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<div id="AOLMsgPart_0_363564cb-92b3-4ba5-a6ea-3dfde0ceb833" style="margin: 0px;font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif;font-size: 12px;color: #000;background-color: #fff;"><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><tt><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">></span></font></tt>Mortality reduction without reduction in the birth rate</pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt; "><tt>leads to events like the Rwanda and Cambodia killings</tt></pre><pre><tt><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So your suggestion is that we should not wish for something which</span></font></tt></pre><pre><tt><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">has led to all the life-saving technologies we currently enjoy on the</span></font></tt></pre><pre><tt><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">basis that the same wish might lead to the aberrations you mention?</span></font></tt></pre><pre><tt><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Are you being serious here?</span></font></tt></pre><pre><tt><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Lucky we didn't think that a few years back:</span></font></tt></pre><pre><tt><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">'</span></font></tt><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">Don't go wishing for the first tool which will be the breakthrough </span></pre><pre><tt><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">in our lives and re-shape everything we know and can do because -</span></font></tt></pre><pre><tt><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">you never know - someone might bang their thumb with it.'</span></font></tt></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><tt><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br>
</span></font></tt></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><tt><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">></span></font>This red pill will give you continuous orgasm. Do you take it?
<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">That's not really the point I was making. 'Orgasm' was intended to refute the</span></font></tt></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">idea that our desires being fulfilled would lead to the end of our species,</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">by pointing to the circular nature of pleasure. (Think of the best orgasm you</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">ever had. Did you say, 'Ahhh, it doesn't get any better than this! So I won't bother</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">having those any more.') </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">The pleasure centre of our brain</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">being stimulated is enough to leave us feeling rewarded, pleased, happy,</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">elated, orgasmic, whatever. Getting to a position whereby we could maintain</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">such 'hedonic' levels (to use the language of David Pearce) would be a desirable</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">thing if we assume that pleasure is desirable. Do we? I think that certainly</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">we would be prompted by that feedback system to go on further with our lives.</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">I don't, for example, believe the argument that pleasure itself, or levels of pleasure,</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">could become boring. (It doesn't make sense when you take the view that</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">pleasure is a pattern of chemicals in the brain.) Someone once suggested</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">to me that someone happy in this way wouldn't give a toss about a bus coming</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">towards them in the street - they'd be too happy to care! I replied that the</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">likelihood is surely rather that they would leap out of the way in order to</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">go on enjoying their happiness. Which is precisely why we go on seeking</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">and having orgasms. I for one can honestly say I have never had a boring</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">orgasm. We are inspired by pleasure.</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> But let's not get bogged down in pleasure.</span></font></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Don't forget that what I originally posted about was not pleasure</span></font></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">per se</span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">, but rather the emotional and psychological ability to lead</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">more effective lives. I'm not suggesting for one instant that I want to</span></font></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">be in a constant state of orgasm.</span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; "> (That said, I would definitely like</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">to be able to access orgasms more </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">easily and have them last a</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">lot longer!) But I would like to see crippling emotional problems</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">and psychological issues reduced to a point where people can lead</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">better lives. If pleasure is a by-product of that, are we really going</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">to get our knickers in a twist about it?</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: normal; "><pre style="font-size: 9pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; "> So in answer to your question: probably not - since I don't see</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">orgasm as being a useful benchmark of pleasure or psychological</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">efficacy - but not because I fear it becoming boring, but rather</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">because I fear I would never do the thousands of other things</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; ">I want to do!</span></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Best,</span></font></pre><pre style="font-size: 9pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Damian U.</span></font></pre></span></span></font></pre>
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