On-line, we are
what we say, and
how we say it.
There is nothing more that anyone else can go on. It is a little more complicated, or course, in real life, but even there we are judged by what we do, and how we do it. And when there are cracks, or discontinuities in what we seem to be, those we are with do what they can to fill in the cracks, make continuous the discontinuities.
Turing's original thesis was that if the entity on the other end of our conversation talked like a person, even if it was through, say, a teletype, or telegraph, maybe, or now email, or chat room, then it was a person as far as we are concerned.
My simple little proposal is that, on-line, the image we present, however much word-based it must be, will be filled in by those we are speaking to, to fulfill their expectations.
Why I am going to pretend I am a girl online from now on recounts much of what I am suggesting. For all that what I am writing may not seem relevant to the title, we make this test all the time. We make all sorts of tests all the time.
We want to know whether we can talk to the person on the other end of the wire. We build up an image of whoever that might be depending on what we are looking for. Gender is such a fundamental part of our experience that we make this test all the time.
We are who we seem to be, as long as we seem to be who we are. Not scientific, to be sure, but I am not here for science.
I am grateful, I think, to artfuldodger for pointing out that another great mind has also come up with this idea, in Metamagical Themas.
But maybe, I am still the first one here.