[ExI] Sexual response modification

Rafal Smigrodzki rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com
Fri Aug 5 18:09:32 UTC 2016


On Fri, Aug 5, 2016 at 2:22 AM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:

> So let's take a diversion from the current threads.
>
> http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/new-theory-
> suggests-female-orgasms-are-evolutionary-leftover
>
> If this theory is true, which of the following modifications might be more
> popular, and why?  Assuming sufficiently advanced biotechnology, but these
> do not seem like they would require as radical a leap as some other
> technologies we have discussed.
>
> 1) Reverse evolution so that ovulation occurs upon orgasm.  Celibate (or
> at least non-orgasming) females would be able to store their eggs longer
> (for career, et cetera), though they might take longer to mature sexually.
> On the flip side, deliberately getting pregnant would be easier since one
> could reliably induce ovulation without expensive medicines or procedures.
>
> 2) Modify the ovaries to be like the testes: constantly producing seed
> (egg cells, in their case).  No more menopause.
>

### There is a limited number of primordial ova in the ovary, and although
the precise reason for this arrangement is not definitely known, the
hypothesis that I favor goes as follows:

Mitochondrial DNA quality is crucial for the normal functioning of the
organism. During cell division there is ample opportunity to accumulate
mitochondrial mutations by random drift, and normal cellular metabolism
also contributes to mtDNA mutations. Since you don't want to let your
offspring inherit faulty mtDNA, the germ cell that contains it must be then
appropriately protected, and in humans only the primordial ovum carries
mtDNA. Primordial ova are very peculiar cells, with suppressed metabolism,
non-dividing, large (makes random drift in mtDNA less problematic), which
appears to be ideal kind of cell to keep mtDNA safe. But mtDNA still
undergoes decay, which is why the average quality of ova goes down from age
25 onward, hundreds of thousands of them are automatically culled at
mitochondrial metabolic checkpoints, until at age 40 most women become
infertile from an exhaustion of ova.

Sperms to not carry mtDNA, and therefore the constraints that apply to ova
are not relevant to them.

Changing ova production to match sperm in amount and duration would require
some quite advanced biological tinkering.

Rafał

Rafał
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