Are there any women on this site? I mean I have been through some posts and I have not found one person with the female gender symbol on there information box. So just wondering.

The Curious

Neo

Women are heavily outnumbered here at current.  Those who are here rarely post in the forums.

any theories on why women are less numerous than men here in the forums?

I'm wondering if testosterone isn't an important part of the intellectual conviction necessary to seek identity through a group that promotes solutions that are counter-intuitive. Women seem to prefer more 'emotional comfort' than such an association provides.

When debating online - there is less concern for the emotional content and more concern with facts and figures.

I'm just throwing these thoughts out there - don't quote me on this ;-)

 

Well in my experience men heavily outnumber women in internet usage in general, not that women do not use the internet but again in my experience they would use it more for research and various other one off reasons rather than the sort of constant reply/check/reply format of being a regular user on an internet forum. May not be true for the whole world but I cannot name one women I know who participates in online message forums. However while I agree that women more than men prefer 'emotional comfort' (or perhaps are more open about it!) Im sure many women would be happy to discuss issues on which they were enlightened or be happy to listen to someone explain an issue ojn which they were not.

That aside this is my first post on this website so hello everyone, found it randomly with stumbleupon and like the idea of a forum that debates things slightly more interesting than who would win out of king kong and maggie thatcher! Also as Im not great at forming arguments or expressing my thoughts in a valid argument (my word use isnt always great either!) Im hoping the practise will do me some good!

ideal:

Women are heavily outnumbered here at current.  Those who are here rarely post in the forums.

Yes, so far I have seen only one.

I'm female but I don't consider that to be some essential factor of my identity.  It just "is".

I don't see any need to proclaim my gender with a little pink symbol, though. 

And to the person who mentioned "emotional comfort" as a factor in discussions women as a group might tend to prefer, I'd just like to offer a reminder that this certainly doesn't apply to ALL women. 

I usually get mistaken for a guy online unless I overtly reveal my gender or use a very feminine login name.  Truthfully, I'm generally annoyed by most women and have never really tended to get along well in female social groupings.  In elementary school if I bothered to talk to anyone, it was about Star Wars or video games. 

And I'm very, very interested in transhumanist principles.  I do plan to start posting more in the forums and on the main page.  Right now, though, I am somewhat busy with work, and also with a side project I am working on (trying to put together a comprehensive essay that addresses, logically, why overpopulation is not likely to be a true negative consequence of superlongevity -- I know Max More did it reasonably well but I do not think that everything that needs to be said on that subject has already been said). 

So, we (as in, transhumanist females, and females on Betterhumans) DO exist.  But I'm admittedly an outlier in the world of girlhood. 

Nydra:

I'm female but I don't consider that to be some essential factor of my identity.  It just "is".

I don't see any need to proclaim my gender with a little pink symbol, though. 

And to the person who mentioned "emotional comfort" as a factor in discussions women as a group might tend to prefer, I'd just like to offer a reminder that this certainly doesn't apply to ALL women. 

I usually get mistaken for a guy online unless I overtly reveal my gender or use a very feminine login name.  Truthfully, I'm generally annoyed by most women and have never really tended to get along well in female social groupings.  In elementary school if I bothered to talk to anyone, it was about Star Wars or video games. 

And I'm very, very interested in transhumanist principles.  I do plan to start posting more in the forums and on the main page.  Right now, though, I am somewhat busy with work, and also with a side project I am working on (trying to put together a comprehensive essay that addresses, logically, why overpopulation is not likely to be a true negative consequence of superlongevity -- I know Max More did it reasonably well but I do not think that everything that needs to be said on that subject has already been said). 

So, we (as in, transhumanist females, and females on Betterhumans) DO exist.  But I'm admittedly an outlier in the world of girlhood.

Wow a female transhumanist - too bad we can't clone you...   can I have your phone number ;-)

It would be great to identifiy factors that we could use to attract more female supporters. 'Emotional comfort' is probably not the right term here. I'm just referring for the human tendency to group think and form identities and social groups in order to feel accepted, safe, powerful, etc.. Men and women both do this but in different ways (in general.)

 

It would be great to identifiy factors that we could use to attract more female supporters.
We have to think about what we can "sell" them now; some technology or technique that they can use to make their lives better.

Business women might be interested in neurofeedback, for example. New age women might be interested in the science of sungazing and meditation.

Nydra:

essay that addresses, logically, why overpopulation is not likely to be a true negative consequence of superlongevity

Cool, is that for imminst book? You might already know there is a call for just this type of thing http://www.imminst.org/book/

This thread is a joke to any woman or non extreme geek men. It should come as no surprise that this forum repels woman like washing up liquid in greasy water! Just look at the posts.

Nydra:

I'm female but I don't consider that to be some essential factor of my identity.  It just "is".

I would have to argue that.  You may not feel that being female is a major part of who you are(I rarely put the fact that I'm a man into consideration in my day to day life), but your gender shapes your identity from early childhood.  I believe it is the most essential factor in how you view the world around you.  The effects on gender on worldview, however, very from person to person.

Russell:

This thread is a joke to any woman or non extreme geek men. It should come as no surprise that this forum repels woman like washing up liquid in greasy water! Just look at the posts.

That's a bit confrontational.  Granted, this isn't a particularly useful thread, but this subforum isn't necessarily for serious discussion.  Aside from that, what makes you think other threads indicate this as a place for the geek in his mother's basement type.

Overanalyzing small details like tee-shirt photos and the boorish statements of clueless guys isn't really that productive.

I think the only thing that really needs to change on the site is the addition of women writers who have the time to post to the site. Or cross-post from their own sites to this one via the MetaBlog API. Or vice versa.

This can be done by recruiting.

If you know someone, who happens to be female, who loves to rant on the Web about this futuristic stuff and, most importantly, has the time to rant, point her here. It might be a good soapbox for her.

Seeing vocal women here will encourage others to speak up, and maybe things will cascade from there.

It's not that women don't care about this stuff. It's just that, for some of them, they need some vanguards to break the trail for the rest of them.

Try to think of it the other way around. Imagine some preponderantly gal dominated site out there someplace. Wouldn't you feel a little uptight as a guy posting to it for the first time? Lurking is easy but speaking up for the first time is always a little scary.

Well, wait. I gotta say one thing about the boorishness. The gals ain't here to pick up their next husband or boyfriend. They're here to read and talk about the future. They may already be married. They may be l-e-s-b-i-a-n. They may just be uninterested. So respect that and back off nerd boy! This is not MySpace. Go flirt somewhere else.

Here we talk about the future. That's it.

Well, I don't think I'd be much help in suggesting ways to entice or understand other women because I quite honestly don't understand the way most other women I've encountered think or relate.  You may be right that "in general" men and women approach groupings or discussions differently, but I think that philosophies like transhumanism tend to attract certain sorts of *people* and gender really doesn't factor into the equation much at all.  Granted I'm not much for RL socializing, but I honestly don't know any transhumanists, male or female, in real life at the moment (though a co-worker of mine supposedly has a friend who is a transhumanist).  I don't think that these sorts of things -- discussion of life extension, cryonics, human enhancement, biological research, nanotechnology, etc. -- are very popular topics in the population at large.  

Sadly, most people seem enamored with "reality TV" and celebrity gossip much more so than things that actually have the potential to improve their lives and make them a heck of a lot more interesting.  There are probably more men interested in transhumanism simply because the "movement" is so internet-based and I think guys grow up being more encouraged to use computers (though there are exceptions -- my parents had to basically bribe me to get OFF the computer as a kid!).  I have always been interested in things because, well, they're interesting to me and it's always been a surprise to discover that the things I find "interesting" don't tend to intrigue others of my own gender.  I don't think my interests make me any less of a girl -- there's absolutely nothing about computers, science, math, etc., that is essentialy "male"...there are just some complicated social and biological factors at work that seem to make it somewhat rare for women to get really enthused about such things.

At any rate, I do have a few internet-friends who are female and intrigued by life extension.  I don't know how significant this is, but I and these other females who have such interests tend very strongly to be diagnosed with "autistic spectrum" conditions.  I think that people whose brains are "wired" in such a manner tend to, regardless of gender, be more able to resist dominant social pressures and trends.   

As for my essay: where it ends up depends on how good it comes out, and how long it takes me.  At present I'm still organizing ideas and trying to identify sources of good data.

Mr. Farlops:

Overanalyzing small details like tee-shirt photos and the boorish statements of clueless guys isn't really that productive.

I think the only thing that really needs to change on the site is the addition of women writers who have the time to post to the site. Or cross-post from their own sites to this one via the MetaBlog API. Or vice versa.

This can be done by recruiting.

If you know someone, who happens to be female, who loves to rant on the Web about this futuristic stuff and, most importantly, has the time to rant, point her here. It might be a good soapbox for her.

Seeing vocal women here will encourage others to speak up, and maybe things will cascade from there.

It's not that women don't care about this stuff. It's just that, for some of them, they need some vanguards to break the trail for the rest of them.

Try to think of it the other way around. Imagine some preponderantly gal dominated site out there someplace. Wouldn't you feel a little uptight as a guy posting to it for the first time? Lurking is easy but speaking up for the first time is always a little scary.

Well, wait. I gotta say one thing about the boorishness. The gals ain't here to pick up their next husband or boyfriend. They're here to read and talk about the future. They may already be married. They may be l-e-s-b-i-a-n. They may just be uninterested. So respect that and back off nerd boy! This is not MySpace. Go flirt somewhere else.

Here we talk about the future. That's it.

We could probably do with some image/culture changes in order to attract more female supporters - it certainly doesn't hurt to question ourselves in this regard. The learning process that takes place in the forums is also invaluable.