World Transhumanist Society

The World Transhumanist Society was a one-man splinter organisation of the World Transhumanist Association founded in 2006 following a falling out by Simon Young with James Hughes, the WTA leader at the time.

History

Following the closure of the Extropy Institute it appears an attempt was made to form a more conservative and libertarian organisation.

Young is probably best know for his 2005 book Designer Evolution: A Transhumanist Manifesto. Young was scheduled to speak at Extrobritannia in September 2006, but turned up over 90 minutes late, after the meeting was due to start, and was unable to speak coherently.

The website existed from approximately June 2006 until March 2011 after which it was hacked by Iranian hackers and the domain lapsed some time after that.

The whole affair can be seen as a precursor to the political differentiation for the 2014 ongoing transhumanist politicisation controversy.

Postions

The one page site referenced disagreements on the extropy-chat mailing list over the matters of:

• Against sentient rights for animals
• Against neurological moral enhancement
• Against class-based social policy (likely technoprogressivism)
• Against global governance and the UN, likely leftist internationalism
• Against state investment in enhancement technology (likely a a technolibertarian position)

Misattributions

Various commentators have confused the World Transhumanist Society with the World Transhumanist Association (now Humanity+) due to their similar names.

External links

• www.worldtranshumanistsociety.com