People already maintain complex social identities. My identity as GM is separate and overlapping with my identity on this forum, and very separate from my academic identity, my wikipedia editing identity and (hopefully) entirely separate from my identity on goldfishsex.com. Links between identities can be important or dangerous - I might want to draw on my academic credentials for winning an argument, but I might desperately want to keep the goldfishsex.com identity separate from all my official identities. Links across time can matter to: what I wrote as a teenager should hopefully not be held against me, and we choose what to pay attention to in peoples lives in a very complex way. But at present we are just in the early days of an Internet society. We have not yet learned to manage these complex identities well individually and as a society - this is something we have to learn by doing. In EP, this has been going on for generations.

Axel the Chimeric wrote:

How do transhumans react to the idea that the stunningly beautiful woman they've been spending their off-hours wandering digital gardens with is really a middle-aged, obese male Flat, who works as a terraformer aerating soil in the Martian desert? What about for areas where ego IDs are tied to these things, and ensure that anonymity is a none-thing? Do people suppress their desire to be someone else, or does the squickiness fade away? How does digital identity and physical identity interact on that scale?

What is the problem with the woman/flat example? I think the main issue is whether there is some misrepresentation going on. Does the person interacting with the lady care about the true nature of the player? In some environments and with some participants this does matter. There are no doubt people who want to be sure they have a genuine, deep contact with someone else and would be upset if this was misrepresented. Others might care about certain things being true - that the other person is a person and not an AI, that they are of the right gender, that the emotions involved are as authentic as real life emotions, or just that the other party can in principle be contacted or held legally liable. Others might be OK with just a consistent nym with a reputation and great erotic skills, not caring about their underlying nature. If we look at how people's values are changing today I think we are going to see more and more people willing to have relations that are largely constructed. That doesn't mean the people who want truth and authenticity disappear (or that people will not have complex mixtures of desires). So I expect different simspaces to have very different rules and identity domains. The strictest are the ones where people's identities and appearance (and other attributes) have to mirror the real world. That is their whole selling point. They cater to truly conservative people, but also the exclusive group that can make an encounter in real life exciting. Then there are the ones that maintain strong ties to reality, but allow improvements. After all, who doesn't allow a bit of AR photoshopping of their significant other? In the social space people might be known by pseudonyms and have local reputations, but it is always possible to link them to their off game characters. The fully anonymous ones protect your RL identity, and usually allow you to freely pretend to be whatever you want. That is in itself a reason many like them - it is not that fun to be a flabby soil aerator or a defence satellite. Some simspace companies specialize in ensuring certain restrictions; this might not just be dating companies restricting partners, but restrictions on automated responses, ways of linking in, or even demographics. Of course, the more exclusive the smaller the market but (if it is chosen well) the more it might want to pay. The rep required to get invited to the Xanthe Mansion social space is astronomical. So, by this line of reasoning, I think most people decide what kind of environment they want to socialize in. It is not as if people have all gravitated towards the same views. Rather, they found a way to get what they want and a chance to look down on those perverts and conservatives who doesn't do as they do.

Axel the Chimeric wrote:

How do transhumans react to the idea that the stunningly beautiful woman they've been spending their off-hours wandering digital gardens with is really a middle-aged, obese male...

"My girlfriend, Rahel, is stuck with a trashy old morph and needs cred for an upgrade." In a world where people change morphs like they change cars, the body you're born into likely is about as important as your astrological sign. Everyone knows it 'defines your personality', and when you say it to them, the person inevitably says "I knew it!", but for most cultures, it doesn't have a lot of relevance. If Rahel says she's truly, spiritually female, but trapped in a male body, that's more culturally believable than the medically-accepted current issue of being transgendered.

Extrasolar Angel wrote:

When it is so easy to escape the problems of sex in EP, I can't see a person like me not abandoning the atavisms of animal origins that bring so many problems and abandoning the gender and desire altogether. The only question would be-wouldn't I turn ex-human by doing that?

Exhuman is in the eye of the beholder. Many Jovians likely think most of the solar system is inhabited by exhumans (I'm having great fun reinforcing this to the Jovian PCs in one campaign). Many extremely enhanced people think they have retained what is truly human, ditching the unimportant dross - while others disagree, thinking they have lost that important something that makes them fit to call themselves transhuman. Getting rid of gender and sexual desire is likely not a big deal. There are plenty of androgynous and asexual people around already, and we find them quite human. Getting rid of the desire for social companionship, that is a bit more radical. To rewire the social recognition and reward system to react to software interfaces or mathematics as your social world, now that likely makes you exhuman.