34
Beehaw decides: what is the set of all genders? (strawpoll.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M] to c/askbeehaw@beehaw.org
38 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

critical minds want to know the answer to this question

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)

I thought something similar, but the human brain is finite, so I don't think a single person could have an uncountably infinite gender; unfathomably large, maybe, but it would still be finite.

Edit: I'm not trying to be bigoted here. If someone does identify that way I don't want to discredit your identity.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (5 children)

    A single human brain is finite, but the possible configurations of neurons across any possible hypothetical brain is decidedly infinite.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    I'm no mathematician, but I don't think that's how it works. A quick Google says there are 100 billion neurons. So you would have 100000000000! possible combinations, unfathomably large, but finite. Granted, a human brain is more complex than the configuration of neurons, but I don't know how it becomes infinite.

    I'm also way past the point of overthinking this.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    yeah, but the relative positions and relative lengths and relative widths and relative densities and relative conductivities of those neurons are real numbers

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Now we are getting into the quantum physics question of if the universe is discrete or continuous. Which seems to be unsolved.

    So I guess that's my answer. If the universe is discrete then there are finite genders, and if it's continuous then there could be infinite genders.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    I fucking love where this went, as I was thinking the exact same responses while reading this thread! Love it when a question about gender results in fundamental ideas surrounding mathematics and the nature of reality.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent