A surprising amount of sexuality in EP it seems. I've never quite understood the obsession with the subject myself.

nizkateth wrote:

A surprising amount of sexuality in EP it seems. I've never quite understood the obsession with the subject myself.

In the real world, 20% of all data traffic is porn iirc. As a non-American I remember people like Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner, general Petraeus risking or ruining their careers on infidelity - a lot of people in all walks of life risk their careers and relationships to have a little fling or use prostitutes. People with culturally unacceptable sexual desires risk execution, incarceration and social ostracization and still live them out, like homosexuals in many cultures. Pedophiles are even willing to hurt children to satisfy their urges. A lot of people are very obsessed with sex. I heard a saying that "if you're content with the sex you're having it is 10% of your life, if you are not it is 90% of your life", and it seems that holds true for many people. But of course there are also asexuals (though that's an ongoing discussion if that's a sexual disorder or a "legitimate" sexuality).

davethebrave wrote:

What is and is not legitimate as decided by other people about one's own sexuality is only as relevant as those other people can actually affect your own sex life...and that's their own trip, power/sex/whatever, if you ask me.

It goes way beyond how they can affect your sex life. Take the UK and Alan Turing just 60 years ago. Brilliant scientist, one of the biggest war heroes in WW2 for cracking the enigma code. And even with all he's done for his country, a few years later it is discovered that he is a homosexual, the government forces him into medical castration and that along with the public hate ends up driving him to suicide.

nizkateth wrote:

Do people in synths still have a sex drive, or is that entirely a biological impulse? IE, is sex drive an ego or morph trait? Would sleeving into a male morph make it likely that the person suddenly finds women attractive? Assuming the morph isn't gay, that is.

I'd have morphs not really effect people's sex drive and preferences too much by default, since that might be inconvenient for most trans-humans, leading to work to correct any such effects in most morphs. However, I would also have a 0cp morph trait for morph-influences on sexuality for the minority of morphs that do effect sexuality (either to male-preference, female-preference, bisexual-preference, asexuality, and any other possibility that I neglected to think of), either by design, accident, or inability to change. I could see asexuality being a benefit to certain morphs, especially some synthmorphs. I especially don't want to see a horny reaper! Synths without such a trait can still satisfy themselves with simulspace (or get a special "attachment".)

I strongly agree that morph gender and physiology should have a fairly strong influence on the physical sexuality of the ego living in it. The sexual attraction that people feel towards each other is too strongly affected by the physical quirks of our bodies for it not to be. Immune system compatibility, pheromone interactions, neurochemical reactions all change who you are attracted towards, and there is a lot of anecdotal (and I imagine study tested) evidence that changing these things can have dramatic effects. Take, for example, a trans-FtM acquaintance I have. He is a fairly hard line feminist, of the 'wandering male gaze is incredibly objectifying' kind. He was put onto a cocktail of hormones during his transition. During this treatment he found it incredibly difficult not to oggle women, even though his own thoughts on such oggle-ing told him that it was incredibly wrong to do. The urge was so strong that he was only temporarily able to resist those urges, and he found it incredibly distracting. That is only fiddling with a few of the dials that get fiddled with during resleeving. I can only imagine that the actual process can have extremely varied responses.

I would assume this as well, and I'm a little disappointed that the rules as written don't seem to reflect it. I'd tend to rule this is part of the alienation tests and such.

It might even [i]be[/i] a safe assumption that most biomorphs are designed 'bisexual'. That way, hormonal impulses can assist any direction, and ego preference could hold more sway.

Okay, I just have to ask, since I've heard the terms but not their meanings: what the heck is omni- and pan- sexual? What's the difference from bi-?

Actually, bi refers to being attracted to two genders, not necessarily male and female. So you could be bisexual and be attracted to men and someone who identifies as a third gender, adrogynous or genderqueer or something of the like. Pansexuality usually means someone who disregards gender completely when choosing a sexual partner. As for attraction I believe there is both morph and ego attraction, and I do believe the corebook brings up this issue.

The thing about Pavarti is that it's independent. As far as I can tell, it's the place in the inner system lots of people (Usually hyperelite) go to do all the sex stuff they can't do other places (either for the public stigma reasons, or because it's actually illegal), and these things are not [i]actually[/i] illegal on Pavarti. Or if it is, it's only that way on the books so Morningstar or the PC doesn't kick in the doors. It should be noted that the "illegal fork-sex" operation is listed in "gray or black markets", meaning perhaps it's not a full blown illegal operation. And, judging by the other things placed in that list (snuff XP, non-simulated rape), I'm personally willing to wager that they aren't so much forks of you, but illegal forks of other people. Which would definitely be an illegal operation anywhere with laws. The only people cool with fork napping are Nine Lives, because they do it. As for having sex with a fork of yourself, I mean, if it's an alpha-fork, that's illegal most places in the inner system by virtue of alpha-forking yourself being restricted or illegal (and that fork being slated for mandatory deletion if you don't reintegrate). This would require underground services either locally or while in a place like Pavarti to do so. Other locales probably find it either socially unacceptable (if not explicitly illegal), or at least somewhat, I dunno of a better word than "gauche". It could easily be seen as narcissistic and otherwise not the kind of thing you want to go posting on your Spacebook status. And if you use a Beta fork, the fork is legal (though not usually considered a separate person), but perhaps raises awkward questions about you going through the trouble of pruning a copy of your own ego down and fucking it. - As for the Transhuman sexuality issue, it probably depends on some things, but I'd wager most Egos maintain at least part of their "native" orientation, same as they retain a gender identity. Remember, the Ego Bridge writes the copy of the ego's brainprint to the brain of the new morph. Depending on how much of sexual orientation is embedded in the brain, a nominally heterosexual individual who sleeves into an opposite sex morph with nominally balanced hormones may be effectively be "bisexual" for the duration. Assuming they don't spring for Endocrine Control, which gives you conscious control over hormonal output, which I assume means you can be sexually attracted to just about anything you like (or vice versa). As for synthmorphs and informorphs (and by extension pods), I'd assume that that since cyberbrains and infomorphs run an emulation of the organic brain, a Transhuman Ego (And fully socialized AGI) that had a preference when sleeved into a cyberbrain or emulator software would retain their preferences and a certain "appreciation", but lacking in certain biological systems, probably don't have very active sex drives unless they choose to. Pods are probably similar, but since they have meatbag parts, there is a certain hormonal element.

With synthmorphs and octomorphs and whatnot running around, omni- and pansexual orientation takes on a whole new meaning I'd suppose...

So much of our behavior, at least at the core, is based on chemicals in the blood and impulses in the brain. It really makes me wonder, unless morphs are [b]deliberately[/b] designed to [i]not[/i] influence the ego much. It's also one of those subjects that makes me sad IRL. That everything we think we are is really just the result of the pile of chemicals we are mixing in different combinations. Clearly we [i]can[/i] work to move beyond such base impulse, but so few people seem to put much effort into thought like that. Instinct is a pain. Most people seem to want to justify instinctive impulses as actually being rational so they don't have to work against them or think around them. Back in game... wouldn't that mean endocrine control could do some pretty strange things to your own thoughts and feelings if used incautiously?

Would so upload if I could. Infomorph, and eliminate pesky vestiges of human hormonal impulse from behavioral coding. But I've had to spend my life fighting massive emotional control and impulse issues. Borderline personality. Not the best way to deal with them (0 or 11 on the metaphorical dial) but when I was young I couldn't think of any other way. Working on it, but it's slow going. So I tend to reject base impulses. No real sex drive to speak of, hate competitive things (sports, vs-games, fights, etc), dislike the very concept of business, couldn't hunt if my life depended on it. I just think more of base impulse is counterproductive than most people think. I think people want to justify that because it makes them feel good it must actually be good. Even if there are better or more efficient ways of doing things that are ignored because they don't provide that instinctive thrill. I hate 'human nature'. Maybe just because I can't control mine.

Smokeskin wrote:

With synthmorphs and octomorphs and whatnot running around, omni- and pansexual orientation takes on a whole new meaning I'd suppose...

It is an interesting (and illuminating) mental exercise to consider such a thing.

We [b]are[/b] sort of proof of concept for clashing ideologies... Though [i]to be fair[/i] much of my outlook [b]is[/b] influenced by mental disorder.