Executive Summary of the 2007 WTA Member Survey
Report on the 2007 Interests and Beliefs Survey of the Members of the World Transhumanist Association
Prepared by
James J. Hughes, Ph.D.
Secretary, World Transhumanist Association
January 2008
For more information please contact
James Hughes Ph.D.
Secretary
World Transhumanist Association
http://transhumanism.org
secretary@transhumanism.org
Box 128, Willington CT 06279 USA
(office) 860-297-2376
Copyright © 2008 by WTA
All rights reserved
Executive Summary
This survey was fielded in December 2007 over the course of ten days. The survey was fielded to everyone we considered members (N=4642) whose email addresses still worked (N=3737). Of those 760 people responded, compared to 606 in 2003 and 586 in 2005. This was a lower response rate (20%) than the 2003 and 2005 surveys (26% and 36% respectively). A majority of respondents (52%) had joined in the last two years, and the response rate from more recent joiners was higher than from pre-2002 joiners. However the stability of the frequencies in this report suggest that there is not a large problem of comparability between the years, although the response biases are of course unknown. Voting members were much more likely to respond (69%) than basic members (18%).
Respondents represented US and non-US members, basic and full members, and our too-few non-male members, in a reasonably balanced way. The percent of non-US respondents rose in this sample was 57%, reflecting their actual proportion in our membership base. As in 2003, roughly 90% of the sample was male. The median age of the respondents in both 2003 and 2005 is roughly the same, about 30-33. Approximately one in five of our members have disabilities. Curiously there was no relationship between the age of the member and the likelihood of having a disability or chronic illness.
Comfort with “Transhumanist” Identity
The second question on the survey was about how comfortable the respondent felt about identifying as a transhumanist. Although all respondents had signed up as WTA members through the website membership form, some had done so in order to get access to the website and newsletter. For the subsequent analyses the 5% who said “I am not a transhumanist” were excluded. Also, compared to 2003, there was an increase in the percent of respondents who were full members and a decrease in the percent who did not consider themselves transhumanists.
Satisfaction with the WTA and Transhumanism
Satisfaction with the WTA remains very high. Fully 83% of the respondents say they are satisfied with the WTA overall, down slightly from the 90% satisfied in 2003. Satisfaction of US and non-US members is roughly equal.
Satisfaction with the Transvision conferences (for those who attended) was relatively high, while satisfaction with the “WTA Activism” remains the lowest. Of all respondents, 50% thought our activism was fair or poor, compared to only 39% who thought the WTA website was fair or poor.
Three quarters of transhumanists say they are likely to recommend that someone join the WTA.
One question related to satisfaction with whether respondents thought we were too utopian or too pragmatic. The 8% of respondents who felt we were too pragmatic, and the 19% of members who felt we were too utopian, were less satisfied than the three quarters of members who felt we had the right balance of utopianism and pragmatism.
As in 2003, “interest in transhumanism” was the principal reason noted for joining, followed by “intellectual stimulation.” Activism was only cited as a reason by 40% of members, and networking only by 20%.
Two thirds of respondents think our voting member dues are “about right” (71% last time and 68% this time). Members in the developing world were more likely to think full membership dues were too high (31% versus 14%). Only 13% of respondents say they would never pay full voting membership dues.
Conferences
Four in ten respondents were very likely to attend conferences in their own country, but only 6% were very likely to attend a conference in another country. This is generally true for Americans and non-Americans.
Attitudes
A part of this survey was a set of attitudes that respondents were asked to agree or disagree with. We used responses to these questions in 2005 to create a 10 question self-diagnostic for whether someone is a transhumanist:
Ten “Are you a Transhumanist?” Questions
Yeses
95% Do you believe that people have a right to use technology to extend their mental and physical (including reproductive) capacities and to improve their control over their own lives?
95% [Noes] Do you think human genetic engineering is wrong because it is “playing God”?
94% Do you think that by being generally open and embracing of new technology we have a better chance of turning it to our advantage than if we try to ban or prohibit it?
93% Do you expect human progress to result from human accomplishment rather than divine intervention, grace, or redemption?
93% Do you think it would be a good thing if people could become many times more intelligent than they currently are?
87% Do you think it would be a good thing if people could live (in good health) for hundreds of years or longer?*
83% Do you believe women should have the right to terminate their pregnancies?
82% Does your ethical code advocate the well-being of all sentient beings, whether in artificial intellects, humans, posthumans, or non- human animals?
80% Would you consider having your mind uploaded to computers if it was the only way you could continue as a conscious person?
77% Should parents be able to have children through cloning once the technology is safe?
* “In good health” was added in 2007
There was little change on the consensus around these issues.
If we use agreement with more than half of these statements as a self-diagnostic for whether someone is probably a transhumanist, this would include 98% of all the respondents to this survey who were “very comfortable” calling themselves transhumanists.
Since a change in the anti-aging question to add “in good health” appeared to garner an additional 7% of affirmation for life extension it s also interesting that we added a question about what to call our advocacy for anti-aging medicine. A plurality voted for “life extension.”
Politics and Religion
Asking about political self-identity, there is a substantial trend toward increasing left-wing orientation, from 36% of respondents in 2003 to 47% in 2007. The category “technoprogressive” was offered for the first time this year, and garnered 16% of the respondents. The increase in left-wing orientations was accompanied by slight declines in the libertarian, conservative, apolitical and other categories.
In regards religious views, the dominant secularism of the WTA membership remains unchanged at almost two thirds of all members (atheist, agnostic, secular humanist or some other secular philosophy). This year we asked about “other” religious or non-religious views and were able to reclassify many of the formerly other or nones to existing or new religious categories. For instance 1% of respondents listed “pantheist” or “scientific pantheist” as either a religious or secular philosophy.
We also asked about whether transhumanism was compatible with religion. Our members are all over the map on this question, whether secular or religious. The majority of the religious or spiritual believed transhumanism was compatible with religion, although 8% believed it was incompatible with “religion” (although not presumably with their beliefs). The majority of the seculars believed transhumanism could be compatible with or synthesized with at least some form of religion, although a third believed transhumanism was incompatible with religion.
Other Organizational Memberships
There have been notable increases in the proportion of respondents who belong to political parties (one in five) and the Transhumanist Student Network (one in ten). More than four in ten belong to Facebook.
