As a 2016 U.S. presidential candidate with nearly zero chance of winning, a lot of people ask me why I bother running at all. The answer is simple: The world is about to dramatically change because of radical transhumanist technology—and the most important thing our species can do about it is discuss it beforehand and prepare for it. Despite this unfolding paradigm shift that includes merging with machines and using science to transform ourselves, no major political candidates are even acknowledging such a transformation is happening with the human race. It’s crazy stupid, and it’s also irresponsible. How radical is the science we’re talking about?
As a civilization, we are still highly closed-minded and hopelessly religiously conservative. We need a bill of rights to protect our evolutionary aims. We need to protect people out there who want to cut off their arms to put on robotic ones. We need to support engineers who want to have electroencephalogram (EEG) brain implants installed so they commune directly with AI. We need to make exoskeleton suits for quadriplegics who want to climb Mount Everest. I even know transhumanists who want to become fish—and we must protect their right to do so, even if others want to remain primates. It’s a brave new world. And people who want to do radical things to their bodies and the way they perceive the universe need protection—and that protection must be guaranteed.
