[ExI] The Manifesto of Italian Transhumanists

[Stefano Vaj]

On the subject of the failed referendum for the abrogation of the
Italian prohibitionist law on IFV, cloning and genetic engineering, on
Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 5:38 PM, Amara Graps <amara at amara.com> wrote in
the ExI chat list:

> From: "Stefano Vaj" <stefano.vaj at gmail.com>
> On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 4:51 PM, Amara Graps <amara at amara.com> wrote:
> >  >  I think it's important for Transhumanists to understand:
> >>   Why too few votes? Why couldn't that referendum gather 50%? Can you
> >>   answer?
> >
> >Mmhhh. Lack of information? Censorship by mainstream media? Cultural
> >limits? Insufficient mobilisation or blatant betrayal of the forces
> >who should theoretically have supported the referendum? Fear of the
> >swinging catholic 4-5% in the upcoming elections ? The
> >clever presentation of the law by its supporters as something
> >concerning only couples with fertility problems (in fact it forbids
> >almost all kinds of human reproductive or genetic technology)?
>
> Thank you for these examples. It's quite a list. These are the
> challenges of yours and AITs and the Italian transhumanists wouldn't you
> say?
> ...
> Your other examples (which depend on education, pure research funding,
> political agendas, the Vatican's influence in Italy's politics) have
> similar (IMO insurmountable) challenges.
>

Yet, sometimes one can find himself in the position of making a small
difference, and this confirms me in the opinion of the importance of
keeping up the good fight everywhere and on any occasions, including
in Italy with all its problems.

In fact, as mentioned another time, I was recently honoured by the
appointment as one of the five "wise men" instructed by the parliament
of Lombardy to draft a kind-of constitution (Statuto). In fact, Italy
has moved towards a slightly more federal form of State, and each
single administrative region had to adopt such a chart reflecting its
own new powers and fundamental principles. Lombardy is one of the last
to adopt it, and one should remember that its economic weight and
population is comparable to that of many entire EU countries.

This has been a very interesting professional experience, because
practising lawyers are more likely to be instructed to draft contracts
than constitutions, and scholars usually comment them but do not play
any great role in determining their actual wording. Besides that, it
goes without saying that even though I had in principle no real say
with regard to the politics and philosophy behind the new constitution
- something which is obviously reserved to elected representatives - I
took the opportunity to pepper generously my draft with transhumanist
memes and spins in at least a dozen different places.

Of course, I was fully aware that little of all that work was going to
survive to parliamentary vagaries and, more importantly, to the
reactions of the hyper-important and much courted swinging-vote teocon
representatives present in both the right-wing majority and the
left-wing minority (actually the catholics in the second area called
themselves "teodems", but the difference is often very subtle). Add to
that the deep roots of explicitely neo-luddist, "deep-ecology",
environmentalism in the ranks of a well-represented extreme Left, and
the least I can say is that anti-H+ knee-jerk reactions from different
sectors were not such a great surprise.

On the other hand, I am very glad to report that a few little things
managed to survive that are not so trivial in the Italian cultural,
legal and political landscape, namely in the following provisions:

Art. 2: "In particular, in the framework of its competences, the
Lombardy Region: ...
e) promotes the preconditions to make effective the freedom of
religion, of thought, of speech, or teaching, of research, including
what pertains to the access to communication media."
( In particolare, nell'ambito delle sue competenze, la Regione:
e) promuove le condizioni per rendere effettiva la libertà religiosa,
di pensiero, di parola, di insegnamento, di educazione, di ricerca,
nonché l'accesso ai mezzi di comunicazione;)

Art. 10: "Research and Innovation
1. The Lombardy Region recognises the central and driving role of the
scientific research and of innovation for the achievement of its goals
in all the areas of the economic and social life, and strives to
achieve a maximal exploitment of its potential, in cooperation and
through exchanges with universities, research centres, and
techno-scientific and professional communities.
2. The Lombardy Region shall recognise, promote and support
technological, scientific and industrial innovations; investments and
initiatives in the fields of fundamental and applied research, as well
as everything necessary to the achievement of results of excellence in
those areas, including whatever pertains to related decision-making
and to information spreading. ..."

(Ricerca e innovazione:
1. La Regione riconosce il ruolo centrale e trainante della ricerca
scientifica e dell'innovazione per il conseguimento dei propri
obiettivi in tutte le sfere della vita economica e sociale e opera per
valorizzarne al massimo grado il potenziale, in collaborazione e
dialogo con le università, i centri di ricerca, le comunità
tecnico-scientifiche e professionali.
2. La Regione valorizza, promuove e incentiva l'innovazione tecnica,
scientifica e produttiva, gli investimenti e le iniziative nel campo
della ricerca di base e applicata, nonché quanto necessario al
raggiungimento di risultati di eccellenza in tali ambiti, ivi compresi
gli aspetti attinenti la formazione delle decisioni e la loro
divulgazione. ...)

Sure, we are talking of purely programmatic points, and the devils
will as usually be in the implementation (if any...) of the
"principles" above.

At the same time, I am proud to say that at least some Italian
transhumanists can now refer to a public document of constitutional
relevance whenever the values embedded in the provisions above come
into discussion.

Stefano Vaj