Technoculture #11 Zoltan Istvan (Transhumanism)
Channel: Federica Bressan
Date: 2019-12-31

Zoltan Istvan is the "global leader of the transhumanist movement" (The Mirror). The "embodiment of the Californian, libertarian, start-up culture tech-utopian dream" (BBC), Zoltan talks about what transhumanism stands for today and what awaits us in the near future if the right money is put in the right place.

More on the podcast page: http://podcast.federicabressan.com/zoltan-istvan.php

= = = Highlights from this episode = = = 

3:38 "Based on Moore's law, where the microprocessor is doubling every 18 to 24 months approximately, in speed and size, [...] if you live a year, you probably gain a year, based on how much technology and science there is out there."

5:13 Medicine vs. transhumanism.

5:49 "The big pharmaceutical companies [...] are not looking to make people live indefinitely, because they make their money off fixing ailments. Whereas transhumanists, we don't say, oh, let's have some kind of medicine for cancer so that you can live better before you die. We say, how can we eradicate cancer 100%, so that there is no more cancer on planet earth."

6:33 "If the cancer drug company got rid of cancer, it would also be out of business."

9:06 "[Transhumanism] is a movement that we have to put our money, our resources, and our time behind, because everybody's life is at stake. This isn't just for transhumanists."

9:14 "Transhumanism is one of the most humanitarian movements out there."

10:31 "What was once a movement somewhat based on science fiction, and the promise of the future, is now based on reality."

10:49 "Transhumanism is really about merging into machines, because that's where a lot of the longer life will be, because machines of course don't wear down like biology does."

11:15 Zoltan's chip implant in the hand.

12:20 Bio-hacking and genetic editing.

13:18 Having a chip implant is not legal or illegal yet: "It's such a new technology [...] that it hasn't been approved."

15:17 "If Transhumanism and the radical science movement are able to stop death or stop aging by the year 2030 - which many experts think could be possible, I'm not saying it will be, but it could be,- if we can stop death by 2030 versus the year 2050, in that time we could save the deaths of 1 billion people. We never had such a humanitarian social movement as Transhumanism ever."

16:23 Money ridistribution: take money away from financing wars and put it into the science.

17:26 "Our brain is 3 pounds of meat, on our shoulders."

17:50 "Unfortunately, when [the government] decides to fight wars in Afghanistan instead of fighting wars against cancer, everybody loses."

20:06 Is there actual evidence that with radical science & technology we can defeat death? "These studies have already been done. These chemicals, these pills, and these kinds of essentially fix-it solutions for stopping aging are out there. But they're just taking forever to get through our Federal Drug Administration. [...] The proof is already out there."

22:16 Will we have enough wisdom to manage these super powers?

22:24 "I'm not the best person to ask about the worries of Transhumanism or the critical points, because I'm an optimist."

22:55 "The reason that people live a lot longer, the reason people live a lot better, the reason we have more prosperity across the world, the reason that we don't die from just simple things like cavities, is because of people that push radical technology and science forward."

23:17 Responding to the critics and skeptics of Transhumanism: "There's some caution that always has to be built into the system."

25:10 "I care about the human species, and I don't like to see anybody suffer. I'm trying to create a social movement based on real science and real technology, that can help lives and make it so that human beings don't ever have to suffer, or have to suffer dramatically less. And that's really what Transhumanism is about at the core."

25:41 As we merge with machines, are we going to lose our sense of humanity?

26:42 Quantum archeology and 3D bio-printing: "Quantum archaeology is kind of the frontier of Transhumanism, if you were gonna imagine it like that, the undiscovered land."

27:25 "With enough computer power, we might be able to reverse engineer certain parts of the universe."

28:31 "There are entire transhumanist groups out there that want to 3D bioprint every person who has ever lived on planet Earth and bring them back to life."

= = = Places, books and organizations mentioned in the interview = = = 

3:39 Moore's law
7:38 National Geographic
7:53 Vietnam
8:44 Zoltan's novel "The transhumanist wager" (2013), a "Top 5" Amazon book, #1 bestseller science fiction & fantasy, #1 bestseller philosophy, winner "Fiction Visionary - International Book Awards": https://www.amazon.com/Transhumanist-Wager-Zoltan-Istvan/dp/0988616114
12:55 HIV vaccines
17:51 Aghanistan
20:44 Carmat, a French startup producing the first auto-regulating, bioprosthetic artificial heart: https://www.carmatsa.com/en/