September 26, 2005

• in 10,000 yrs, will Simian XY be able to get any at all? sure!....from each other.
• Check out Y:The Descent of Men by Steve Jones.Interesting stuff and a great read.
• why would they do that?
• Women have always had XX chromosomes, haven't they? So what's different here? Be interesting to see what happens when twp men can have a child. Or when a man can carry a foetus to term. Why not? Why not a child with genetic material from three or a dozen contibitors? Or from two people and a member of some other species altogether? I imagine some interesting legal issues will arise relative to such projecxts, but I've nothing really to say against any such offsp[ring as long as those offspring are healthy and can be reasonably happy. The least appealing is the idea of introducing bringing genetic material from other species, though no one can say with certainty what results might be expected at this time. One thing seems sure: whatever one person can imagine, another will eventually try...
• I suppose it can't hurt to plan ahead.
• Um, how reputable is the Telegraph? The story seemed tabloid like. And, I haven't read the Sykes books, but the impression I get from those revies is that women in general are supposed to be cold bitches who don't like hetero sex at all, so they're willing to wipe out the males of the species in order to have a really tidy household and don't have to claim that they have a headache when men ask for sex. And the Jones article was completely hysterical, even though he probably doesn't have a womb. And, I think it was a different Huxley who hypothesised that men were the weaker sex. Wasn't able to Google-up the book that he published in the early 1960s, but it wasn't Aldous. If it was Julian, his publishing history ignored that one. Some women like sex, and some don't. Some women like sex sex with men, and some don't. I don't think that's changed in millenia. And, the age old way of producing children seems like the least annoying method to me. Did you folks really take this stuff seriously?
• more discussion here and here, w/rt XX cloning. it's fun to speculate, but i don't believe men will become irrelevant, in any meaningful sense, anytime "soon".
• path, I see this as being less about sexuality and gender, and more about offspring. And yes, I can take the science of it seriously -- having lived to see both test-tube babies and babies posthumously concieved with frozen sperm a reality.
• bees, even when it's not done the old-fashioned way, it's still impolite of you to watch.
• Sometimes things just don't work out as planned
• bees - but test tube babies and those from frozen sperm are generally progenated by couples who want babies who carry the genetics of both parents. I think that lesbian couples would want that if it were possible now, and they might take advantage of science that allows them to do so. (Maybe gay males would too, if the science gets that far.) But, I do believe that most women are into the mommy/daddy sharing of a child that comes from both of them, even if the "daddy" is another woman. Yeah, sure, there are exceptions. Some women have opted to have babies from sperm banks which collect sperm from men of high IQ, those are exceptional cases. It hasn't turned into an epidemic. It also hasn't meant that only girl babies would be born. Plus, I think that women enjoy boy children as much as they do girls. Well, maybe I'm out of date, but I do believe that folks who go to the trouble to do test tube/implantation procedures do so because they want a child that represents both partners. Even those who've opted for surrogate mothers seem to say that they want the husband's genetics represented. Being impregnated using petri dishes and whatever else they use has got be be a cold, clinical experience, while the usual current alternative is pretty joyous if both parents want a child. The tone of the links seem to suggest that women want to get rid of men. My question about taking it seriously was really meant to addrss that.
• Direct XX cloning would have all sorts of longer term problems associated with asexual and would most likely be outcompeted by sexual reproduction, unless the asexual clones had deliberate tinkering done to try for favourable mutations. Combining two sets of XX material would avoid that, but then you've got a relationship with another person, and same sex relationships are not magically easier than opposite sex ones. For men to be irrelevant, you'd need to engineer out heterosexuality 8).
• Well, maybe I'm out of date, but I do believe that folks who go to the trouble to do test tube/implantation procedures do so because they want a child that represents both partners... Ever heard of a sperm bank?
• I regard the thrust of this FPP as primarily speculative, path, but see you are approaching it from a much more contemporary angle, a direction in which, alas, I have little interest in going myself.
• Men have always been irrelevant.
• "For men to be irrelevant, you'd need to engineer out heterosexuality" Hear ye. Delicious throbbing man-stalks will always be on the menu at Miss Moneyjane's Cock 'n' Grill.
• Men have always been irrelevant. Someone has to open jars and clean out the eavestroughs.
• No sex = more beer and TV. A win-win situation.
• bees, I really thought I was promoting the old fashioned way of producing children, and contrasting it with the science that's available now. And, I thought I was pointing out that the speculative bent of the post had some ways to go before it would make sense to me. Yes, the link was speculative, but the focus seemed to be that women want to get rid of the male contribution. I don't think that's true. All I can rely on at this point is contemporary experience, and I don't think it supports the XX only meme. So, where did I cause you some angst? And, ImpudentChimp, I did address sperm banks. You just need to read more that than the first and last sentences of comments to be able to respond without demonstrating your ADD.
• Ye cause me no angst, path. I just felt it uncalled for to leave ye dangling with no reply.after ye addressed a comment to me.
• According to my ex, I'm already irrelevant... Thank you, moneyjane, and bloody hell if it's not nice to hear, but I've a strong suspicion your cost and my ability to to pay are separated by orders of magnitude. Sorry, self-pity mode off...