Apparently Balzac wrote an andro novel, according to wikipedia the andro is 'born to parents who by the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg have transcended their humanity, and Séraphitüs-Séraphîta is the perfect example of humanity.'

Found about it by accident, not read it. Wiki link here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Séraphîta

Any reviews, be interested.

Hmm, I've never heard of it either.

A better link: Séraphîta

I know what 'transcended' means but what does transcended their humanity mean, like in what way? Is it connected to their child being andro ? Is their child andro because they transcended humanity ?  What do you think is meant.

I think it means that because the parents went beyond normal human boundaries they gave birth to the ultimate being - an andro.

Oh I get it now  Thanks

I think there should be a 21st century remake of the story line.

Hmm, I'll have to read this.

Usually transhumanism is a futuristic thing -- a thought experiment about what it would take to change ourselves so much and so fast that "the human condition" doesn't really apply.  Like if we stopped aging, stopped experiencing scarcity, connected our minds to the internet and thus each other, could back up, restore, copy and merge our minds, had control over programmable matter, etc.  We'd be godlike compared to how we are now, nevermind hunter-gatherer ancestors.  All theoretically possible in our own lifetimes, if fra-fetched

Swedenborg was a pretty wacked-out scientist and mystic who said he received scientific truths directly from angels.  Ray Kurzweil, who is the main mind behind modern transhumanism, is a brilliant inventor and crackpot who takes something like 70 supplements per day to attempt to extend his life long enough to transcend biological limitations.  So there's some parallel there.

I'll stick with humanism on it's own, I think.

But what about the 70/30 people who find a similar yet opposite person, get married and have kids? Do the margins change? I think society has been slipping into this Androgyn society for a long time. Maybe we are the forefront of the new human genders, taking out the binary thinking right along with it. Why would a strictly binary society be any better? It wouldn't and we all know it. If genders as a whole start to revolve around Androgyn's, Then the gender wars would be over. Maybe we have been doing just that for hundreds of generations in some places and it is now traveling around the world. People are moving to different countries, the internet has made reaching out to anyone a relatively easy task, the word is spreading.
Just think of it....the forefront of a new Gender in humans.

Ativan

Quote from: Pica Pica on August 24, 2011, 02:22:27 PM
I'll stick with humanism on it's own, I think.

Can't go wrong with that.

General comment: Seraphim are the highest order of angels. According to Judeo-Christian lore, all angels lack gender. Therefore the link to transhumanism, and two superior parents having an androgynous child.

I recently finished Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides, so continuing the androgynous theme, Séraphîta looks like an interesting book to follow it, thanks Pica for bringing it to our attention.   

On a related note, do we have an androgyne/nonbinary themed book or media list somewhere around the forest?