Date sent: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 02:41:37 -0500 To: extropians@extropy.com From: "Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko" <sasha1@netcom.com> Subject: Re: Gender and Cognitive Style Send reply to: extropians@extropy.com
> Since I - and, hopefully, uploads - would consider cognitive
> styles primary features of an [in]dividual, and look at gender
> as a secondary and somewhat outdated characteristic, I'd try
> to look at the gender/assertiveness statistics from another side.
>
> So we have a number of "assertives" in the society that play
> dominant roles in some social tasks, related to leadership, and
> a number of "non-assertives" playing a (necessary!!!) subservient
> role in these tasks, and maybe leading in some others, such as
> preservation of traditions, nurturing, emotional stabilization.
> Assertives also exhibit some old-fashioned manifestations of
> masculinity, and non-assertives - femininity (all these no longer
> needed distinctions in body size, hair, milk glands and [emulations
> of] sexual appendages). These old-fashioned features and
> appendages are distributed unequally between assertives and
> non-assertives. We could fix that by distributing body sizes
> and appendages more equally (I am sure any intelligent being would
> rather change physical features than its core cognitive
> characteristics). Or we could change the situation by
> liquidating variety of all features, making sure that nobody
> has an equal start in the social physical/emotional/cognitive
> ecology, not leading in being more emotionally sensitive, curious,
> adventurous, impulsive, or whatever.
>
> I hope it sounds ridiculous enough already.
>
> Isn't it time we stop classifying ourselves by gender?
>
> I would actually expect that billions of highly intelligent
> beings with high degrees of morphic freedom would often play
> with all their features and tune them freely in any direction,
> depending on need and interest, so the diversity of features
> will grow dramatically. If we want to prepare to this situation
> now, the last thing we want to do is to attempt removing any
> personal distinctions.
>
>
Without identifying physical characteristics, the distinction between
heterosexual and homosexual would cease to exist. In fact, whom
would be attracted to whom and how they would or could possibly
consummate such an attraction is a huge and baffling mystery,
admitting of much fanciful speculation, but no answers. Joe
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Alexander Chislenko <http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/home.html>
> <sasha1@netcom.com> <sasha@media.mit.edu>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>