Transhumanist UK Campaigns

This page provides top-level coordination for the campaigns and projects of Transhumanist UK.

If you’d like to become more involved in any of these activities, please use this invitation link to join the TranshumanistUK Slack. Two of the channels you’ll find there are:

  • #1-welcome: “Introduce yourself. Let us know more about you: What’s your story? What are you into? Where are you based?”
  • #2-t24: “Coordination of the Transhumanism 2024 campaign.”

Transhumanism 2024

From October 2021 onward, the primary Transhumanist UK campaign is Transhumanism 2024, as described in this video:

Here’s a copy of the slides used by David Wood in that meeting. This includes a page for each of the 15 policy ideas proposed in the talk:

As a reminder, feedback is requested for any of the following points:

  1. Which policies would you prioritise?
  2. Which policies would you remove?
  3. Which policies would you add?
    • Note: Ideally transhumanist-distinctive but otherwise non-partisan
  4. Which policies would you change or reword?
  5. Or would you take a different approach altogether?
  6. How do you think people could help this campaign?

You can provide this feedback in the Slack application mentioned at the top of this page.

As interest in particular areas grows, subpages of this page will be created, to highlight the latest consensus opinions and remaining areas of uncertainty:

  1. From “everyone online” to “everyone empowered”
  2. From “smart city” to “trusted city”
  3. Automation that uplifts rather than deprives
  4. Local superdemocracy and citizens’ assemblies
  5. From GDP to IHSF (Index of Human and Social Flourishing)
  6. A city that flourishes whilst being carbon neutral
  7. Healthcare for open-ended youthful lifespans
  8. Accelerate access to neurotechnologies and psychoactive substances
  9. Selectively embrace genetic editing
  10. Incentivise meat from non-sentient sources
  11. A champion of the transhumanist and cosmist revolutions
  12. Uphold morphological and social freedom
  13. The human right to cryonic preservation
  14. Steer the singularity: Anticipate AI breakthrough
  15. Education fit for the new future: STEM and beyond

Some Frequently Asked Questions

Suggestions are welcome on other questions to be added to this list, or for changes to the answers provided.

Q: Is Transhumanist UK a party or a movement?

It’s a movement, seeking broad changes in public understanding and attitude, but a party too, in order to coordinate different candidates in different elections.

Q: How many cities will the campaign target?

As many as the campaign can find sufficient resources and funds to meaningfully address.

There will be benefits of scale: each new city will have its own unique circumstances, but can learn from what is happening in the other cities in the campaign.

In concrete terms, the campaign’s initial target is London.

Q: How will candidates be selected?

No decision has been taken on that question yet.

Q: How will funds be raised?

By a combination of:

  • Individual donations by supporters
  • A membership drive to raise the number of members in the party
  • Crowd-funding initiatives

Why are there two different webpages for Transhumanist UK?

Q: Will the campaign rent any physical office space?

Not for the time being. The campaign can be organised in a distributed manner, using online resources.

Q: How will the campaign be governed?

A “Campaign Board” is being formed, made up of people with a demonstrated serious commitment to the campaign.

Q: What involvement can people from outside the UK have with this campaign?

People from outside the UK are more than welcome to offer advice and suggestions, and to copy any elements of this campaign to their own parts of the world.

Q: What approach will the campaign take toward partnerships with other parties?

We’re hoping that other candidates will copy and adapt our policies. But we are apprehensive they will do so only in token ways, whilst keeping their main attention on shorter-term issues. That’s why we’ll keep emphasising our distinctive positions.

Possible endorsement of other candidates is a matter for a later time. However, we will avoid anything that positions us as a “clearly right wing” or “clearly left wing” party. We aim, instead, to be recognised as “up wing”.

Q: Is the campaign pro right-wing or pro left-wing, or somehow neutral?

One of the most destructive elements of current politics is its divisiveness. Politicians form into warring parties which then frequently find fault with each other. They seek to damage the reputation of their adversaries, throwing lots of mud in the hope that at least some of it will stick. Whereas disagreement is inherent in political process, what would be far better is if politicians could disagree without being disagreeable.

The campaign recognises important points of merit in both what is called traditional right-wing and traditional left-wing thinking:

  • The former admires the capabilities of a free market
  • The latter admires the safety net of a welfare system
  • The former mistrusts the potential over-reach of politicians
  • The latter mistrusts the actions of profit-seeking corporations
  • The former wishes to uphold as much individual freedom as possible
  • The latter wishes to uphold as much social solidarity as possible
  • The former is keen to reduce taxation
  • The latter is keen to increase equality of opportunity
  • The former points to the marvels that can be achieved by competitive-minded self-made individuals
  • The latter points to the marvels that can be achieved by collaboration-minded progressive coalitions.

Dangers arise when some of these positions are taken to ideological extremes. The superdemocracy concept is intended to allow a more open-minded resolution of contentious debates, in which the best solution often incorporates aspects of solutions from positions that were initially opposed to each other.

Q: What kinds of assistance does the campaign need?

All sorts! This includes people with skills or aptitude for:

  • Developing policy specifics
  • Marketing – both inbound (understanding the community) and outbound (effective communications and other influence)
  • Social media activities
  • Traditional media outreach – journalists, newspapers, radio, TV…
  • Creating and distributing compelling videos
  • Organising and giving talks
  • Raising and managing funds
  • Obtaining signatures of support, from all necessary regions of the city
  • Street campaigning
  • Door-to-door campaigning
  • Developing links with potential supporters and endorsers

Q: From where does the campaign expect to draw support?

We expect people from numerous walks of life, in numerous different positions, to be interested in various proposals the campaign advances.

It will be a matter of further research to determine if particular groups of citizens should be targeted in any high-priority way.

Q: What are good sources of ideas and information about policies and tactics?

Sources relevant to individual policies will be listed on the individual pages addressing these policies.

However, some sources provide generally useful ideas and information, relevant for the kinds of policies and tactics the campaign is considering. They include:

Note: both Tony Blair and Dominic Cummings are controversial, divisive people within parts of the UK. However, it’s important to be able to learn from their ideas, without becoming wrapped up in criticism over particular mistakes they have made.

Q: What is the role of the party’s formal membership scheme in this campaign?

This is to be determined.

Q: How will the campaign protect itself by unwise or unwelcome action by individual enthusiasts or fellow-travellers?

Earlier in its history, Transhumanist UK developed a constitution with measures that were intended to avoid the party being damaged by actions of individual people (or by organised sub-groups). As the campaign becomes serious, it will be prudent to revisit these ideas, and to put them onto a clearer footing.

Q: Why are there two different websites for the party?

This is admittedly confusing. The website in current use is this one, https://transhumanist.uk/. It has a lightweight implementation in WordPress.

An older website, https://www.transhumanistparty.org.uk/, is based on NationBuilder software which includes significantly more functionality, but it was more cumbersome to maintain.

Note that NationBuilder is much more than a website: it is also a database for members, supporters, and more besides. It’s possible that the Transhumanism 2024 campaign team might decide at a later date to switch back to NationBuilder – or to some other tool with support for campaign functionality. On the other hand, WordPress has lots of related functionality these days, which can be further explored too.

Either way, the content of the older website needs to be updated, to point people more clearly to the new site in present use.

Q: Why do the proposed policies contain some that are more relevant to national politics than to city-level politics?

Bear in mind that city mayors can play an important role in shaping the national response (and even international response) to shared issues.

Q: How will the campaign adapt if the 2024 mayoral elections are switched back to FPTP?

That’s what the central UK government have proposed, although the idea has generated lots of opposition.

It would lead, most likely, to us receiving many first-preference votes.

It’s another reason to support the “Make Votes Matter” campaign and to resist the anti-democratic impulses of the present government.

Q: How will this mayoral campaign overlap with a UK general election that needs to be held some time between now and 2024?

That’s a matter for open discussion!

Q: How do we stop the media from abbreviating us to “trans” or “trannies”?

We should define and frequently use another abbreviation for ourselves and our campaign, such as “T24”.

This will reduce the risk of people wrongly assuming that we focus exclusively on transgender issues.

Q: What will “success” look like for this campaign?

Regular, respectful media coverage.

Improved public understanding and appreciation of transhumanism.

Adoption of the campaign’s policies by other candidates, without subsequent loss of attention.

The creation of a springboard to have an even bigger impact on polities in subsequent elections.