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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   36584 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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I see the social scale attitudes as ultimately flexible and think they will get more and more loose as technology removes us from their biological origin. I don’t really have a problem with that.

In terms of each unique person's meaning, sure everyone is unique. I don’t know what you mean about souls fracturing out to a unique point though.

Do we just disagree on my first point here?

I find the instinct you have that gender is the appropriate word to use here confusing. If your belief is that technology and social progress is going to make traditional concepts of gender no longer have power then it seems to me like gender abolition is the more obvious path than gender essentialism and expansion. Males can be women and also gender is important and also gender is actually an expansive nearly undefinable characteristic seem like strange bedfellows. Is it not more simple to just say gender is outdated nonsense and people should be able to express themselves however they'd like? That seems to me the most obvious path of transhumanism.

If someone eventually wants and is able to take on the form of a jackal, as might tempt one of our mutual acquaintances, is it not more clean to say that he was a man, as in to say male human, and decide he'd fancy at least some time in the form of a jackal so he is currently a(likely anthropomorphic) jackal without all the weird metaphysics of claiming he was actually always the abstract gender of male jackal. What is this gender framework actually buying you besides confusion?

If your belief is that technology and social progress is going to make traditional concepts of gender no longer have power then it seems to me like gender abolition is the more obvious path than gender essentialism and expansion.

I think we'll have to go through a phase of gender expansion before it no longer matters. We can't just swap from modern day notions to anything goes.

is it not more clean to say that he was a man, as in to say male human

Uhh, no? He's a jackal-man! I mean again I don't know if I'm following you down some of these rabbit holes. When it comes to intense trans / gender / sex language or whatever I just don't think it's worth defining every little thing.

gender is important and also gender is actually an expansive nearly undefinable characteristic seem like strange bedfellows

I never said gender was important! It may be important in the here and now due to things tied to it like fertility, but I don't think it's important in itself.

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