[ExI] The Manifesto of Italian Transhumanists

[Amara Graps]

Stefano Vaj:
>Even the referendum against the law on IVF
>etc, was lost only because it was voided by the too few votes
>expressed, not because the anti-IVF had any majority support.

Are you sure?

I think it's important for Transhumanists to understand:

Why too few votes? Why couldn't that referendum gather 50%? Can you
answer?

The only answer I have is that the Vatican was extremely effective in
that campaign. I still have my brochure from 'the Committee of Science
and Life' that arrived in my mailbox. I still remember the posters up
all over my town from them telling people not to vote. I remember *my
scientific colleagues not voting*, telling me that the assisted
reproductive technology laws were 'too wild' and 'needed to be
controlled'. Of course I couldn't vote myself, because I was an illegal
immigrant Italian government astronomer.

In a country where the voting turnout is typically ~85%, in the mother
and family-oriented Italian culture, how could a set of draconian laws
that marginalizes women and family choices, and was delivered by an
extremely unpopular prime minister, be extinguished so easily? If you
can answer that, then you know what challenges the AIT (and the larger
body of Transhumanists) have in front of them.

Amara

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Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado