vault backup: 2026-09-25 23:36:07
This commit is contained in:
parent
f3aadfd333
commit
39c4e2e672
108 changed files with 4656 additions and 172 deletions
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- Transhumanism
|
||||
- NickBostrom
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
- ArtificialIntelligence
|
||||
- Philanthropy
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Humanity Plus
|
||||
- Humanity+
|
||||
- Humanity Plus Inc
|
||||
- Humanity Plus, Inc.
|
||||
- World Transhumanist Association (Humanity+)
|
||||
summary: "Transhumanist membership organization founded in 1998 by Nick Bostrom and David Pearce, later renamed Humanity+, which received Jeffrey Epstein money in 2010 and from his Gratitude America in 2018."
|
||||
start: 1998
|
||||
location: "Glastonbury, Connecticut (registered address)"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Nick Bostrom]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1998
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[David Pearce]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1998
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[James Hughes]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "secretary"
|
||||
start: 2001
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Gratitude America]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "100,000 dollars"
|
||||
start: 2018
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Natasha Vita-More]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "executive director of Humanity+, as of August 2019"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Ben Goertzel]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "director of Humanity+, as of August 2019"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The World Transhumanist Association (WTA), later renamed Humanity+, is a membership organization that promotes [[transhumanism]], the use of technology to overcome the biological limits of human beings. It was founded in early 1998 by the philosophers [[Nick Bostrom]] and [[David Pearce]] and was incorporated as a non-profit in the early 2000s; the [[Internal Revenue Service]] recognized its tax exemption as of February 1, 2003, under employer identification number 01-0575214, now in the name of Humanity Plus Inc of Glastonbury, [[Connecticut]].[^1][^2] In 2010 it received 20,000 dollars from the [[Jeffrey Epstein]] entity [[Epstein Interests]], and in 2018 it received 100,000 dollars from his foundation [[Gratitude America]].[^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Founding and Organization
|
||||
|
||||
Bostrom wrote in 2005 that the association was founded "to provide a general organizational basis for all transhumanist groups and interests, across the political spectrum," and to "develop a more mature and academically respectable form of transhumanism, freed from the 'cultishness' which, at least in the eyes of some critics, had afflicted some of its earlier convocations." Its two founding documents were the Transhumanist Declaration and the Transhumanist FAQ, version 1.0, which Bostrom produced with contributions from more than fifty people, among them Pearce, the [[Extropianism|extropian]] philosopher [[Max More]], the activist [[Kathryn Aegis]] and the Swedish neuroscience student [[Anders Sandberg]]. Its activities were Internet discussion, documents, media work, an annual TransVision conference and the online *Journal of Transhumanism*, later renamed the *[[Journal of Evolution and Technology]]*.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
According to Bostrom, the association "entered its next phase after a meeting in 2001" between the sociologist [[James Hughes]] of [[Trinity College]] in Hartford, the philosopher [[Mark Walker]] of the [[University of Toronto]], then editor of the journal, and Bostrom, then teaching at [[Yale University|Yale]]. Hughes was elected secretary, and "within short order, the WTA adopted a constitution, incorporated as a non-profit, and began building up a vigorous international network of local groups and volunteers." Bostrom put its membership in 2005 at "approximately 3,000 members from more than 100 countries." The [[Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies]] was established in 2004.[^1] By 2013, as Humanity+, the organization reported about 6,000 members in more than 100 countries and more than two dozen chapters, described itself as a 501(c)(3) public charity whose supporting and sustaining members elected its board, and stated that it had adopted the Declaration and the FAQ "developed by WTA."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Epstein Interests and the Hong Kong Project
|
||||
|
||||
The 2010 tax return of Epstein Interests recorded a 20,000 dollar payment to the association, made two years after Epstein's 2008 guilty plea in [[Florida]].[^3] Epstein Interests was one of the Epstein entities to which the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida]] issued grand jury subpoenas on May 31, 2007, alongside the [[Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation|J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation]], J. Epstein & Company and [[Financial Trust Company]].[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
In October 2010 [[OpenCog]], the open-source artificial general intelligence project of [[Ben Goertzel]], announced a two-year project at the M-Lab of [[Hong Kong Polytechnic University]] to build intelligent video game characters, with 380,000 dollars in funding, "the majority of which is supplied by ITF, with a minority supplied by [[Novamente]] in collaboration with Epstein Interests and Humanity+." The project was to be led by the M-Lab faculty members [[Gino Yu]] and [[Wilson Yuen]], with Goertzel overseeing its artificial intelligence work, and to draw graduate students from [[Xiamen University]] in China, where Goertzel was co-supervising an OpenCog robotics project. The announcement described the goal as a "Sputnik of AGI."[^7] [[Natasha Vita-More]], executive director of Humanity+, told BuzzFeed News in 2019 that the Epstein money "was used for AI research" and that "When Mr. Epstein did make a donation to Humanity+, it was long before any news broke about his unethical behavior"; Goertzel was then a director of Humanity+.[^3] In 2009 Epstein's C.O.U.Q. Foundation gave 50,000 dollars to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, now the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]].[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Gratitude America Gift
|
||||
|
||||
In a statement issued in August 2019 Humanity+ said that "Gratitude America, Ltd. made a donation to Humanity+ in 2018" of 100,000 dollars that "did not include Mr. Jeffrey Epstein's name," and that its Schedule B stated the money "was granted to educational research and development of Artificial Intelligence, the ethical use of AI, and increasing awareness of how AI can benefit humanity." It stated that it "had no knowledge of Mr. Epstein's horrific alleged criminal activity, and we strongly condemn it," that "Epstein was never a member of Humanity+, nor affiliated with any known transhumanist organization," and that "Epstein's egocentric ideas about eugenics ardently conflict with the philosophy of transhumanism." The *[[The New York Times|New York Times]]* had reported in July 2019 that Epstein told scientists of plans to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at his [[Zorro Ranch]] in [[New Mexico]].[^4][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Bostrom, Nick. "A History of Transhumanist Thought." *Journal of Evolution and Technology* 14, no. 1 (April 2005), section 4. https://jetpress.org/volume14/bostrom.pdf ; reprint at https://nickbostrom.com/papers/a-history-of-transhumanist-thought/
|
||||
[^2]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Humanity Plus Inc," EIN 01-0575214 (IRS Business Master File extract, ruling date February 1, 2003, subsection 501(c)(3), foundation code 16; Form 990 and 990-EZ filings for tax periods ending June 2009, December 2009 and June 2010), accessed September 25, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/10575214.json
|
||||
[^3]: Aldhous, Peter. "Jeffrey Epstein's Links To Scientists Are Even More Extensive Than We Thought," *BuzzFeed News,* August 27, 2019 (citing the 2010 Form 990 of Epstein Interests, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6188966-Epstein-Interests-2010-990.html). https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-science-donations-apologies-statements
|
||||
[^4]: Humanity+, "Humanity+ Clarification of Epstein Donation," August 4, 2019, archived December 24, 2020, Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20201224085040/https://humanityplus.org/humanity-clarification-of-epstein-donation/
|
||||
[^5]: Humanity+, "About," archived January 16, 2013, Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20130116101752/http://humanityplus.org/about/
|
||||
[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00224943, DataSet 9, "Epstein Investigation Timeline," Exhibit A-1 (U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida), entry for May 31, 2007. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00224943.pdf
|
||||
[^7]: OpenCog, "OpenCog-based game characters at Hong Kong Poly U," October 2010, archived January 22, 2021, Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20210122170135/https://opencog.org/2010/10/opencog-based-game-characters-at-hong-kong-poly-u/
|
||||
[^8]: Stewart, James B., Matthew Goldstein, and Jessica Silver-Greenberg. "Jeffrey Epstein Hoped to Seed Human Race With His DNA." *New York Times,* July 31, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html
|
||||
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue