Elizabeth Childs <echilds@linex.com> writes:
> It's things like this that always make me wonder how people could ever
> develop a romance over the internet. There's a lot of biochemical
> information about a mate that you can't get remotely.
Fortunately romance has a large cognitive part :-)
> The extropian point would be that biochemistry is so darn complicated,
> particularly anything that involves the many interrelated hormones, that
> every time we try to change it we will run both foreseeable and
> unforseeable complications.
Yes, but that shouldn't scare us from trying (genetics is darn complicated, and we can still do useful things with it).
> If we had nanotech to do this, I would
> suggest disabling the mechanisms of action that causes the testosterone
> to increase the libido, rather than lowering the testosterone level.
> This might have fewer complications.
True. As a neuro-person, I would go for the brainstem and hypothalamus and look for the receptors (I'm to lazy today to websearch about exactly which parts to deal with). Then you could block the receptors locally somehow (a very specific antagonist), but I would guess you would also need to splice in an extra signal to the pituary gland since I'm quite certain some of the hypothalamus sex centers are also responsible for controlling the production of sex hormones and if they get too little testosterone input they will likely send more signals.
> A large excess of testosterone, in the amounts used by some
> bodybuilders, can cause violent and risky behavior.
And in sufficient doses actually act as a contraceptive, ironically enough.
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