Future of Gender

From: Rick Knight (rknight@platinum.com)
Date: Thu Aug 14 1997 - 10:25:44 MDT


     Eliezer observes:
     
     How would thoughtsharing of various types affect sexual mores? Define
     an Augmented human as a "primary" human supported by several other
     experts sharing the world through virtual reality and communicating
     continuously, waking and sleeping, on subvocal/subconscious/hypnotic
     channels.
     
     I respond:
     
     I can only respond to this on the very surface as it triggered
     something I have been meaning to point out. Sentimental and fanciful
     puss that I am, I have seen "Contact" three times. After an initial
     viewing of a movie I like that much, I start analyzing content and
     looking at the not-so-obvious stuff.
     
     BLOWING PART OF THE MOVIE WARNING!
     
     One thing I noticed in my return visit is Ellie's meeting with the
     entity (on the beach) that manifested as her father. Even after she
     had deduced her thoughts/memories had been "downloaded", and the
     entity congratulated her on her observation, he still *behaved* as if
     he were her father commenting that she had her mother's hands. In
     that moment, it occurred to me that Ellie and the entity had shared
     the most intimate of contacts possible to two conscious creatures.
     Blows the lid of what we try to achieve in our most intimate sexual
     moments (unless, of course, one's sexual experiences are pursued for
     the sake of dominance and power attainment).
     
     I'd like to have extended discussions on the waking and sleeping part.
     There's something in me that likes the (what I presume to be) private
     nature of sleep and dreams. And I'm not really a private person!
     
     Rick



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:44:43 MST