This Presidential Candidate Thinks Robots Will Take Your Job

Sick of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton? You might consider voting for a third party. There’s Libertarian Gary Johnson who’s doing surprisingly well in the polls and the Green Party’s Jill Stein who’ll be on the ballot in most states but if you want to go further afield, the Transhumanist candidate might be worth a look.

Zoltan Istvan is a journalist, author, Transhumanism advocate and he’s officially running for president. Istvan believes robots will take over most jobs in the next few decades and wants to radically alter the tax system to reflect that. Calling himself ‘the science candidate’, Istvan rejects Judaeo-Christian religions and wants government policies based on science and reason.

Though Istvan and the Transhumanist Party have some popular and reasonable ideas in their platform – campaign finance reform, ending the war on drugs, free public education – the campaign also supports some highly unorthodox positions. Istvan has proposed micro-chipping refugees (and eventually everyone else), ‘genetic editing’ and limiting the number of people from a particular profession who can serve in government.

Istvan has praised bionic body modifications and said he wants to live forever. The campaign has driven around the country in an ‘Immortality Bus’ to promote Transhumanist ideas about beating death. Istvan also believes people will eventually abandon traditional religions and enhance their bodies with technology, curing disabilities and radically altering our way of life. An Istvan administration would invest in research to extend human lifespans and support people’s rights to radically alter their own bodies.

The Transhumanist Party has made some impact in the media. Their presidential candidate has spoken at the World Bank and has been a regular columnist at some high profile sites. But Istvan’s ideas about our cyborg future has also been the subject of mockery. His radical ideas about robot workers and massive social changes seem outlandish to many.

Libertarian candidate and former governor Gary Johnson is doing so well in polls he could manage to get into official debates and win federal funding. The Transhumanist candidate won’t get nearly as much attention. Zoltan Istvan’s dream of a future where robots do all the work and humans are free to seek immortality may never happen.