Alternate Universe 2

[nexus]

Human females have always had the ability to consciously chose when they wish to be fertile or not or alternately know precisely when they are. What differences would that create?

[nexus]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

I should add this setting is soft science.

[Clonus]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

Conscious control over fertility opens up a world of recreational sex for women by reducing the risks. I see two approaches that a Sliders type show would take. Either it's a matriarchal society with women holding most of the good jobs and men expected to take the lion's share of the household responsibilities or it's a patriarchal society where men totally clamp down on women and failing to breed when your husband tells you to is treated as a crime. Of course a world's big. It can accomodate both options.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

We have that now.

Result? Negative population growth. So.. the human race is extinct.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

I suspect that the changes allowed by this one "ability" would be swamped by the noise the change introduces. Perhaps ALL men from antiquity forward have been bred to be ideal fathers, etc. The "sliders" could either be perceived as alien and exotic or possibly as potentially dangerous, unpredictable monsters who just happen to look like normal, obedient men.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

We have that now.

Result? Negative population growth. So.. the human race is extinct.

 

Women already know they can get pregnant and still have sex anyway. Many of those want children. Before the modern socioeconomic model the only form of elder-care was loving children. The more you had, the better they could support you when you got old and feeble. Not wanting children is a modern development, at least on the wide scale we see today.

[nexus]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

Women already know they can get pregnant and still have sex anyway. Many of those want children. Before the modern socioeconomic model the only form of elder-care was loving children. The more you had' date=' the better they could support you when you got old and feeble. Not wanting children is a modern development, at least on the wide scale we see today.[/quote']

 

The trend towards not wanting children might not even be as wide spread if it could be more or less perfectly planned. No such thing as an unwanted child barring odd incidents.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

the problem isn't that people don't want to have children. It's the planning. People calculate when to have children, and that would have been a more common and pointed calculation in the era before modern health care. Don't take the risky plunge into pregnancy until all your ducks are in a row, until you have resources to ensure that your child survives.

And, oops, ran out of time. Nature's cruel that way.

[Clonus]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

the problem isn't that people don't want to have children. It's the planning. People calculate when to have children, and that would have been a more common and pointed calculation in the era before modern health care. Don't take the risky plunge into pregnancy until all your ducks are in a row, until you have resources to ensure that your child survives.

And, oops, ran out of time. Nature's cruel that way.

 

The answer of course is that societies will develop ways of pressuring people not to exercise their ability to choose such as my hypothetical patriarchal society where refusing to perform your "womanly duty" becomes a criminal offense.

[megaplayboy]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

Well, you'd probably have a lot of collateral effects on society--more equality between the sexes, since women can choose precisely when they will reproduce. On the other hand, since they could have sex without any risk of pregnancy, even before contraception became available, that might trigger a different attitude towards fidelity, monogamy, etc. Fidelity might be defined as only having children with one partner.

[nexus]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

I agree the biggest impact in this Tangent would be social. Sexuality. gender relations and reproductive politics would be very different to say the least. Which probably have some affect on just about every facet of human culture on some level. Having children with someone might be seen as the primary means of bonding rather than having sex in some cultures. Women who actually are medically sterile might be stigmatized as lairs or freaks. I can see cultures were women are punished for refusing to bear children. Certain taboos might not exist or exist in altered forms... I don't think the human race would die out though the population might be smaller in First World countries.

[OddHat]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

Human females have always had the ability to consciously chose when they wish to be fertile or not or alternately know precisely when they are. What differences would that create?

 

An odd change in human physiology; what other physiological differences are there?

 

If none, I'd guess a much lower world population for a start. Less historical discrimination against female manual laborers (the Strength differences aren't great enough to matter for most forms of manual labor), less current discrimination against female workers, though there'd still be some. Less population pressure, probably, so fewer wars over all, though we'd still have gone through them. Since women would still be bearing children and need help while pregnant and in the child's first few years of life, I'd expect an overall similar pattern of marriage to have emerged. You could go other places with it, but I don't see it as Leztopia.

 

Say that women are in complete control of their physiology, and thus larger, stronger, and healthier than males. and you have a classic SciFi Amazonia for your PCs to explore.

[nexus]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

An odd change in human physiology; what other physiological differences are there?

 

If none, I'd guess a much lower world population for a start. Less historical discrimination against female manual laborers (the Strength differences aren't great enough to matter for most forms of manual labor), less current discrimination against female workers, though there'd still be some. Less population pressure, probably, so fewer wars over all, though we'd still have gone through them. Since women would still be bearing children and need help while pregnant and in the child's first few years of life, I'd expect an overall similar pattern of marriage to have emerged. You could go other places with it, but I don't see it as Leztopia.

 

I wouldn't imagine it would result "Leztopia" either at least not as wide spread cultural norm. Women still need men to conceive a child. I could imagine enclaves of homosexual women and men engaging in an "exchange", but I wonder if views on homosexuality would be the same. Sex in and of itself might be more "recreational" at least in general.

 

If women were capable of self induced pathogenesis things might be different...

 

Large families would still probably be a beneficial thing in pre industrial eras and lower tech countries. More laborers and infant mortality rates probably wouldn't change dramatically. There might be a different attitude since if one died you a couple could be certain another would be around in short order.

 

Say that women are in complete control of their physiology, and thus larger, stronger, and healthier than males. and you have a classic SciFi Amazonia for your PCs to explore.

 

No nothing of that sort with this idea. Woman and men are still essentially the same except for odd quirk. It may or may not be present in animals or maybe women simply know for certain when they can conceive so the rhythm method of birth control is quite effective if their willing to forgo reproductive sexual activity during those days (or have the choice too).

[OddHat]

Re: Alternate Universe 2

 

Should also have mentioned that making it a more sexually easy-going culture is a good call. The birth control pill made a pretty noticeable cultural change in every country where it became widely available, at least until the fear of STDs kicked in as a balance.