[ExI] italian politics as exi-chat subject

[Amara Graps]

Stathis:
>Is transhumanism bigger in Italy than in neighbouring countries of
>comparable size, or is this just an impression I have got because of
>the public fighting?

It depends if you referring to AIT members who live inside of Italy and
those who live outside of Italy. A significant amount of work by the AIT
is performed by those members who live outside of Italy.  Few AIT
members who are researchers in the topics of transhumanism live inside
the country. When I was living there,  I was a five sigma event in
almost every respect, including this one. In my opinion, that leads to a
disconnect with knowledge of Italian daily life and what is and what is
not possible for Italians in the country pursuing transhumanist ideas.

I think that the picture doesn't look good. After Berlusconi is
re-elected he will devastate science and research more than before (as
if that were possible), he will place clueless people like this
http://www.gabriellacarlucci.it/2008/02/28/in-risposta-a-parisi/ as the
minister of education and research, the Italian researchers (of all
ages) who presently don't even have support to get routes to their
workplaces by public buses, beyond the basic lack of support for not
having money to live,  to pay for their computers,  and to pay for
business travel, will 99.99% need to live in their family houses to
survive, instead of the 90-something percent who must do that now. I
always appreciate people who are fighting the good fight, but my five
years past experience as a researcher living and working in Italy
wonders how foolish they might be.

Amara

-- 

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