[ExI] The Manifesto of Italian Transhumanists

[Bryan Bishop]

On Sunday 02 March 2008, Tom Nowell wrote:
> Bryan's latest comment was "If you can't stand the
> heat, get out of the kitchen" in response to Italy's
> political situation. I have two problems with this
> attitude:

This is the same attitude as taking your hand out of a hot flame.

> 1) Expecting people to "get out of the kitchen" in the
> 21st century. This isn't the 19th or early 20th

So are you saying we have grown stupider?

> centuries with America asking to "give me your masses,
> your huddled poor" and many Italians moving to South
> America to the burgeoning industries there. The most

You must take your own hand from the fire, nations can't do it for you.

> technologically advanced nations are the USA, or
> "Fortress America" as politicians try to make it in
> election year, and Japan, a nation with very harsh

Nations don't do tech, people do tech. Do it yourself (and with others). 

> immigration laws. OK, they do have the right to move
> anywhere else in the EU, as long as they can overcome
> the language & cultural barriers. It's still not an
> easy job.

Yeah, nobody said things have to be easy. Luckily the body has an 
immediate reaction to fires and danger, so it's sort of automated.

> Let's just hope the EU doesn't introduce any 
> anti-transhuman laws like they did laws banning GMO
> crops, otherwise there's nearly a billion of us with
> nowhere to run to.

Just because they make something illegal does not mean that it alters 
the fundamental technicality of being able to do GMO or whatever. And 
the last time I checked, nearly 100% of the universe was still open.

> 2) "The kitchen" in this case is a significant nation.

No. "The kitchen" was a metaphor of risk.

> Looking at wikipedia's list of countries by nominal
> GDP, the IMF, world bank and CIA factbook all place
> Italy at no.7. The world's seventh-largest economy
> introducing anti-transhumanist laws is potentially a
> moderately sized brake on global development. To take

You think laws can stop the singularity?

> Bryan's analogy, if you can't stand being in the
> kitchen, what are you going to for food? Try and build
> a barbecue in the backyard and hope it doesn't rain?

http://heybryan.org/mediawiki/index.php/Meat-on-a-stick

> In the UK, I'm already familiar with the situation
> that an Irish woman who wants an abortion has to
> travel to the British mainland to get it done. When

That's just money. With enough money, a rich woman could have snuck in 
an surgical abortionist and performed the operation in Ireland, since 
that seems to be so important to her. Also, what's wrong with travel?

> successful technologies based on embryonic stem cells
> arise, what's the betting that people needing medical
> treatment may be forced to do the same? We do need to

The woman was not forced. She chose an interpretation of the law and 
stuck with it. The govt (at this point) would be unable to scan the 
brains of every person within their borders to see if anybody knows how 
to perform an abortion and assemble the tools and drugs etc. And even 
if they could, what about one-time pads for sneaking in the relevant 
information and experience in forms of brain-interface chips? (Since I 
used mind-reading, I might as well include experience downloading.)

> pay attention to what is happening in politics
> regarding the issues we care about.

Pay attention to the science and the tech.

- Bryan
________________________________________
Bryan Bishop
http://heybryan.org/