to consolidate and reduce redundancies among agencies and entities tasked with national security and law enforcement, as well as to reduce the number of such agencies and entities currently in operation.

☐ Option E5-I-2. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon, with Caveat by Ryan Starr]  The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to consolidate and reduce some redundancies among agencies and entities tasked with national security and law enforcement, as well as to reduce the number of such agencies and entities currently in operation. However, while supporting the elimination of parallel redundancies which can create problems, the United States Transhumanist Party recognizes that certain types of hierarchical redundancies can help with quality control.

☐ Option E5-I-NO. No Section of this sort.

Question XII. Section E5-J. Protection Against Obstruction of Congresspersons’ Ability to Vote

Shall the following language be adopted as a new Section within the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform?

“The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to ensure that no United States Representative or Senator may be obstructed in their ability to vote on any piece of legislation, or be kept from the Senate or House of Representatives for intra- or extra-curricular political-party activities which interfere with their primary task as representatives of the people within government. For example, protections should exist to prevent situations where Representatives or Senators are forced by their political parties to do fundraising calls during a vote on a bill.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question XIII. Section E5-K. Opposition to Civil Asset Forfeiture, Asset Seizure, and Excessive Detainment

Rank-order the Section E5-K 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 E5-K-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to restrict and limit civil asset forfeiture laws, and other laws that assist law-enforcement agencies in circumventing the Fourth Amendment, such as asset seizure, or detainment or arrest longer than 48 hours.

☐ Option E5-K-2. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon, with Modification Regarding Detainment or Arrest] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to restrict and limit civil asset forfeiture laws, and other laws that assist law-enforcement agencies in circumventing the Fourth Amendment, such as asset seizure, or detainment or arrest in situations where no criminal charges have been filed, except as part of an active interrogation of a person suspected of a crime or unless the person detained or arrested poses a clear and probable danger of inflicting physical harm upon others or their property.

☐ Option E5-K-NO. No Section of this sort.

Question XIV. Section E5-L. Investigation of Questionable Law-Enforcement Activities

Shall the following language be adopted as a new Section within the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform?

“The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to investigate questionable, but currently legal, actions by law-enforcement agencies that have over time garnered critical attention by the public. The safety of the public could benefit from such actions being revisited or revised to limit abuse and to close legal loopholes.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question XV. Section E5-M. Position on Internal Police Investigations of Misconduct

Rank-order the Section E5-M 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 E5-M-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to prevent law-enforcement agencies from internally investigating missteps within their own departments or precincts, and concluding their internal investigations without further accountability. Instead, investigations regarding police misconduct, criminal activity, felonies, and misdemeanors should be investigated by a different source – for example, a different police department, or a District Attorney for a different area assigned to lead the investigation. The intent of this requirement is to limit the possibility of prejudice and bias toward a member of a given law-enforcement agency by that person’s colleagues, and to restore faith in the public mind that an investigation into police misconduct is done as objectively as possible.

☐ Option E5-M-2. The United States Transhumanist Party considers it important for impartial, objective investigations of alleged police and other law-enforcement misconduct to be pursued. While law-enforcement agencies should not be prohibited from internally investigating potential abuses within their own ranks, such investigations should never be considered exclusive or conclusive, and further external checks and accountability should be instituted. As part of providing such checks and accountability, investigations regarding police misconduct, criminal activity, felonies, and misdemeanors should, in addition to any internal investigation, also be investigated by a different source – for example, a different police department, or a district attorney for a different area assigned to lead the investigation. The intent of this requirement is to limit the possibility of favorably biased or preferential treatment of a member of a given law-enforcement agency by that person’s colleagues, and to restore confidence by the public that an investigation into police misconduct is done as objectively as possible.

☐ Option E5-M-NO. No Section of this sort.

Question XVI. Section E5-N. Limitations on Favor-Trading Among Police, District Attorneys, and Judges

Shall the following language be adopted as a new Section within the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform?

“The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to limit the possibility for police, district attorneys, and judges to favor one another through mutual “back-scratching” accommodations which may cause a particular criminal matter to be resolved in a manner inconsistent with the true facts of the situation or the requirements of applicable law.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question XVII. Section E5-O. Opposition to Special Benefits for Members of Congress

Rank-order the Section E5-O 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 E5-O-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to prevent members of Congress from receiving special benefits, subsidies, and tax breaks that other citizens do not receive, and that are not necessary to function as a member of Congress. This limitation would pertain, for example, to health-care subsidies that are inaccessible to other citizens.

☐ Option E5-O-2. The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to prevent members of Congress from receiving special benefits, subsidies, and tax breaks that other citizens do not receive, and that are not necessary to function as a member of Congress. This limitation would pertain, for example, to health-care subsidies that are inaccessible to other citizens. However, this limitation would not prevent members of Congress from obtaining working conditions and job-related benefits of the sort which are broadly available, without regard to rank or degree of influence, to other Americans working within the private or public sectors.

☐ Option E5-O-NO. No Section of this sort.

Question XVIII. Section E5-P. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Shall the following language be adopted as a new Section within the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform?

“The U.S. Transhumanist Party supports efforts to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to uphold the Rights of the Child as prescribed therein. This would include abolishing the death penalty for minors federally.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question XIX. Section E5-P. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Qualifying Language on Homeschooling

If Section E5-P on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is adopted, shall the following caveat be inserted?

“The United States Transhumanist Party, however, opposes restrictions on the rights of parents to choose to homeschool their children in any manner that respects the children’s basic freedom of conscience. Any ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child should not be construed to restrict any peaceful, rights-respecting practice of homeschooling.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Question XX. Section E5-Q. Opposition to Rights-Violating Cultural, Religious, and Social Practices

Rank-order the Section E5-Q 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 E5-Q-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party opposes those specific cultural, religious, and social practices that violate United States law, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Examples of such unacceptable practices are forced marriage (including child marriage), male and female genital mutilation, and honor killings.

☐ Option E5-Q-2. The United States Transhumanist Party opposes those specific cultural, religious, and social practices that violate individual rights and bodily autonomy. Examples of such unacceptable practices are forced marriage (including child marriage), male and female genital mutilation, and honor killings.

☐ Option E5-Q-NO. No Section of this sort.

24-Day Exposure Period for Platform Vote #5

24-Day Exposure Period for Platform Vote #5

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Gennady Stolyarov II

For its upcoming fifth Platform vote, the U.S. Transhumanist Party has continued to receive many suggestions from members. This exposure period is intended to encompass as many of these suggestions as possible. A vote will be scheduled on some or all of these items once they have been exposed for at least 24 days. For each item, a 7-day voting period is expected to be opened at the earliest at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, June 18, 2017.

During the exposure period, please post your comments on this thread. If you post comments intended to be considered in voting and/or amending any of these planks in any other electronic medium, please note that you thereby give your consent to have your comments reproduced with attribution or linked within this discussion thread, in order to direct members’ attention and consideration to them.

After the exposure period, a 7-day electronic voting period will occur. Instructions for electronic voting will be sent to members of the U.S. Transhumanist Party via e-mail at that time. 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. You can still vote if you become a member during the exposure period, so please apply here if you are interested. During the 7-day electronic voting period, you will still be able to become a member – but you will only be able to vote in subsequent elections, since we seek for voting on any given issue to be done by those members who have had an opportunity to thoroughly consider that issue and be involved in deliberations regarding it.

Electronic voting will be conducted by a ranked-preference method if more than a single option is presented for the wording of a particular plank or segment of a plank. Members will be able to rank-order their preferred selections on each individual Platform Section. The original text of each Section will be available for selection, as well as any reasonable amendments proposed by any member. Leadership of the Transhumanist Party reserves the right to edit any proposed amendment for correctness of spelling and grammar only – but not with regard to the substance, unless the person proposing the amendment requests or consents to a substantive edit. “No Section of this sort” will also be a choice, and any Section where a majority of votes favors this option will be not be adopted. Members will also be able to abstain from voting on any given Section.

The ranked-preference method has the advantage of eliminating a “winner-take-all” or “first-past-the-post” mentality and preventing people from being channeled into voting for sub-optimal choices (in their view) just because they fear an even less palatable alternative prevailing. Within the ranked-preference methodology, if no option obtains a clear majority as voters’ first choice, the option having the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated from consideration, and all those who voted for that option will have their votes assigned to their second-choice options. This process of elimination continues until one particular option has a clear majority of votes.

The Transhumanist Party encourages all members to participate in this process and for other transhumanists to sign up for membership during the exposure period. 

The Section titles below are provisional and will be replaced with official numbers for each plank that is adopted. The Section titles are informational only and will not be included in the adopted versions of the platform planks.

Section E5-A. Germaneness / Single-Subject Rule for Bills

Option E5-A-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon]

The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to have bills proposed without sub-sections or provisions unrelated to the main subject of the bill. A single-subject or germaneness rule for bills would:

  1. Simplify bills, rendering them more accessible and less convoluted;
  2. Enable a focused vote for or against a bill without the possibility of having to accept or reject an embedded unrelated provision; and
  3. Prevent an unrelated provision from being buried within a bill as a possible tactic to have it passed.

Section E5-B. Opposition to Protectionism and Subsidies

Option E5-B-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to limit protectionism and subsidization of an industry or group of companies. The exception to this would be that of extenuating circumstances, such as natural disasters or catastrophes, in which case a limited window of support could be approved. The United States Transhumanist Party understands that in a free-market society, private businesses, in order to continue their existence, ought to adapt to market changes instead of being shielded from such changes.

Option E5-B-2. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon, with Complete Rejection of Economic Protectionism and Subsidization without Subsidies for Extenuating Circumstances] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to abolish economic protectionism and refrain from subsidizing any industry or group of companies. The United States Transhumanist Party understands that in a free-market society, private businesses, in order to continue their existence, ought to adapt to market changes instead of being shielded from such changes.

Section E5-C. Bodily Autonomy

Option E5-C-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to increase autonomy of individuals to decide over their own bodies and holds that individuals should have the legal right to undertake procedures including gender reassignment, hysterectomies, vasectomies, technological augmentation, cosmetic alterations, genetic enhancements, and physical supplementation at or after the age of 18 years, as long as this does not create health hazards or threats to other individuals.

Section E5-D. Autonomy to Decide on the Continuation of One’s Own Life

Option E5-D-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports the autonomy of an individual to decide on the continuation of that individual’s own life.

Option E5-D-2. [Expanded Version with Clarification Regarding Suicide] The United States Transhumanist Party supports the autonomy of an individual to decide on the continuation of that individual’s own life, including the right to choose or not to choose life-extending medical treatments. The United States Transhumanist Party does not consider it practicable or desirable for suicide to be illegal but discourages suicide from a moral standpoint, and furthermore considers that the legal right of suicide should only pertain to the individual and should not extend to any euthanasia or direct administration of a life-ending substance or procedure by any other person. The United States Transhumanist Party has grave concerns with anybody but the individual acting to hasten the end of that individual’s life.

[Questions on Section E5-D will allow members to select any, all, or none of the ancillary provisions below, with any measure receiving a majority of the votes being included in the ultimately adopted plank. The ancillary provisions are compatible with each of the main options above.]

Ancillary Provision E5-D-i. Cultural Promotion of Life. Although each individual should be free to decide upon the duration of his, her, or its own life, the United States Transhumanist Party supports cultural changes and discussions that would encourage all individuals to undertake life-prolonging choices and activities. Advances in medical technology would facilitate more open-ended lifespans and would enable individuals to choose either finite or indefinite lengths of their lives. However, if individuals are recognized as having this autonomy, the United States Transhumanist Party is interested in persuading as many people as possible to decide to preserve their irreplaceable lives instead of hastening their end.

Ancillary Provision E5-D-ii. Protection of Uncoerced Patient Choice. With regard to any legalization of assisted suicide or measures to provide patients with life-ending prescriptions, the United States Transhumanist Party supports stringent legal safeguards to ensure that each individual patient’s choice with regard to such matters is entirely free and uncoerced, and that there is no steering of any particular individual toward a life-ending choice by family members, medical practitioners, health insurers, activists, or any other individual or organization standing to benefit financially from the end of a patient’s life. However, efforts to persuade an individual to prolong his, her, or its life should not be restricted.

Ancillary Provision E5-D-iii. Opposition to Financially Motivated Lobbies and Steering Toward Life-Ending Decisions. The United States Transhumanist Party opposes the emergence of any financially motivated lobby or industry whose primary business model would be assisted suicide or euthanasia, as the existence of such a lobby could create incentives and policies to steer people toward life-ending choices, including through legislation that might favor such “choices” in not-quite-voluntary situations. Instead, any prescription for a life-ending substance should only be provided as an incidental service by a patient’s primary-care physician, with the express written consent of at least one other unaffiliated physician, and the substance in question should only be allowed to be self-administered by the patient directly after a pre-defined time period since the obtaining of the prescription. Once the substance is prescribed, no medical practitioner should be permitted to benefit financially based on any specific choice of the patient to self-administer the substance to end the patient’s life. This position should not be construed to restrict any non-financially motivated political advocacy on the subject of assisted suicide, which involves individuals expressing their views on this subject in a public forum, when those individuals do not stand to gain financially from others choosing to obtain a life-ending substance.

Section E5-E. International Organ-Donation System

Option E5-E-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon]

The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to establish a cross-border or international organ-donation system so that organ donors who wish to do so may donate their organs in a foreign country. This could pertain to Americans working or traveling in foreign countries, but also foreigners or travelers who pass away within U.S. borders. This system would be particularly useful for saving lives with organs that have a very short preservation duration, and would take too long to be sent to the country of the donor’s nationality.

Section E5-F. Sousveillance of Government Officials in a Lawmaking Capacity

Option E5-F-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon]

The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to increase the ability for public sousveillance on the functioning of government officials, in particular those who may propose laws, during negotiations and deliberations on proposing bills and national and international trade agreements. Furthermore, the United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to make the current hosting of live-streams from United States Congress more user-friendly and accessible to the public, accompanied by links to proposed bills where applicable.

Section E5-G. Affidavit of Public Interest for Lawmakers

Option E5-G-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to have a mandatory standard clause or affidavit, affirming that a Representative, Senator, or other Legislative Branch lawmaker proposing a piece of legislation, such as a bill in Congress, has no conflict of interest between serving the public and serving other parties, such as special-interest groups. The clause would have to be signed and dated by the representative before the legislation is allowed to be proposed.

Section E5-H. Accountability of Security Agencies to Congress

Option E5-H-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports increasing broad accountability of Federal Government departments, agencies, and entities, especially those tasked with national security and / or criminal investigations, to the United States Congress. Currently some agencies may receive government funding without any accountability as to what the funding is used for, often based on arguments that this information is ‘classified’ or ‘may not be revealed in the interest of national security’. This is irresponsible use of taxpayer money.

Qualifying Language on Budgetary Review Committee [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon]

If Option E5-H-1 is adopted, shall the following caveat be inserted?

“The United States Transhumanist Party does acknowledge that such entities or agencies may have security concerns regarding the publication of details of their budget plans. As such, the United States Transhumanist Party supports setting up a special non-partisan security budgetary review committee where more details of budget plans would have to be provided before considering to provide funds to an agency or entity.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Section E5-I. Reduction of Redundancies among Security and Law-Enforcement Agencies

Option E5-I-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to consolidate and reduce redundancies among agencies and entities tasked with national security and law enforcement, as well as to reduce the number of such agencies and entities currently in operation.

Section E5-J. Protection Against Obstruction of Congresspersons’ Ability to Vote

Option E5-J-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to ensure that no United States Representative or Senator may be obstructed in their ability to vote on any piece of legislation, or be kept from the Senate or House of Representatives for intra- or extra-curricular political-party activities which interfere with their primary task as a representative of the people within government. For example, protections should exist to prevent situations where Representatives or Senators are forced by their political parties to do fundraising calls during a vote on a bill.

Section E5-K. Opposition to Civil Asset Forfeiture, Asset Seizure, and Excessive Detainment

Option E5-K-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to restrict and limit civil asset forfeiture laws, and other laws that assist law-enforcement agencies in circumventing the Fourth Amendment, such as asset seizure, or detainment or arrest longer than 48 hours.

Option E5-K-2. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon, with Modification Regarding Detainment or Arrest] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to restrict and limit civil asset forfeiture laws, and other laws that assist law-enforcement agencies in circumventing the Fourth Amendment, such as asset seizure, or detainment or arrest in situations where no criminal charges have been filed, except as part of an active interrogation of a person suspected of a crime or unless the person detained or arrested poses a clear and probable danger of inflicting physical harm upon others or their property.

Section E5-L. Investigation of Questionable Law-Enforcement Activities

Option E5-L-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to investigate questionable, but currently legal, actions by law-enforcement agencies that have over time garnered critical attention by the public. The safety of the public could benefit from such actions being revisited or revised to limit abuse and to close legal loopholes.

Section E5-M. Position on Internal Police Investigations of Misconduct

Option E5-M-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to prevent law-enforcement agencies from internally investigating missteps within their own departments or precincts, and concluding their internal investigations without further accountability. Instead, investigations regarding police misconduct, criminal activity, felonies, and misdemeanors should be investigated by a different source – for example, a different police department, or a District Attorney for a different area assigned to lead the investigation. The intent of this requirement is to limit the possibility of prejudice and bias toward a member of a given law-enforcement agency by that person’s colleagues, and to restore faith in the public mind that an investigation into police misconduct is done as objectively as possible.

Option E5-M-2. The United States Transhumanist Party considers it important for impartial, objective investigations of alleged police and other law-enforcement misconduct to be pursued. While law-enforcement agencies should not be prohibited from internally investigating potential abuses within their own ranks, such investigations should never be considered exclusive or conclusive, and further external checks and accountability should be instituted. As part of providing such checks and accountability, investigations regarding police misconduct, criminal activity, felonies, and misdemeanors should, in addition to any internal investigation, also be investigated by a different source – for example, a different police department, or a district attorney for a different area assigned to lead the investigation. The intent of this requirement is to limit the possibility of favorably biased or preferential treatment of a member of a given law-enforcement agency by that person’s colleagues, and to restore confidence by the public that an investigation into police misconduct is done as objectively as possible.

Section E5-N. Limitations on Favor-Trading Among Police, District Attorneys, and Judges

Option E5-N-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to limit the possibility for police, district attorneys, and judges to favor one another through mutual “back-scratching” accommodations which may cause a particular criminal matter to be resolved in a manner inconsistent with the true facts of the situation or the requirements of applicable law.

Section E5-O. Opposition to Special Benefits for Members of Congress

Option E5-O-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to prevent members of Congress from receiving special benefits, subsidies, and tax breaks that other citizens do not receive, and that are not necessary to function as a member of Congress. This limitation would pertain, for example, to health-care subsidies that are inaccessible to other citizens.

Option E5-O-2. The United States Transhumanist Party supports efforts to prevent members of Congress from receiving special benefits, subsidies, and tax breaks that other citizens do not receive, and that are not necessary to function as a member of Congress. This limitation would pertain, for example, to health-care subsidies that are inaccessible to other citizens. However, this limitation would not prevent members of Congress from obtaining working conditions and job-related benefits of the sort which are broadly available, without regard to rank or degree of influence, to other Americans working within the private or public sectors.

Section E5-P. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Option E5-P-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The U.S. Transhumanist Party supports efforts to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to uphold the Rights of the Child as prescribed therein. This would include abolishing the death penalty for minors federally.

Section E5-P. Qualifying Language on Homeschooling  

If Option E5-P-1 is adopted, shall the following caveat be inserted?

“The United States Transhumanist Party, however, opposes restrictions on the rights of parents to choose to homeschool their children in any manner that respects the children’s basic freedom of conscience. Any ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child should not be construed to restrict any peaceful, rights-respecting practice of homeschooling.”

Select one of the following options.

☐ Yes.

☐ No.

☐ Abstain.

Section E5-Q. Opposition to Rights-Violating Cultural, Religious, and Social Practices

Option E5-Q-1. [Based on Proposal by Martin van der Kroon] The United States Transhumanist Party opposes those specific cultural, religious, and social practices that violate United States law, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Examples of such unacceptable practices are forced marriage (including child marriage), male and female genital mutilation, and honor killings.

Option E5-Q-2. The United States Transhumanist Party opposes those specific cultural, religious, and social practices that violate individual rights and bodily autonomy. Examples of such unacceptable practices are forced marriage (including child marriage), male and female genital mutilation, and honor killings.

The U.S. Transhumanist Party – Pursuing a Future of Extreme Progress – Presentation by Gennady Stolyarov II

The U.S. Transhumanist Party – Pursuing a Future of Extreme Progress – Presentation by Gennady Stolyarov II

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Gennady Stolyarov II

Listen to and download the audio recording of this presentation at http://rationalargumentator.com/USTP_Future_of_Extreme_Progress.mp3 (right-click to download).

Download Mr. Stolyarov’s presentation slides at http://rationalargumentator.com/USTP_Future_of_Extreme_Progress.pdf (right-click to download).

Gennady Stolyarov II, Chairman of the U.S. Transhumanist Party, delivered this presentation virtually at the Extreme Futures Technology and Forecasting (EFTF) Work Group on March 11, 2017.

Mr. Stolyarov outlines the background and history of the Transhumanist Party, its Core Ideals, its unique approach to politics and member involvement, and the hopes for transforming politics into a constructive focus on solutions to the prevailing problems of our time.

At the conclusion of the presentation Mr. Stolyarov answered a series of questions from futurists Mark Waser and Stuart Mason Dambrot.

Become a member of the U.S. Transhumanist Party for free here.

Watch the U.S. Transhumanist Party Discussion Panel on Artificial Intelligence here.

Watch the U.S. Transhumanist Party Discussion Panel on Life Extension here.