forum that is making her reconsider things:
FROM: Helen Costas
I don't like the idea of anyone have sex with my digient, but then I remember that parents never want to think about their kids having sex, either.
FROM: Maria Zheng
That's a false analogy. Parents can't stop their children from becoming sexual, but we can. There's no intrinsic need for digients to emulate that aspect of human development. Don't go overboard with the anthropomorphic projection.
FROM: Derek Brooks
What's intrinsic? There was no intrinsic need for digients to have charming personalities or cute avatars, but there was still a good reason for it: they made people more likely to spend time with them, and that was good for the digients.
I'm not saying we should accept Binary Desire's offer. But I think what we need to ask ourselves is, if we make the digients sexual, would that encourage other people to love them, in a way that's good for the digients?
Ana wonders if Jax's asexuality means he's missing out on things that would be beneficial for him to experience. She likes the fact that Jax has human friends, and the reason she wants Neuroblast ported to Real Space is so he can maintain those relationships, strengthen them. But how far could that strengthening go? How close a relationship could one have before sex became an issue?
Later that evening, she posts a reply to Derek's comment:
FROM: Ana Alvarado
Derek raises a good question. But even if the answer is yes, that doesn't mean we should accept Binary Desire's offer.
If a person is looking for a masturbatory fantasy, he can use ordinary software to get it. He shouldn't buy a mail-order bride and slap a dozen InstantRapport patches on her, but that's essentially what Binary Desire wants to give its customers. Is that the kind of life we want our digients to have? We could dose them with so much virtual endorphin that they'd be happy living in a closet in Data Earth, but we care about them too much to do that. I don't think we should let someone else treat them with less respect.
I admit the idea of sex with a digient bothered me initially, but I guess I'm not opposed to the idea in principle. It's not something I can imagine doing myself, but I don't have a problem if other people want to, so long as it's not exploitative. If there's some degree of give and take, then maybe it could be like Derek said: good for the digient as well as the human. But if the human is free to customize the digient's reward map, or keep rolling him back until he finds a perfectly tweaked instantiation, then where's the give and take? Binary Desire is telling its customers that they don't have to accommodate their digients' preferences in any way. It doesn't matter whether it involves sex or not; that's not a real relationship.
----
Any member of the user group is free to accept Binary Desire's offer individually, but Ana's argument is persuasive enough that no one does so for the time being. A few days after the meeting, Derek tells Marco and Polo about Binary Desire's offer, figuring that they deserve to be kept informed of what's going on. Polo is curious about the modifications Binary Desire wanted to make; he knows he has a reward map, but has never thought about what it would mean to edit it.
"Might be fun editing my reward map," says Polo.
"You not able edit your reward map when you working for someone else," says Marco. "You only able do that when you corporation."
Polo turns to Derek. "That true?"
"Well, that's not something I would let you do even when you are a corporation."
"Hey," protests Marco. "You said when we corporations, we make all our own decisions."
"I did say that," admits Derek, "but I hadn't thought about you editing your own reward map. That could be very dangerous."
"But humans able edit own reward maps."
"What? We can't do anything like that."
"What about drugs people take for sex? Ifridisics?"
"Aphrodisiacs. Those are just temporary."
"InstantRapport temporary?" asks
FROM: Helen Costas
I don't like the idea of anyone have sex with my digient, but then I remember that parents never want to think about their kids having sex, either.
FROM: Maria Zheng
That's a false analogy. Parents can't stop their children from becoming sexual, but we can. There's no intrinsic need for digients to emulate that aspect of human development. Don't go overboard with the anthropomorphic projection.
FROM: Derek Brooks
What's intrinsic? There was no intrinsic need for digients to have charming personalities or cute avatars, but there was still a good reason for it: they made people more likely to spend time with them, and that was good for the digients.
I'm not saying we should accept Binary Desire's offer. But I think what we need to ask ourselves is, if we make the digients sexual, would that encourage other people to love them, in a way that's good for the digients?
Ana wonders if Jax's asexuality means he's missing out on things that would be beneficial for him to experience. She likes the fact that Jax has human friends, and the reason she wants Neuroblast ported to Real Space is so he can maintain those relationships, strengthen them. But how far could that strengthening go? How close a relationship could one have before sex became an issue?
Later that evening, she posts a reply to Derek's comment:
FROM: Ana Alvarado
Derek raises a good question. But even if the answer is yes, that doesn't mean we should accept Binary Desire's offer.
If a person is looking for a masturbatory fantasy, he can use ordinary software to get it. He shouldn't buy a mail-order bride and slap a dozen InstantRapport patches on her, but that's essentially what Binary Desire wants to give its customers. Is that the kind of life we want our digients to have? We could dose them with so much virtual endorphin that they'd be happy living in a closet in Data Earth, but we care about them too much to do that. I don't think we should let someone else treat them with less respect.
I admit the idea of sex with a digient bothered me initially, but I guess I'm not opposed to the idea in principle. It's not something I can imagine doing myself, but I don't have a problem if other people want to, so long as it's not exploitative. If there's some degree of give and take, then maybe it could be like Derek said: good for the digient as well as the human. But if the human is free to customize the digient's reward map, or keep rolling him back until he finds a perfectly tweaked instantiation, then where's the give and take? Binary Desire is telling its customers that they don't have to accommodate their digients' preferences in any way. It doesn't matter whether it involves sex or not; that's not a real relationship.
----
Any member of the user group is free to accept Binary Desire's offer individually, but Ana's argument is persuasive enough that no one does so for the time being. A few days after the meeting, Derek tells Marco and Polo about Binary Desire's offer, figuring that they deserve to be kept informed of what's going on. Polo is curious about the modifications Binary Desire wanted to make; he knows he has a reward map, but has never thought about what it would mean to edit it.
"Might be fun editing my reward map," says Polo.
"You not able edit your reward map when you working for someone else," says Marco. "You only able do that when you corporation."
Polo turns to Derek. "That true?"
"Well, that's not something I would let you do even when you are a corporation."
"Hey," protests Marco. "You said when we corporations, we make all our own decisions."
"I did say that," admits Derek, "but I hadn't thought about you editing your own reward map. That could be very dangerous."
"But humans able edit own reward maps."
"What? We can't do anything like that."
"What about drugs people take for sex? Ifridisics?"
"Aphrodisiacs. Those are just temporary."
"InstantRapport temporary?" asks
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