From: the animated silicon love doll (cheshire@velvet.net)
Date: Sun Mar 03 2002 - 17:13:20 MST
2002.03.03 09:20:44, Eugene Leitl <Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de> wrote:
>1) you're a human being still
Unfortunately.
>2) you're talking to still other human beings, most of whom are unfamiliar
> with new terminology, especially pointless new terminology
So why bother using terms like posthuman, extropy, singularity, or any
other words that most of humanity are unfamiliar with (and would quite
likely consider our pursuit of them pointless)?
>3) posthuman beings either never spoke human languages, or rapidly stop
> using languages and concepts as they radiate away from the founder
> species
We're not posthuman yet, as you pointed out.
>This considered, especially 2), seem to suggest to stick to vanilla human
>language. (For time being; for most of us, with the possible exception
>of gargoyles).
Gargoyles?
Like in Snow Crash?
But back to the original point - We don't know very much about gender. It's
safe to say that sex is a biological trait. Many people feel a strong
attachment to traditional gender roles - and they can have them. I've never
felt male (I tried, when i was around 10, and I was not very good at it),
and rarely have I felt very female (but I've done a better job at that than
I have at being male). All the evidence I've seen points to gender being at
least partially a social construct, and something that can be changed or
ignored safely.
Or from a completely different angle - if I said "I went to the store and
the black person behind the counter sold me stuff", someone would probably
tell me that I'm being racist. "I went to the store and the man behind the
counter sold me stuff" isn't something that most people will see anything
wrong with, but it's essentially the same as the previous statement. Both
contain useless, irrelevant information, that can be removed.
cheshire morgan. Advance and never halt, for advancing is perfection.
Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path,
for they draw only corrupt blood.
-Kahlil Gibran
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