[ExI] ep thought experiment

[William Flynn Wallace]

There's a whole host of things I would change before I would change
anything sexual.  Some of you regard emotion as a stumbling block to
reason, so if we could just contain our emotions, note them but not be
driven by them, humans would be better off.  I disagree, but clearly there
are times when emotions drive us to very irrational behaviors we wish we
had not done.  We have little emotional control even as adults.  Anger can
take over completely.  So can fear even if it is totally irrational to fear
whatever it is.  But good emotions are the spice of life.

Spike, how about this:  we change human sexual drives to be like estrus:
if the female is not in estrus the male is not interested.  So the female
in estrus is the sole sexual stimulant.  Unless they make a smell-o-vision,
that will eliminate time spent on looking at naked women and all that.
Estrus will be kept in check by pills, so that a woman might go years
without going into estrus and not missing a thing.  Something like this?
bill w

On Wed, Jul 8, 2020 at 8:21 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of
> Keith Henson via extropy-chat
> Sent: Tuesday, July 7, 2020 10:30 PM
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Cc: Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
> Subject: [ExI] ep thought experiment
>
>
> > If we fully recognize the Maurice reaction is now an evolutionary dead
> > end,  or once had its purpose but now is a detriment. we still cannot
> switch that off.  Or if so, I don't know how.
>
> > Thoughts please?
>
> I think you are utterly wrong.  What you are talking about is
> sexual/attraction.drive.  It's not obsolete.  The generation that edits it
> out would be the last generation.  The people who don't have it, and I have
> known quite a few, do not contribute genes to the next generation.
>
> Keith
> _______________________________________________
>
>
> Hi Keith, agree we don't want to switch off drive to breed, only the
> current
> stone-age evolved Maurice set, which is our drive to seek out
> characteristics no longer needed under current conditions.  The fact that
> we
> are turned on by characteristics related to faster reproduction (now
> useless
> (it is no longer a race to breed armies)) and ability to physically drive
> off raiders (now useless (we have machines for that)) rather than primarily
> by intelligence is now humanity's barrier to a better future.  What was
> once
> a stepping stone is now a stumbling block.
>
>  Our stone-age evolved psychological traits are preventing humans from
> evolving into those bulbous-headed creatures who rebuilt Kirk in the
> original Star Trek pilot.  The problem is that once we are collectively
> aware of our Maurice reactions and where they came from and that we no
> longer need those, we cannot turn them off.
>
> spike
>
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