<< >To the Victorians, who rarely saw a naked ankle, even the sight of an
>ankle was a charged experience. To those who see the naked form
>repeatedly, it becomes uninteresting or even banal. Indeed, one might
>note that the degree of bodily exposure considered "uninteresting" in
>our society has dropped radically over the last century. ...
>It is not unreasonable to assume that the existance of places
>open to the general public at which large numbers of people were
>"routinely" unclothed would lead to further erosion of current
>societal norms on body modesty as fewer and fewer people noticed or
>eroticized nudity qua nudity.
Then Robin's response is:
> The question is whether recent historical trends are a one-time
>historical transition, or whether it is more a matter of cycles,
>multiple equilibria, and other contextual effects. Maybe both the very
>prudish and the routinely nude cultures are self-consistent equilibria
>in certain contexts. But most of human history has been between these
>extremes, and so absent a reason to expect some fundamentally new
>development, I'd expect future culture to also lie within historical
>ranges.
> Robin D. Hanson hanson@hss.caltech.edu http://hss.caltech.edu/~hanson/ >>
I'm the originator of this line, and I'd like to say, one major reason I
think the world will go nude is due to the fact that almost all the current
reasons people wear clothing is due to religious beliefs, or just plain being
accustomed to it. Once the "average" person has eliminated mysticisms, as
would be expected in a highly advanced society of the future, the very reason
people wear clothes will be gone. The "averageo" person will also be more
inclined not to do forceful things, like rape, or else they would have been
"taken care of" at some point in time be private athorities. As for the need
to prevent "overexposure" to the sun, or to the extreme cold, clothing will
still be optional. I just think that one comes to a mental point of
realizing that at times, there is no need for clothes, and thus, a "rational"
person would choose to save his/her/its resources, not wear something
unneccessarily, and have no hangups about his physical body, which at some
point in time will itself be considered "clothing" to the mind (after
uploading, or at least once we have sufficient data transfer techniques to
change bodies). Any comments?
Shawn M. Johnson,
"Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance." (Quoting I
don't know who, but if you do, please tell me.)