I am a brain in a jar: AMA

[theilltemperedqueenofspacetime]

Now that I have your attention (hopefully), I have an AIBU. I come from the future, and, having lived as an Earth woman for many years in the 20th and 21st centuries, I then became a disembodied brain in a jar for the last one thousand years. Soon, medics will have perfected the technology to transplant me into a body, although I don't know yet whether it will be human, and, if so, whether it will be male or female.

My question is, am I a woman, or just a brain with some memories of being one? How is it possible to be female without a female body?

IABU - I will always be a woman, no matter what.

IANBU - I am a brain in a jar. If they give me a male human body, I will be a man.

I don't know. I guess it depends on what chromosomes you have at a cellular level.

Fair point. I have XX and my brain has been steeped in œstrogen. Damn!

Would it help if my mind had been electronically captured, rather than preserved by preserving the brain?

I'm too tired for this 😂

You'd be a man. You'd be in the peculiar situation of being a man who genuinely used to be a woman, but once in that new body, you'd be a man.

If your brain was somehow put in a bear's body, you'd be a bear who used to be a woman.

It reminds me of the old gotcha from TRAs - but what if your brain was magically put in the wrong body? Sure, maybe I'd be confused and unhappy about it, but if it's a male body, I'm not taking it into female spaces no matter how I feel inside.

Did they still expect the brain to remember peoples birthdays and where to find the wrapping paper? And was the brain asking everyone to remember to check the cat litter tray?

If biological:

There's no way to say: our concepts don't extend that far. Your sex is written in every cell, so I'd be tempted to say you'd be both. There is a blurred line though, as grafting a single female cell into a man wouldn't make him 'both' in my view.

If digital:

Male. We define sex by reference to biology and all your biology would be male. You'd probably be a highly atypical male, psychologically speaking, but be a male nonetheless.

Hmmmmm.

<points at username>

Sounds like a DAX from DS9 Situation.

Were you conscious for the last 1000 years? If so you've reached a state/experience that no human ever has...

I think you are whatever your body is but your characteristics, behaviours etc will have been shaped by the experience of having an XX body and being treated by society's expectations of that kind of body.

It would be more interesting to compare the exact same natal brain living (from birth) in the opposite sex body to see the effects of entrenched societal sexism (and testosterone-fuelled puberty, muscle mass etc).

Have you ever been in a rowing boat?

Is your name Anne Uumellmahaye?

No idea on the gender thing, but if you're from the future and really will answer me anything, I'd like some winning lottery numbers please 😂

Scum queen!

Yes, I've been calculating pi to trillions of places. Your research proposal sounds like the most unethical identical twin study ever. I love it!

Would you fit a female human skull or are you more human male dick shaped ?

Are you a Goa'uld? 😆

Now where did I put my fanny? I had it here a century ago 🤔

...

what can you see ? and will David Beckham ever be knighted ?

If you end up in an intact body that has been through male puberty, then you'll have strength advantages and a risk profile that means you don't belong in women's spaces, regardless of what's inside your skull.

If you reappear as a small boy however, you're no danger at all - boys and their mothers go to the loo together, get changed together, sometimes (sadly) seek refuge from violence together. Has anyone, even the most hardline GC person, ever had a problem with this?

The gender question behind your post is played as a male/female issue, but if you think about it, actually it is not. Likewise: the "debate" about male/female brains offers no answers. A look at the effects of testosterone, on the other hand, does.

You'd be one of a kind. A man with the memories of a woman.

Where’s Dr Hfuhruhurr when you need him?

@PoliticalPossum, is that you? 😂😂😂

If you have a male body - testes instead of ovaries etc - then you will be a man. Unless in the thousand years you've been waiting, new terms have been introduced to describe people in your situation.

Wait, what?