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self_made_human

amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi

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joined 2022 September 05 05:31:00 UTC

I'm a transhumanist doctor. In a better world, I wouldn't need to add that as a qualifier to plain old "doctor". It would be taken as granted for someone in the profession of saving lives.

At any rate, I intend to live forever or die trying. See you at Heat Death!

Friends:

A friend to everyone is a friend to no one.


				
User ID: 454


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
self_made_human


								

								

								
								
									
								
								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi

				
				
				

				

					16 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 05:31:00 UTC
				


				
					

					
I'm a transhumanist doctor. In a better world, I wouldn't need to add that as a qualifier to plain old "doctor". It would be taken as granted for someone in the profession of saving lives.


At any rate, I intend to live forever or die trying. See you at Heat Death!



				

				
					
Friends:

					
A friend to everyone is a friend to no one.


				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 454


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I noticed that error, and also expected that you'd be here to correct me before I could get to amending it. In return, I can recommend Dyson Sphere Program as something that might be to your taste. You might even learn to build that Space Elevator that's your true calling. To code.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Split souls are generally well aligned to their original. It's practically unheard of for them to act knowingly against the interests of the person who made them. It's a generic property of the process, though Fang Yuan, is, IIRC, willing to use them as backups if his main soul is KIA. They instinctively trust and coordinate with each other according to their shared understanding of their best interests.


But, there are exceptions. I'm not sure where this becomes relevant, and I suspect you've already reached this section if you're in the last third of the book:


Bo Qing was the most successful of Spectral Soul's split souls. He was entirely above board with the project to rescue the original from death, until he was love bombed by Love Hu, as used by Mo Yao. Then he lost his way, or gained independence.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I told the lady whose sleep I interrupted by typing away furiously defending my sexuality at 3 am that I was furiously defending my sexuality at 3 am.


She looked at me knowingly, and declared "SMH, you're a bit flamboyant."


I told her: "that's not the same thing as being a singing man, Kathleen" and took away the duvet. She took it back. I can never win. If I do win these things, I must go join the other men.


I have heard people use the term "fag hag" in online discourse, but I've only run into "hag" and "fag" and "packets of cigarettes" IRL. I have no idea if that's a slur, but gay people have never shied away from calling themselves things the straights can't call them without offense.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


And your wife doesn't understand you, and you're only staying together for the sake of the kids, and you're getting that divorce any day now, honest, so just keep hanging on while we have this affair, O mistress mine. Yep, I believe you!




Now then, I have expressed fondness for older women, but while I might be visiting Ireland out of boredom, no need to go that far. I like you for your brains ma'am.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I well understand why people might suspect I'm gay. I find it amusing, really, since at least to my own satisfaction, I'm as zero on the Kinsey scale as one can get. Adjusting for the kind of floating point error you wouldn't notice on a pride float.


Am I offended when people online suspect I'm gay? Not really. If I cared, I wouldn't supply the material. I'm more annoyed when people take my rather definitive declarations that I'm straight as evidence of denial. Gee, the dude who regularly writes essays about falling in and out of love with women is gay, is all I can say to them. Bisexuality is a harder to adjudicate diagnosis of exclusion, but we've moved past the ICD-10 paraphilia era.


I can only sigh in exasperation. If I regularly defend gay and bisexual subcultures against attack, it would take a particular form of intransigent self delusion to not acknowledge tendencies to join them. I don't acknowledge them because they don't exist


Honestly, there's are plenty of prosaic reasons I hang around with gay people. I started going to a gay pub entirely by accident (I have that essay about the shock of realizing it's a gay pub, I'm not very observant at times), and picked up gay friends. This well predated my brother coming out, but might have contributed to him feeling comfortable doing so. He could see I was more than comfortable treating gay people as human beings, though I can only hope that he had enough reason to trust me before that. Humans are weird like that, he could have told me a decade back and I'd have had his back, that's what brothers are for.


What else? Those environments are, as you suggested, quite novel to me. And there's always some drama going on, I pack my own popcorn. I also appreciate that they're quite understanding and accepting spaces, not that that's for my own benefit. I do not like moral busybodies, not that you can't find them there too.


More recently, I'm seeing a (straight) woman heavily enmeshed in the culture. She dragged me to a drag queen night the first date (I went willingly, I was just curious), and her best friend is a gay influencer. That kinda constrains the option space for me, you know, not that I particularly mind. If there's booze and people to tell me about their mental health issues, I'm content. You only get one of the two at work.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The latter.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Cities: Skylines 2 (build cities)
Mini Motorways (draw road networks)
Freeways (draw highway interchanges)




I'm surprised you play other genres.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have interacted with bears. But politely, and from a respectful distance. It's the twinks you have to watch out for.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It is a bit? I would hope that's blazingly obvious my man. Would you prefer I start throwing in "/s"? I find that approach crass.


I think you know me well enough that you should believe me when I say that if I had any real desire to engage in happy fun times with another man, there's nothing stopping me. Why don't I? Because I don't care to.


I am not gay. I am not a bisexual in denial. I like putting penis in vagina. I have the self-awareness to find it rather amusing that I find it fun to hang around gay people. I have been accused of having the musical taste of a gay man, but then again, they're the Jews of the music industry (let's not talk about the gay Jews).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Your objections to LLM-assisted writing has always been more aesthetic than otherwise. I have no argument that can change your mind about that, and I've tried. But at least we are in line about the pragmatic things.


AI is incredibly useful. And more so every damn day. If Terence Tao is increasingly reliant on it, I am impressed by how some of our forum denizens can find little utility for it in their lives. Good for them, I'm sure they're saving money on a paid plan.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I haven't been able to access the models on their free plan, which means I have no opinion. I've heard people I respect say it's a bit benchmark-maxxed, but the fuck would I know myself?


All I can say is that I don't see a particular use case for it. I have paid plans for ChatGPT and Max for Claude. Those have the bleeding edge models, and I always use the best I can get away with it. I rarely (but not never) need token-churning agentic work, where $/task is a strong constraint. I technically retain access to Gemini 3.1 Pro, but it is a sad model, and I'm not going to touch the family till they fix things with 3.5 Pro.


Chinese models are, in general, not very useful for me. I don't need them. I used R1 etc back when they did something useful for me, and I haven't been tempted back in the last half year.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You object to many things, dear sir, and they're rarely to be believed. We'll see what the judge has to say about it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Now ma'am, let's review the evidence like good Bayesians. I spend most of my drinking hours at a gay pub. My friends here skew overwhelmingly LGBTQ: my closest friend in the area is an asexual lesbian (a contradiction in terms, though she reports only 90% confidence, down from 99%, so the market is moving, and I might be to praise/blame for rehabilitating men). The regulars assumed I was in a relationship with a bisexual man. I was not. I just tolerate him because he's a good guy who looked after me during a bad stretch, which I gather is what relationships are, but never mind.


Further data: my younger brother came out to me as gay. At least five independent observers have seen photos of a distant shrink uncle and rendered the verdict "this dude is so gay it hurts." I wear nice Chelsea boots, and spent my first months in this city genuinely puzzled as to why obviously gay men kept complimenting them. I may have written an ethnographic analysis in a gay pub.


Any reasonable model, fed these inputs, converges on one conclusion. And yet:




I was also offered, variously, two blowjobs, a rimjob, and a golden shower. I declined with gratitude. It is good to be desired. It is also good to have boundaries.




I have been propositioned dozens of times, across various states of sobriety, by men. The answer remains no. I appreciate the interest, truly. But I love women, an affliction exactly as inconvenient as it sounds, and one for which medical science has no treatment. My sole consolation is that they like me back.




Says the guy hanging out in a gay bar for Pride




(I was in Glasgow to see a woman. She was busy, so I killed time at... gay bars.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
They took my pennies from me.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Can't let Count do all the work, can I?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If by "time" you mean the Heath Death of the universe. I'm painfully straight, as in I'm straight and it causes me pain.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I got my bum pinched, visiting a gay bar on the day of the Pride Parade in Glasgow. It was more bemusing than offensive. TBH, I'm not offended at all, I went to one of most famous/notorious gay bars, and I was well groomed and wearing pointy shoes. Dunno what the women are complaining about.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Replaying MENACE now that it's had a substantial content update. Still not feature complete, or content complete, but it's been long enough that what's old is new again. The biggest change is an overhaul to the very minimum viable product "OCI" system, which covers ship upgrades and orbital call-ins/buffs. There's a ton more variety in what you can do, on and off the field of battle.


Sadly this seems to have broken every mod, but the base game is plenty of fun.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thanks for doing that. If only anyone else who critiques me bothered to use actual data. Or actual effort.


Late 2025 onwards does not coincide with an increase in LLM usage, or the start of LLM usage. It does coincide with exams, incredible work-related stress, and the redirection of my energy.


If you care to check, you will find that for a while now, even my most innocuous comments reliably attract 2 to 3 downvotes. Who from? Dunno. I believe the informal term of art is "haters".


When I was effort posting, or putting more effort into my posting, that would have been masked by a significant number of upvotes. When I'm increasingly showing up primarily in the non-CWR threads, where most comments get a handful of votes anyway?


Still, I appreciate you checking. If you have a simple guide to how you went about it, I'd be keen. Or I can set 5.6 or Fable on it, now that I know hy3 can do it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Because you keep asking for more weight loss?


To make up numbers:


Let's say x amount of semaglutide suppresses appetite to a degree that accounts for y kg of lost weight for the average person. They plateau there.


Then they want to lose more weight, and go on to take take 2x of the drug and lose 2y of the weight before plateauing again.


That... is the least surprising thing I can imagine. It would be bad if there wasn't a reliable dose-response curve, or if a single dose of a GLP-1 agonist meant that you lose your appetite completely. We aren't trying to induce total anorexia.


It would be something entirely different if you had lost Y weight on X, and then notice that while you're on your regular dose, the weight crept up. That is not impossible, but it is not typical either. That phenomenon would invite questions about tolerance at a physiological level.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You are talking to a doctor who has, at least on LessWrong, written a guide that might as well be called:


"Here's how you, a competent non-medical professional who knows how to use Google and ChatGPT, can maximize the value from the medical system in a manner that won't shoot your dick off."


https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ypnYfPmn6FqAyxCpJ?commentId=PBQGQ3buve228rNXu


You are preaching to the choir. A reasonably well behaved and sympathetic choir.


At the same time, I have explained at length why the behavior of other doctors is understandable, if not laudable. You and other UMC professionals who do their own research are not representative of the super-majority of patients a typical doctor sees in clinics. There are a lot of idiots out there. Or simply average people who watch the wrong influencers on TikTok.




I am genuinely sorry to hear about your negative experiences with other doctors, either personally or second-hand. I would not be so bold as to call myself the best clinician around, but I try and make up for that with good bedside manner, patience and an open mind.






Doctors are not a homogeneous population, unfortunately there are those who react poorly to perceived challenge. I can't bring myself to hate them, I have felt my patience running short when someone with uncontrolled diabetes shows up with their toes on the verge of falling off and reveals that they refused to take medication as prescribed and decided to use a combination of old Google, influencers and other questionable sources to opt for homeopathy. This is has happened more than once, though I didn't keep the toes. Fortunately, even free ChatGPT is a clear improvement in terms of quality of information and presentation to laymen. I would be genuinely surprised if it defended homeopathy without very significant nudging.




I would be grateful if I wasn't asked to answer for the sins of a profession I am associated with. That is quite possibly not your intent, but it happens a lot. All I can do is be better myself, and try to help people navigate the system.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Doing well enough. The back is better, and I'm back to being mostly better. I become increasingly glad that I'm a doctor, and a decent one: it's the strongest ammunition there is when it comes to making other doctors take you seriously and in convincing them to do the right thing. It's a miracle that non-medics engage with the healthcare system at all, but I suppose it beats dying. The human body continues reminding me that there are riders attached to the lifetime warranty. It's good that I read the manual.


No real exercise beyond carrying my fair share of a busy ward on my back. Getting a suitable amount of professional recognition for it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
As far as I'm aware, there's nothing to be gained by taking time off GLP-1 drugs. They're not tolerance forming. They're not habit forming either.


On the contrary, the last paper I recall reading said that people gained back 2/3rds of the lost weight within a year, probably in the context of semaglutide. I've heard people say that this is a knock against it, which is pants-on-head retarded. Most drugs stop working when you don't take them. It's not an antibiotic (which you hopefully don't need by the time you stop the course).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You have to make it worth everyone else's time. And money. That is the benefit of having a reputation, I'm afraid.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thanks. I have a lot on my plate at the moment, and figuring out a way to arrange the transfer that doesn't dox me will take effort. This might entail crypto. Enough effort that I haven't set up something along these lines so far. Remind me if I forget, I'm not kidding about being incredibly busy. I still intend to keep my word, starting from when the money comes through.


Edit:


Alternatively, I can see if Substack can do anything about it. Or if there's Kofi or whatever the hell it's called.