Two of the great political parties in the UK are in a state of shock this morning, in the wake of (for them) highly disappointing results in the General Election.

These parties are Labour (won constituencies shown in red in the map above) and the Liberal Democrats (orange).

Typical of the words I’m hearing from their supporters, on TV this morning, are “it’s been an absolutely dreadful night for us”.

No doubt these parties will be reconsidering their leadership. They may decide they need new faces to lead them.

But at the same time – and arguably more important – these parties will be considering potential major changes in their policies for the future.

It’s an opportunity for the politicians in these parties to recognise the issues of the future, and to bring them to the centre stage of their new policies. These are the issues which Transpolitica has been highlighting – issues such as the following:

1. How to construct a new social contract – perhaps involving universal basic income – in order to cope with the increased technological unemployment (and likely growing sense of social alienation) which is likely to arise from improved automation
2. How to accelerate the development of personal genome healthcare, stem cell therapies, rejuvenation biotech, and other regenerative medicine, in order to enable much healthier people with much lower ongoing healthcare costs
3. How to accelerate lower-cost high quality continuous access to educational material, such as MOOCs, that will prepare people for the radically different future that lies ahead
4. How to ensure that a green tech new deal succeeds, rather than continues to fall short of expectations (as it has been doing for the last 5-6 years)
5. How to identify and accelerate the new industries where the UK can be playing a leading role over the next 5-10 years
6. How society should be intelligently assessing any new existential risks that emerging technologies may unintentionally trigger
7. How to transition the network of bodies that operate international governance to a new status that is fit for the growing challenges of the coming decades (rather than perpetuating the inertia from the times of their foundations)
8. How technology can involve more people – and more wisdom and insight from more people – in the collective decision-making that passes for political processes
9. How to create new goals for society that embody a much better understanding of human happiness, human potential, and human flourishing, rather than the narrow economic criteria that currently dominate decisions
10. How to prepare everyone for the next leaps forward in human consciousness which will be enabled by explorations of both inner and outer space.

I look forward to engaging conversation with forward-thinking politicians in all parties in the months and years ahead.

I say that, despite the fact that the UK’s two transhumanist candidates fared poorly in their own constituencies.

Alexander Karran, standing under an Independent banner in Liverpool Walton, came second bottom in that constituency, with 56 votes in his favour.

With Alex being unable to put the words “Transhumanist Party” after his name on the ballot paper (because it take several months for a new party to be formally registered in the UK), it’s not particularly surprising that most people in that constituency did not find a reason to vote for him. This result is a foundation for much better results in the future.

Darren Reynolds, standing as a Liberal Democratic in Bolton South East, fared better in absolute terms, with 1,072 votes, but suffered as part of a huge nationwide decline of -15.1% in the Liberal Democrat vote compared to the previous (2010) election.

In Bolton South East, the Liberal Democrat vote declined by 13.2%, which is less than the national average, showing (perhaps) some credit to Darren’s campaign.

For the 2015 election, transhumanist and technoprogressive topics hardly received any airtime in the public discussion. It will take some time to build up the necessary momentum. That work starts today.