I would assume that eventually the pleasurable feeling one gets from sex and love if completely separated from reproduction would slowly disappear or modified to fill something like is required in the scenario described here. Sure one can say that beings in that situation might be considered “bisexual” but is that really a useful word? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that the sexes as we know them basically disappear in a world where anyone can make a descendant by themselves if they have the resources for it? Being “bisexual” dosen’t really make sense in such a context since anything like what we currently understand as biological sex is gone and is replaced by several competing reproductive strategies that only loosely fit the current distribution of reproductive strategies of the sexes.
I would probably self-modify to be asexual if it wasn’t for current societal norms and modes of reproduction. I could get much more out of my limited lifespan if I didn’t waste so much time with matters related to it. I’d rather do some math, or read more books or do some research or just explore and have fun in a virtual world.
My revealed preferences seem to match this partially as well. Mostly unrelated story: In the past I’ve actually been so disappointed when I ask people what’s the funnest thing they can imagine and I get the answer “sex”. Once I couldn’t stop myself from saying back “Come on you can do better!”. I got a blank stare and clear confusion. What is extra funny is that looking back I realize that in that particular context her answer of “sex” was clearly just one of the more obvious flirting signals that I had completely missed for over two weeks. Where in the fraking ancestral environment did I get maladaptive genes like that? Heh.
That sounds a lot like Shaw’s Back to Methuselah, in which people lose interest in most (all?) social interaction, including sex, by about age 200 and prefer mathematics.
I don’t know what people would do to get enough novelty in much longer lifespans—it’s possible that sex could be made more complex and intense as well as mathematics becoming more fascinating.
I would probably self-modify to be asexual if it wasn’t for current societal norms and modes of reproduction. I >could get much more out of my limited lifespan if I didn’t waste so much time with matters related to it. I’d rather >do some math, or read more books or do some research or just explore and have fun in a virtual world.
Speaking as the asexual reading/mathing/coding type, might I suggest that after the first several years, or at least if your sexuality finally started picking up again, you’d go back to relationships & realize why they’re all the rage? (It’s also more an orientation than a lifestyle.)
I would assume that eventually the pleasurable feeling one gets from sex and love if completely separated from reproduction would slowly disappear or modified to fill something like is required in the scenario described here. Sure one can say that beings in that situation might be considered “bisexual” but is that really a useful word? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that the sexes as we know them basically disappear in a world where anyone can make a descendant by themselves if they have the resources for it? Being “bisexual” dosen’t really make sense in such a context since anything like what we currently understand as biological sex is gone and is replaced by several competing reproductive strategies that only loosely fit the current distribution of reproductive strategies of the sexes.
I would probably self-modify to be asexual if it wasn’t for current societal norms and modes of reproduction. I could get much more out of my limited lifespan if I didn’t waste so much time with matters related to it. I’d rather do some math, or read more books or do some research or just explore and have fun in a virtual world.
My revealed preferences seem to match this partially as well. Mostly unrelated story: In the past I’ve actually been so disappointed when I ask people what’s the funnest thing they can imagine and I get the answer “sex”. Once I couldn’t stop myself from saying back “Come on you can do better!”. I got a blank stare and clear confusion. What is extra funny is that looking back I realize that in that particular context her answer of “sex” was clearly just one of the more obvious flirting signals that I had completely missed for over two weeks. Where in the fraking ancestral environment did I get maladaptive genes like that? Heh.
Quite possibly not enough of your ancestors died before reproducing, leaving insufficient optimization pressure. :P
Damn you insufficiently culled ancestors!
That sounds a lot like Shaw’s Back to Methuselah, in which people lose interest in most (all?) social interaction, including sex, by about age 200 and prefer mathematics.
I don’t know what people would do to get enough novelty in much longer lifespans—it’s possible that sex could be made more complex and intense as well as mathematics becoming more fascinating.
Speaking as the asexual reading/mathing/coding type, might I suggest that after the first several years, or at least if your sexuality finally started picking up again, you’d go back to relationships & realize why they’re all the rage? (It’s also more an orientation than a lifestyle.)