Searching for the Tech Bro Villain
I see a lot of online discussions these days about transhumanism. More and more, people are waking up to the idea and starting to wonder about it. There have been ardent followers for decades now, and in general I’ve found that Transhumanists are a proud, curious bunch who believe that aging is a disease that must be cured. They don’t necessarily want to control the world, but they do want to control their own destiny and aren’t concerned whether anyone might not agree with them. When I suggest there are plenty of us uninterested in immortality, especially if it involves machine augmentation or necessitates being forever beholden to a pharmaceutical solution, the transhumanists I’ve met scoff. “Who in their right minds wouldn’t want to live forever,” they argue.
Well, me, for many reasons.
In the summer of 2010, I had a dream. I’ve documented this dream before but for those who aren’t familiar with my story, here it goes again. In this dream, I’m a man wearing a smartly tailored suit. I’m running through a city at night with a platinum blonde woman beside me. We aren’t panting, we’re not tired, but we’re very, very frightened. Block by block, the lights in the city are going out, as if someone has pulled the plug. Soon, the city will be covered in darkness. As we approach the last block of the city, beyond which is nothing but a dark unknown, I realize why we’re afraid—we are robots and need power to survive. Someone has turned off the power in this city and we are doomed.
This dream haunted me for months until finally, I realized I had to write the story of that man and woman—who would eventually come to be known and Dawn and Adam—eHumans living in Neuro, a network where there every thought and action is monitored and controlled by the World Government for all of eternity, or until their batteries run out of power.
The eHuman Trilogy has it’s own history, one that includes two publishers, an agent breakup, and a ten-year gap between books two and three, but it is now available in it’s entirety on Amazon, Audible, and my website (see link below). What has been most interesting as a science fiction writer is watching actions that I wrote about take place in the real world. We are accelerating toward a transhuman future, have been since the advent of electricity, and often I get questions from readers about how I see things playing out. What do I think of Optimus, Elon’s latest innovation? Will ChatGPT replace all knowledge workers? Most importantly, who is Edgar Prince in our world?
For those who haven’t read the eHuman Trilogy, Edgar Prince is the bad guy. The one who manages to convince the global politicians of the world to force eHumanity on the population by offering them immortality without letting them know that he would control their every movement once they “Jump” into his great gift of health and eternal wellness. In reality, it’s probably impossible that one person will be responsible for convincing every major government in the world to implement the transhumanist future, but those who are suspicious of the tech bros of Silicon Valley as well as the biotech companies clandestinely working on modifying our genetics, are not wrong. I didn’t base Edgar Prince on one specific Bro, rather he’s an amalgamation of many of them. Mix a serving of Peter Theil, a dash of Elon, touch of Marc Andreessen, a pinch of Jeff Bezos, a whiff of Steve Jobs, ½ cup of Bill Gates, and then run it through whatever cyborg inhabits the Mark Zuckerberg bot and voila, Edgar Prince.
Which is why I’m often looking at politics and in particular global trade agreements like for example, the current TikTok debate, with a keen eye. Where is Edgar now? Who is playing his role? What is he up to, for they’re definitely on the move here. I was particularly interested in the differences when it comes to AI and technology between Harris and Trump, trying to figure out which administration is more likely to enact the next important steps toward a networked society from which we can’t unplug. In the end, all I can report is they both are, but from different angles. The terms Republican and Democrat do not mean anything to anyone except voters who think it matters. The rest of us understand that the elites are a Uniparty, at the moment united on war as a means of securing natural resources, whether it be labor or minerals and metals. Yet over time the desire to dominate us, no it’s more like a deep craving to control our very souls, is growing within them. Eugenics to the highest degree—immortal man plugged into a network it can never escape, owned and operated by a global government. We will be completely freed from disease; all we must do is pay the price of also being eternally programmable.
The Great Shift is Coming, Are you Ready to Jump?
The eHuman trilogy explores many angles and solutions to immortality. If there is any moral lesson in the story of Dawn and Adam it’s this: First, the desire to live forever and conquer disease will be pursued by many and have several different solutions, both biological and mechanical, and second, the freedom to refuse any said technology must be a fundamental right. A Transhumanist Constitution should be created to deny the government the executive power to force any of it on us. This of course is easier said than done and while the Uniparty is aligned with their purpose to pursue transhumanist solutions, there are slight differences on how this transition happens, depending on whether conservatives or liberals are in office. So here’s what I think our two parties have to offer us over the next ten years, depending on who is in control in the USA.
THE DEMOCRATS—TOTAL AUTHORITY
I realize this will get me in trouble with many of those I consider dear, but in studying the Democrats the past ten years and their relationship to emerging technologies both computer and biotech, it is very clear they will prefer the authoritarian path. Fundamentally, the Biden Administration, along with their Democratic colleagues in the Senate and House, took the position that they must limit the number of companies working on AI and other cloud services like social media and cryptocurrencies as internet evolves. Moreover, those few companies granted permission to develop would need to submit to the strictest of federal rules, follow their guidelines for what was considered proper speech and proper employment even, and allow the FBI, CIA, and other agencies full access to their work and us, the consumers of their products.
Tech billionaire Marc Andreessen has been very vocal about this ever since the election, revealing the various techniques from debanking to internal pressure from the Administration on CEOs to include fact checkers handpicked by the government. Mark Zuckerberg’s recent admission that he would no longer allow the federal government to dictate speech rules on his platform also proves the Biden Administration was behind much of the online censorship over the last four years, deplatforming and shadow banning accounts mandated by federal criteria. Authoritarian tech bros like Bill Gates guide the Democrats in this way, as well as many leaders in the biotech industry who stand to earn the most, but also truly believe that they are protecting us from ourselves.
Moreover, the handling of Covid revealed that Democrat voters and politicians are united around the strictest of mandates, maintaining that for public health reasons we do not have the right to reject masks, lockdowns, and medical treatments such as vaccines. For that segment of the population, forcing any sort of transhumanist technology on the population will be justified, for the good of all. How can you allow yourself to get sick, age, and die? Why would you be such a burden on society? Your carbon body is an ecological threat, a machine existence is better for the planet. You do not have the intelligence to make this decision on your own, therefore off you go to the local Lifestyle Management Office to order up your new eHuman body. Don’t worry, it’s best for all of us.
In this worldview, I do not believe they will allow a Transhumanist Constitution granting us the right to opt out and we are all going to Jump whether we like it or not, and nothing, not even our very thoughts, will be ours.
THE REPUBLICANS—HOW DO WE MAKE THE MOST MONEY ON THIS?
In this case, I don’t think the voters and their leaders will unite. The more religious conservative will reject transhumanism, as was shown by their rejection of all the Covid mandates. They have a deep instinct to not trust authority, but also many religions teach that death is a part of life. They have a framework to cope with death that many secularists don’t. If you’re pro-life, you’re automatically anti-transhumanism. Thus, these will be the first people to say no to any attempt to turn us into robots or unite our minds with AI.
However, in a twist of fate I think was largely driven by the authoritarian approach of the Biden Administration, the Republican party is where the majority of the tech bros now align themselves. They probably always aligned themselves as Republican, or at least Libertarian, they are businessmen after all, but pretended to be progressive and liberal in order to satisfy all the wealthy venture capitalist wives. Hard to get a VC to open his purse if his wife thinks you’re a fascist Republican. However, when Elon Musk came out of the closet this past summer and granted his money, time, and talent to the MAGA cause, the tech bros in Silicon Valley breathed a sigh of relief and launched the truth-telling stage we now find ourselves.
The current Republicans seem like the party most likely to support a Transhumanist Constitution that protects the freedom of choice, and on the surface, it would appear we dodged a bullet when it comes to a future autocratic techno-dystopia, but I’ll be honest, I’m not so sure. Of course, Elon Musk alone, with both his Neuralink and robotics program, gives me great pause. I mean, he’s following Edgar Prince’s script to a T. Is he likely to use these technologies to enslave us? If so, how? He seems like one to believe in choice and the freedom of speech, and I would assume that will extend to the freedom of thought, but is that even possible? Once you put in a Neuralink chip, you need the network to survive. He’s got the ear of the current president, what will he do with that? I imagine they will both seek the path that makes them the most money, but what does that mean for our children? For whatever seeds the Trump Administration plants now will sprout in the future, under a different leader. How will they be used when Trump and maybe even Elon are long dead?
Yet Musk isn’t the only one in this camp to be wary of. Peter Theil, the famous Palantir investor (among many other things), has backed JD Vance, the up-and-coming leader of the GOP. I have the gut feeling that Mr. Vance will win over America in 2028, I could be wrong but there’s a 2004 Obama air about him within the party. The next four years will tell, and while he’s a religious, pro-life man, he’s also a Silicon Valley insider who has made lots of money investing in the very technologies that already rule us. How far will Peter’s influence go? What are Theil’s interests anyway? I can only hope Mr. Vance, a LOTR fan himself, remembers that not all the seeing stones have been accounted for.
Where does the cyborg Mark Zuckerberg stand in the transhumanist story, he who has received a major glow up this past year, I mean he has curly hair now and a bit of color to his skin, like he might have gone out in the sun. Did Elon make him a new form? Is this his MAGA look now that the age of fact checking is over? Don’t rule this guy out, I think he’s just starting to play.
It may appear like I’m unable to take a side and that’s the point. I don’t think there’s a side here, rather there are many intelligent, wealthy, and innovative people who, as in the case of Zuckerberg and Musk, can easily switch political alliances as it suits their business model. It’s important to track where they go, who they support, and whom they fund. At the moment, it appears the tech bros are rallying behind the new administration because Trump has said he will open up innovation in Silicon Valley, remove the censorship, and allow them to go hog wild with AI and crypto. For them and our economy, this is probably a good thing. It is also good for the media who is at the moment trying to figure out this new landscape. However, in my heart I sense that no matter who is the president, we are in for a transhumanist future of some sort, and I imagine this will lead to several different communities, not necessarily based on nationality but rather whether or not you opted in to the networked future or what type of augmentation you choose. In some ways, this is already happening. We have bifurcated our political lives, it’s only a matter of time before we bifurcate physically as well.
Thank you so much for reading. If you’re interested in the eHuman Trilogy—Bootstrap, Quantium, and Reboot by Nicole Sallak Anderson can be found on Amazon and Audible. You can also follow my essays on the intersection between consciousness and technology on my website as well as Medium @NSallakAnderson or Substack @nicoleanderson. My stack is called “A Bedroom with the Bees.” I also made a slideshow about eHumanity: