Why Transhumanism Is Unrealistic and Immoral

“Utopians often produce evil because their movement’s aspirations become paramount—that is, more important than avoiding acts ‘traditionally perceived as immoral.’ If enough people follow Istvan on the transhuman roller coaster, people could eventually get hurt.”

“I’m not afraid of dying. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” – Woody Allen

In 2016, transhumanism proselytizer Zoltan Istvan ran for president promising to defeat death while touring the country in a bus redesigned to look like a coffin. It was a great gimmick that made him, perhaps, the most famous transhumanist in the world.

I know and like Istvan. I admire his indefatigable work ethic that has him writing hundreds of transhumanist-boosting columns and engaging in countless interviews (including by opponents like me). But his recent piece in Merion West “When We’re Overly Optimistic about the Pace of Life Extension Research” took a dark and disturbing turn. He warns that at the current pace of life-extending research, the transhumanist goal of living indefinitely will not be attained during his lifetime (based on a formula he concocted he calls “the senescence inference”). In 2131, he moans, our expected lifespan will “only” be 165 years, and it will take “well over a millennium to attain Methuselah-like lifespans nearing 1,000 years.”

That won’t help Istvan! The prospect of dying so terrifies him that he would detach transhumanism from proper ethical imperatives. Writing that “morality is defined by the amount of time one has to live”—!!!—and insisting that “realistic transhumanists know only that the most extreme measures, acts, and diligence can have a chance to save those alive today”—he justifies “extreme utilitarian acts” as “philosophically justified”—”even those that are illegal or traditionally perceived as immoral, such as civil disobedience, stealing property, and even starting wars…so long as they seem reasonable and tangible measures actually to increase the speedy success of life extension goals.”