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<br /> <keyword id="3159297" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Zoltan-Istvan">Zoltan Istvan</keyword> is a writer, philosopher, futurist and a candidate for the 2016 US Presidential Elections, running for the <keyword id="2818875" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="transhumanist-party">Transhumanist Party</keyword>, a movement that believes technology has the power to transform the human mind and body.<br />
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And, while the media is fixated with the likes of Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, Istvan is busy staging a rather bizarre campaign as a third-party candidate.<br />
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And, his companion is a bus-shaped coffin that he’s going to be driving.<br />
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According to Istvan, his campaign will revolve around dedicating himself to stopping death- for him and for his loved ones.<br />
<br /> He believes that death is a policy issue that needs to be overcome and what better way to achieve that if not by cruising around in a gigantic <keyword id="3159300" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="coffin-on-wheels">coffin on wheels</keyword>?<br />
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The old school bus now converted to look like a coffin on wheels has been aptly christened ‘The Immortality Bus,’ and was paid for by a crowdfunding campaign.<br />
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Talking to BBC about the origin of my campaign, Istvan chatted about how as a journalist with the National geographic, he was of the opinion that life would be all fun. But, then came the day when he was standing atop a landmine in Vietnam and his guide tackled him in the process throwing him down and saving his life.<br />
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“It was then that I had decided,” Istvan recounted.<br />
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What’s refreshing about him is the fact that he openly admits that the bus is a stunt designed to give him the news coverage he requires for his aim, and the fact that it seems to be working is giving him much joy.<br />
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And, what’s his aim, you ask? To eradicate death and everyone in America to live forever.<br />
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Unlike other presidential candidates who claim that they are quipped to deal with issues related to immigration, Iran and the eeconomy, Istvan has far more ambitious goals.<br />
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Image credit: BBC<br />
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Meet the Presidential candidate who’s
driving a bus-shaped coffin across America

<p><em><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/billionaire-jeffrey-epstein-in-cambridge-ma-on-9-8-04-news-photo/589141200?adppopup=true">Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></p><p class="caption">Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in Cambridge, MA on September 8, 2004.</p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></em></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Convicted sex offender <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/famous-people-jeffery-epstein-money-manager-sexual-trafficking-connected-2019-7">Jeffrey Epstein</a> reportedly told scientists he wanted to <a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epstein-seed-human-race-dna-by-impregnating-women-2019-7">"seed the human race"</a> with his DNA by impregnating 20 women at a time at his New Mexico ranch, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html">The New York Times</a>.</li><li>The idea may be connected to Epstein's interest in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-transhumanism-2013-12#still-smaller-devices-could-latch-on-to-our-neurons-to-enhance-our-cognitive-functions-or-even-make-a-complete-copy-of-our-brain-27">transhumanism</a>: the belief that the human brain and body can and should be artificially enhanced using modern <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> and technology.</li><li>Epstein reportedly discussed the New Mexico baby ranch idea with various scientists, but there is no evidence that he acted on it.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged earlier this month with trafficking dozens of underage girls, reportedly told various scientists in the early 2000s that he wanted to <a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epstein-seed-human-race-dna-by-impregnating-women-2019-7">"seed the human race"</a> with his DNA, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>Epstein said he'd do this, The Times reports, by impregnating 20 women at a time at his ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico.</p><p>There is no evidence to suggest that Epstein took any steps toward making this vision a reality. But the idea reportedly stemmed from Epstein's interest in tge philosophy of transhumanism: The belief that people can (and should) artificially enhance the human body using modern technology.</p><p>Transhumanists herald genetic engineering and artificial intelligence as promising ways to improve human performance. <a href="https://humanityplus.org">They advocate</a>, essentially, for the use of technology - including nanomedicine, robotics, brain-computer integration, and more - that alters typical human physiology in order to better our body and brain.</p><h2>Epstein was fascinated with transhumanism</h2><p>According to The Times, Jaron Lanier, a pioneer of virtual reality, remembers talking to a NASA scientist who said Epstein's New Mexico baby ranch idea was inspired by the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank in Escondido, California. The sperm bank operated from 1979 to 1999 and was incorrectly rumored to contain only the sperm of Nobel laureates.</p><p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epstein-seed-human-race-dna-by-impregnating-women-2019-7">Jeffrey Epstein reportedly told scientists he wanted to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at his New Mexico ranch</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Uma Sanghvi/Palm Beach Post via AP,</span></p><p class="caption">In this July 30, 2008 photo, Jeffrey Epstein, center, appears in court in West Palm Beach, Florida.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz also told The Times that Epstein once brought up the topic of how humans could be improved genetically at a lunch that Epstein sponsored.</p><p>Epstein's dual interest in furthering his own DNA and "improving" the human gene pool plays into the biggest criticism of the transhumanist ideology: that it's on par with eugenics.</p><p>Eugenics is the science of deliberately breeding human beings to increase the likelihood of certain characteristics. It's associated with Nazi ideology - the party favored blond, blue-eyed, Aryan people and used the idea of eugenics to justify genocide.</p><h2>Transhumanism's political legacy</h2><p>Many transhumanists, however, are interested in other ways to improve human performance that don't have to do with altering the gene pool.</p><p>Prior to the 2016 election, for example, presidential candidate <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/ZoltanIstvan.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zoltan Istvan</a> promised to work towards halting aging and death by merging technology with human biology. Istvan founded the <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/Platform.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Transhumanist Party</a>, a political party focused on using science and tech to solve major problems facing humanity.</p><p>Istvan sees aging and death as the biggest plagues of our time, and thinks technology offers a cure. He supports, for example, the use of bionic organs as transplants when natural organs fail.</p><p><em><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Guger-Technologies-OG-mindBEAGLE/e72b2e54b225499ea0650e0d49c2eecf/8/0">Florian Voggeneder/Guger Technologies/Reuters</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></em></p><p>"I think people have just been conditioned to believe that this is just a natural part of existence, that that's the program," Istvan <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zoltan-istvan-running-for-president-as-transhumanist-2015-8">previously told Business Insider</a>. "And so our job is to uncondition that. To tell them actually it was the program until we reached the 21st century and now all of a sudden we realize that with genetics and bionics and robotics that we have a real chance of stopping death and treating it as something much more similar to a disease than some natural phenomenon."</p><p>Cryonics, the controversial process of freezing a body with the goal of bringing it back to life later, also has a place in transhumanist thinking. Currently, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-embryos-survive-th/">it only works for human embryos</a>. But according to The Times, one unnamed transhumanist said he and Epstein once chatted about cryonics, and Epstein said he'd want his head and penis frozen.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-deepmind-ai-artificial-intelligence-taught-itself-walk-2017-7">Google's DeepMind AI just taught itself to walk</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Jeffrey Epstein reportedly wanted to 'seed the human race with his DNA' as part of his fascination with transhumanism. Here's what that means.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>If you see a gigantic coffin on wheels cruising into your town in the coming months, take it as a good sign.</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That's the Immortality Bus, captained by</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> transhumanist presidential candidate <a href="http://www.zoltanistvan.com/" target="_blank">Zoltan Istvan</a>.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">To transhumanists like Istvan, death is a problem - a policy issue - to be overcome.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">What better way to raise awareness of that than with a coach-sized coffin?</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Istvan, who says that he has "a solid 85%" chance of living forever, is planning a nationwide bus tour on the way to a stop at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, where he's dropping off a "cyborg bill of rights." </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But first, <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/immortality-bus-with-presidential-candidate-zoltan#/story">he's raising $25,000</a> in an Indiegogo campaign to build the tricked-out bus. Once the funding period ends, Istvan plans to depart from San Francisco just weeks later with a crew of futurists, doctors, activists, and journalists. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"We aim to replicate the great American bus tours of the 1960s, but in the 21st Century," he tells Business Insider. "We'll have robots, drones and a biohacking lab on board. Lots of fun stuff!" </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">To Istvan, transhumanists are people who want to use science and technology to radically improve human life and experience. He estimates that between 1 to 3 million people around the world identify as transhumanist, with about 150,000 of them in the US. About 90% of the movement is under 35.</span></p><p dir="ltr">The transhumanist party has 65 people involved, including four officers, twelve advisers, and five managers. Everyone is a volunteer.</p><p dir="ltr">The platform has three pieces: </p><p style="padding-left: 30px;" dir="ltr">  Funding: Get people to spend resources on overcoming biological aging and death.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;" dir="ltr">  Culture: Spread a pro-science culture that organizes around increasing the quality of human life.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;" dir="ltr">  Existential risk: Raise awareness that an asteroid could hit the planet, and recognize that artificial intelligence could have negative consequences.</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Istvan doesn't think he has a serious shot at becoming president next November. But in 2020 or 2024, the possibility of the Transhumanists becoming a third-party on par with the Greens or the Libertarians starts to become a little more plausible. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That's because, according to Istvan and other futurists, technology is improving at an exponential rate. Google chief engineer Ray Kurzweil <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ray-kurzweil-law-of-accelerating-returns-2015-5">has said that </a></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"as exponential growth continues to accelerate into the first half of the twenty-first century ... it will appear to explode into infinity, at least from the limited and linear perspective of contemporary humans."</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Today it's a new smartphone. Tomorrow it's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-make-a-genetically-edited-human-2015-3">designer babies</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-3d-printed-organs-offer-ultra-realistic-practice-models-2015-3" target="_blank">3D-printed organs</a>, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/when-artificial-intelligence-turns-scary-2015-5">the potential arrival of self-aware artificial intelligence</a>, culminating in the moment <span>- often called the Singularity <span>- </span></span> when mechanical intelligence supplants human intelligence.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">These aren't exactly the topics you'd hear from mainstream 2016 candidates.</span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>"I'm not under any delusion that we're going to win the election - we're struggling to get onto state ballots" Istvan says. </span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>But "as the future gets quicker and comes at us faster, the transhumanist party is going to grow," he says. "When you look at some of the other politicians, like Hilary or Jeb Bush, they simply are not addressing the questions that are going to be relevant in the future: they're not going to touch the concept of designer babies, they're not going to touch the concept of how to use artificial intelligence in the military." </span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>But Zoltan and the transhumanist party he founded will address all of these issues. </span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>"By 2024 if we can get bigtime investors and Silicon Valley people on board," he says, "we might have a shot at affecting <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword>." </span></p><p dir="ltr">To donate to the campaign, check out the <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/immortality-bus-with-presidential-candidate-zoltan#/story" target="_blank">"Immortality Bus with Presidential Candidate Zoltan"</a> on Indiegogo.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/map-shows-how-religion-spread-around-the-world-2015-6">This animated map shows how religion spread across the world</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="F5aHR4dTob1y4-cHP5qNzXITGcq1vPVW" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

This futurist presidential candidate is about to drive a bus-sized coffin across America

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Lisa Memmel</span></p><p class="caption">Zoltan Istvan is a the founder of the Transhumanist Party, a political party that sees science and technology as the solution to most of the world's problems.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Taxes, climate change, the wage gap. These are just a few of the issues that both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are expected to tackle during their campaigns. </span></p><p>But presidential candidate <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/ZoltanIstvan.html" target="_blank">Zoltan Istvan</a> has another policy issue at the top of his list: death.</p><p>Istvan is the founder of the <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/Platform.html" target="_blank">Transhumanist Party</a>, a political party that seeks to make longevity research just as big of an issue as social security or immigration.</p><p>For Istvan, aging and death are the biggest plague of our time. And science and technology are the cure.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"A big part of my own campaign is that aging is actually a disease and not something natural," Istvan told Tech Insider. "In the 21st century to not be using science and technology for everyone's direct health and longevity is something that should not be allowed anymore."</span></p><p>Unfortunately, the government doesn't see it this way and is investing very little in longevity research, Istvan said.</p><p>So the 42-year-old is setting out across the country next month to campaign on the platform of using technology to live forever. But his bus tour will be a bit more flashy than the rest.</p><p>Istvan - along with some embedded journalists, scientists, and other transhumanists - will be touring the nation in a converted RV disguised as a coffin - a reminder that the Grim Reaper is coming unless we take action to stop it.</p><h2>"We have a real chance of stopping death"</h2><p>Istvan and his supporters will kick off their tour in the so-called "Immortality Bus" on the west coast, stopping in cities across the nation sounding the alarm that there are not enough resources currently being invested in fighting death.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Zoltan Istvan</span></p><p class="caption">Istvan is currently working on transforming this  RV into the "Immortality Bus."</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Istvan, like other transhumanists, said he believes that merging technology with human biology can radically extend life. For example, using bionic organs as transplants when our natural organs fail. But this kind of life extension technology will only become possible when people demand that more money be spent on longevity research.</p><p>"I think people have just been conditioned to believe that this is just a natural part of existence, that that's the program," Istvan said. "And so our job is to uncondition that. To tell them actually it was the program until we reached the 21st century and now all of a sudden we realize that with genetics and bionics and robotics that we have a real chance of stopping death and treating it as something much more similar to a disease than some natural phenomenon."</p><p>For the fiscal year of 2015, Congress allocated about $609.3 billion or 16% of all federal spending to the military. Total federal funds invested in the sciences was just $29.81 billion, or .78% of the same lot. And just a tiny fraction of that, if any, is being spent directly on things that qualify as longevity research, he said.</p><p>"We are not spending any of the money directly that could make us live considerably longer. For example, robotic hearts or 3D printed organs," he said. "There are things we can do out there if we just had the money if the scientists just had the resources, that they could tackle."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Rachel Lyn</span></p><p class="caption">The final design of the "Immortality Bus."</p></div><p></p></div></div>Istvan said that with an investment of $1 trillion in longevity research, the aging process could be stopped in just a decade. And in 20 years, researchers could even be capable of reversing the process, he said.</p><h2>The "Transhumanist Bill of Rights"</h2><p>Eventually, Istvan's bus party will make its way to the nation's capital to deliver a bill that requires the government support a longer lifespan via science and technology.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/David Becker</span></p><p class="caption">Istvan says he hopes his campaign forces other candidates to address policy issues related to technology.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"We are going to end in DC, walk up the steps of the US capitol building and deliver what we consider a Transhumanist Bill of Rights," he said. "There needs to be some type of mandate that says it's illegal to stop or not put forth resources into this type of science, because by not putting money and resources into this type of science you are effectively shortening people's' lives."</p><p>For example, when George W. Bush vetoed bills related to spending federal funds on stem cell research during his presidency, transhumanists would consider that a crime, Istvan said.</p><p>While Istvan acknowledges that he doesn't have any real chance of winning, he said he does hope that his audacious campaign gets a conversation started among other candidates about the future of technology in our country.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"When you are a third-party candidate, half of what you do is entertainment to be honest because you are actually trying to spread a message knowing you have very little chance of winning," he said. "I know it's probably going to fall on quite deaf ears, but we are going to deliver it nonetheless." </span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/animated-map-states-vote-presidential-elections-2015-7">This animated map shows how the states voted in every presidential election since the Civil War</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="5oM2UydjoV-Si1Ui-V0VQIkiWDy2TEBG" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

This guy is running for president with the goal of using science to cure death and aging

<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Zoltan Istvan plans to cheat death by uploading his brain onto a computer server. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Zoltan is part of a growing movement of people who are trying to become immortal using the internet, writes Jamie Bartlett in his new book, "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Dark-Net-Jamie-Bartlett-ebook/dp/B00K0M6JQC">The Dark Net</a>."</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">They call themselves transhumanists, and they believe technology can help humans overcome their fundamental physical and mental limitations.</span></p>
<p>"<span>Based on current trends, I hope to upload my mind at some point around the middle of this century," he tells Bartlett, which would allow his mind to live on long after his body dies. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Zoltan's quest for immortality is not wholly selfish. As a former war correspondent for National Geographic, Zoltan traveled to Vietnam to learn more about the country's "bomb diggers" - ex-farmers who can make a fortune digging up and selling the salavaged metal from unexploded landmines. </span></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">One day, Zoltan almost stepped on one of these landmines, and this near-death experience led him to dedicate his life to transhumanism. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"The incident permanently seared itself into my psyche," he wrote in the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoltan-istvan/a-tedx-talk-on-beauty-and_b_6118898.html">Huffington Post</a>. "<span>It triggered a response that I am still passionately pursuing today: the goal of eliminating human death and suffering."</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Indeed, Zoltan is quick to tell Bartlett of the many ways humanity would benefit if everyone turned their brains into computer files, from increasing our intelligence to reducing our carbon footprint. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Dr. Anders Sandberg, one of the world's leading experts on mind uploading, agrees: "whole brain emulation," as he calls it, will solve many of humanity's problems. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">For one thing, it will eliminate our fear of death. Bartlett describes an amusing scene in which he begins choking on noodles while having lunch with Sandberg, who muses that if Bartlett's mind were backed up on a computer chip it could simply be re-uploaded onto a synthetic body. "</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Ha! You see?" Sandberg exclaims. "You need a back-up. Everyone needs a back-up. What a waste of human life and potential, to die choking on noodles!"</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Dark-Net-Jamie-Bartlett-ebook/dp/B00K0M6JQC">Buy Bartlett's book here to read more about the lesser known aspects of the internet</a><span>. </span><span><br /></span></span></p>

These People Want To Use The Internet To Live Forever - Here's How

<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Over 100,000 people die each day globally. Why&#xa0;don't more of us consider cryonics&#xa0;<span>-&#xa0;</span><span>the practice of freezing the clinically dead in the hopes of bringing them back to life at a later date&#xa0;</span><span>-&#xa0;</span>as a way to avoid death? </span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><span class="s1">As part of my 2016 US <a href="http://www.zoltanistvan.com/"><span class="s2">Presidential</span></a> campaign representing the transhumanist party,&#xa0;&#xa0;I had a chance to stop in at&#xa0;<a href="http://www.alcor.org/"><span class="s2">Alcor</span></a></span><span class="s3"> Life Extension Foundation,&#xa0;</span><span class="s1">t<span>he world's best-known&#xa0;cryonics facility, to find out.</span></span></span></p><p class="p1">You've probably seen cryonics<span>&#xa0;</span>before. Hollywood loves to use it in movies. Mike Myers (as Austin Powers), Woody Allen, and Mel Gibson are just some examples of people who have been "frozen" on the big screen.&#xa0;</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><span>Cryonics - and the field of life extension - has also been in the news a lot lately. A recent </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/us/cancer-immortality-cryogenics.html?_r=0"><span class="s2"><em>New York Times</em></span></a><span> article featuring an Alcor patient generated <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/09/ny_times_sounds_cautionary_note_on_selfdecapitation_freezing_of_brain.html">discussion</a> across the <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/what-happens-to-body-when-frozen-with-cyronics-2015-9">Internet</a>.</span></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Most cryonicists would not call frozen patients <em>dead</em>. They say patients are temporarily beyond the help of modern medicine, and that cryonics is the final attempt to provide&#xa0;emergency healthcare. Cryonics, they argue, is actually&#xa0;saving&#xa0;a patient by buying them time for science to catch up to the point where they can be revived. </span><span class="s1">&#xa0;</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">"Death is not a moment, but a process, where an individual goes from a state of health, through many steps which end up becoming irreversible by modern means. It is not an absolute event. It is almost entirely dependent on the skills and means of the rescuer, and as we know, those skills and means improve over time," says Christine Gaspar, a RN and President of Cryonics Society of Canada and CEO Biostasis Canada.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">I visited Alcor&#xa0;<span>while traveling cross-country&#xa0;</span><span>aboard my&#xa0;</span><span class="s2"><a href="http://www.techinsider.io/presidential-candidate-zoltan-istvan-gets-an-rfid-chip-implant-2015-9">Immortality Bus</a>&#xa0;(a campaign bus that resembles a coffin).&#xa0;</span></span><span class="s1">&#xa0;Dr. Max More, a philosopher and the CEO of Alcor, gave me and my <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/"><span class="s2">Transhumanist Party</span></a> volunteers a private tour at the nonprofit's&#xa0;Scottsdale, Arizona facility.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Check it out in this&#xa0;video from Roen Horn:</span>&#xa0;<div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><span class="s1">One thing that struck me about Alcor was its size. It's not a small shop housing a few dead people in big steel tubes. It's a giant medical facility, complete with offices, surgical bays, laboratories, conference rooms, and of course, a large, highly secured hall for the cryonic tanks, known as&#xa0;dewars.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>More oversees many of the cryonics procedures, and has a medical and scientific advisory board to look after&#xa0;operations. His team includes medical doctors, paramedics, and surgeons. 138 patients have been placed in cryonic suspension at Alcor so far.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><span>Among these patients are baseball legend Ted Williams, transhumanism advocate </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM-2030">FM-2030</a><span>, and James H. Bedford, PhD., the first patient to be cryopreserved back in 1967.</span></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">"FM-2030 is a good friend of mine," More tells&#xa0;me.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">That comment made me wonder about the immense challenges and commitment of being responsible - literally -for the existence of one's good friends. It seems overwhelming, but More, a fit 51-year-old, is up to the challenge. He is a steward for the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoltan-istvan/the-culture-of-transhuman_b_7022406.html"><span class="s2">transhumanist</span></a> community - overseeing the bodies of friends and their families as they grow too old for science to help them. He acts as their guardian, advocate, and spokesman.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">The process of cryonics begins with signing up for the service and gaining membership at Alcor or one of the&#xa0;other few cryonics facilities in existence. Ideally, a patient dies&#xa0;near a cryonics facility, so that they can be&#xa0;immediately cooled and prepared.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This is the ideal condition for&#xa0;diffusing cryoprotectants in the brain:&#xa0;Cooling the patient down to liquid nitrogen temperatures in the most controlled method possible, so that brain neurons containing&#xa0;memories and (hopefully)&#xa0;identity can be protected and preserved.</span></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Many cryonicists wear "dog tags" or other identifying jewelry that show they require cryopreservation immediately after pronouncement of death - and medical professionals are supposed to respond to that. Dr. More told me one person even had instructions tattooed on himself so that they could be easily seen. Patients that aren't transported to a cryonics facility within a few hours of death are thought to not be preserved in ideal conditions.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Patients are placed in a bath of ice for transport and infused with chemicals to help preserve their cells and tissue structures in a process called vitrification. This, hopefully, eliminates the formation of ice crystals that can puncture cell walls and destroy the cells themselves. Later, either the&#xa0;head or whole body (depending on the preference of the patient) is transferred into a giant dewar filled with liquid nitrogen. Preserving just your&#xa0;head at Alcor is about half the price of the body, coming in around <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140821-i-will-be-frozen-when-i-die"><span class="s2">$80,000</span></a> plus minimal annual fees.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"></span><span class="s1">The science at Alcor and in cryonics is constantly improving, according to&#xa0;More. He tells me the new techniques they've been using the in the last 10 years are better at staving&#xa0;off <a href="http://bigthink.com/videos/why-cryogenics-is-bogus">the ice crystals</a> that scientists suggest might lead to damage of the brain.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Some experts believe that patients could be revived in as&#xa0;little as 50 years, though there is no definitive way to prove this.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">When I first began my <a href="http://www.immortalitybus.com/"><span class="s2">Immortality Bus</span></a> tour, I considered transforming the bus into a cryonics dewar to raise attention to life extension issues. But so&#xa0;few people knew about cryonics that the bus's effect on the public would be muted. So I chose to make my bus look like a coffin, and most people get it right away.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Because I'm in excellent health, and cryonics is expensive, I haven't signed up yet. However, More told me that <a href="http://www.cryonics.org/resources/life-insurance">life insurance</a> can help provide financial means to get the cryonics procedure done. Now I'm set on signing up for cryonics before my presidential campaign ends, in hopes of bringing attention to this small but potentially life-changing industry.&#xa0;</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">When I asked More why more people don't sign up for cryonics, he shrugged and said, "I don't really know. You would think everyone that likes living would be interested in this. But so far few people have signed up."</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"></span><span class="s1">As an aspiring politician, I advocate for government policy that specifically protects citizens'&#xa0;lifespans. Today, cryonics is the only hands-on treatment I know of that has a shot a preserving the lives and minds of the people we love. If people could become more comfortable with the idea of cryonics as&#xa0;emergency medicine rather than simply&#xa0;"freezing the dead," then I think it might become a much larger industry.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><em><span class="s1">Zoltan Istvan is a futurist, 2016 <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/ZoltanIstvan.html">US Presidential Candidate</a> of the </span>Transhumanist Party, and author of <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/%22http://www.amazon.com/The-Transhumanist-Wager-Zoltan-Istvan-ebook/?tag=TIsafetynet-20">The Transhumanist Wager</a>.</em></strong></p><div class="margin-top popular-video"></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/overpopulation-consequences-facts-economy-environment-2015-10">8 scary facts about a world with 11 billion people</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="hyb21ndzrNHSlpnWIHm951ej97E1rkqo" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

I visited a facility where dead people are frozen so they can be revived later

<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">The 1960s were about peace, love, and drugs. I believe the next decade will be about virtual reality, implants, and transhumanism.</span></p><p class="p1"><span>Even though I was born after the 1960s, I've always been fascinated with that era. Some people credit </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/aug/06/lsd-ken-kesey-pranksters-film">Ken Kesey's </a>cross country bus trip as helping to spawn a generation of hippies. My <a href="http://www.immortalitybus.com/"> Immortality Bus</a> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/futurist-presidential-candidate-zoltan-istvan-is-driving-a-giant-coffin-across-america-to-defeat-death-and-win-the-white-house-2015-7">trip</a> - a cross-country bus journey to spread the word about my <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/">Transhumanist Party campaign</a>&#xa0;for the 2016 U.S. presidency, along with the need for a pro-science and longevity culture - aims to stir up the national consciousness as well.</p><p class="p1">My goal is to usher in a cultural shift to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoltan-istvan/can-transhumanism-overcom_b_7433108.html">transhumanism</a> <span>- the idea that human capacity can be enhanced by technology.</span></p><p class="p1"><span>To start, I got a chip implanted in my hand.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"></span><span class="s1">Because the first stop of the bus tour was at a biohacker event in&#xa0;</span>Tehachapi, California, called GrindFest, a lot of&#xa0;us had chipping and implants on our minds. The founder of GrindFest,<span> biohacker Jeffery Tibbetts, gave implants to j</span>ournalist <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/9/11/9307991/biohacking-grinders-rfid-implant">Dylan Matthews </a>and myself&#xa0;-specifically, glass-encased<a href="https://dangerousthings.com/shop/xnt-ntag216-2x12mm-glass-tag/"> Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) NFC chips</a>, which can store information and unlock devices, among other things.</p><p class="p1"><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">This&#xa0;involved a simple&#xa0;60-second injection procedure.&#xa0;The implant was placed into our hands through&#xa0;a thick and slightly intimidating needle.&#xa0;I was a little worried about getting it at first, but Rich Lee, a biohacker advisor to the<span>Transhumanist Party,</span>&#xa0;told me it was&#xa0;safe and I would barely feel a&#xa0;thing.</p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">He was right. The procedure was quick and mostly pain-free.</span></p><p class="embed-spacer"><span class="s1">Given the name of my presidential coach - the Immortality Bus - it's no&#xa0;</span>surprise that the&#xa0;primary goal of most transhumanists is to eliminate biological&#xa0;death altogether. Some gerontologists believe we are just decades away from that time.</p><p class="p1">Aubrey de Grey, c<span>hief scientist at SENS Research Foundation and the Transhumanist Party anti-aging advisor,</span>&#xa0;told <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/us-ageing-cure-idUSTRE7632ID20110704">Reuters</a> in 2011, "I'd&#xa0;say we have a 50/50 chance of bringing aging under what I'd call a decisive&#xa0;level of medical control within the next 25 years or so."</p><p class="p2"><span class="s1">My friends and I laughed when comparing&#xa0;our bus&#xa0;</span>trip to the trips of the '60s. Instead of taking LSD and wandering&#xa0;around the desert speaking to plants (something I've done before), we shot&#xa0;up implants and tried waving&#xa0;our hands across cars that might&#xa0;start up&#xa0;<span>- without keys&#xa0;<span>-&#xa0;</span></span>when recognizing the RFID chip.</p><p class="p2"></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p class="p1">Someone at the GrindFest could&#xa0;actually do this with his chip. T<span>here was also a skull implant on display promising biohackers </span><span>the ability to</span><span>&#xa0;listen to music wirelessly, and</span><span>&#xa0;people&#xa0;</span><span>sliced</span><span>&#xa0;open their fingers to get&#xa0;magnet implants so they could have the "sixth sense" of feeling metal around&#xa0;them.&#xa0;</span></p><p class="p1">With my implant, I wondered if I might&#xa0;somehow control the 4-foot robot that travels around with&#xa0;us on the bus.&#xa0;</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">My bus tour aims to celebrate this growing&#xa0;tech landscape, but more&#xa0;</span>importantly, it also aims&#xa0;tackle&#xa0;serious issues.&#xa0;<span class="s1">As one of the youngest 2016 US presidential candidates, I know America&#xa0;</span>can do better than it is. I know we can transform this country&#xa0;into a scientific and education&#xa0;powerhouse.</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">It doesn't mean we have to give up a strong economy. Rather, it&#xa0;</span>means we turn bomb factories into medical research labs; we turn&#xa0;prisons into universities that offer free education; we divert spending on&#xa0;wars into spending on science. And if fighting is your thing, we can still fight&#xa0;trillion dollar wars, but let's fight them against cancer, diabetes, heart&#xa0;disease, aging, and even death.</p><p class="p1"></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Lots of radical tech already surrounds us. Consider t</span>hat today the blind can see via <a href="http://gizmodo.com/bionic-eyes-can-already-restore-vision-soon-theyll-mak-1669758713">bionic eyes,</a> the paralyzed can walk via&#xa0;exoskeleton suits, and the limbless can grab a beer and drink with artificial&#xa0;limbs that connect to their nervous system. Science is rapidly making the world a better place, and it's eliminating suffering and hardship along the way.</p><p class="p1">In 10 or 15 years, we might even be giving ourselves brain implants.</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">It sounds futuristic. But at the end of the day, after getting my RFID chip implant, we were still traveling around in a nearly 40-year-</span>old bus. After the GrindFest we cruised to Las Vegas for <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/article/2982817/security/presidential-longshot-at-ctia-2015-promising-nothing-less-than-immortality.html">my next speech</a>, listening to cassette tapes from my youth on the way. I put on The Doors, and thought maybe the generational gap isn't as wide as it seems.&#xa0;</p><p class="p1"><strong><em><span class="s1">Zoltan Istvan is a futurist, 2016 <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/ZoltanIstvan.html">US Presidential Candidate</a> of the </span>Transhumanist Party, and author of <a href="%22http://www.amazon.com/The-Transhumanist-Wager-Zoltan-Istvan-ebook/">The Transhumanist Wager</a>.</em></strong></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vetigel-future-band-aid-joe-landolina-2015-8">A 17-year-old invented an ingenious way to instantly stop bleeding</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RxZG9ydjqgyK1IPZ_NkeN_yfKMvNeFQc" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

I just got a computer chip implanted in my hand - and the rest of the world won't be far behind

The World Transhumanist Association (<keyword id="60248" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="WTA">WTA</keyword>) has provided a formal definition of <keyword id="1928718" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="transhumanism">transhumanism</keyword>: “The intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and <keyword id="2743741" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="psychological-capacities">psychological capacities</keyword>.”<br />
<br /> In practice, <keyword id="2743742" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Transhumanists">transhumanists</keyword> support the possibilities of improving (and engineering) of human beings that has become possible because of technologies such as gene therapy, nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science. Additionally, transhumanists also believe that other speculated future technologies like simulated reality, artificial intelligence, super intelligence, mind uploading, chemical brain preservation and cryonics (the low temperature preservation of animals (including humans) who cannot be sustained by today’s medicines, with the hope that healing and revival may be possible in the future). They believe that humans can and should use these technologies to become more than human.<br />
<br />
<strong>Reception and critics in the West</strong><br />
Most objections to the ideology of transhumanism argue that it represents the extreme (and to them, unacceptable) human attempt to substitute themselves for God. In 2002, the Vatican issued a statement called <em>Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God</em>, in which it is stated that "Changing the genetic identity of man as a human person through the production of an infrahuman being is radically immoral". The same statement also argued that the creation of a superhuman or spiritually superior being is "unthinkable", since true improvement can come only through religious experience. <br />
<br />
Liberal and left-leaning critics in the modern Western Academy have also attacked transhumanism for other reasons. In his 2002 book <em>Our Posthuman Future</em>, Liberal economist and philosopher Francis Fukuyama identified transhumanism as one of the world's most dangerous ideas. He said that it may undermine the egalitarian ideals of democracy through a crucial modification of human nature itself. Left-leaning German philosopher Jürgen Habermas argued (in his 2003 book The Future of Human Nature) that embryo-stage genetic modification would undermine moral autonomy of the species-ethic (as the latter would become subject to another's unilaterally imposed specifications). Other critics have argued that attempts to significantly alter human biology also threaten the social order. <br />
<br />
<strong><keyword id="2743740" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Transhumanism-in-India">Transhumanism in India</keyword></strong><br />
When one considers the number of problems confronting India – ranging from medicine (drugs, care for disabled people, genetic diseases, etc.), agriculture (low-yield crops, pests) and fields – the kinds of sciences and technologies that transhumanism specifically supports sound very promising. Because there are any number of these problems in India that could potentially be alleviated by adopting a number of these very promising technologies. <br />
<br />
Another reason that is cited for the potential success of transhumanist technologies in India is that Indic religions are perceived to generally be more open to the idea of human improvement (through technology) than Western Christianity. Zoltan Istvan (founder of the US Transhumanist Party and candidate for the 2016 US Presidential election on behalf of this party) says, “Many transhuman goals, like trying to overcome human death, go against the grain of Western religions and their sacred texts. But Hinduism, Buddhism, and various other Eastern religions can be conducive for transhumanism and its goals.” <br />
<br />
Another circumstance that is often cited by world transhumanists and futurists (that apparently makes India a fertile place for such an ideology and technologies) is very interesting indeed.  India offers a great deal of freedom to science and technology companies for them to do creative work. “In the United States, for example, it takes sometimes a decade to get a drug or certain type of technology approved by the government, into production, and then into the public's hands. In India, there is far less scientific bureaucracy and government approval. It is felt that, due to these reasons, transhumanist technologies will probably grow a lot faster in places like India rather than in the West”, adds Istvan<br />
<br />
<strong>Will this ideology survive, gain traction, or succeed wildly in India?</strong><br />
There is no doubt that transhumanist technologies have the potential to solve or at least alleviate a great many of India’s contemporary problems. To a certain extent, a lot of the creative energy being expended by Indian scientists and technologists (in fields such as medicine, genetics, agriculture) are certainly contributing to this effort. Indeed, some of the supposedly beneficial circumstances (such as the bureaucratic one cited by Zoltan Istvan) may even seem charming. However, perhaps we will need to wait and watch with skepticism what is actually achieved by these technologies on the ground. We will have to be on our guard, just as M. K. Gandhi was during his time. Where ever there are specific instances of success (such as in genetic medicine or certain genetically-modified crops) we should be grateful for those achievements. <br />
<br />
However, whether we adopt such technologies (and such an ideology) in toto – I think that some of M. K. Gandhi’s skepticism would be handy – and we should certainly adopt it for now.<br />
 <br />

Transhumanism in India: Between faith and modernity

<p>Sex has been getting <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sex-technologies-2012-11">an assist from technology</a> ever since <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/03/31/a_brief_history_of_the_condom_partner/" target="_blank">the first condom was invented</a> some hundreds of years ago.</p>
<p>But until recently, the role of electronics in our erotic lives has been relatively modest; a sext here, a vibrator there, mostly minor variations on the classic sex act, or masturbation, or the transmission of images or videos of ourselves engaging in one of the above.</p>
<p>That's about to change. The coming decades will bring innovations in intercourse that will make even the seasoned among us blush.</p>
<p>Scroll down for 7 of the most unbelievable inventions that could transform sex as we know it, from the imminent to the fantastical:</p>
<h1 class="p1">1. Oculus Rift + Leap Motion</h1>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>The Oculus Rift could transform the way we experience a lot of things, including <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-oculus-rift-vr-oculix-2014-8">watching TV and movies</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/oculus-rift-could-transform-the-shopping-experience-2014-3">shopping</a>, and even <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/oculus-rift-living-with-lag-2014-5">time</a>. The 3D virtual reality headset, and others like it, will offer an immersive experience unlike anything we've ever seen outside of <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> fiction.</p>
<p>Combining a VR headset with a technology called Leap Motion, which allows the user's hands to interface with the virtual world instead of using a controller, will elevate the experience to the point that it's indistinguishable from reality. The Daily Beast reports that such immersive, realistic, customizable porn <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/18/welcome-to-oculus-xxx-in-your-face-3d-is-the-future-of-porn.html" target="_blank">could be available as early as 2015</a>.</p>
<h1>2. Tactile feedback suits</h1>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Virtual reality will bring a new level of visual immersion to the pornographic experience, but even that thrill will wear off without the experience of touch. So much of the sensuality of sex comes from touching and being touched - and soon, we'll be able to experience that virtually, too.</p>
<p>Also known as haptic suits, wearable garments that simulate touch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcsA_7Ffaow" target="_blank">are already being developed for gaming purposes</a>, and more lurid applications can't be far behind. It's not difficult to imagine two lovers, wearing full-body haptic suits and VR headsets, exploring each other's bodies while hundreds of miles apart in reality.</p>
<h1>3. Robotic exoskeletons</h1>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Tactile feedback is great for virtual reality, but some people will always prefer the real thing. For the sexual adventurer who has everything - except superhuman stamina and flexibility - a tactile feedback-equipped exoskeleton might come to the rescue.</p>
<p>Panasonic <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/173463-worlds-first-affordable-powered-exoskeleton-is-almost-here-prepare-for-mech-wars" target="_blank">plans to release the first commercial exoskeleton next year</a>, with a price tag of about $5,000. While early models will no doubt be clunky and decidedly unsexy, future versions will become streamlined and lightweight, offering would-be sexual cyborgs the greatest stamina enhancer since Viagra.</p>
<p>Scientists at the Harvard Biodesign Lab are already working on <a href="http://biodesign.seas.harvard.edu/soft-exosuits" target="_blank">a soft exosuit that can be worn under the clothing</a>; if it succeeds, there's no reason one couldn't make one for wearing in lieu of clothes.</p>
<h1 class="p1">4. Extra robotic limbs</h1>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Here's where things get very strange indeed. <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-transhumanist-future-of-sex" target="_blank">Futurist Zoltan Istvan predicts</a> that developing technology that allows a leg prosthesis to be <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/189746-the-future-of-permanent-fully-integrated-prosthetic-limbs-and-bionic-implants" target="_blank">fully integrated into the musculoskeletal system</a> will be used to enhance the sexual experience.</p>
<p>Istvan also predicts that robotic fingers will soon be equipped with sensors that will make them far more sensitive than their biological counterparts.</p>
<h1 class="p1">5. Brain implants</h1>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>It's been said that <a href="http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0028044/quotes" target="_blank">the brain is the biggest erogenous zone</a>. In his essay in Motherboard, Istvan also suggests that brain implants could enable us to bypass sex altogether, and instead directly stimulate the regions of the brain responsible for sexual pleasure. Conceivably one could do this with a partner, or multiple partners, effectively engaging in a literal orgy of the mind.</p>
<p>Compared to <a href="http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-pentagon-neural-prosthetic-memory-20140709-story.html" target="_blank">the Pentagon's ongoing project</a> to create brain implants to aid in the recall and processing of memory, a sexual pleasure implant seems like a trivial accomplishment. But if such a thing is possible, and can be done safely, there's no reason to think it won't happen.</p>
<h1 class="p1">6. Bioports</h1>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>As far as ideas sure to trigger visceral revulsion in some, bioports are pretty high on the list. The idea of using bioports to interface directly with machines has been floating around in science fiction for a few decades, and it doesn't appear it's likely to become a reality in the near future.</p>
<p>But <a href="http://hplusmagazine.com/2009/10/09/sex-and-singularity/" target="_blank">that's not discouraging in the least to Alex Lightman</a>, futurist and executive director of Humanity+, an international transhumanist organization. He looks forward to a world in which "men and women will interpenetrate each other, multiply, and, as with USB 2.0 daisy-chaining, so will men, women, and androids be able to multiply-interpenetrate, locally or remotely."</p>
<h1 class="p1">7. Group minds</h1>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Although collective minds are invariably portrayed as sinister in science fiction, futurist and Second Life resident Extropia DaSilva <a href="http://hplusmagazine.com/2009/10/09/sex-and-singularity/" target="_blank">looks forward to a day</a> when we'll be able to upload ourselves into cyberspace.</p>
<p>If that's possible - and to be fair, it's <a href="http://io9.com/you-ll-probably-never-upload-your-mind-into-a-computer-474941498" target="_blank">a big if</a> - DaSilva thinks that virtual lovers could merge wholly with one another, becoming one ideal entity.</p>
<p>If so, the idea of marriage, in which two become one, will become rather more literal. Although, for her part, DaSilva doesn't expect monogamy to persist as a norm that far into the future.</p>

7 Coming Technologies That Will Radically Transform Sex

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>A lot was going on during the week of March 22, 2004.</p><p>"Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed" was the No. 1 movie in the US. "Yeah!" by Usher, featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris, was at the top of the music charts.</p><p>And 21-year-old Neil Harbisson was getting a metal antenna surgically implanted into his skull.</p><p>A total of 4,189 days have passed since that surgery, and not a single one has gone by that Neil, now 32, hasn't spoken to at least one person on the street about the long, curved cable that slopes over his head. Sometimes it's a rude comment strangers spit at him, Neil told me recently. Sometimes they're genuinely curious.</p><p>That has to be exhausting, I say.</p><p>"Yes," he&#xa0;sighs. "But I have to get used to it."</p><p>There is a name for people like Neil, who are part human and part machine.</p><p>Neil is a cyborg.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">As a cyborg, Neil is one of an uncounted, though growing, population of people who hope to extend the paltry five senses we humans are gifted at birth. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Generally speaking, cyborgs&#xa0;want to experience a heightened reality. Some put <a href="http://www.popsci.com/swedish-company-puts-rfid-chips-employees">microchips under their skin</a> to replace lock-and-key entries of their homes and cars. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/07/tech/brain-memory-implants-humans/">Others use brain stimulation</a> to improve their focus.&#xa0;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Neil, a British-born, Catalan-raised musician and activist&#xa0;who now lives in New York City, has decided his antenna - known as an Eyeborg - will be his ticket to higher planes.&#xa0;</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Once simply a tool to help him overcome his congenital color blindness, the antenna has been upgraded over time.&#xa0;The camera on the end picks up nearby colors and converts the light waves into corresponding sound waves, whose frequencies Neil has memorized. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Neil still can't <em>see</em> color, but he says the antenna lets him hear and feel it.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The most recent upgrade came in 2013, when Neil's sensor got rewired to pick up Bluetooth. Now that he has an internet connection, Neil can sync the sensor with external devices in the same way a smartphone can play&#xa0;music wirelessly through a speaker. He&#xa0;says this enables him to&#xa0;receive color from other parts of the world - or completely outside it.&#xa0;</span></p><p>"There's someone in Australia now that could use his phone and send live images of the sunrise to my head. I'd be talking to you now, but I'd be perceiving a sunrise," Neil says. "With my mobile phone I can connect to NASA's International Space Station and perceive the colors live from space."</p><p>Since I am completely unable to conceptualize that idea, I ask Neil to try and clarify what he means by "perceive."</p><p>"To me, color is not visual," he says. "Color is an inner perception. Depending on the combinations of colors, I imagine something visual. So if I hear specific hues that sound very similar to a supermarket, then I suddenly feel that I'm in a supermarket. Or if someone sends the colors of a sunrise, I can imagine and visualize the sunrise because it has a very specific sound."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Mastering that skill is proving tricky.<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"It's overwhelming" he explains. "I have to get used to hearing color permanently, even when I sleep, since the colors from space never stop. I have to get used to that, and I think it will take around two years."</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Once he has that under his belt, he plans to install&#xa0;</span><a href="http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-05/installing-tiny-turbine-bloodstream-could-power-implanted-medical-devices-indefinitely">small turbines in his blood vessels</a><span>&#xa0;so that he can charge the antenna with the energy produced by his own body.</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"The sensor has its own evolution," he says.</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>In the past that has made traveling around the world quiet the hassle.</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"In airports it can be a bit stressful because they don't like technology," he tells me. "So if you <em>are</em> technology, then they don't like you."</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Living in New York City leaves&#xa0;Neil with no shortage of social encounters.</span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>&#xa0;People lob insults from across the street, while kids rush up wide-eyed.&#xa0;</span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Quiet&#xa0;social gatherings suddenly find new life whenever Neil walks in the room. Even if the guy with the antenna isn't talking about it, someone else probably is.</span></span></p><p>And right now, that's what Neil wants: a conversation.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In 2010, Neil co-founded the <a href="http://cyborgism.wix.com/cyborg">Cyborg Foundation</a> with fellow cyborg <a href="http://cyborgism.wix.com/cyborg">Moon Ribas</a>. Moon has a seismic sensor implanted in her elbow that connects to online seismographs. Whenever an earthquake strikes around the world, a vibration lets Moon know.</span><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Neil admits the Cyborg Foundation's stated goals - of helping people become cyborgs, defending cyborg rights, and promoting cyborgism as an art movement - are still in their infancy.</span></p><p>"Interest is not enough," he says. "What we need are people willing to become cyborgs."</p><p>But Neil is anything but pessimistic. Disruptive technology always makes people uneasy.</p><p>In 1551, Swiss scientist Conrad Gessner <a href="https://ceb.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/gesner/gesner.html">panicked</a> that humanity would suffocate beneath the information overload brought on by the printing press. In his 1909 book <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=S3_s8UCXKUcC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=Are+the+Dead+Alive?&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=hBGjU-T9GYX5oASo3YHoBA&amp;ved=0CCQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&amp;q=Are%20the%20Dead%20Alive%3F&amp;f=false">"Are the Dead Alive?"</a> author Fremont Rider questioned whether the voices people were hearing over the phone were actually ghosts. And only until recently, if you used a hands-free device to talk on the phone you were considered a weirdo. (Some still hold that opinion.)</p><p>There's further evidence of early adopters. Futurist Zoltan Istvan is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/futurist-presidential-candidate-zoltan-istvan-is-driving-a-giant-coffin-across-america-to-defeat-death-and-win-the-white-house-2015-7">running for president</a> as a member of the transhumanist party, and he plans on dropping a "cyborg bill of rights" off at the White House. He told Tech Insider that a key element of his platform is "morphological freedom": As in, you should be able to modify your body in any way, so long as it doesn't hurt anybody, as Neil is doing.&#xa0;</p><p>By the late 2020s, Neil expects that cyborgs like him will be in great company.</p><p>"I will be able to walk out in the street, and it will be normal," he says. "Just as it'll be normal to see someone else with a new body part."</p><p><div></div></p><p>That transition may already be afoot with the advent of wearable technology. Even 10 years ago, if you wanted to keep track of how many miles you'd run that day or how many calories you'd consumed, you needed separate devices and the time to tabulate it all. Now you can store that information in your phone, watch, bracelet, tablet, or computer and have the data available immediately.</p><p><strong>"The next stage of wearable technology will be biologically united with us," Neil says.</strong> The internet won't just be this ethereal force that disappears once we put our devices to sleep. It'll be a direct extension of our existing senses.&#xa0;</p><p>To the uninitiated, that idea could sound totally frivolous. Surely the world is awesome on its own, and tinkering needlessly with what comes stock in the human body is both risky and a waste of time. Neil freely admits, for example, that he doesn't want to live forever - <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/how-immortality-and-life-extension-research-could-help-the-world-2015-8">a common goal of the future-obsessed.</a></p><p>The deeper truth is that Neil's goal of advancing his senses is couched <em>directly</em> in his mortality. He knows he'll die. He just refuses to accept the limits of human perception as it's currently presented.</p><p>"Anything you've already seen or heard - if you add a new sense, suddenly reality becomes new," he says. "It's a new way of exploring life."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cyborg-neil-harbisson-antenna-2015-6">This real-life cyborg can hear color</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="kxa3k4czraIxd-5ZYTWPqjOvyMR8P0Ip" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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