The Quest for Trans-be-manism
Within a few years of the Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy (ICTLEP) driven by Rothblatt, Frye, Whittle, and Burns, Rothblatt studied for a PhD in medical ethics in London. He was granted a PhD in 2001, based on his dissertation on the conflict between private and public interest in xenotransplantation – any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation or infusion into a human recipient of live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source. He later created a pig farm to harvest organs, in hopes of eventual use in humans. His purpose is everlasting life for humanity by continual replacement of organs as they wear out.
Rothblatt is a tenacious and accomplished individual. He’s worked in Washington, DC in the field of communications satellite law. He has worked for NASA, was the CEO of GeoStar and the co-creator of SiriusXM Satellite Radio
He also led the International Bar Association’s biopolitical (an intersectional field between human biology and politics) project to develop a draft of Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights for the United Nations (whose final version was adopted by the UNESCO on November 11, 1997, and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1998). He has written extensively on the need to overhaul our system of labelling people as either male or female based only on their genitalia, digital immortality and the future of creating humans, new reproductive technology, genetic screening and DNA-mapping.
Rothbaltt not only believes we can live indefinitely, but after meeting Ray Kurzweil of Google and being enamored with Kurzweil’s Singularity theory, created a religious organization, Teresem Movement to promote the geoethical (world ethical) use of nanotechnology for human life extension. Teresam conducts educational programs and supports scientific research and development in the areas of cryogenics, biotechnology, and cyber consciousness. He has worked in partnership with Kurzweil promoting a screen adaptation of The Singularity Is Near.
Rothblatt appeared with his wife Bina, and their daughter, Jenesis on the View, in 2016, interviewed by Whoopi Goldberg (note of interest: Goldberg is the host of a trans reality TV modeling show). There was a fourth member of the family available for interviewing as well. Bina48 is a robot created by Rothblatt who is a replica of his wife both inside and out. It is Rothblatt’s intention to install Bina’s consciousness into his robot and eventually distill it to digital data to live in cyber space indefinitely. He fully believes robots are people without skin – hence the transcendence from “fleshism.”
Rothblatt authored a peer reviewed essay in 2008, published for the Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies, entitled, “Are We Transbemans Yet?” while he was still the head of United Therapeutics. The essay speculates about reinventing our species and coins a new term called beme. He wrote:
The bottom line of this essay is that in an Information Age society the “beme is mightier than the gene.” This means that transmissible units of character or existence are more important than genetic information. For example, most people’s love-mate is a person with whom they share no genetic commonality outside of that which is in the general gene pool of their community. However, a lasting interpersonal relationship is only possible if the two partners share a strong appreciation for each other’s bemes – their characters, natures, and ideational units of existence.
To say the “beme is mightier than the gene” is to disagree with the socio-cultural implication of “blood is thicker than water.” Most people’s strongest relationship, that with their spouse, or with a best friend, is not a blood relationship. On the other hand, bemes are not like mere water. A person builds up his or her bemes over time and evolves them as appears most conducive to an enjoyable life. More apropos than “blood is thicker than water” is “minds are deeper than matter.”
“This essay aims to open our eyes to the fact that because our society is now based upon bemes more than genes it must logically re-conceptualize its species boundary.”