--- alias: - Humanity Plus - Humanity+ - Humanity Plus Inc - Humanity Plus, Inc. - World Transhumanist Association (Humanity+) category: Private Organization created: 2026-09-25 location: Glastonbury, Connecticut (registered address) relations: - fn: 1 reverse: true start: 1998 type: founded with: '[[Nick Bostrom]]' - fn: 1 reverse: true start: 1998 type: founded with: '[[David Pearce]]' - fn: 1 reverse: true role: secretary start: 2001 type: head_of with: '[[James Hughes]]' - fn: 4 reverse: true role: 100,000 dollars start: 2018 type: funded with: '[[Gratitude America]]' - fn: 3 reverse: true role: executive director of Humanity+, as of August 2019 type: head_of with: '[[Natasha Vita-More]]' - fn: 3 reverse: true role: director of Humanity+, as of August 2019 type: director_of with: '[[Ben Goertzel]]' - fn: 6 reverse: true role: 20,000 dollars by wire from JPMorgan Chase start: 2010-09-13 type: funded with: '[[Epstein Interests]]' - end: 2017 fn: 10 reverse: true role: 272,500 dollars listed by his accountant as paid from 'Enhanced' to Humanity Plus start: 2016-09 type: funded with: '[[Jeffrey Epstein]]' start: 1998 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. tags: - Organization - Transhumanism - NickBostrom - JeffreyEpstein - ArtificialIntelligence - Philanthropy updated: 2026-09-25 --- The World Transhumanist Association (WTA), later renamed Humanity+, is a membership organization that promotes [transhumanism](/concepts/transhumanism/), the use of technology to overcome the biological limits of human beings. It was founded in early 1998 by the philosophers [Nick Bostrom](/people/nick-bostrom/) and David Pearce and was incorporated as a non-profit in the early 2000s; the [Internal Revenue Service](/organizations/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](/people/jeffrey-epstein/) entity Epstein Interests, and in 2018 it received 100,000 dollars from his foundation [Gratitude America](/organizations/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 [extropian](/concepts/extropianism/) philosopher [Max More](/people/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. 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](/places/florida/).[^3] The wire instruction, a memorandum on Epstein Interests letterhead addressed "To: Janet, JP Morgan" and "From: Jeffrey Epstein," dated September 13, 2010, read: "Please transfer TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS ($20,000) from the above account to: Bank: Wells Fargo Bank ... For Credit to: World Transhumanist Association Inc." [JPMorgan Chase](/organizations/jpmorgan-chase/) received it by fax on September 14, 2010 as page 15 of a 15-page transmission. The other fourteen pages were memoranda on Jeffrey E. Epstein letterhead from his accountant [Harry Beller](/people/harry-beller/), among them wires of 100,000 dollars to a FirstBank account in San Juan for LSJ, LLC of Red Hook Quarters, [St. Thomas](/places/st-thomas/), 250,000 dollars to the account of "DARREN K INDYKE PLLC," the practice of his lawyer [Darren Indyke](/people/darren-indyke/), with the instruction "Please email Richard Kahn with the Federal reference number," and 250,000 dollars to HBRK Associates, the firm of his accountant [Richard Kahn](/people/richard-kahn/); most of the rest were payments to engineering, construction, landscaping and supply companies.[^6] Epstein Interests was one of the Epstein entities to which the [U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida](/organizations/us-attorneys-office-for-the-southern-district-of-florida/) issued grand jury subpoenas on May 31, 2007, alongside the [J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation](/organizations/jeffrey-epstein-vi-foundation/), J. Epstein & Company and [Financial Trust Company](/organizations/financial-trust-company/).[^7] 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."[^8] 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](/organizations/machine-intelligence-research-institute/).[^3] ### The Enhanced Payments On August 14, 2016 the German artificial intelligence researcher Joscha Bach wrote to Epstein under the subject "Company": "What is the current idea re: my formal employer in the US? Does it make sense to frame it as a startup, put me into an existing non-profit (Ben Goertzel has 'Humanity Plus', which does non profit AGI research and is a Delaware company), or did anything come out of Joi's existing MIT affiliated companies?" The reference is to [Joi Ito](/people/joi-ito/), director of the [MIT Media Lab](/organizations/mit-media-lab/).[^9] On January 14, 2018 Bach wrote to Epstein, "Could you please help with money? I should have talked to you earlier about it but the needle is indeed on empty"; Epstein forwarded the message to Kahn with the word "yes." On January 16 Kahn asked Epstein to "please advise on amount to send Joscha and from which entity" and set out the "history" of the payments. It recorded 50,000 dollars "Enhanced to Joscha" in January 2016, 157,500 dollars "Enhanced Humanity Plus" in September 2016, 115,000 dollars "Enhanced to Humanity Plus" in 2017, three further payments of 25,000, 20,000 and 10,000 dollars "Enhanced to Joscha" between 2016 and June 2017, and two sums of 16,850 and 14,280 dollars for "tuition - JEE." The payments to Humanity Plus in the list total 272,500 dollars and those to Bach 105,000 dollars. Epstein answered "125 k." On January 17, 2018 Kahn wrote back: "125 from enhanced to humanity plus or joscha. Please advise."[^10][^11] The entity called Enhanced is not otherwise identified in the correspondence. ### 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 *[New York Times](/organizations/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](/places/zorro-ranch/) in [New Mexico](/places/new-mexico/).[^4][^12] [^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, EFTA01589498 to EFTA01589515, DataSet 10, wire transfer memoranda faxed to JPMorgan Chase, September 13 and 14, 2010, 15 pages, with the Epstein Interests memorandum for the World Transhumanist Association at EFTA01589514 (JPM-SDNY Bates range; duplicate copy of the final page at EFTA01583862). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01589498.pdf [^7]: 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 [^8]: 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/ [^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00821389, DataSet 9, email from Joscha Bach to Jeffrey Epstein, "Company," August 14, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00821389.pdf [^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00911083, DataSet 9, email from Richard Kahn to Jeffrey Epstein, "Joscha Bach," January 16, 2018, forwarding email from Joscha Bach, January 14, 2018. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00911083.pdf [^11]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02537093, DataSet 11, email chain between Richard Kahn and Jeffrey Epstein, "Re: Joscha Bach," January 16 to 17, 2018. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02537093.pdf [^12]: 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