MBlume comments on My Way - Less Wrong

31 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 17 April 2009 01:25AM

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Comment author: PhilGoetz 17 April 2009 01:47:38AM 7 points [-]

So this about my gender politics: Unlike the case with, say, race, I don't think that an optimal outcome consists of gender distinctions being obliterated. If the day comes when no one notices or cares whether someone is black or white, any more than they notice eye color, I would only applaud. But obliterating the difference between male and female does not seem to me desirable, and I am glad that it is impossible using present-day technology; the fact that humanity has (at least) two sexes is part of what keeps life interesting.

Why the difference? Doesn't the existence of different races keep life interesting?

Comment author: MBlume 17 April 2009 01:55:38AM 4 points [-]

They're not as biologically determined. The presence of different cultures keeps life interesting (though there are some cultural norms that should be destroyed as soon as it becomes possible, relativism be damned). To put an extremely shallow spin on it, I'm glad that I can leave my apartment and find mexican food, italian food, chinese food, etc., and I'm grateful for all the different groups of people who found their own ways to survive and thrive in their own particular circumstances, and thus gave me these diverse cuisines, these diverse languages, these diverse ways of living and speaking and creating art and travelling. But because none of that is (all that) biologically determined, I don't see why the fact of my parents coming from particular places should inform my enjoyment of these cultures.