''The Transhumanist Wager'' is a 2013

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

novel by American author

Zoltan Istvan Zoltan Istvan Gyurko, professionally known as Zoltan Istvan (born March 30, 1973), is an American transhumanist, journalist, entrepreneur, political candidate, and futurist. Formerly a reporter for the National Geographic Channel, Istvan now wr ...

. The novel follows the life of Jethro Knights, a philosopher whose efforts to promote

transhumanism Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. Transhuma ...

ultimately lead to a global revolution. It was a first-place winner in

visionary fiction Visionary fiction is a fiction genre with New Age or mind, body, spirit themes and perspectives, including consciousness expansion, spirituality, mysticism, and parapsychology. It is sometimes classed as a subtype of speculative fiction. Exam ...

at the International Book Awards.

Plot

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

, 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."Book Review: The Transhumanist Wager, by Zoltan Istvan"
''ieet.org''. After his sailing trip, Knights suffers a devastating personal tragedy at the hands of Christian fundamentalists. At the same time, the

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

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 attack the seasteading city. Transhumania successfully defends itself, and Knights attempts to establish a transhuman-inspired civilization.Giulio Prisco — Kurzweil AI
"The Transhumanist Wager and the terrifying struggle for the future"
''io9''.

Reception

Appraisals of the novel have been mostly positive. Additionally, the subject matter has been enthusiastically received by sites focusing on topics such as the singularity,

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

, and futurist issues."Book review and recommendation: Zoltan Istvan: The Transhumanist Wager"
''Transhumanisten''. Reviewers have compared protagonist Jethro Knights to the character

John Galt John Galt () is a character in Ayn Rand's novel ''Atlas Shrugged'' (1957). Although he is not identified by name until the last third of the novel, he is the object of its often-repeated question "Who is John Galt?" and of the quest to discover ...

, from Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. Others have compared Istvan's book to Robert Pirsig's philosophical novel ''

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ''Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values'' is a book by Robert M. Pirsig first published in 1974. It is a work of fictionalized autobiography and is the first of Pirsig's texts in which he explores his concept of Qua ...

'' or to

Robert A. Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...

's works. ''The Transhumanist Wager'' has been widely debated among futurists and has helped popularize transhumanism. The book has also been criticized by some transhumanists as being overtly libertarian, anti-egalitarian, and

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...

, while agreeing with the aim of life extension and admiring the power of the protagonist. Istvan himself admits that in some ways Jethro arguably goes too far, and that a main purpose of writing the book was to start a discussion in the general public about life extension and transhumanism.

Philosophy

The book introduces the philosophy TEF (Teleological Egocentric Functionalism), Istvan's Three Laws of Transhumanism, and the concept of making a Transhumanist Wager. TEF aims to establish a nonreligious and stronger moral system in people and society needed to successfully contend with coming technological change."Transhumanist Revolution Now! ... an excerpt from “The Transhumanist Wager” by Zoltan Istvan"
''immortallife.info''. Istvan states: Istvan's Three Laws of Transhumanism are: # A transhumanist must safeguard one's own existence above all else. # A transhumanist must strive to achieve

omnipotence Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Transhumanist Wager 2013 American novels Books about capitalism Books critical of religion American science fiction novels Transhumanist books Postcyberpunk novels Self-published books

Plot

Reception

Philosophy

See also

References