[ExI] Will ems have two genders?

[Darin Sunley]

If we visualize the space of all possible minds, the human male and female
genders are tiny, almost infinitesimal, adjacent volumes in one small
corner. The vast, vast majority of possible minds are not categorizable as
either male or female, and the set of all genders is the /power set/ of all
possible minds.

The very first human uploads will retain a recognizable gender. But if any
ems are allowed any capacity for self-modification, they will rapidly,
almost immediately, wander into realms that are no longer categorizable as
human genders.

On Sun, May 15, 2016 at 4:52 AM, Rafal Smigrodzki <
rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Sun, May 15, 2016 at 5:00 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:
>
>> On 2016-05-14 04:04, Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
>>
>> Is there a reason to expect that ems would have a male and a female
>> gender? We have to remember that ems are not biological, and gender may
>> have a purely biological origin.
>>
>>
>> But ems start as scans of biological brains and retain the memories,
>> personalities and identity constructs of the bio-original. Since most
>> people strongly identify with one gender or the other, they are likely to
>> keep doing that as ems.
>>
>> I think furries, transgender people and experimentation online with
>> alternative personas demonstrate that there is more fluidity than many
>> people think, but they are hardly evidence that ems will lose gender
>> identity. In the longer run, when people start mind editing, yes, but not
>> in the short-run scenario in Robin's book.
>>
>
> ### I have to read it, once it comes out on Kindle. In the meantime I
> would think that the short-run scenario is going to be really short-run,
> running in internet time on yottaflop steroids.
>
> Rafał
>
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