Q & A: Zoltan Istvan
A transhumanist tells us death is just a challenge to overcome, and dying a choice we’ll be able to make in the future.
by Sarah Souli
Zoltan Istvan is, was, or will be many things: a journalist, a politician, a Presidential candidate, an entrepreneur, a real estate mogul, the inventor of volcano boarding. He might also outlive the rest of us, or rather, he might create a world in which we all live forever. Istvan is a transhumanist (that was his political platform when he ran for President of the United States in 2016). He’s radically unlimited in his perception of the world, our biology, and humans’ ability to alter our surroundings.
In preparation for his residency at this year’s House of Beautiful Business he recently sat down with the Journal to answer our most pressing questions.
What’s the most revolutionary thing you’ve done in your life?
I built and drove a 12 meter bus that was shaped like a coffin across America to deliver a Transhumanist Bill of Rights at the U.S. Capitol. It took four months to cross America, as I stopped everywhere and gave speeches on transhumanism and life extension. I had an open invitation for anyone to ride with me on the “Immortality Bus†in America. Many people came, including major media journalists. The bus has become one of the most famous futurist art projects in the world.
When it comes to politics, there are lots of activists who say “we need to change the system from the inside out.†Do you think it’s better for change to come incrementally, or to just burn the house down?
I think it is better for significant change to come incrementally. Burning down the house, given the amount of people in poverty and the inequality in the world, could lead to a civil war or World War. Change must come, but it must come carefully and it must be tested first.
You once ran for U.S. President on a transhumanism platform. What was the biggest challenge you faced in getting people to understand transhumanism — a topic that most of us are not very well aware of?
Religion is by far the biggest challenge. Transhumanism’s main goal is to overcome death with science and technology, but 85% of the world and 85% of Americans are religious and believe in an afterlife. They don’t see a need for transhumanism. They believe in what transhumanists call: deathism.
Transhumanism sounds so futuristic — but is it really? Do you view it as a natural evolution of human intelligence, or something totally radical?
Transhumanism can mean many things, but really it’s radical science and technology applied to the human being. Most transhumanists don’t call flying in a jet transhumanism, but if the jet is being piloted by Artificial Intelligence, then it’s transhumanism. Transhumanism is the frontier of science — not just using tools in our lives, but changing our lives radically, like brain implants that connect our minds to the internet directly.
You’ve talked about and campaigned on a platform to end death. But death is the final, ultimate act of revolution. It’s painful for those who go and those who are left behind, but it’s necessary — why do you think we should avoid death?
Who says it’s necessary? Why it is necessary? Who says it’s our final act? Is it natural? Is a human being flying to the moon natural? There’s this misconception out there that what happens to humans “must†happen. This is not the case. As humans and rational creatures capable of creating sophisticated tools, there’s no limit to what we can do. Death is the first major challenge for the species to overcome to truly transcend our biology. There’s nothing in the way out there saying we must continue to die. People used to say humans could never fly. Now look at us, with hundreds of thousands of jet airplane flights a day around the world. People now say we must die. In 25 years, those same people will look back and realize how mistaken they were. Science and technology will soon change human mortality forever. And then people will have the choice whether to die or not. And it’s a wonderful choice, because if you love life like me, you will choose to live.
Sarah Souli is a contributing editor to the Journal of Beautiful Business.
The Journal is a production of The Business Romantic Society, hosts of the House of Beautiful Business. Sign up for the monthly newsletter at https://www.beautifulbusinessletters.com/
The House can be found on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Instagram, but most importantly in Lisbon, Portugal from November 3rd to 8th, 2018. Request an invitation at houseofbeautifulbusiness.com.
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