From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Tue Mar 19 2002 - 06:53:31 MST
On Sun, Mar 17, 2002 at 08:13:30PM -0900, John Grigg wrote:
> Awhile back Eliezer shared about finding a very strange group on the net.
>
> Otherkin
>
> http://www.otherkin.net/index.html
>
> I perused this subculture website of "lost souls" and found it rather fun.
>
> Some claim to be descended from angels, weres, dragons, elves, and
>various other magical creatures.
It is cute, a bit sad but also says something important about the human
condition. From the FAQ (about whether this is all head-games):
For example, if you can keep a stable job, a roof over your head, keep
up friendships, relationships and/or a social life, pay your bills, and
generally behave like a functional adult (if you're an adult :) ), then
it doesn't matter whether you consider yourself a human or a creature
from another planet.
On a deeper level, many otherkin find that identifying as such --
identifying as an elf, or a dragon, or a vampire, or a pixie, or
whatever -- actually gives them *more* of a sense of stability in their
lives and understanding of themselves. If it's simply something you call
yourself, then maybe you are just playacting. But more likely, you've
found (or will find) that accepting and embracing your identification
and your nature as otherkin helps you understand things about yourself
that never made sense before. And if it does, then calling yourself
otherkin may be helping keep you sane.
(http://kinhost.org/res/Otherfaq.html)
Compare this with what Fukuyama wrote in the debate in Reason today.
Fukuyama claims that if people do not share the same human nature, then
we will end up in a bad, Nietzschean society. Otherkin are in a sense a
demonstration that this is by no means self-evident: they do not
consider themselves human, but still can function with other people who
have a different sense of species. What matters is not whether you are a
dragon in a human body or a clone, but if you can function together with
other people - that is really the only definition of "humanity" we need.
It feels good that we live in a society where human individuality has
gone so far that it is acceptable to claim to be one's own species.
In the future trans-species surgery and body alteration might become
possible, and then the otherkin and furries are really going to be
cutting edge.
> I wonder what some of you might be? This is a fun way to look at
> personality types.
Well, I have memories from a future life as the information
infrastructure of the Amsterdam metropolitan region, but my friends
here tend to claim I'm a quarter troll or a robot.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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