From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Thu Apr 22 1999 - 12:09:39 MDT
James Rogers <jamesr@best.com> writes:
> Moving humans to a single gender for both sexes could have a long-term
> impact on the survivability of the species. After all, every aspect of
> both genders is extremely useful under some circumstance. Having two
> genders allows a species to embody multiple conflicting characteristics,
> which appears to be a strategy to maximize adaptability; to a certain
> extent, differences between cultures would seem to be a manifestion of a
> selection process among the large number of characteristics found across
> both genders.
So why not go for *more* genders instead? That would increase
adaptability even more. For example, asexuals, androgynes,
hermaphrodites and easy gender switching might be a good start. What
about a gender that combined (say) the traditional ambition and doer
mentality of males with the traditional social side of women (sounds
like great politicians and administrators), or a gender with a
different ego-structure? Over time I guess humanity may differentiate
to the degree that it becomes silly to speak about genders, everybody
is unique (some standards about the plumbing may remain for
compatibility, but as a character in Varley's _Ophiuchi Hotline_ said:
"don't worry, I've got an adapter!").
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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