# What if we flipped a switch and changed something major about how Humanity works?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-flipped-a-switch-and-changed-something-major-about-how-humanity-works/532672>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 16, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-flipped-a-switch-and-changed-something-major-about-how-humanity-works/532672 "2010-03-16T17:52:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Bayesian\_Empirimancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Bayesian\_Empirimancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayesian_Empirimancer)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-flipped-a-switch-and-changed-something-major-about-how-humanity-works/532672/41 "2010-03-20T16:27:59Z")

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I would flip the switch to develop our natural talents.

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**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-flipped-a-switch-and-changed-something-major-about-how-humanity-works/532672/42 "2010-03-20T23:08:25Z")

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> [@The\_Tooth](#):
>
> Imagine a world not afraid of sex.
> 
> I have nothing against violence in entertainment, but I’m not interested in dismemberment and torture porn and sharp things getting where they shouldn’t. But I remember seeing ‘Irreversible’ and being surprised that so many were amazed by the beating-down but repulsed by the rape scene. I’m the opposite. A guy gets famous doing harm to himself, but the merest flash of nudity on tv and six-figure fines are levied. It’s sort of crazy.

:dubious: You were \*surprised \*that people were repulsed by seeing a single unbroken nine-minute shot of a violent rape? You’d rather people \*not \*be repulsed by that? What does that scene have to do with people “not being afraid of sex?”

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**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-flipped-a-switch-and-changed-something-major-about-how-humanity-works/532672/43 "2010-03-21T17:29:01Z")

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I wouldn’t change the pleasure associated with sex, but I would make infertility the default.

By the wave of my magic wand, everyone still goes through puberty, but it becomes _potential_ fertility instead of active fertility. Those who wish to conceive, men and women, have to make a conscious, sustained choice.

Failing that, I’d decree that all women should, oh, get a bright blue nose during ovulation. Something that screams “ready to make a baby!”. And the equivalent for men who produce viable sperm. That way, no one gets to lie about their fertility. No one gets to say they didn’t know. And, if you don’t want to make a baby, you know exactly who to avoid having sex with.

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