[ExI] The Manifesto of Italian Transhumanists

[Mirco Romanato]

Amara Graps ha scritto:
> 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'm sure.


> I think it's important for Transhumanists to understand:
> 
> Why too few votes? Why couldn't that referendum gather 50%? Can you
> answer?

Yes. The answer is simply.
The law.
The law about the referendum and how the votes are counted.
The referendum is void if no more than 50% +1 cast their ballot, so the 
opposing parties that would cast a NO in the last few referendums called 
for abstention. So the people casting a NO vote add to the people not 
voting (15-20%) and it is easy to void the referendum with only 30-40% 
of the votes. So it is easy to see that with only the 30% of the votes 
the NO supporters are able to void near all referendums and obtain their 
aims.

> 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.

Do you see that you remember the "not voting" call?


A point to remember is that the catholic votes and the catholic parties 
were a fundamental component of both coalitions.
Margherita Party (Binetti and teocons) and UDEUR (Mastella) was 
fundamental for the last two elections for the left coalition, where the 
UDC (Casini) was needed to the right coalition.

The interesting thing, now, in the Italian political theater is that 
both catholic parties are out of the coalitions (UDEUR and UDC) and the 
teocons of the Margherita are in the, probably, losing leftist-center 
party (PD). The center-right party (PDL) of Mr. Berlusconi instead keep 
the people that contested and supported the referendum and shunned the 
pro-life list of Giuliano Ferrara.

But I stop here, because the Italian politics is very complex and could 
become very annoying to external and internal observers.

Mirco
-- 
[Intangible capital is] the preponderant form of wealth.
When we look at the shares of intangible capital across income classes, 
you see it goes from about 60 percent in low-income countries to 80 
percent in high-income countries.
That accords very much with the notion that what really makes countries 
wealthy is not the bits and pieces, it's the brainpower, and the 
institutions that harness that brainpower.
It's the skills more than the rocks and minerals.
—Kirk Hamilton
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