[Alex3917]

There are many points of difference in how males vs females perceive the world. Different drugs approximate different points of difference. For example, increasing serotonin makes colors brighter, closer to the way a woman would perceive them. Which is probably why women like flowers and brightly colored clothing more than men, and why they are more OCD about keeping the house clean. I'm not sure to what extent mainstream science recognizes this, but it seems pretty obvious to me.

Amusingly, about a third of my friends on SSRIs have become temporarily attracted to the 'wrong' gender. Which is why I suspect that sexual attraction is an emergent property of our sensory perception systems, rather than being a discrete switch that's unrelated to anything else.

[hugh3]

That sounds like a pill that makes you perceive colours more brightly, not a pill that makes you into a temporary-woman.

I'm not sure why you think that women perceive colours more brightly (I don't think the fact that they like flowers is evidence...). In fact, if women do perceive colours more brightly than men, how would we possibly know about it? We can't even solve the "What if the colour I see as blue is seen by you as red" problem.

[Alex3917]

"I'm not sure why you think that women perceive colours more brightly."

Well we know for a fact that women perceive colors differently than men because they like different colors than men. It's not exactly clear what the differences in color perception are, but it seems like the drugs that increase men's serotonin levels leave them with aesthetic color preferences that more closely resemble those of women. So it stands to reason that men's color perception is becoming more close to that of women. Obviously there are some epistemological problems with proving this, but it seems like a reasonably good assumption.

[hugh3]

Well we know for a fact that women perceive colors differently than men because they like different colors than men.

I hate to turn this into a hard-core discussion of qualia, but I'm not convinced that the fact that women like different colours means that they perceive them differently.

At least, not except in the trivial sense that they see "purple" and think "I like purple" whereas I merely see "purple" and think "I am indifferent to purple".

[Alex3917]

I agree with you that this is possible. Then again, because it's trivial to prove (at least to yourself) that altering brain chemistry can change both color perception and color preference, I think that my hypothesis is the most likely explanation. Especially since the fact that gender differences in sensory preferences are detectable at 3-4 months of age shows that they are likely biological and not cultural.

[lucisferre]

Which gender is the 'wrong' gender now?

[Alex3917]

The gender that's the opposite of the one you were originally attracted to. (I put it in quotes so that it wouldn't be read as a value judgment.)

[lucisferre]

lol, and "originally attracted to" would be? Am I misunderstanding you or are you accidentally suggesting that gays and lesbians are originally attracted to the "right sex"? You are just digging deeper and deeper.

Seriously, though I realize it wasn't intended, just made me laugh.