Reflection of Zoltan Istvan, interviewing on the Anonymous podcast via Skype.
It's been another busy two weeks in my presidential campaign since my last dispatch. My transhumanist run for the presidency continues to grow. It's unlikely to make a technical difference for the elections of 2016, but maybe in 2020 or 2024, a science and technology-based political platform and candidate could end up a top-three finisher.
This week, I made an important announcement in my social media: That I will be voting for myself on November 8th. I may end up advocating for certain candidates near the very end if I think it will help the country forward, but I will vote for myself. And I'll be proud to accept anyone else voting for me too.
My last Huff Post dispatch ended by mentioning Jacque Fresco, a Resource Based Economy, and The Venus Project. This week my main article on Fresco and his longtime partner Roxanne Meadows appeared on the front page of Vice (via Motherboard). So far, it's also been translated in a few languages. Here's a few paragraphs from the story:
How I met Fresco at The Venus Project this month starts with income taxes--something I hate and aim to one day eliminate altogether for humanity. Fresco doesn't like taxes either. While searching online about taxes, I stumbled upon Fresco's voluminous work: over 80 years of essays, filmed lectures, books, documentaries, models, and architectural drawings. Much of Fresco's work is anchored by his main philosophical idea: a resource-based economy, where there's not only zero taxes, but no ownership or money either.
It sounds fanciful, but the more I read about Fresco's work and ideas, the more intrigued I became. Here was a man with a vision, one not dissimilar from my own. The timing of my meeting with Fresco and Meadows was serendipitous. As I neared the end of my US presidential campaign, I was looking to build out the Transhumanist Party's 20-point platform with a more aggressive futurist platform--one that looked not only 10-20 years into the future, as I generally focus on, but one that also examines what could and should happen in 50 years or even the next century.
A home at The Venus Project in Florida -- Photo by Zoltan Istvan
My coverage of The Venus Project led to one of the largest interviews of my campaign--with group Anonymous. In fact, I believe I'm the only presidential candidate to interview with them this cycle. I had a really interesting time doing it. The Anoncast host and I went entirely through my 20-point political platform. I was excited to the do the interview, and I support groups like Anonymous that are striving to make the world better via unconventional means.
Also, via friend Jorge Henrique at ETER9, Portugal's public radio and television channel, RTP, did a story that partially featured my campaign. Special thanks to TV presenters Alvaro Costa and Sergio Sousa at Online 3 for including my campaign in the show.
Part of the reason my campaign has been getting bigger has to do with my recent interview on The Rubin Report. My interview came out in three segments, and one segments delved into stem cells.
Rubin's toughest question was asking me to explain what happened when George W. Bush basically stopped stem cell funding in America for seven years. I'm highly critical of that decision, since Mr. Bush did that for religious reasons. However, Rubin was right to point out that Mr. Bush did not do that to harm people's health. Unfortunately, for the hundreds of thousands who could've used stem cell technology earlier (but the science wasn't there because we were essentially now seven years behind), the reality was that people suffered from that singular decision.
All this brings up a good point that even when Presidents try to follow their conscience, it may turn out that these decisions harm people. It makes me reiterate one of my main campaign points that a first premise of any government and public official must be to always serve the people's health--and not their personal or cultural interest, or their religious background.
Also, my interview with Circa News via Ariel Min came out. Circa has an amazing distribution network, since people all across the country saw Circa videos of my campaign on their local news channels. It aired on various local ABC's, CBS, NBC, and some Fox stations.
One more large TV segment on my campaign came out via CBC's comedy show The Hour has 22 Minutes--a sort of Canadian version of American The Daily Show. The 22 Minutes team flew out to Florida to film me lecturing to University of Central Florida students. The show sometimes gets nearly a million views, so I was excited to be on it. Comedian Shaun Majumder interviewed me for it.
In closing, I should mention two things. 1) The Courier, College of DuPage's student newspaper, endorsed me as the best third party candidate. 2) Transhumanist Party supporter Gerald Shields was publicly appointed council member in Berwyn Heights, Maryland. Shields would be the first Transhumanist Party member in public office.
Immediately after the election, I anticipate some major changes in the US Transhumanist Party as leadership at the top changes and new paths for the party begin.