Zoltan's Program For America, Adapted For The UK

Backing the wrong horse in the 2020 race

When the Yang Gang eventually became the Biden Gang, I realised that I had backed the wrong UBI candidate for President of the United States. So I took another look at the policy page of Zoltan Istvan and began to wonder if I could adapt his program to suit the needs of the United Kingdom.

Zoltan is probably a hundred years ahead of his time for the USA, but I am much less wedded to the idea of pragmatic politics if pragmatism means supporting a candidate who is clearly and demonstrably worse than the incumbent. As bad as Trump may be, I don’t see Biden as an improvement.

So here is Zoltan’s program for America, adapted for the UK, by yours truly.

Draft a UK Constitution to accommodate technological, cultural, and demographic changes

A British Constitution should:

• Institute a Universal Basic Income funded by a Land Value Tax to permanently eliminate poverty, homelessness, and hunger in the UK.
• Replace the House Of Lords with Direct Digital Democracy — the idea that citizens can vote on policies in real-time using new technologies that the other branches of government must legally consider.
• Create permanent language that assures the government will regularly use resources to protect the country and planet from existential risks, such as asteroids, plagues, climate change, nuclear risk, AI innovation, etc.
• Add a Balanced Budget Clause to prohibit deficit spending.
• Protect morphological freedom in adults (the right to do anything to your body so long as it doesn’t harm others). In the coming transhumanist age, the goverrnment should not be able to limit what we can do to our bodies, regardless of cultural norm, religious bias, or political orientation.
• Declare the eradication of aging and disease to be the national health mission of the United Kingdom.
• Implement ranked choice voting systems and term limits throughout government.
• Create legal mechanisms to more easily and speedily adjust the Constitution to radically changing times and accelerating technology.

Simplification of the tax system

• The abolition of National Insurance Contributions, stamp duties, and inheritance taxes.
• Income tax to be levied at a single, flat rate.
• Close legal loopholes commonly used for tax avoidance.
• Fund the BBC through a voluntary subscription model rather than the current TV License tax.

Legalize all drugs

• End the drug war and legalize all drugs.
• Spend money saved on drug rehabilitation schemes.
• Empty prisons of nonviolent drug offenders.

Downsize government with technology

• Use technology to reduce the size and cost of government administration.
• Replace millions of government jobs with robots, AI, and new tech.

Criminal Justice reform

• Significantly lessen the massive incarcerated population in the UK, by using innovative technologies to monitor nonviolent criminals outside of prison.
• End private prisons, using the remaining real estate for public universities.
• Encourage private industry to develop and support usage of trauma alert technology, AI facial recognition and other recognition technology can notifiy emergency crews of extreme trauma in real-time. This will significantly reduce the millions of yearly cases of domestic violence, crime, medical emergencies, and tragedy in the UK.
• Encourage victims of sexual harassment to immediately report accusations with government authorities.

Create a Universal Basic Income with the proceeds of a Land Value Tax

• Widespread automation is coming. Capitalism will be challenged to its core as inequality grows and human labor becomes obsolete with the rise of automation and software.
• It is time to fully utilize our national resources for the common good of all Britons.

Fixing the environment and dealing with climate change

• A green future depends on disruptive tech. The most efficient way to address our environmental dilemmas, such as global warming, is via technological innovation — not attempting to reverse our carbon footprint or go totally green.
• Strongly emphasize and create radical green tech solutions, like geo-engineering, nanotechnology, and renewable energy — to make the planet healthier.
• Support genetic editing techniques to help replenish endangered wildlife populations and dwindling forests. Trees may be able to be engineered to grow 5-10 times faster in the near future, helping the planet’s greenhouse issues.

Improving the NHS

• Adequately fund the National Health Service on a par with other developed nations, per capita.
• Cut bureaucracy and red tape within the NHS to augement the numbers of frontline staff.
• Reduce price gouging from intellectual property on healthcare equipment and life-saving drugs.
• Provide significant tax and other financial incentives to those who stay fit, healthy, and exercise regularly.
• Reduce regulatory hurdles and timeframes for drugs and medical device creators. Facilitate the creation of experimental medicines to those severely ill with little testing required.
• Prohibit laws interfering with citizens’ pursuit of health and longevity. These include bans on genetic editing, cloning, and other radical science.

Education

• Changing the incentive structure of the British school system by making attendance voluntary rather than compulsory.
• Offering alternative and flexible forms of schooling - especially online - that do not conform to the current rigid, in-person lesson structures.
• Make homeschooling easier by removing the existing legal barriers to it.

Immigration and Border Controls

• Britain should remain a free nation, independent from the European Union.
• Britain should retain its merit-based immigration system that prioritises the needs of the host nation and its need for an ever more educated and highly skilled population.

Replace the Military-Industrial Complex with a Science-Industrial Complex

• Reduce the size of the military-industrial complex to free up funds for a scientific and educational industrial complex in Britain. Spend more money on fighting cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, rather than on wars and conflicts in far-off countries.
• A smaller military could be equally if not more effective by phasing out human soldiering and becoming near totally reliant on robots, drones, and other tech.

Gun Violence and Terrorism

• Stop mass shootings, stabbings and terrorism with drones, robots, AI scanners, and other technology.
• Install terrorism-deterring drones, scanners, robots, and technology in public places where criminals are caught before they can carry out harm.

Electoral Reform

• Limit lobbyist power though oversight.
• Implement term limits throughout government.
• Implement ranked choice voting at all levels of government.
• Incentivize minor party participation in government. Conduct formal objective government polls to make sure third-party candidates get polled regularly so they don’t spend all their campaigning time and resources trying to establish name recognition.
• Mandate real-time public surveillance of police and politicians, as well as greater transparency of government.

Tort Reform

• Sanctions for frivolous litigation based on the costs of responding to meritless claims.
• Greater restrictions and due process protections on class action lawsuits.
• Incentives to resolve disputes in alternatives to tort litigation such as arbitration.
• Codification of the “doctrine of assumption of risk” to limit liability for consumers’ risky choices.

Defend Transhumanism from Authoritarianism

• Create long term policies that defend science and technology from being overrun by authoritarian forces. Deregulate science and technology innovation as much as possible.
• Create incentives and cultural support for laissez-faire markets to thrive.
• Aim to create and embrace more scientists and entrepreneurial celebrities.
• Lay the groundwork for civil rights for other future advanced sapient beings like AI, conscious robots, cyborgs, and genetically created sapients beings. The world is quickly changing and we must be ready for how what humanity create or even become.
• Create a Longevity Peace Prize, which awards innovative longevity and medical research activists and scientists.