From: Mark Walker (mdwalker@quickclic.net)
Date: Sat Jun 08 2002 - 11:58:25 MDT
Non-member submission from ["Mark Walker" <mdwalker@quickclic.net>]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Natasha Vita-More" <natasha@natasha.cc>
>
> Bravo TV* (London) is producing a documentary on the future of sexuality
> '3003: A
> Sex Oddity' exploring the next thousand years in sexuality. I will be
> interviewed for the program tomorrow and thought I'd add an extropian
> perspective to my writings http://www.natasha.cc/sex.htm and Primo's
> posthuman additions.
>
The philosopher Thomas Nagel wrote a paper with the title: "What is it Like
to be a Bat?" Presumably a subset of this question is what is it like to be
a bat having an orgasm? (One way to answer this would be to ask my ex-wife
:) ) One of Nagel's points is that the idea of a bat having a perspective on
the world seems to be something that is beyond our ability to know. Various
technologies, like VR, mind-uploading, etc., suggest technological means to
access the experience of others. Imagine having the technological means to
explore the whole range of
others' sexual experience, e.g., experiencing what it is like to for your
partner (or
partners) to have sex with you. Or imagine experiencing what it is like for
salmon, bats, lions, etc., during copulation. Along these lines it seems we
can
imagine a quest for the pure "brute" sexual experience.
Conversely, we might image that some might attempt to experience sex
with the intense "animal pleasure" dissociated through technological means.
One could perhaps enjoy sexual encounters as something more analogous to an
aesthetic experience.
Of course if we looking 1000 years hence it seems likely that there will be
more sexual experiences in heaven and earth than our dreamed of in our
philosophies.
Mark
Dr. Mark Walker
Research Associate (Philosophy), Trinity College, University of Toronto
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Evolution and Technology,
(www.transhumanist.com)
Editor-in-Chief, Transhumanity, (www.transhumanism.com)
Home page: http://www.markalanwalker.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:14:40 MST