[ExI] The Manifesto of Italian Transhumanists

Tom Nowell nebathenemi at yahoo.co.uk
Sun Mar 2 23:50:19 UTC 2008


Bryan's latest comment was "If you can't stand the
heat, get out of the kitchen" in response to Italy's
political situation. I have two problems with this
attitude:

1) Expecting people to "get out of the kitchen" in the
21st century. This isn't the 19th or early 20th
centuries with America asking to "give me your masses,
your huddled poor" and many Italians moving to South
America to the burgeoning industries there. The most
technologically advanced nations are the USA, or
"Fortress America" as politicians try to make it in
election year, and Japan, a nation with very harsh
immigration laws. OK, they do have the right to move
anywhere else in the EU, as long as they can overcome
the language & cultural barriers. It's still not an
easy job. Let's just hope the EU doesn't introduce any
anti-transhuman laws like they did laws banning GMO
crops, otherwise there's nearly a billion of us with
nowhere to run to.

2) "The kitchen" in this case is a significant nation.
Looking at wikipedia's list of countries by nominal
GDP, the IMF, world bank and CIA factbook all place
Italy at no.7. The world's seventh-largest economy
introducing anti-transhumanist laws is potentially a
moderately sized brake on global development. To take
Bryan's analogy, if you can't stand being in the
kitchen, what are you going to for food? Try and build
a barbecue in the backyard and hope it doesn't rain?

In the UK, I'm already familiar with the situation
that an Irish woman who wants an abortion has to
travel to the British mainland to get it done. When
successful technologies based on embryonic stem cells
arise, what's the betting that people needing medical
treatment may be forced to do the same? We do need to
pay attention to what is happening in politics
regarding the issues we care about.

Tom


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