From: Dave Sill (dave@sill.org)
Date: Mon Jun 28 1999 - 10:01:03 MDT
Joseph Bloch <bloch@skyweb.net> wrote:
>
> Considering that the human male sex drive is the product of millions of
> years of natural selection-governed evolution, I'm always hesitant when
> someone considers trying to tamper with it.
Isn't "tampering" with the body for purposes of improving one's life what
transhumanism is all about? If you're not willing to change things, where do
you think inprovement is going to come from?
> Just a thought here, and no slight is intended, but have you considered
> counseling? I mean, if it's taking up so much time you can't concentrate on
> what your creative and productive efforts, that might indicate more to the
> issue than purely physical. It certainly strikes me as an area for
> exploration prior to any permanent physical alterations or chemical
> therapies.
See, the thing is, I don't think my sexual drive is abnormal or that I'm
more distracted by it than most men. I don't know why more men don't see
this problem--maybe they're addicted to sex.
Imagine you reached a point in your life where consuming food for
nutritional purposes was no longer necessary. You probably wouldn't want to
just stop eating completely. Eating is a pleasurable experience. Enjoying it
is normal. But wouldn't you be annoyed if your hunger continued, and you had
to eat every few hours, whether you wanted to or not? You'd have to waste
2-3 hours/day preparing and eating food, even at inconvenient times. It'd be
much better to control your hunger so you cut down to, say, one scheduled
meal per day.
That's all I want: self control.
I currently don't have that. I can't help thinking about sex at inconvenient
or distracting times. I can't curb my hunger, even though it does me no
good.
Sure, I could do like billions of other men and resign myself to living with
this problem and enjoying the physical pleasure involved. But that's not
very transhuman or Extropian.
> Plus, how does your wife feel about your intentions to artificially rid
> yourself of your sex drive?
Her drive is pretty low, too. But I want control of my drive, if possible.
Eliminating it, I think, is too draconian.
> Such feelings are, admittedly, a legacy of our evolutionary history, and as
> such are possibly not ideally suited to our current technological society.
Exactly.
> However, I would sooner adapt society to match our evolutionary
> psychologies, rather than trying to change our psychologies to match the
> demands of our society.
How could society adapt to the male sex drive? And how would that make it
any less controlling?
-Dave
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