Why Aren’t More People Transhumanists?
Interview with the Chairman of the US Transhumanist Party
I recently interviewed Gennady Stolyarov II, the Chairman of the US Transhumanist Party. In preparing for the interview, it shocked me to realize that less than four thousand people are signed up for the Transhumanist Party. Sure, it’s a fringe movement—particularly as a political movement—but four thousand?
Gennady blames the lack of interest on an awareness gap. “Most people just don’t know what the term ‘transhumanism’ means,” he said. “There’s more knowledge of it among journalists and academics and even politicians. But in terms the general public, most people are focused on their immediate day-to-day lives.”
I think he’s correct, but I’d also say that the transhumanist movement has a branding problem. I can imagine Scott Galloway describing the problem this way: Broadcasting you’re a transhumanist doesn’t get you dates on Friday night. It screams geekiness. To normies, it’s weird. Also it’s confusing because the prefix “trans” calls to mind an entirely different kind of identity.
This branding problem might be insurmountable in the near term (it’s partly why I’ve named my podcast Team Futurism not Team Transhumanism). But I could be wrong.
I put the question to Gennady. What’s the appeal of the Transhumanist Party? And how do you sell the transhumanist movement to the average person?
Gennady responded:
Transhumanism is fundamentally about making life better through pursuing scientific and technological advances. Really, this is a fundamental aspiration of human beings. Most of us are implicit transhumanists. We don’t hesitate to use technology to improve our wellbeing and to broaden our capabilities beyond what they would be otherwise. People who have smartphones, for instance, or people who wear eyeglasses, people who use computers—they’re all implicit transhumanists. But there’s no logical stopping point with these advances. That is to say, in every era of human history, there’s a different level of advancement, and just because people are more comfortable with some technologies than others does not mean by default that somehow those technologies are more acceptable than the others that haven’t yet come into being.
So, in terms of communicating about transhumanism, I would emphasize that this is not a radical break from the past or the present. It is a logical continuation of what humans throughout history have done and have wanted to do for the purpose of improving our lives. If people come to realize that they are already acting as transhumanists in many areas of their lives—by looking to technology for certain solutions—then I think many people would be quite interested. That is a point of common ground that could be found with almost everybody.
Check out our full interview on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube: