[ExI] Stefano Vaj's background. Was: Neo-fascist transhumanists?

[estropico]

On the subject of Stefano Vaj's background, as provided by himself.

That's not quite the full story, is it? Care for full-disclosure?

Some time ago, on an Italian list, somebody challenged Stefano
regarding his alleged status as a law professor at Padua University,
but all he could do in reply was to make a joke about it, wich puzzled
me. Why not simply provide a link? It was only later that I came to
realise that perhaps we searched the University's website using the
wrong surname.

I would be interested to see Stefano clarify to the list whether "Vaj"
is a pseudonym and whether, on his business website (where the name
"Stefano Vaj" does NOT appear), there might or might not be a little
something that gives the lie to his claims that he has nothing to do
with the far right. Perhaps he might even provide the list with the
url in question, just in case it's just me seeing things.

Cheers,
Fabio

>  From: "Stefano Vaj" <stefano.vaj at gmail.com>
>  Subject: [ExI] Background
>  To: "ExI chat list" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
>  Message-ID:
>         <580930c20803031453y5002cac0r2c24dda75018d6d5 at mail.gmail.com>
>  Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>  On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 9:50 PM, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com>
>  wrote:
>
>  > Given all the angst flying about, I wonder if Dr.
>  > Vaj might provide us with some background?
>  > Google's usual amusing translation provides a bio
>  > note to his BIOPOLITICA (Barbarossa Publishing Company, 2005 Milan):
>  >
>
>  What can I say? I am a practising Italian lawyer and a law professor at the
>  University of Padua in New Technologies Law, and in my spare time I have
>  been authoring or translating for years a number of essays and shorter
>  articles, published in volume or in very diverse publications and
>  newspapers, a few of them concern technology, philosophy and biopolitics and
>  promote, in broad terms, prometheism, the posthuman change, and
>  anti-prohibitionism with regard to biotech.
>
>  At a point in time this made me get in touch with the WTA, especially since
>  I became curious to explore not just the bio, "wet" transhumanist topics,
>  but also the hard, "cyber" ones; and eventually I contributed with a few
>  friends to the legalisation and rather dramatic growth of its Italian
>  chapter, the Associazione Italiana Transumanisti<http://www.transumanisti.it>,
>  which had already been informally in place for a couple of years (something
>  that was not really appreciated by a few Italian old-timers with very
>  idiosincratic and sectarian agendas; hence their reiterated, bitter
>  defamatory campaigns).
>
>  In the process, I worked together with other AIT members to the
>  establishment of a Universal Transhumanist Bibliography (available on the
>  AIT's Web site linked above), to the publication of a rather academic H+
>  paper in Italian called *Divenire*, the first issue of which should be in
>  print in a few weeks, and to the Manifesto that was initially mentioned by
>  Giulio Prisco and is currently being translated by Riccardo Campa, its main
>  author.
>
>  Through all that, I met Natasha, who was kind enough to encourage me to
>  subscribe to ExI chat list, as I not-so-recently-any-more did.
>
>  Stefano Vaj