Re: LIFESCIENCE: Monsters + Genders

[PROFRICHAR@aol.com]

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ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 99
LIFESCIENCE
Linz, Austria, September 04 - 09
http://www.aec.at/lifescience
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hi eugene
good to have you back on the list posting

 (i) Is there a clear nature/technology demarcation in childbirth?

no i think you are absolutely right that the border is totally blurred
especially with the things you mentioned

network of technologies and institutions (regular visits to a
 doctor, medical tests, pregnancy classes, changes in diet and lifestyle,
 
what happens to the nature-technology borders when
 the results of an ultrasound test confirm that a child is "normal" (that
 is, a biologically natural human being)?

very important question you put socially defined norms over a biological 
creature
 
 (ii) Is gender exclusive to reproduction & technology issues? 

an interesting question but i am not sure if i understood it

For  example, we might begin by suggesting that gender and sex are fused into
 a single entity in modern genetics

you mean like the ball of Plato that held both sexes?

 - reducible either to the difference
 of a single chromosome (X or Y), or, in more complex instances, gendered
 "behaviors" are speculatively attributed to a network of genes,
 intracellular processes, and biochemical pathways (the infamous
 geneticising of homosexuality). 

that prediction out of genes brings me to another ball: the look into a 
crystal ball

The production  of SNP databases (targeting not populations but the individual
 differences from one human being to another on a genetic level), the
 promises of "pharmacogenetics" (individually-tailored drugs or gene
 therapties), show that the enculturated classification of "types" (based
 on gender, sexuality, ethnicity) will become a useful tool of
 classification. 

this sounds very dangerous and mirrors a general tendency in western society, 
a german writer called: the mainstream of minorities,
everything is customized just for one person, before a special treatment you 
have to have a lot of information about an individuum and after a medical or 
genetical treatment, this person is surrrounded by a very precise profile in 
form of data 

 Which brings up the possibility of bizarre hybrids,
 such as a molecular sexuality, or genetically-anomalous ethnicities.

very hard to imagine

best
birgit richard
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