From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Sun Sep 12 1999 - 21:19:24 MDT
> Elizabeth Childs wrote: If you really want to try being a girl, the easiest
> way is to try
> being a transvestite. I went to a "come as a girl, whether you are one or
> not" party a few years ago and was surprised to see one of my hairiest, most
> aggressive male friends daintily sipping tea and dishing out the most catty
> gossip....
haaaaa! {8^D This whole notion is going off in the wrong direction.
I could have sharpened the question a little I guess. I do not want
to actually *be* a woman, I just want to understand what it feels like.
I dont want to *be* a homosexual, just want to understand what it
feels like. For instance, if one could switch one's gender or orientation,
would people *look* different? How so? How could people *not*
look different to you, if you were to switch genders? No one knows.
If one were to ask me: spike, what is it like being you? Or: spike,
what is it like being a hetero male? I could not answer either question,
because I have never been anything else. Now, if one were to ask
me what its like being 30something, or what is it like living in California,
those are easy, because I have lived elsewhere and been younger.
Elizabeth, I want to know, for instance, how the heck women can tune
into one channel, then stay there until the whole program is, like, over.
{8^D Seriously, I want the total *experience* of humanity. I want
to somehow *know* what its like to be female, lesbian, gay, black,
brown, big, small, fat, schizophrenic, you name it. I want to be able to
Vulcan mind meld into other people's life experience. If I could
somehow plug into others' experiences, then I could actually *for the
first time* know what it is like to be me, because I would have something
to compare it to. I would know what it is like to be not me.
Perhaps this can only be accomplished after uploading becomes
reality. Could we not have a hell of a good time with this? Two
people who love each other could perhaps mentally merge by
writing their collective memories into a location that could be
accessed by either processing unit. Or perhaps I was thinking too
much about Steve Martin's All Of Me. [hilarious movie, highly
recommend]
Furthermore, I have often pondered: what would motivate society
to upload a corpsicle? Now I know: so it can play in that person's
mindspace. Their memories are inherently valuable.
I dont think dressing up as a woman is the approach for me, and
after reading some of Kathryn and Elizabeth's comments on taking
hormones, I have chickened out there too. I dont think my wife
would be the least bit pleased if I began eating her birth control
pills either... {8^D
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