> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.com
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.com]On Behalf Of QueeneMUSE@aol.com
>
>
> They may BE chemical triggers, but never for one minute do I
> believe they are
> "nothing but" brain cocktails. They are the product of a very
> complex set of
> tasks and responses.
>
> For one thing, creativity plays a higher role it in than you are
> allowing for.
There's a big difference between true/thought-centered love & sex, though.
I'm not sure they have much to do with each other outside of cultural taboos
(isn't there a line in the New Testament part of the Bible where Paul tells
people that the very best thing to be is celibate, but if one MUST break
their celibacy, at least let it be with a wife--he was addressing men, as I
recall). Within the trust/friendship/shared experience structure of a
true-love relationship, sex is only one of many pleasures to be mutually
enjoyed.
But raw, urgent sex is something else again, and this is why my in my ideal
society prostitution would be a respected profession. Speaking of
prostitution, I had an interesting experience once.
I used to have a law/CPA practice serving small businesses. Occassionally
there were exciting moments when IRS officers would show up unexpectedly at
someone's business, throw everyone out, and lock the doors. But usually,
the practice was intellectually stimulating along the lines of a chess game
rather than gut-level exciting. Feeling bored one day, my staff and I
decided to liven things up a bit by starting a computer dating service,
which we would run out of the law office by setting appointments for law
clients and dating service clients at different times of the day. We figured
it would take a little while to build up our clientele, so we decided to
begin advertising the dating service even as I was still working on a
computer program that would sort and match clients' preferences.
We placed the following ad (duplicated to the best of my memory) in the
Sunday edition of the city's main newspaper: "Looking for friendship,
romance, or just a good time? Dream Makers..." We used one of our secondary
phone numbers rather than the main office phone number, so that the
receptionist would know whether to answer the phone "Law Office" or "Dream
Makers."
The Monday after the ad ran, the Dream Makers line started ringing early in
the morning. At first the receptionist took names and numbers, intending to
get back to people once the computer program was up and running. But within
the hour it was evident that we had screwed up big-time in the way we worded
the ad. We had so many calls for Dream Makers that it tied up all three of
our phone lines. At one point, a telephone repairman came into the office.
"Hey," he said, "I heard you were having some phone problems...and...by the
way, what's this Dream Maker thing? I think I want to sign up." Out of all
these hundreds of calls, all were men except for ONE!
My secretary's husband said that the way we worded the ad made it sound like
a prostitution service. In fact, I'm pretty sure that at least one of the
calls we got was from the police checking things out.
That was the end of our dating service. True, we could have tried rewording
the ad (and maybe picking a different name for the service), and in
retrospect I wish we had done so. It would have been interesting to see
what sort of ad got the right mix of male and female respondents. One thing
was clear, though--there was definitely a good, healthy demand for a
prostitution service.
Bonnie
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