h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Quick quick point. In vitro fertilization does NOT work fine. The woman has to take drugs to stimulate her ovaries that can severely and permanently damage her health, submit to surgery, and then only one in ten or so eggs fertilizes, and of those implanted only between one in twenty and one in eleven becomes a pregnancy and children conceived in vitro have a trebled chance of suffering from various genetic problems and are more likely to be miscarried.

So, really, sex is the safest and healthiest way to make new people.

Not that that means anyone who doesn't want to should have sex. Or anyone who does want to shouldn't. Just that sex is really the best option for making new people. I'm not even saying whether making new people is or is not a good idea.

There. Not that quick. Sorry.

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Well, I haven't read her post yet, but what makes me unhappy is mostly my weakness--I'm not good at controling myself as I wish to be. Hopefully that will come with time.



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It is desirable, but I have nothing against enjoying things in the present, just aginst enjoying things that I think are either empty and unimportant or distractions that damage future happyness, or both.



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I think I enjoy it now, but really I would enjoy it when I can get to the point when I don't ever think about sex or find anytihng sexually stimulating. I wish to eliminate such interests as much as possible.





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Not really, though I suppose bullying and poor teachers in middle and elementary school but be blamed on making me want control over myself. I don't really think that theory is right, but it might be accurate.




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Mental and emotional well-being. A machine could in theory deal with physical needs.

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Well, as for the eggs problem--there will always be lots of extras from those people who insist on raising a child who is geneticly theirs despite being infertile.

Anyway, in the short term (untill we can technologically solve those problems, I don't see why sex is necesary for serm transfer. Just use frozen sprem and let the egg be fertilized normally.

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That sounds right.



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Yes I smile and laugh. I don't intend to live as an emotional zombie, nor do I think that avoiding sex emplys that.



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I mentioned that somewhere a few pages back:

Get a permanent multi-planet civilization going; fix the government to be more acceptable, write the science fiction novel I've been working on for years in my head; win a Noble prize; ect.



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Giving into emotions makes you weak. Also, it is annoying when your mind makes you tihnk about things that you don't want to think about.




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I don't see a sex drive as an emotion; I see it as a caner trying to take over legitimate emotions.

I have homework now. I'll be back later.

Didnt the Spartans have a similar "abstinence from all that is pleasurable" approach?


Hmmmmm....you feel that giving in to pleasures (temptation? sins of the flesh?) is a weakness

..and that you want to be strong and in control....

..but then you find the idea of sex so repulsive that in your eyes it doesnt count as a pleasure anyway.

If you have no desire to have sex, then how does overcoming that desire test your strength?

(I'm not getting at you, by the way, just trying to follow the logic)

To use the brussels sprouts analogy:

"I hate brussels sprouts. See what strength of character I have , and how tested I am being, by not eating my sprouts!"

To take that analogy further...

I hate brussels sprouts, despite never having tried them. I just hate the idea of brussels sprouts.

Isaid something similar about mushrooms a couple of pages back.

"Giving into emotions makes you weak."

Haven't I seen you in a Star Wars film...?

B

Yes, didnt I just say I was a Jedi Knight?

Ooops! Wrong thread

Anyway, where were we...ah yes, mushrooms/ brussels sprouts etc and how the lack of desire to comsume something you personally * view as "icky" could be construed as a demonstration of strength of character and somehow bring you happinness in the longer term...



* Fredddy footnote: whether or not you've actually tried it

Judging by your 'stream of consciousness' typing, I can guess what you've been personally sampling this evening, 'Star.

B

hi MasterB,

Yes, you did make a similar analogy with mushrooms earlier and it didn't make sense then either.

You can *think* you might dislike something without ever trying it (me and tripe for example). But I would not ever be able to honestly say that I HATE tripe and find it DISGUSTING because, frankly, I wouldn't know what I was talking about. And I would certainly not start an organization for the elimination of tripe in the world based on . . . what exactly?

Well, as I mentioned before, I think the sex issue with Lemon is a bit of a smokescreen for her feeling a need to control absolutely everything in her life. Which perhaps at her age seems possible. And no, am not being an age-ist or anything, nor am I being patronising. It's just that her ideals seem very extreme and my take is that her attempt to control these emotions will end up backfiring somehow.

az

Lemon sorry to bother you again but you mentioned about getting the goverement fixed to a good standard. Personally I agree with one of my fave authors Terry Prachett - It is not at the end of the day that you have the wrong sort of goverment - it is that you have the wrong sort of people - If you try to measure people to a standard they will invaribly be a small or large propotion that will fail.

The people will still be same so whatever goverment you try you will still have the same type of peoples that need to be goverened with all the merits and faults that come with them.

There's rational dislikes (e.g people who've never ever tried a cigarette because the evidence that it is bad for you is so overwhelming)

...and irrational dislikes (tripe, mushrooms..erm...sex)

Are you saying to dislike tripe is irrational? I've never had tripe (that I'm aware of: some of the food served when I was at school fell into the category "mystery meat"), yet I feel no desire to ever try it.

Saying that, I *have* had haggis...does that count?

Haggis is tripe-covered gack - you figure it out.

az

I've told you before: tripe and stomach-lining are not one and the same thing.

I may be on unsure ground when it comes to moral dilemmas, but I'm on very firm footing where cooking is concerned.

B

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Yes you have and I didn't believe you then either!

Certainly close enough for jazz!

az