Rowan Tree and Red Thread

Following on from this post, whytcrow asks "Karhide?" And nhw asks "transhumanism?"

Karhide is an easy one. Ursula Le Guin wrote a novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, published back in 1969 (I think) that won a Nebula Award. It's an encounter story between a representative of the Ekumen, a sort of interplanetary UN, and the hermaphroditic humans of Gethen, an icy world. The story mixes the Cold War politics of the day in the rivalry of two nations on Gethen, with the relationship that develops between the representative, Genly Ai, and Estraven, his contact and minister in government of Karhide. Karhide is the nation that Genly Ai first deals with on Gethen.

I'd love to visit Karhide. Le Guin makes (or finds if you take her metaphors for creation) a world quite alien, but so close to our own experience that the differences bite deep. Much later in her career Le Guin wrote a short story, "Coming of Age in Karhide", which details the unique ritual and experience of coming of age as a person whose sex changes with each sexual cycle, or "kemmer". When Sam and I were living apart, she in Cork, I in Paris, I read that story onto tape for her and posted it away. I still remember the joy I felt in knowing we were sharing this strange story, quite an erotic one in fact, across the space that separated us, sharing the delicate glimpse into the remarkable world Le Guin found.

I'd love to visit Karhide, even though I know I'd be the alien there.

Transhumanism. Hmm. I love hard SF, dreaming about the future and the thought of not dying. At least, not dying before I get to see some more of this universe. There are many flavours of transhumanism going around, most of them seem to attract loonies of one degree or another. I don't really expect to be uploaded, or frozen to be revivified 1000 years from now, or incrementally replaced with machinery and never die. I don't. But I do dream. Transhuman ideas match some of my dreams so I like to keep an eye on the various movements.