Zoltan Istvan is a former journalist, political candidate, entrepreneur, bestselling author, and founder of the US Transhumanist Party. He has been on this podcast twice before when we discussed Istvan's presidential campaign and his bestselling novel The Transhumanist Wager. During this 1-hour conversation with Zoltan Istvan, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as the challenge of doing graduate school at Oxford, Quantum Archaeology; Trump, transhumanism, politics, and conflict; the Immortality or Bust documentary; microchipping refugees and selling off public lands; the ethics of doing damage now in the hope of fixing it later; technosolutionism and why Technology is Not Enough; longevity, entrepreneurship, and healthcare; the distinction between a body with a brain vs a brain with a body; the timeline to AGI, mind-uploading and indefinite life extension. As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation, or become a patron on Patreon.

My thirties started off in countries ravaged by environmental destruction and dictatorships. Back then, I was a journalist for National Geographic, spending most of my time abroad, even though I still called Los Angeles--my birth city--home. In the 100 countries I visited, I reported on some harrowing stories: the Killing Fields in Cambodia, the near total deforestation of Paraguay, and the tense nuclear stand-off between India and Pakistan. I always hoped my words and on-camera television commentary brought some sanity and peace to the chaos. While on assignment in Vietnam near the demilitarized zone, a near-miss with a landmine that could have been catastrophic sent me back home to the safety of the United States.

I recently consulted with the US Navy on all things "transhuman." In those conversations about how science and technology can help the human race evolve beyond its natural limits, it was clear that military is keen on replacing human soldiers with both fighting and peacekeeping machines so American military lives never have to come under fire or be in harm's way. However, it's the peacekeeping technology that is particularly interesting for many civilians. While you wouldn't want an armed Terminator in your home, you might like a robot that travels with you and offers personal protection, like a bodyguard. In a survey by Travelzoo of 6,000 participants, nearly 80 percent of people said they expect robots to be a significant part of their lives by 2020 -- and that those robots might even join them on holidays.

A square-jawed Presidential candidate with an embedded RFID microchip in his hand which opens doors for him, riding around the United States in a coffin-shaped vehicle called the "Immortality Bus," sounds like a scene out of a David Foster Wallace novel. That he wants you (yes, you!) to live forever. "The number one platform that we have at the transhumanist party and in my campaign is trying to overcome death with science and technology," Istvan told Digital Trends. "That is the central premise I've been running my campaign on." Like Donald Trump, 43-year-old Istvan is funding his own campaign.

Zoltan Istvan believes that artificial intelligence will advance in 10 to 15 years. Such progress, according to the transhumanist politician, will address all of the concerns of the human civilization, including the slowing down or blocking of the aging process through the combination of technology and human selves. For Istvan, the likelihood does not include in the field of weird science fiction. He thinks that artificial intelligence, which is a computer brain that is capable of doing anything which humans do, is about to come soon, and that the US should develop it first. He noted that the government must have a plan in order to deal with it before the "arms race of civilization" arrives.

Most of us carry a tracking device around with us every day in the form of the mobile phones, but some people are going further and having microchips embedded in their bodies. Now the US Navy has grown so concerned over the practice that is drawing up an official policy to help it deal with personnel who have chips implanted. Officials consulted with American presidential candidate and'transhumanist' Zoltan Istvan to discuss the implications of fitting humans with microchips to enhance their powers. Officials from the US Navy met with US presidential candidate and'transhumanist' Zoltan Istvan to discuss the'merger of humans and machines'. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is already working on microchips that can be implanted into soldiers' brains to make them more resilient to warfare.

You'll read these next three paragraphs in my voice. Better get busy reading, or get busy dying. On June 14, America escaped from the primary season. All the wardens found was a "Make America Great Again" hat, a hollowed-out copy of "Hard Choices" and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub. I remember thinking the nominees would be decided by mid-March.