We have previously announced that the Transhumanist Party will be supporting an independent candidate in the UK national elections next month, and are now glad to announce that this will be a founding party member, Alexander Karran, in the seat of Liverpool Walton.

An unofficial public statement placed Amon Twyman, the TPUK party leader as our candidate of choice. However, as part of our ongoing campaign strategy it has been decided that the party can be most effective by fielding and supporting a single candidate at this time, and that this candidate be someone who lives in a safe electoral seat.

Why run in a safe seat?

It may seem strange to put up a candidate in a seat where everybody already knows the result. A seat that hasn’t changed hands in decades. Why would we do that? Don’t we want to change the world for the better? Of course we do, but we don’t think a single independent MP could achieve this goal, even if we could get them elected just weeks after the Party’s launch. Our goal in the short term is to spread core Transhumanist Party ideas with a view to increasing public awareness of the Party for future electoral campaigns.

Every five years, people naturally take their chance to ask who will take care of local matters like their roads, hospitals, and schools. Between elections, however, people begin to think of the bigger picture… and the bigger picture is that they are very unhappy with politics and politicians. The world is changing fast, and our political system cannot keep up.

We want to start a conversation with the people of Liverpool Walton and the world about that bigger picture, and people who live in a safe seat can afford to do that at election time. Alexander knows the area and its people, and can have an honest conversation with them about the things that need to change and what the Transhumanist Party can offer to effect that change. People can even vote for the Transhumanist Party, and help us spread word that it is time to start thinking about the future and a new way of doing things, without worrying that their vote might be wasted.

Stay tuned for more news!

Updates and news from the campaign will be posted in this blog, at the TPUK website (http://transhumanistparty.org.uk), and across international TP web presences. Stay tuned, and join the conversation!

Alexander Karran: Biographical information

Alexander Karran was born in 1973 in Liverpool, where he has resided almost continuously until this day. Alexander is a published academic and has recently completed a PhD in Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University in August 2014. The focus of his research was physiological computing, which is a multidisciplinary area of research encompassing neuroscience, psychophysiology and computer science.

Alexander previously earned an MSc with distinction in Computer Network Security, with a research focus on cyber security and social network analysis and an undergraduate degree in a computing subject.

Alexander currently consults for a recent start-up in Singapore that focuses on wearable computing and e-health and works in the area of cognitive neuroscience at Edge Hill University in Merseyside.

Alexander is a founder member of the Transhumanist Party and co-founder and research consultant of the Transpolitica think tank, headed by David Wood.

Alexander is a keen follower of current trends in accelerating technologies and their potential to transform human behaviour and society. He also stands for the Transhumanist ideal that technology can and should be used to transcend human limitation in all its forms.