I'm female, and I joined last summer. I don't post a lot simply because I'm already involved in other online forums and there's only so much time to go around. When I have something to share that seems fairly important, I do.

I've noticed, in other social circles off this board, transhumanism doesn't have a lot of appeal to many people, regardless of gender. When I post topics relating to it (like uploading your mind, or being able to exist in android bodies, or growing replacement organs) I get a lot of people both male and female saying it frightens them, is just wrong, and is unsettling/disturbing.  They are fairly open minded, non-religious boards I post on and I still get that reaction.  Another common reaction is that it's interesting or they've never thought of that before, but they probably wouldn't want to do it themselves.  In contrast, threads started about Britney Spears dropping her baby, or Tommy Lee renting a helicopter that landed in the middle of a city street so he could attend a concert, get five times as many hits and replies.

I guess people are just, for the most part, frivolous.  I'm not sure why more women don't join the site, but I do know that, in general, transhumanism beyond the nearer term curing severe or genetic disease aspect is a tough sell for the majority of the population at this time.

Additionally, I've noticed on other boards that women mostly don't post in the transhumanism related threads. Why? I don't know.  Any ideas I do have about the matter start sounding sexist.

It's a tough battle regardless of gender.  As one person said, "I don't think it's right to be editing our humanity".  I think we all need to continue spreading the word in a positive manner so that one by one people start thinking about transhumanism more.

Hey, pragmatica;

What I've begun to see is that most people are stuck comfortably in their pop-paradigm. What they don't understand is that in terms of personal and cultural growth, they are very much standing on a hill- a "local maximum in the fitness landscape" i.e.- the couch potatoes- in terms of quality of life, where, with some nudging, they'd realize there is actually a whole mountain range nearby to achieve in that same landscape. Climbing it can be a personal thing, but also a cultural thing. 

On reaching a certain "height", my own viewpoint has become meta-paradigmatic.

pragmatica:

I'm female, and I joined last summer. I don't post a lot simply because I'm already involved in other online forums and there's only so much time to go around. When I have something to share that seems fairly important, I do.

I've noticed, in other social circles off this board, transhumanism doesn't have a lot of appeal to many people, regardless of gender. When I post topics relating to it (like uploading your mind, or being able to exist in android bodies, or growing replacement organs) I get a lot of people both male and female saying it frightens them, is just wrong, and is unsettling/disturbing.  They are fairly open minded, non-religious boards I post on and I still get that reaction.  Another common reaction is that it's interesting or they've never thought of that before, but they probably wouldn't want to do it themselves.  In contrast, threads started about Britney Spears dropping her baby, or Tommy Lee renting a helicopter that landed in the middle of a city street so he could attend a concert, get five times as many hits and replies.

I guess people are just, for the most part, frivolous.  I'm not sure why more women don't join the site, but I do know that, in general, transhumanism beyond the nearer term curing severe or genetic disease aspect is a tough sell for the majority of the population at this time.

Additionally, I've noticed on other boards that women mostly don't post in the transhumanism related threads. Why? I don't know.  Any ideas I do have about the matter start sounding sexist.

It's a tough battle regardless of gender.  As one person said, "I don't think it's right to be editing our humanity".  I think we all need to continue spreading the word in a positive manner so that one by one people start thinking about transhumanism more.

Thats funny when I go to people and ask them are they interested in it they usually say yes. Its probably because you are talking about the "hardcore" stuff of transhumanism. When you say "would you want to transfer your mind in a computer, or virtual database, and leave for body behind" that doesn't sound like the most plesent thing. Or like you say they think you are crazy, I mean uploading is contraversual in the transhuman community so is it so shocking?

But very much so people are in transhumanism, and what I nicked named the "transhuman technologies," technologies that will allow us to become transhumans. You just got to give it to them softly. For example ask a person if he or she would ever want to look, and feel, young forever. You will get almost a 100% yes, with the younger generation wanting it more than the older. Ask would they want technologies that could be inserted into them, like a small pin or something of the sort, that could help them fight off and even eliminate deadly, and usually fatal, diesases like cancer (I know not an actual diesase but for the sake of what I'm saying) or AIDS, and stuff like that. Ask them would they want technologies, which would be inexpensive so even the poorest person could afford it, that would allow them to instantiously learn something no matter how complex like advance calculus, or quantam physics. Ask them would they want technolgies that would allow them to enter a virtual reality and access the internet like they do the physical world, able to feel, smell, see, and taste the environment they entered (this is where you introduce uploading, by saying would they want to transfer there mind here instead of being in they body, but still able to go into it when they wanted, if the virtual world was or seemed better than the physical one.).

 Basically you have to make it sound appealing. Like the car. People didn't want a car in the past, because they had no use for it or for other reasons. But put a little paint, make it sound powerful (macho |o|), and fast, with more convensies like soft chairs to sit in and *baam* everyone wants one. Same thing for the computer, add some games, make it convential to everyday life, and so on and *baam* again everyone wants one (especially with the interent if I may add :) ).

 Oh and sorry to anyone that was offended by the thread. I made it. I was an idiot, but I'm young (I just became 18 years old  5 days ago), and as the old saying goes "young and stupid." Again I was just curious, didn't mean to offend anyone.

As I stated in a previous post in this thread, it's rare for women to engage in intellectual discourse amongst themselves. The two women I have met in the past 5 years who had any interest in transhumanism didn't want to discuss it openly. For whatever reason it seems that most women would rather comiserate (sp?), whine, and talk about day-to-day things. Many, like me, turn to men for this type of interaction. I have been lucky enough to have a father who is interested in technology, philosophy, and world affairs, and who has supported my intellectual pursuits over my 32 years. I have also had the chance to meet and maintain friendships with some very open-minded and inquisitive people (again, mostly men).

Gender doesn't have anything to do with my interest in transhumanism. The interest in rooted in my passions for anthropology, linguistics, and technological innovation, which are not based in my gender either. In some ways I have a very male brain (good with math, good mechanical and spatial abilities, strong in both macro and micro views of things, pragmatic), but then I am also very female in that my empathy is well-tuned and I enjoy working cooperatively.

There is no question that women can bring different perspectives to debates about human enhancement, life extension, cyborgs, AIs, and so on, but don't think that gender frames all perspectives. If I feel my position is threatened *because* I am a woman, I will speak up, but if, in general, I see an even playing field (for example, what makes the uploading of my brain any different from uploading a man's?), gender doesn't come into it.




 

Maybe this is all part of a larger trend. There has long been a shortage of women in math, science and engineering despite their growing participation in law, medicine, politics, business, arts and other areas of human endeavor.

My own experiences are hardly worth extrapolating from but when I was a physics student back in the eighties, the few women who had matriculated in that area seemed to be planning for careers in teaching rather doing research for its own sake. It seemed to me at the time that they were functioning under a kind of guilt at their own selfishness--that they somehow had to do something kid oriented or they would consider themselves failures as women or something. Of course I'm only guessing but, I get this perception that many women in science have to have a strong social component to their career path or they aren't satisfied with it.

Now obviously their are exceptions to this rule. Marie Curie, Roslind Franklin, Lise Mitner, Grace Hopper, Jane Goodall and the rest didn't emerge from a vacuum but, there does seem to be this internal or external pressure for many women in science to focus themselves toward something children oriented.

Men in science (Or art or politics, etc.) often have their families pick up the slack in their personal lives so the men can be free to think weighty thoughts. Perhaps it's because men aren't so willing to pick up the personal slack for their scientist wives so, these women of science aren't as free to think weighty thoughts.

This is not really directly related to the thread at hand but I think it's something to consider. Basically I'm saying that for one reason or another women aren't as free and aren't encouraged to shuck the jive about abstract topics.

Wow! I'm impressed by the quality of postings on this thread.  Betterhumans is quickly demonstrating itself to be a discussion venue of considerable value and thought.  Here is a blog post of mine that is directly relevant to this thread:

http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/?p=135 

(Perhaps Pragmatica can duplicate her response there to contribute to that thread of discussion.)

I'm female, and have been a transhumanist for years.  In fact I have not 1 but 2 cryonics contracts - primary with Alcor and backup with CI, making me fairly hardcore even for cryoncists.  I'm also *very* interested in uploading, but virtual universe quality is definitely a factor there.  For me, time to post is frequently an issue - I'm a programmer/DBA and my job keeps me rather busy.

And no, I'm certainly not here to pick up any men.  Considering that I'm gay and my GF would object I think we'll just skip that part...

 

Welcome, Janessa. As a mom and exhausted info worker, I too have little energy to post (nor to take part in the jousting), though I take great delight in *reading* the discussions.