The Hume Manifesto

The Hume Manifesto was penned by Cais in the early years of the Cosmic Era. Located in the Bostonian Seacology, they spent the better part of their life working on gender genetics, reproductive sciences, and social activism. Cais is considered the progenitor of the Hume movement, a small but growing faction of humanity that doesn't just reject gender roles, but gender biology as well.

Post-Genderism and the Hume Movement

Post-Genderism was one of the factions that was born in the early part of the Second Renaissance, as sexism and chauvinism saw major recurrences through the Second Dark Age. It was demonstrated that sexual equality and gender issues suffered the instant there was a population issue. As the global population shuddered through the Population Contraction following the Resource Wars, women stopped being social equals and in many parts of the world were pushed down into a position of 'breeding stock'. This wasn't the only negative thing to happen, tribalism, slavery, and a variety of societal ailments all bloomed in the Second Dark Age. Cais was a child of the Second Dark Age and remembered the rampant violence and sexism that occurred outside the protection of the arco-cities. Much of this dark period was swept under the proverbial rug as many of these negative aspects didn't occur inside the walls of the gilded megacities, and they were the ones who wrote the history records.

Pandora's Genetic Box

The advances of the genome and genetic manipulation research projects opened the door for massive alteration of the genome. Humanity found a way to make flesh and bone and plastic as the imaginations of the mind. This was quickly exploited to eradicate horrific diseases, and then ran out of control, custom genetic mods, cosmetic genetics, even modifications to emulate fictional species like elves, klingons, and the cat girls. The bulk of the modifications developed that were not therapeutic were based around sex and sexual attraction. A vast amount of time and resources were expended on making humans more sexually attractive to other humans, while at the same time the tech industry was pumping equally stupendous amounts of wealth into digitizing sex and making it a streaming for sale service, or making machines that imitated to opposite sex so that even the most repellant, anxious, or otherwise sexually ostracised person could get their proverbial freak on.

Watching humans in social settings was little different than sitting passively in a zoo or observation post in a game reserve. The advancements of science and technology were meaningless. The masses didn't care about resource allocation, personal advancement or enlightenment, they cared about being perceived as sexually desirable and chasing every chance at engaging in sexual intercourse. It was disgusting, watching them panting with animalistic urges, walking around in clouds of pheromones and designer fragrances, their genitals throbbing to vigorously couple like hairless apes.

Frankly, it was as discouraging as it was disgusting.

Hypersexuality

The end of the Petroleum Era saw the birth of a naked and ugly movement of sexual hyperdiversity. This began as a very small fraction of the population afflicted with genetic and hormone disorders struggling with sexual norms and was adopted by the autocosset culture, allowing for the creation of a broad spectrum of gender and sexuality based labels. While this movement started with the protection of a small minority of the population, it was turned into a counter-culture borderline terrorist movement that sought to undermine the basic structures of a stable society at the expense of the individual.

Autocosset Culture

An outgrowth of the political correct movement of the middle petroleum era, the Autocosset or also autocorrect culture is still alive and well in the Cosmic Era. The self-protectionist, pro-digital activist, social vigilant, hyperconscious neo-Spanish Inquisition autocosseteer lives by a very socially broad and flexible platform that is based around attacked and destroying anything that doesn't fit into their weltanshauung. The culture is easy to find, as they are very vocal and use common terms such as self-identify, fluidity, and such. The culture is obsessed with labels, and once they create one for themselves, they will create a counter label for others, link it to a phobia of their self-identified aspect, then work to make this second, new term, a derogatory term. In the Cosmic Era, the autocosset culture is ignored and frequently censured because it is wrapped in the same materialism and hyper-ego that lead to the Resource Wars and near destruction of the planet.

This hypersexuality would find incredibly fertile soil in the Second Renaissance, and the associated technology. This allowed for people to magnify their sexual attributes. Male genitals were modified to extreme size, female sex traits were tailored, and sculpted to fit constantly changing societal whims. This consumed an impressive amount of resources, both technological in servicing the demand, and societal, with people struggling to face the constant edge-seekers, pushing the limits of what society accepts.

Anti-Sexuality

The Hume movement embraced reproductive technologies for purposes of procreation and the adoption of a new genetic anasexual gender. The movement adopted the label Hume, removing the man from human, and adopting the a-gender pronouns they, them and so forth. The anagender phenotype has no sex hormones or reproductive organs, and likewise has been altered to have suppressed biological urges and impulses. The hume anagender is a human with no sex drive or sex organs.

Cybernetic Initiative: The Hume faction strongly adopted arcanotechnology and cybernetic alterations, with cranial augmentation being popular. Hume modifications favor increased intelligence, enhanced senses, and cognitive abilities. Seeking to divorce themselves from the human condition, Hume often voluntarily undergo nerve stapling, emotional restriction, and behavior restriction. The faction believes that this allows them to greater take advantage of their collective intelligence and willpower, as well as concentrating resources and not wasting them on the pursuit of sexual reproduction.

The Future of the Hume Movement

The Hume movement is small, but gaining ground. They rely almost entirely on cloning to populate their ranks, and have had no problem assimilating robotics into their nascent culture. New members are slowly added, with acolytes undergoing genetic therapy to strip away their gender, until their body type is hume anagender.

The Hume live in the uncanny valley, and they are largely avoided by normal citizens. The lack of sex characteristics subtly offsetting for many people, while the androgynous appearance can be confusing and equally offsetting. This cultural view is one of the biggest things hold the hume faction back. Aside from poor general relations, their discarding of sexuality has paid dividends on their plans and profits. Humes are more commonly found in space, away from the core of society, where their communes are more free to explore the projects that interest them. This success also bothers normal humans, who do not seem the same level of return on their societal investments.