#499 Overcoming Death with Science - with Zoltan Istvan, Author of "The Transhumanist Wager"
Today we’re talking to Zoltan Istvan, author of the book The Transhumanist Wager; and we discuss Zoltan’s goal of overcoming death with science, how people are merging themselves with technology to gain new abilities, and Zoltan’s previous presidential campaign for the Transhumanist Party.
All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
Learn more about Zoltan and The Transhumanist Wager, at http://www.zoltanistvan.com
About Zoltan Istvan:
Zoltan Istvan, an American-Hungarian, began a solo, multi-year sailing journey around the world at the age of 21. His main cargo was 500 handpicked books, mostly classics. He's explored over 100 countries—many as a journalist for the National Geographic Channel—writing, filming, and appearing in dozens of television stories, articles, and webcasts. His transhumanism work has been featured many times in major media. In addition to his award-winning coverage of the war in Kashmir, he gained worldwide attention for pioneering and popularizing the extreme sport of volcano boarding. Zoltan later became a director for the international conservation group WildAid, leading armed patrol units to stop the billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia. Back in America, he started various successful businesses, from real estate development to filmmaking to viticulture, joining them under ZI Ventures. He is a philosophy and religious studies graduate of Columbia University and resides in San Francisco with his daughters and physician wife. Zoltan recently published "The Transhumanist Wager," an award-winning fictional thriller describing philosopher Jethro Knights and his unwavering quest for immortality via science and technology. It was a Top 5 Amazon book. Zoltan writes futurist and transhumanist-themed Op-Eds for various media, including The New York Times. Zoltan is also founder of the Transhumanist Party and ran a successful and widely viewed 2016 US presidential campaign as the party's nominee. In 2018, he was an endorsed Libertarian candidate for California Governor. He also ran as a Republican against Donald Trump for the US Presidency in 2020, getting 6th in the GOP Primaries. Zoltan has used his political campaigns to spread transhumanism and the growing field of extreme longevity to the world. The new feature documentary IMMORTALITY OR BUST on his work can be viewed on Amazon Prime.
About The Transhumanist Wager,
Renowned futurist and National Geographic journalist Zoltan Istvan presents his visionary novel, The Transhumanist Wager, as a seminal statement of our times. Scorned by over 500 publishers and literary agents around the world, his philosophical thriller has been called "revolutionary" and "socially dangerous" by readers, scholars, and religious authorities. The novel debuts a challenging original philosophy, which rebuffs modern civilization by inviting the end of the human species—and declaring the onset of something greater.Set in the present day, the novel tells the story of transhumanist Jethro Knights and his unwavering quest for immortality via science and technology. Fighting against him are fanatical religious groups, economically depressed governments, and mystic Zoe Bach: a dazzling trauma surgeon and the love of his life, whose belief in spirituality and the afterlife is absolute. Exiled from America and reeling from personal tragedy, Knights forges a new nation of willing scientists on the world's largest seasteading project, Transhumania. When the world declares war against the floating city, demanding an end to its renegade and godless transhuman experiments and ambitions, Knights strikes back, leaving the planet forever changed.