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[The Doctor]

Is that a euphamism?

[Neruz]

Jackrabbit didn't say how he'd be choking him to death...

[Jackrabbit]

Non-sexually and without mercy.

[ChairmanPoo]

Actually you could probably get an accurate measure as to the sex of the brains by looking at the estrogen and testosterone levels in them

Brains don't make estrogens or testosterone. They just make the hormones that release them. So it wouldn't work.

[Neruz]

Actually you could probably get an accurate measure as to the sex of the brains by looking at the estrogen and testosterone levels in them

Brains don't make estrogens or testosterone. They just make the hormones that release them. So it wouldn't work.

I'm assuming you'd keep the usual chemicals in the brains you put in the vats, since removing those chemicals would probably fuck you up good.

[ChairmanPoo]

Sex hormones do have some effects over the brain, but nothing too critical. A brain in a jar could do without them. Heck, children do without them.

Anyway, if you are putting the "usual chemicals" in the vats, then the sex hormone levels in the brains don't really depend on the brain's gender, but on the chemicals you have assigned to them. Thus it still would not be a way to find out a vatbrain's gender

[Neruz]

You're trying to tell me that removing testosterone and estrogen (and the other hormones and chemicals the brain doesn't produce for itself) from a brain wouldn't have any noticable affect on personality? Because i'm calling bullshit on that.

[Soadreqm]

"Noticeable effect on personality", maybe, but nothing resembling brain damage I bet. A lot of cultures have had a whole social class of eunuchs. And these brains have been removed from their bodies. They no longer get constant tactile feedback from their limbs bumping into objects. They no longer feel hunger or thirst. Of course there will be personality changes. I don't think you'd notice a few missing hormones.

Really, leaving any sex drive in a person that has neither reproductive capabilities nor sensory nerves would just confuse the poor bastard.

[Grakelin]

Sex hormones do have some effects over the brain, but nothing too critical. A brain in a jar could do without them. Heck, children do without them.

I call falseness. Even fetuses have been caught masturbating.

[Neruz]

"Noticeable effect on personality", maybe, but nothing resembling brain damage I bet. A lot of cultures have had a whole social class of eunuchs. And these brains have been removed from their bodies. They no longer get constant tactile feedback from their limbs bumping into objects. They no longer feel hunger or thirst. Of course there will be personality changes. I don't think you'd notice a few missing hormones.

Really, leaving any sex drive in a person that has neither reproductive capabilities nor sensory nerves would just confuse the poor bastard.

I never say anything about brain damage. I just said cutting all the chemicals out of the brain would fuck you up, since the chemicals in your brain are partially responsible for your personality and thinking, removing them would fundamentally change who you are.

[Mikko]

Masturbating motherfucking fetuses

Goddamn that is just way too awesome.

[Soadreqm]

No, I said things about brain damage. It is the only documented source of drastic personality changes I could recall. I suppose psychoactive chemicals do that too. And traumatic experiences.

But I still hold that any personality alterations caused by no longer having testosterone in your brain are negligible compared to the realization that you are a brain in a vat, no longer bound by the limitations of your human body, or capable of using its strengths. You can alter your "body", whatever it will be, almost as much as you like; you are limited only by the materials, engineering capabilities and imagination you have access to, and all of these you can ask from other people. You are quite possibly immortal.

And really, if you absolutely wanted to feel horny, you could presumably just inject some synthetic hormones into yourself. Afterwards, you can spend a month or ten in a constant state of furious angry rage, just to observe how it feels. What's stopping you?

[Nilocy]

Chemicals are pretty much the translators of emotions and sensory input to your brain. If you were lacking them, such as dopamine, you'd pretty much never learn anything. Since it elicits a nice feeling (in your brain) when you learn something, and continually reinforces that behaviour.

Also, whats with the brain in the jar thing?

[Soadreqm]

Yeah, but dopamine is created in the brain itself, isn't it?

The brain jar thing started with someone planning to send a probe to the sun. And back. With a highly modified human pilot. And then we verged off to transhumanism in general and someone brought up brain jars.

Why would anyone want to send a probe to the sun, anyway? Especially a manned probe. It's a giant ball of hydrogen. There's nothing there but heat and raw materials.

[ChairmanPoo]

You're trying to tell me that removing testosterone and estrogen (and the other hormones and chemicals the brain doesn't produce for itself) from a brain wouldn't have any noticable affect on personality? Because i'm calling bullshit on that.

No, I'm trying to tell you that physiologically the brain (and, for that matter, the body) can get through without sex hormones, and that in fact this does happen in day to day life. I am not saying that this would be particularily desirable (or not, for that matter).

I'm also trying to tell you that trying to tell a disembodied brain's gender by looking at the hormone levels doesn't make much sense because those are being assigned by external agents, and are not necessarily related to the brain's original gender.

Why would anyone want to send a probe to the sun, anyway? Especially a manned probe. It's a giant ball of hydrogen. There's nothing there but heat and raw materials.