An ex girl friend gave me an anecdote on gender differences years ago. A woman tried a little experiment on herself. She wondered what it would be like to be a man, and just wanting a taste, she just boosted her testosterone for a day. And what a day it was. I believe she was some kind of tour guide, where she spent the day talking to and leading groups of people. Normally, she found herself rather wound up and anxious about pleasing the group, and not wanting to assert herself and what she wanted. But with a boost of testosterone “she just didn’t care”. That was the defining result of the experiment for the author, and my ex girl friend as well. Testosterone was a magic elixir that dispelled worries and enabled assertiveness because “she just didn’t care”.
Did that increase the utility she gained? That the tour gained? Could be true either way. Could be both. Could be neither. I could say that about any of the various “improvements” to either sex you suggested—there are plenty of people who would take them the other way, And as the anecdote suggests, it may be more of a case of trade offs than independent dimensions. Once she lost her empathy and “just didn’t care”, her assertiveness went up, and depression went down.
Even if everyone chose to go transgendered, there’s no real reason to expect us to meet in the unisex middle based on shared utility functions. It’s the differences in our values that makes possible mutually beneficial exchange.
I think this is the most compelling argument so far.
It reminds me of the Sibfox “experiment”: Russian scientists were domesticating foxes (in order to make getting their fur easier- “Let’s turn them into pets, so they will trust us, so we can kill them easier!” ugh...But anyways) In the process of selecting for domesticity/trust, etc, they ended up with foxes that were dog-like: They barked, had floppy ears, and mottled fur. The fur mottling was lucky for them, since it meant that they couldn’t fulfill their original purpose, and instead are being used as pets.
I can definitely see that humans would similarly have trade-offs rather than independent dimensions as well. And I can also see that those independent dimensions are not necesarily “good” or “bad” themselves. However, I do think that people will be more likely to choose to be located somewhere in that dimension-space that isn’t currently inhabited by the gender of their chromosomes. (aka women in positions of authority might choose to have more testosterone, and no one would think that is “weird” or “unfeminine”)
How does one go about boosting one’s testosterone for just one day? Wikipedia fails to enlighten.
Wikipedia provided quite a few enlightening possibilities, I thought. In any case, you can rule out injections & pellets as lasting more than a day, buccal for being strange; this leaves essentially pills and gels. Testosterone gels like Androgel seem more common than pills, so I’d guess it was a gel dose.
You can also, with a prescription, go to a compounding pharmacy and get testosterone cream, which is the most cost effective method of taking supplemental testosterone on a regular basis.
I’m not sure how about the half life for any single large dosage, and don’t know the method used nor the dosage used in the anecdote given. And no, my ex did not repeat the experiment, nor do I recall her mentioning any controls being taken. I don’t think the paper came from a scientific journal—knowing my ex, I’m sure of it. More likely the New Yorker.
There are studies about the effects of testosterone supplementation on mood and depression.
An ex girl friend gave me an anecdote on gender differences years ago. A woman tried a little experiment on herself. She wondered what it would be like to be a man, and just wanting a taste, she just boosted her testosterone for a day. And what a day it was. I believe she was some kind of tour guide, where she spent the day talking to and leading groups of people. Normally, she found herself rather wound up and anxious about pleasing the group, and not wanting to assert herself and what she wanted. But with a boost of testosterone “she just didn’t care”. That was the defining result of the experiment for the author, and my ex girl friend as well. Testosterone was a magic elixir that dispelled worries and enabled assertiveness because “she just didn’t care”.
Did that increase the utility she gained? That the tour gained? Could be true either way. Could be both. Could be neither. I could say that about any of the various “improvements” to either sex you suggested—there are plenty of people who would take them the other way, And as the anecdote suggests, it may be more of a case of trade offs than independent dimensions. Once she lost her empathy and “just didn’t care”, her assertiveness went up, and depression went down.
Even if everyone chose to go transgendered, there’s no real reason to expect us to meet in the unisex middle based on shared utility functions. It’s the differences in our values that makes possible mutually beneficial exchange.
Step 2: Give the tour guide a second shot of testosterone (saline),
Step 3: Give the tour guide a third shot of testosterone (estrogen).
Step 4: Compare the results from Step 2 and Step 3 with that of Step 1.
It might also be worth comparing the results with those from other mind altering drugs.
Upvoted!
I think this is the most compelling argument so far.
It reminds me of the Sibfox “experiment”: Russian scientists were domesticating foxes (in order to make getting their fur easier- “Let’s turn them into pets, so they will trust us, so we can kill them easier!” ugh...But anyways) In the process of selecting for domesticity/trust, etc, they ended up with foxes that were dog-like: They barked, had floppy ears, and mottled fur. The fur mottling was lucky for them, since it meant that they couldn’t fulfill their original purpose, and instead are being used as pets.
I can definitely see that humans would similarly have trade-offs rather than independent dimensions as well. And I can also see that those independent dimensions are not necesarily “good” or “bad” themselves. However, I do think that people will be more likely to choose to be located somewhere in that dimension-space that isn’t currently inhabited by the gender of their chromosomes. (aka women in positions of authority might choose to have more testosterone, and no one would think that is “weird” or “unfeminine”)
How does one go about boosting one’s testosterone for just one day? Wikipedia fails to enlighten.
Did your girlfriend replicate the experiment?
Wikipedia provided quite a few enlightening possibilities, I thought. In any case, you can rule out injections & pellets as lasting more than a day, buccal for being strange; this leaves essentially pills and gels. Testosterone gels like Androgel seem more common than pills, so I’d guess it was a gel dose.
You can also, with a prescription, go to a compounding pharmacy and get testosterone cream, which is the most cost effective method of taking supplemental testosterone on a regular basis.
I’m not sure how about the half life for any single large dosage, and don’t know the method used nor the dosage used in the anecdote given. And no, my ex did not repeat the experiment, nor do I recall her mentioning any controls being taken. I don’t think the paper came from a scientific journal—knowing my ex, I’m sure of it. More likely the New Yorker.
There are studies about the effects of testosterone supplementation on mood and depression.