/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.5992519]

>You will never be celebrated author, philosopher, and 2016 presidential candidate, Zoltan Istvan.

>At 21, he sailed the world for seven years solo with nothing but 500 classic books.
>Worked as a war-zone journalist
>Shot his own documentaries
>pioneered the extreme sport of volcano boarding
>Stood on a landmine in Vietnam
>Solved the hard problem of consciousness and proved that subjective experience wont always be limited to biological organisms.
>Formed multiple charities and world aid organizations
>Formed his own political party, The Transhumanist Party.

[Anonymous No.5992525]

>>Solved the hard problem of consciousness
lamo

[Anonymous No.5992531]

>>5992519
>The Transhumanist Party.
lol

[Anonymous No.5992556]

yeah but has he gotten dubs on /lit/?

[Anonymous No.5992561]

>>5992525
>>>Solved the hard problem of consciousness
>lamo
He did.

"I have demonstrated, repeatedly, that the so-called "hard problem of consciousness" isn't a problem at all, and only exists as a problem in the linguistic frameworks of undergraduate philosophy students who like to scream 'muh qualia' across the campus at the neuroanatomy students."

--2016 presidential candidate, Zoltan Istvan.

[Anonymous No.5992577]

>>5992519

>Solved the hard problem of consciousness
>Transhumanist Party.


I would really like to make a list of babby's first philosophical opinions:

- Anti-natalism
- Moral skepticism
- Transhumanism
- Hard Determinism
- Skepticism
- Naive utilitarianism


Am I forgetting something?

[Anonymous No.5992586]

>>5992577
absurdism

[Anonymous No.5992587]

>>5992519

Anyone who puts that much value into philosophical concepts is an idiot who can't be taken seriously.

Presidents have to deal with the real world.

[Anonymous No.5992588]

>>5992561

can we end this thread please?

[Anonymous No.5992589]

>>5992519
except when he dies it won't have mattered.

[Anonymous No.5992590]

How difficult is it to become a presidential candidate in the US?

[Anonymous No.5992593]

>>5992577
>babby's first philosophical opinions:
>- Transhumanism
>- Hard Determinism
>- Skepticism

Are you trolling?

[Anonymous No.5992601]

>>5992586

Yeah, that one too.

Also:

- Objectivism
- Naive reductionism
Btw, this is the plot of Istvan's book:


Protagonist Jethro Knights studies philosophy and sails around the world to promote indefinite life extension, desiring to live eternally through medicine, science, and technology. Love-interest and physician Zoe Bach, while sharing Knights' philosophical transhumanism, challenges him with her absolute belief in the afterlife, insisting that death is a part of life. Meanwhile, in America, transhumanists are being targeted and killed by Christian terrorists in cahoots with the popular anti-transhumanist Reverend Belinas.[7]

After his sailing trip, Knights suffers a devastating personal tragedy at the hands of Christian fundamentalists. At the same time, the United States Government becomes more theocratic and criminalizes transhumanist research, prompting Knights to build an independent floating city and sovereign state, Transhumania, so research can be continued. Governments around the world eventually grow afraid of the radical science being created on Transhumania, and they attack the seasteading city. Transhumania successfully defends itself, and Knights attempts to establish a transhuman-inspired civilization.[8][9]


It's literally superfedora-tier

[Anonymous No.5992620]

>>5992593

Nope, they are.

Skepticism as in "can't know nothing" type of garbage epistemology.
Transhumanism is not even philosophy, it's utter shit for futurologists.
Hard determinism at least is theoretically a defensible position, but I'm not saying that none of those positions can be seriously efended, it's just that highschoolers and people not trained in philosophy have an extremely high probability of falling in those categories, while giving horrible arguments in their defense.

Like "but le science" for hard determinism.

[Anonymous No.5992633]

>>5992587
>Presidents have to deal with the real world.
You would think that wouldn't you?

Obama just sunk $3billion into a digital replication of the human brain, and has a personal ethics committee devoted to discussing the interaction of humans with technology and the prospect of digital consciousness.

Zoltan said that $1.4billion could eradicate ebola virus.

[Anonymous No.5992657]

>>5992633

Maybe Zoltan should become president of Africa then, since they actually have a problem with Ebola.

How we're gonna deal with the rise of artificial intelligence is a very real issue.

[Anonymous No.5992670]

>tfw no literary lifestyle

[Anonymous No.5992681]

>>5992601
>transhumanists are being targeted and killed by Christian terrorists

Strangely, transhumanists get the most flak from American Christians. The Christians want to get to heaven through death, but the transhumanists want to extend life in the mortal realm indefinitely, and the Christians seem to hate this.

>>5992577
I wouldn't call transhumanism a philosophy as such, but:

-Nietzschean existentialism
-egoism

[Anonymous No.5992700]

>>5992657
>How we're gonna deal with the rise of artificial intelligence is a very real issue.
I don't think the $3billion was on the ethics committee. But you're right, problems like the the rise of artificial intelligence, and thousands of other technological and bio-tech issues need to be seriously addressed. Yes, I agree, it's time for a party who can shift the discussion in that area. #Zoltan2016

[Anonymous No.5992709]

>>5992519
>At 21, he sailed the world for seven years solo with nothing but 500 classic books.
This is my dream.

[Anonymous No.5992750]

Istvan's Three Laws of Transhumanism are:

1) A transhumanist must safeguard one's own existence above all else.

2) A transhumanist must strive to achieve omnipotence as expediently as possible—so long as one's actions do not conflict with the First Law.

3) A transhumanist must safeguard value in the universe—so long as one's actions do not conflict with the First and Second Laws.


The first two sound a bit sociopathic.

[Anonymous No.5992795]

>>5992750
Istvan's Teleological Egocentric Functionalism:

"If a reasoning human being loves and values life, they will want to live as long as possible—the desire to be immortal. Nevertheless, it's impossible to know if they're going to be immortal once they die. To do nothing doesn't help the odds of attaining immortality—since it seems evident that everyone will die someday and possibly cease to exist. To try to do something scientifically constructive towards ensuring immortality beforehand is the most logical conclusion."

[Anonymous No.5992815]

>>5992795
Obviously has no idea how logic works, fallacy at the first line.

[Anonymous No.5992841]

>"seasteading" the nation of transhumania.

Fuck it, I'd vote for him.

[Anonymous No.5992853]

>Formed his own political party, The Transhumanist Party

>2012+3
>still thinks the political process is effective

[Anonymous No.5992897]

>>5992853
You don't engage in politics because you have no clout. You're a joke to the people who actually make decisions.

[Anonymous No.5993046]

>>5992897
>do what I say or go to jail
>decision making