On Sat, 26 Jun 1999 06:35:40 -0400, you wrote:
>I'm tired of being dominated by my hormones. I waste vast amounts of
>time and energy thinking about and having sex, and I'm constantly
>being distracted by sexual thoughts. Sometimes I think it would be
>better--now that I've sired all the children I plan to--to just get
>out of the sex game altogether. (I'm 39, married, three children.)
>Castration would be a little extreme (permanent) and I don't know
>exactly what the effects would be. I'm sure there are drugs that can
>help, but I don't know how effective they are, how safe they are for
>long-term use, or even what they're called or how to get them.
>
>Is there any practical relief for this problem available today?
Actually, I guess, in an abstract sense, this is a very appropriate qeustion for this Extropian forum. After all, being able to control own own motivations and what makes us happy will be one of the great benefits granted us by medical science in the distant future.
With complete control of our own hormones, we could warp our sex drives in incredible ways, e.g., set ourselves up to have an orgasm after we write a pleasing page of prose, or after writing a nice computer program function, or creating an efficient electronic circuit, etc. Imagine the productivity gains.
And I guess this leads us to what one of the common themes of naysayers who claim that immortality will not be all it might seem to be, since they often claim that immortals will grow borerd. I always reply that if mankind is ever able to affect physical immortality, then surely control of hormones, etc., would ensure that if we wnat to be happy, we can then BE happy, whenever and for how long it pleases us to be happy.