Oh dear. Our friends the Men’s Rights Redditors have discovered Mr.Ian Ironwood’s little treatise on sexbots. While some are a bit skeptical about the reality of the (non-existent) Human-Robot Personal Relationship Act — more skeptical, anyway, than Ironwood or Vox Day before him — this doesn’t stop the regulars from offering all sorts of distressing and/or hilarious opinions on the subject.
For example, OuiCrudites suggests that women have made sexbots inevitable by generally being such a pain in the ass, and MaunaLoona compares female sexuality to the railroad monopolies of the 19th century:
In a later comment, OuiC elaborates on his “most women are shitty” thesis:
MaunaLoona, meanwhile, agrees with Ironwood that developing the AI for sexbots won’t be a big challenge, because the average American woman is dumb and has a terrible personality.
A Canadian Redditor steps in to point out that the alleged “legislation” isn’t real. Oh, and to suggest that many “females” can’t think rationally.
Geigerwasright concludes that men will find sexbots preferable to women because the women of today aren’t providing them with “love, loyalty [or] kindness.”
So watch out, ladies! Unless you clean up your act, and quick, the good men of the Men’s Rights subreddit will abandon you en masse in favor of sex with inanimate objects that pretend to like them.
And this is apparently supposed to be a bad thing for women.
Clauderoughly postulates that sexbots for women will never be that popular, because what women really want is to get pregnant, so they can live the good life off of child support:
That’s a bit weird, as all the women I’ve had sex with have seemed quite interested not getting pregnant from sex. Indeed, some have had devices inserted into their bodies by doctors to prevent such an occurence.
The world that MRAs live in is a strange and scary place. I prefer the real world. It’s much cheerier.
NOTE: The horrible picture at the top of this post was borrowed from Craftastrophe.
katz — fuck, I always hoped those classmates would’ve gone into something else. Stop reminding me of them!
Top idiot — solution to conduct disorder (pre-curser to anti-social personality disorder)? Kids these days aren’t spanked enough!
Child psychopathology was a fun course >.<
Nooo not the pro-spankers!
@katz if only that explained all the terrible medical doctors! 🙂 Medical school seems to attract a number of students who don’t like people, who then go onto ob/gyn specialities in particular. Why couldn’t they just become anaesthesiologists?
@Argenti, I just thought of something else related to that socialization paradigm. When I first started playing World of Warcraft and got into my first guild, I played a lot with students and workers in the US and Canada who were on during late/early morning hours. We had Ventrillo, so we would chat to each other over headsets etc and we got to know each other quite well. A couple of the people said to me, after we’d been socialising for a few months, that WoW was the most welcomed they had felt because in regular life people hadn’t seen past their disability or looks (particularly, being overweight) I read a piece, I think it was a couple of years ago in New Scientist, about how Second Life was helping people like this one particular guy with autism (who had a Thomas the Tank Engine avatar in there, how cool is that!) interact with people.
Online, generally, no-one cares what you look like, what your accent is, how much you earn, etc. Except for the MRAs, but then we make fun of them. And that do that crap IRL anyways.
So phooey to the idea that online socialisation isn’t ever “as good as” face-to-face. Maybe the psychs could do with expanding their professional reading material a bit.
Yay to us! 🙂
@katz: yeah, the way to prevent kids becoming bullies is for their parents to physically bully them. Wait, what…
katz — yeah the pro-spanking crowd seemed to flock to that course, I don’t get it. And conduct disorder isn’t just bullying (though that’s certainly one outcome/symptom) — the shorthand in that course was that ADHD kids won’t stay in their chairs, these kids might throw their chairs.
Kiwi Girl — I know, it’s like they want me to have to hide either my mental illness, or um, their formal groups have formal guidelines, ones I can access, so I did…what to do if some members are floridly psychotic or have limited vocabularies…I don’t really do well with dealing with people who can’t manage the level of discussion y’all manage (do we have free will = interesting, Kate Middleton’s pregnancy, not really so much there)
Though I am pleased to hear that the Queen basically said fuck you to questions whether a baby girl could be an heir to the throne (the baby will be, regardless)
Whoops, that bullying comment was Kiwi Girl, please shift the sections of my comment to reflect that!
@Argenti, so let me get this straight, because I am finding this completely weird. The psych/s think that you need to socialise in an emotionally and behaviourally challenging environment that is uninteresting to you because you “need” to learn to socialise in environments that aren’t challenging.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Wouldn’t going out for a 10-minute cup of coffee with one or two other people, who have shared interests with you and can hold a conversation, be a better step? Heck, even the kitchen table or living room can be a good social place.
Well, I moved back in with my parents in CT in August, everyone I know at this point is in another state. So IM’img them isn’t socializing, I need to make friends here. Except that’s kind if a problem seeing how I don’t really do the whole people thing, and get bored senseless rather easily.
Of course, I have this weird “hipster” set of interests that make it annoying to find people who share any, forget more than one…and the not-an-ex and I share ALL THE THINGS except different favorite TV shows (I overlook zir lack of interest in Doctor Who, ze overlooks my lack if MLP love, discussions of obscure bands’ lyrics is well worth the lack of Whovian love)
…so yes, basically. Having pointless conversations is apparently better than having meaningful ones with people in other states. I do not make friends easily, never have, see no reason why somehow trying to make friends with people I’d almost certainly be awkward with would help my depression.
They can’t seem to decide if I need more friends, a social group of some focused sort (eg an art group or bowling or whatever) or think those are one in the same.
I have an intake for some social work place’s art group on Friday, I might reschedule it again because I really don’t want to do it, but then again, I have very little clue wtf it is as they referred me without even telling me (ahem, where’d you leave your ethics?). And their goddamned bipolar med of DEATH RASH infamy seems to have zapped my creativity anyways.
…doesn’t help any that I’m way more comfortable talking to you guys than my psychs, the whole position of authority plus the lack of anyone to back me up (fuck the trolls, we’re protective of each other for a reason and it’s awesome)
Argenti, that seems weird to me too. I can see how having conversations with strangers could help depression if that is something that gives you energy. If you find it draining, how would it help?
Because social isolation can worsen depression, per general studies that ignore the existance of such things as introverts. It’s weird, but a common problem.
I imagine that, since people who go into psych are overwhelmingly extroverts themselves (a major reason I’ve never found one myself), the field as a whole probably has a tendency to assume that what works for extroverts works for everyone.
Argenti, are your psychs suggesting that you socialise purely with the end of “making friends” in mind? Because that’s so flaming counterproductive I haven’t the words for it. Hell, my psych at least recognises the importance and VALIDITY of internet friendships (I wouldn’t have been to the US if I hadn’t made good friends over the net). But going out socialising with the specific aim of Making Friends is just as clingy-creepy-needy as the nitwit NiceGuys who think talking to a woman is something you only do to get in her pants/get her to marry you and it should all be sorted within an hour or so.
Kitteh — honestly, they seem to be the sort that think discussing whatever the social group is for counts as being friends. Which explains why the idea we don’t sit around stewing in misogyny is apparently beyond them.
But thank you all for coherent questions/replies instead of just “I really don’t want to”
Basically I think they just see not having in person friends my own age as abnormal and thus on need of fixing, the way they had to straight up ask whether I cared about dating to get it through their heads that I don’t.
TMI time! I’m a masochist, of the literal pain is good, and sexy, sort — I don’t go dating in bars and shit for my own fucking safety. And seeing how no sexytimes trump bad sexytimes, yeah, single it is (until not-an-ex and I can hook up again anyways!)
But yeah, it seems like joining a knitting club and discussing knitting would be making friends by their standards…how in the world that makes “verbal and non-verbal cues” relevant is beyond me (note that I can usually read people just fine, I just take such cues too personally when negative). My talk!psych can’t get anything like a read on me and thinks I either haven’t noticed, or am hiding things she needs to pry out…it’s fun. (I have a standing problem of having psychs who can’t keep up with my brain, seeing how a social group that’d manage to engage my brain would be like, Mensa or something, I don’t fault them for it…until it gets annoying, which it’s starting to.)
Parentheticals, how I love thee!
Lol, there we go, I need a “people who took Latin, but don’t want to talk it about” club (everyone I know IRL has taken at least a semester of Latin, the not-an-ex and I have 8 years between us and it only comes up when parsing medical nonsense 🙂 )
@Argenti – still thinking about advice for dealing with these psychs: have you thrown the question back at them? What do they think one is supposed to get out of socialising/friendship? What are their criteria? Does it include things like:
Exchange of ideas with like-minded people;
Emotional support;
Jokes and laughter;
Wide-ranging topics of conversation from serious to totally frivolous;
Learning about stuff, from how other people live to obscure bits of slang and so on;
Looking at kitty videos(all right that SHOULD be in there but these people seem like twits who wouldn’t get it)Because if that’s the sort of thing they think you need, then why can’t they see you are – as you have said. Clearly. that you’re getting it here? What do they think you’re missing? The face to face stuff is stressful, as in distressing, and they want you to do it anyway? Hello, what are they, failed Phys Ed teachers?
Ignore all that if you’ve already tried to get that through their skulls!
You know the sort that has single topic friends right? The damned cultural meme suggesting this is How Things Are? It’s like that, I think.
See, I wouldn’t much know as I loose that type every time I pull a depressive “leave me alone for a month” — it’s the ones who are happy to see me again that are worth keeping (lol, like you guys! 🙂 )
You know what’s funny? The not-an-ex and I only managed to see each other every couple of weeks when living within a mile of each other — ze’s a working grad student, schedules are FUN!!
Gakk, cross-posting curse strikes again! 😀
‘”But thank you all for coherent questions/replies instead of just “I really don’t want to”’
Pffffft milord, AS IF!
Oh, minor clarification if anyone a) needs it b) gives a hoot: I don’t physically see Louis. Wish I did, that’d be awesome, but it’s mind’s eye. Or peripheral vision in the mind, it’s not that clear. Same with hearing him, it’s his voice in my mind, not my ears. (Does one have a mind’s ear? That is such an odd phrase.) Only physical thing is that I can feel his hand squeeze mine and sometimes his ‘tache tickles enough to induce frantic nose-scratching.
Eh, I’ve tried the “but I get freaked out by people on person” bit, and it isn’t really working (either that or talk!psych didn’t get the memo to meds!psych, which is entirely probable as they just switched to a computer system no one can figure out)
Haven’t prodded into what’s the point of this, as I keep trying to convince them that online totally does count!
I have a feeling it’d get tautological — the point of socializing is socialization.
Lol, “dude, you’re blocking the TV, but hey, it’s a nice view” seems so much better than “your facial hair, it tickles!”
And ALL THE CROSS-POSTING!
I’m starting to think it’s your psychs who need psychs. They seem to have very narrow, stifling, unhealthy ideas about how people should live, and what friendship should be about. Seriously makes me wonder how many friends they have.
I was bloody glad when you came back on site – I don’t think we’d talked much or at all, you went off site about the time I started, iirc – but I always enjoyed reading your stuff in the old threads. I’m always pleased when regulars come back on (yes Viscaria I’m lookin’ at you). 🙂
BWAHAHAHA!
It’s a good thing he doesn’t block the view. Between him and Fribbie I’d see nuttin’!
You know, in another era that’d probably be considered as having a muse in the form of Louis XIII and quite the gift.
Either that or a demon…suddenly the “he’s a demon” folks make sense — that whole witch hunts because cats were familiars and those are evil… Pretty sure that era didn’t look kindly on personal muses (then again, muses where generally portrayed as female and gods do we know how that went, female? In spirit? Visiting you? Succubus!!!)
In complete tangents, maybe that’s how ABNOY got confused? He got his succubi and muses mixed up?
/complete bastardization of multiple traditions
Kitteh — aw, I was missed by people who barely knew me, let’s see that happen at some [topic] group/club! And yes, HI VISCARIA!!
Lol, but it’d be a good view of nothing!
As for my psychs, idk, I’ve never really liked the talk!psych, but have given her a chance or three because I really liked the temp psych while she was on maternity leave, and figured I might not be giving her a fair shake because I was annoyed about the change (OMGS run on sentence alert!)
Meds!psych I generally like, she only got the “must socialize” thing recently, and it’s the only thing that’s annoyed me. And even that, her side of it has been that she thinks it’d be more effective than upping my meds again because there’s only so much the drugs can do (well dandy, but then can you up the anxiety ones? Because I’m going to need it if forced to socialize, or forced to do anything for that matter)
Talk!psych, idk, doesn’t seem to get much? But she wants to pawn me off on case management anyways, so idk (yeah, fun, does she think I don’t get what “we should see each other less often” and “your goals are all case management issues” means?)
*grumble* I’m too forgiving of this shit, cuz abusive assholes have primed me to not be demanding, and y’all are more useful than my psychs. *hands out cupcakes*
LOL when I think of succubi now, I think of the Oglaf cartoon where the apprentice has to oil them. Dear oh dear.
I’ve had people suggest he’s my muse (or should that be mews?) but he sort of backs off at the idea. He’s clinging to his Mr Doesn’t Like Literature persona. Kinda silly considering he’s quite happy to read or even do crosswords these days, unlike his earthly time. His own writing (we do channelled stuff on occasion) is cool to read. Totally different from mine, I might add.
*nom nom nom*
*hands out tea/coffee/hot chocolate*