Submitted by Valkyrie Ice (not verified) on Wed, 01/20/2010 - 14:38.
Well, in the case of transsexuals, it is a scientific fact that their brains undergo feminization or masculinization in the womb due to genetic factors causing higher levels of estrogen or testosterone during certain stages of pregnancy, but otherwise yes. Not sure if they have even looked yet for an explanation for "furriness" *giggle*
However, one thing the net is already doing is allowing the formation of extremely large, and increasingly organized, subcultures, such as furries, goths, gamers, etc to be formed. Within these communities, there are vastly different "norms" than those of the broader cultural society. For example, I am considered a "furry" due to the animalistic hooves, wings and horns, not to mention the tail, but within the furry subculture, I'm only borderline a furry since my primary "form" is more humanistic.
As such, as humanity begins gaining the abilities to make such changes possible, I am quite sure that there will be an enormous amount of pressure to subdivide even further into "tribes" of related self images, just as there is today. So we will have increasingly diverse subdivisions and yes, there might be strife between subcultures, but the ability to freely alter ones appearance will on the whole, I think, corrode the hard and fast divisions. Racism and Genderism will definitely lose their justifications once skin color and gender are freely changeable. In much the same way, I think xenophobia will lose much of it's force. We shun the abnormal because it IS abnormal, but once the abnormal BECOMES the normal, it's, well, gonna be normal, no?
The future I see is just one possibility, though I think it has strong evidence in it's favor. VR is going to usher it in, and begin making it a reality by popular demand. The hows and whys I plan to explore in later articles, but I think at this point it's become somewhat inevitable. We're going to have to come to grips with quite a few of the "demons" of the ID, and find a way to overcome or cope with them long before we ever get to the Singularity.
Well, in the case of
Well, in the case of transsexuals, it is a scientific fact that their brains undergo feminization or masculinization in the womb due to genetic factors causing higher levels of estrogen or testosterone during certain stages of pregnancy, but otherwise yes. Not sure if they have even looked yet for an explanation for "furriness" *giggle*
However, one thing the net is already doing is allowing the formation of extremely large, and increasingly organized, subcultures, such as furries, goths, gamers, etc to be formed. Within these communities, there are vastly different "norms" than those of the broader cultural society. For example, I am considered a "furry" due to the animalistic hooves, wings and horns, not to mention the tail, but within the furry subculture, I'm only borderline a furry since my primary "form" is more humanistic.
As such, as humanity begins gaining the abilities to make such changes possible, I am quite sure that there will be an enormous amount of pressure to subdivide even further into "tribes" of related self images, just as there is today. So we will have increasingly diverse subdivisions and yes, there might be strife between subcultures, but the ability to freely alter ones appearance will on the whole, I think, corrode the hard and fast divisions. Racism and Genderism will definitely lose their justifications once skin color and gender are freely changeable. In much the same way, I think xenophobia will lose much of it's force. We shun the abnormal because it IS abnormal, but once the abnormal BECOMES the normal, it's, well, gonna be normal, no?
The future I see is just one possibility, though I think it has strong evidence in it's favor. VR is going to usher it in, and begin making it a reality by popular demand. The hows and whys I plan to explore in later articles, but I think at this point it's become somewhat inevitable. We're going to have to come to grips with quite a few of the "demons" of the ID, and find a way to overcome or cope with them long before we ever get to the Singularity.