Zoltan Istvan is a California-based best selling author, former reporter for National Geographic, regular contributor of major media like the Huffington Post and the New York Times, and the most prominent advocate for the transhumanist movement worldwide.

He is also running for 2020 US presidential elections as a Republican to become the next President of the United States of America.

Find here the episode.

Highlights from the episode

00:23 The definition of Transhumanism as emerged during the first interview of Zoltan for Technoculture Podcast in 2018: Transhumanism is a social movement that advocates for the use of radical science and technology to improve human life: from (1) extending life expectancy, to eradicating diseases, pain, and suffering; to (2) augmenting what the human body can do, like gaining night vision or being able to do photosyntesis. 

1:00 The message of Transhumanism makes for a great political program. Zoltan explains how.

1:06 A lot of politicians in America refuse to talk about science and technology.

2:34 Can there be a dialogue between science and Transhumanism?

4:15 Something that scientists are often reminded of are the ethical implications of their work.

4:32 There is a huge cross-platform of transhumanists, and Zoltan mentions a few of them.

5:16 Transhumanism is mostly known as a secular movement. Are necessarily religion and Transhumanism at odds, or there is a way to conciliate religious faith and Transhumanism?
This is an important question for Zoltan in a moment when he’s trying to extend his electorate, in a country that is notoriously very religious like the United States.

8:52 Recently, he wrote about Transhumanism and sports. He talks about the Cyborg Olympics that will take place in May 2020, founded by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

11:53 What is the biggest misconception about Transhumanism?

13:39 Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another topic that is very talked about today. Zoltan talks about AI and Transhumanism, in the context of his presidential campaign.  

External Resources

The episode was originally published on this page, where you can find a full transcript, a summary of contents, selected quotes, and more.

Go back to Technoculture Podcast Introductory article

Featured image credit: Federica Bressan

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Federica Bressan

Federica Bressan is a Fulbright scholar and a Marie Curie alumna. Her background is in Cultural Heritage and Computer Science. The vision underlying her research concerns the co-evolution of technology and culture. Her main expertise is in the field of multimedia preservation, with a special attention for audio and interactivity. She works between New York and Brussels.

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