N things make a post

[magid]

Fascinating short article about a single-celled organism, Tetrahymena thermophila , with 7 different sexes, that can mate with any but their own (oh, look, 7 choose 2 combinations = ₇C₂ = 21; and there's a variety of alleles that have different probability distributions to determine their sex, which could be worked into some very nice word problems :-) /math nerd).

Reading this table on the issues around why it's problematic to have women come free to parties made it easier to figure out why I was so bothered by a night at a club (bar? not sure) that advertised a new monthly music night as "18+ gals/21+ guys". One might say that women are, on average, more mature than men, but it feels rather like getting young chicks for guys. Ick. (Or is this just a reflection of the societal bias toward cross-gendered relationships where the woman is the same age or younger than the man?)

Tuesday night I went to MIT's annual latke-hamantaschen debate, which ended in its usual draw after many, many laughs. I expect the video will be posted soon, so I won't try to summarize, though I was impressed with the wide range of arguments, as always.

PSA for Boston-local kosher consumers: Groupon has Rubin's $8 for $16, available for another day or so. (Not usable on Sundays or for catering, other fine print at the site.)

I saw a sign for "naval oranges," which of course had me thinking about whether those would be in the regular navy, or perhaps piratical fruit.
[I also imagine complimentary angles being rather like two Bertie Woosters, getting themselves into scrapes because they couldn't be anything but perfectly proper to the ladies.]

Microsoft has an ad for "cloud power." I have no idea what they're promoting, but every time I hear it, I think of special weather magicians, controlling the weather, or zooming around on individual clouds instead of flying carpets, or water-workers.

I was lying in bed a couple of nights ago, and suddenly had an idea for FIGMENT Boston: bringing supplies for a game of 1000 blank white cards (other classic cards here). People could take or leave their cards, and if they leave them, perhaps I'd bring the deck, along with tons of blanks, to Burning Man, as the Boston deck. I'd need: a weather-proof table, perhaps with a sun tent to put over it, lots of blank index cards, writing implements, possibly a poster (laminated?) with information about the game on it.

Comments

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

Haha, I see Bob Weinberg, a previous thesis committee member of mine, was on the debate team. I guess I'll keep an eye out for the video.

[magid.livejournal.com]

He was great!

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

a hydrology prof of mine used to use the example of oranges or grapefruit in a river as a way of thinking about flow. I don't know what flags they'd fly.

[magid.livejournal.com]

The Jolly Fruiterer?

[sethg]

Imagine the Craigslist ads! Or a series of magazines teaching gender-appropriate behavior for each of seven distinct genders!

[magid.livejournal.com]

The question is whether a gender I individual is seeking specifically a gender IV individual, or just any (compatible) individual in genders II-VII.

And I bet there'd be a huge number of Miss Manners equivalents to keep track of the gender-appropriate behaviors for each! (Really, at that point, I suppose it ends up being boiled down to "be nice to each other", in ways that I suspect wouldn't be such a bad thing in current society. It's much easier to say that there are dual roles, but once it's up to 7, that's just another checkbox, rather than as wholly defining as gender can be (though perhaps is transitioning away from, given the greater acceptability of genderqueerness in modern society? (not that we're in a gender-neutral utopia, but it's a bit easier to see down that path now than even 10 years ago, in some parts of the world (time to stop embedding parenthetical comments)))).

[sethg]

You could arrange the seven genders into a hierarchial structure, e.g., a 2,3-tree:

      U
     / \
    /   \
   /     \
  X       Y
 /|\     / \
 123    Z   7
       /|\
       456

Imagine a two-by-three grid of roles for the first six genders and a special case for the seventh. Or something.

Part of the question would be what kind of family structure a sentient >2-gendered species would evolve. For example, would it be important for every clan or tribe or city block to have one representative of each of the seven genders? Of each of the 21 possible pairings?

(Yes, I have spent entirely too much time thinking about this sort of thing.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

It's unclear that there is a hierarchical structure for them, or even if it were translated to sentient beings.

Family structures might be extremely interesting: are they dedicated dyads? Or is it much more likely to have up to N or N-1 adults? Only one of any given gender, or possibly more? So many possible permutations. And so on.

[sethg]

I was thinking of a hierarchical categorization system imposed by the heptisexist culture, not necessarily one imposed by biology.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ah, got it.

Though perhaps there wouldn't be the same kind of hierarchical categorization in a heptisexist culture.