From 0728c50bd7c5e761ac8410983916ddd3fd9ba3ee Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake" Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2020 11:31:54 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] "Sexual Dimorphism": morphic adaption unit specifications MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit It's always hard to start writing, and it's especially hard to start writing about this—but it's so important. To me. --- ...-in-the-sequences-in-relation-to-my-gender-problems.md | 8 ++++++++ notes/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-notes.md | 2 +- 2 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/drafts/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-in-relation-to-my-gender-problems.md b/content/drafts/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-in-relation-to-my-gender-problems.md index 7d093f8..2d6d250 100644 --- a/content/drafts/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-in-relation-to-my-gender-problems.md +++ b/content/drafts/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-in-relation-to-my-gender-problems.md @@ -128,6 +128,14 @@ But, well ... I mean, um ... From the standpoint of my secret erotic fantasy, "normal, masculine man wearing a female body like a suit of clothing" is actually a _great_ outcome—the _ideal_ outcome. Let me explain. +The main plot of my secret erotic fantasy accomodates many frame stories, but I tend to prefer those that invoke the [literary genre of science](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4Bwr6s9dofvqPWakn/science-as-attire), and posit technology indistinguishable from magic rather than magic _simpliciter_. + +So imagine having something like the transporter in _Star Trek_, but you re-materialize with the body of someone else, rather than your original body—a little booth I could walk in, dissolve in a tingly glowy special effect for a few seconds, and walk out looking [like Nana Visitor (circa 1998)](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Kay_Eaton?file=Kay_Eaton.jpg). + +This high-level fantasy _description_ of a hypothetical technology leaves some details unspecified—not just the _how_, but the _what_. What would the magical transformation booth do to my brain? What would I _want_ it to do, if I can't change the physical nature of reality but if engineering practicalities weren't a constraint? (That is, I'm allowed to posit any atom-configuration without having to worry about how you would get all the atoms in the right place, but I'm not allowed to posit tethering my immortal soul to a new body, because souls aren't real.) + +The point about motor connections makes me confident that it would have to change _something_ to integrate my mind with a new female body—if nothing else, my unmodified brain doesn't physically _fit_ inside Nana Visitor's skull. (The sex difference in raw brain matter is Cohen's _d_ ≈ 1.4, and Nana Visitor doesn't look like she has an unusually large head.) + [...] diff --git a/notes/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-notes.md b/notes/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-notes.md index 3c49f61..8d5d773 100644 --- a/notes/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-notes.md +++ b/notes/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-notes.md @@ -84,6 +84,6 @@ Just 'cause I'm butch and I'm a tranny girl ------ -[TODO: work out description of what the fantasy is: mirror neurons, not already female, &c.; Star Trek transporter scenario] +caption authors call this the "morphic adaptation unit" Anne Lawrence described autogynephiles as ["men who love women and want to become what they love."](/papers/lawrence-becoming_what_we_love.pdf) But it's worse than that. We're men who love what we _wish_ women were, and want to become _that_. -- 2.17.1