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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   27236 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 11, 2023

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Polygamy, the natural mating equilibrium of humanity, will reassert itself.

Nah. I sooner see people pacifying themselves with porn, AI companions, and cats. People still having sex will probably stand by marriage. It's too good of a deal for all parties involved.

The economy will shrivel, under nominal socialism or not. It will not be completely obvious, things just won’t get done. Your packages will be delivered to the wrong address. Stores will have random shortages. Software won’t work. Rent will be even more unaffordable. You won’t be able to get healthcare because the doctor-patient ratio is out of whack. Yet they will refuse to train more doctors.

I can see that! I'm half-convinced it's happening before my eyes. Re: doctors, it's not even about them refusing to train them, who the hell will want to be one, for the price they're offering. I feel horrible if I make a mistake in my, relatively inconsequential, line of work, why should I take on responsibility for someone's life, for the salaries they're offering (in countries that are not the US).

And many are willing to prove their loyalty by fighting and dying.

That sounds like a fatal mistake. Antifa black-blocks are legendary for falling apart upon the slightest bit of resistance, and the more resilient underclass shock troops, that progressives sometimes deploy, have no actual loyalty to the regime. If Boston Dynamics comes up with reliable infantry drones, we're fucked, but until they need flesh-and-blood boots on the ground, they'll be limited in what they can do, and in fact, trying to shove critical theory in the military might be the domino causing the whole thing to fall apart. There's still mercenaries, I guess, so maybe they can keep the lights on, as long as they have money.

The impact of AI cannot be predicted, other than to say that those who control access to and direct powerful AI’s will inherit the world for eternity, or until humans are deposed or extinct.

Meh. I'll happily put myself forward as predicting that the impact of AI will be limited to extrapolating current trends. I really don't get this messianic / doomerist aura around it. Which is bad enough! I suppose contra what I wrote earlier, I get the doomerism, and the aura I don't get is better described as metaphysical.

why should I take on responsibility for someone's life, for the salaries they're offering (in countries that are not the US

It seemed like the least bad option at the time, especially accounting for the (not entirely forlorn) hopes of moving to the US and getting a cut of those healthcare fees everyone loves complaining about 🙏.

Polygamy, the natural mating equilibrium of humanity, will reassert itself.

Nah. I sooner see people pacifying themselves with porn, AI companions, and cats. People still having sex will probably stand by marriage. It's too good of a deal for all parties involved.

I feel like this would just result in polygamy reasserting itself. I would expect the people who pacify themselves with porn, AI companions, and cats to be majority - likely overwhelmingly - male, leaving a smaller number of males having sex than women (there's some indication that this is already happening). Marriage is indeed a good deal for all parties involved, but when you have such an imbalance of people still having sex, then polygamy is a pretty natural outcome. I'm sure the modal woman would prefer the currently-typical two-person marriage between one man and one woman, but when that option isn't available, why not choose being the 10th wife of a high status man than turning to AI companions and cats? I suppose part of it will have to do with how good AI companions get in the future; if the AI can actually manipulate the user's mind into genuinely believing that they're having a real relationship with a real flesh-and-blood-born-from-a-real-womb human who is high status, then all bets are off.

but when that option isn't available, why not choose being the 10th wife of a high status man than turning to AI companions and cats?

Presumably they'll program the AI companions in such a way that they won't leave you for a newer model.

That's the beauty of polygamy, he won't leave you for a newer model! The newer model just comes in and raises his status which means it also raises your status (while also lowering your status relatively due to having to share with one more woman; whether this is a net gain or loss depends a lot on the details).

But why would a guy support a harem aging wives when, if we're going for all-bets-are-off hedonism, he can just never marry anyone, or divorce and remarry? If nothing else it sounds dangerous. By the time I'd be adding wife no. 4, I'd be worried the other 3 will plot to give me a gentle push down a flight of stairs, so they can split the inheritance / life insurance.

Hm, good point. I suppose my thinking was that it's higher status to be a husband of a harem than to be a playboy or serial monogamist, but in the brave new world, that's certainly not a safe assumption.

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