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sunderwight · 3 months

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y'know what, I think it's kind of interesting to bring up Data from Star Trek in the context of the current debates about AI. like especially if you actually are familiar with the subplot about Data investigating art and creativity.

see, Data can definitely do what the AI programs going around these days can. better than, but that's beside the point, obviously. he's a sci-fi/fantasy android. but anyway, in the story, Data can perfectly replicate any painting or stitch a beautiful quilt or write a poem. he can write programs for himself that introduce variables that make things more "flawed", that imitate the particular style of an artist, he can choose to either perfectly replicate a particular sort of music or to try and create a more "human" sounding imitation that has irregular errors and mimics effort or strain. the latter is harder for him that just copying, the same way it's more complicated to have an algorithm that creates believable "original" art vs something that just duplicates whatever you give it.

but this is not the issue with Data. when Data imitates art, he himself knows that he's not really creating, he's just using his computer brain to copy things that humans have done. it's actually a source of deep personal introspection for the character, that he believes being able to create art would bring him closer to humanity, but he's not sure if he actually can.

of course, Data is a person. he's a person who is not biological, but he's still a person, and this is really obvious from go. there's no one thing that can be pointed to as the smoking gun for Data's personhood, but that's normal and also true of everyone else. Data's the culmination of a multitude of elements required to make a guy. Asking if this or that one thing is what makes Data a person is like asking if it's the flour or the eggs that make a cake.

the question of whether or not Data can create art is intrinsically tied to the question of whether or not Data can qualify as an artist. can he, like a human, take on inspiration and cultivate desirable influences in order to produce something that reflects his view on the world?

yes, he can. because he has a view on the world.

but that's the thing about the generative AI we are dealing with in the real world. that's not like Data. despite being referred to as "AI", these are algorithms that have been trained to recognize and imitate patterns. they have no perspective. the people who DO have a perspective, the humans inputting prompts, are trying to circumvent the whole part of the artistic process where they actually develop skills and create things themselves. they're not doing what Data did, in fact they're doing the opposite -- instead of exploring their own ability to create art despite their personal limitations, they are abandoning it. the data sets aren't like someone looking at a painting and taking inspiration from it, because the machine can't be inspired and the prompter isn't filtering inspiration through the necessary medium of their perspective.

Data would be very confused as to the motives and desires involved, especially since most people are not inhibited from developing at least SOME sort of artistic skill for the sake self-expression. he'd probably start researching the history of plagiarism and different cultural, historical, and legal standards for differentiating it from acceptable levels of artistic imitation, and how the use of various tools factored into it. he would cite examples of cultures where computer programming itself was considered a form of art, and court cases where rulings were made for or against examples of generative plagiarism, and cases of forgeries and imitations which required skill as good if not better than the artists who created the originals. then Geordi would suggest that maybe Data was a little bit annoyed that people who could make art in a way he can't would discount that ability. Data would be like "as a machine I do not experience annoyance" but he would allow that he was perplexed or struggling to gain internal consensus on the matter. so Geordi would sum it up with "sometimes people want to make things easy, and they aren't always good at recognizing when doing that defeats the whole idea" and Data would quirk his head thoughtfully and agree.

then they'd get back to modifying the warp core so they could escape some sentient space anomaly that had sucked the ship into intermediate space and was slowly destabilizing the hull, or whatever.

anyways, point is -- I don't think Data from Star Trek would be a big fan of AI art.

#star trek #star trek tng #st tng #data soong #geordi la forge

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pynkhues · 10 months

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Why do you think Logan was hard on women, as Shiv said? I'm sure a big part of it is good ol' fashioned misogyny combined with him being generally awful to everybody, but do you think it also has to do with losing Helen and Rose so young?

Oh, gosh, this feels like a question I could probably write a million word answer to, but ultimately, yeah, I do think he’s a misogynist and I do think losing his mother and sister at such a crucial age impacted his relationship to women as a whole.

I also don’t think we can't discount the era he was born into as being crucial in shaping his views on women overall.

I think – prior to the current era of politics with the reversal of things like affirmative action and Roe v Wade – it was pretty normal to view progress as a straight line going up. While that’s shifted recently, I think there is still this tendency to view the past as slowly progressing instead of the absolute swings and roundabouts that it was and is, and I think that idea particularly permeates when it comes to women’s rights. Which makes sense, right? In America, women got the right to vote in 1920, Amelia Earhart became the first woman pilot in 1932, women seriously entered the workforce en masse during WWII between 1941 and 1945, Rosa Parks didn’t give up her seat in 1955, the birth control pill was approved in 1960, JFK signed into law the equal pay act in 1963.

That seems, on paper, like a line going up, but that’s not what reality was.

The reality was that after all those things, women faced extreme backlash, and on top of that, there were these dramatic shifts with established gender roles that shook things up! This was reflected, like most things are, in art.

A million years ago in my film theory class at university, I actually wrote an essay about this and noir cinema, which as an entire genre is about male impotence post-WWII and female empowerment and this new sense of the unknowability of women which men felt extremely personally in this era. This is, of course, embodied by the iconic femme fatale character trope which dominated cinema in the late ‘40s through ‘50s, and is understood to be a figure born of male anxiety post-WWII (and man, if she isn’t great), but that anxiety came from the lack of social services to help very damaged men navigate their return to cities that had drastically changed since they’d left them.

That era was also dominated by the creation of suburbia, which was built as a social reward for these traumatised men and a trap for newly liberated women. It was about trying to remind men of what they’d seen their friends die for, while telling women where they belonged.

Logan came of age in the midst of that social identity crisis (he would’ve turned 18 in 1956! At the late peek of noir cinema!), a crisis that would only be compound with the Vietnam War that his brother would enlist in, and the sexual revolution. Logan’s life was peppered with male failure and violence, and the mystery and the loss of women, in his father’s death and his uncle’s abuse, even in his brother never making it to the front lines in Vietnam; in his mother’s abandonment, his sister’s death and his aunt’s implied absence.

He collects tokens of masculinity in medals of wars he never fought, and he romanticises the unknowability of women like Marcia and Rhea and Shiv, because it’s what he was taught. It’s the era he grew up in, and Logan, as we saw time and time again, is a character who never quite learns.

So why is he so hard on women? I mean, he is, but I also think he romanticises them to an extent that robs them of their personhood, which feeds back into the era he came of age in. Women then were capable, but unknowable, which made them threatening and emasculating, which is exactly how Logan treats all the women he encounters. They’re femme fatales to him until he can unpick their stitches and figure them out and re-cast them as supporting characters to his own story. He’s a 1950s guy, living in the 2010s, and unfortunately, I don’t think that’s all that rare in real life even now.

#logan roy #succession meta #hbo succession #i do think he was deeply traumatised by the forced separation from his mother and sister and the death of his sister though #funnily enough though i do tend to still think that manifests most with kendall though #just because he's the only child who ever truly tries to leave him in s3 #which we see of course in 3.08 #welcome to my ama

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contentment-of-cats · 10 months

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The post you never want to write.

We tumblrinas might not be the most orderly folk, but we know the bullshit when we see it. In some cases, being right is a vindication - chest-bump and high-five. BOOYAH! In other cases, being right is not wanting to be right, not wanting to know what you know and the occasion for a long breath, a shake of the head, and commending that energy to the universe.

For a lot of us, the first thought was for the humanity we shared with the dead. The shared blood and bone, nerve and skin, love and life. There was anger that anyone could think that spending $250k US to do this was moral or ethical. The whole eat the rich thing seemed to me to be laughing past the graveyard, so for the most part I discount it. After all, I joke about my own cancer. Yes, this seems to be the answer too neo-liberalism/libertarianism and why we have rules, regulations, and procedures. People die without them and 'corporate personhood' acts out as sociopathy.

There are always going to be some twisted assclowns who hate - nothing ever changes them, and it's a waste of my precious and measured minutes to try. Cancer clarifies one's thoughts - a Swedish death-cleaning for brainspace. The block button works as well as a dumpster bag.

We did good, tumblrinas.

Now to the shitty parts

Correction:

The US Navy detected an acoustic signature consistent with an implosion on Sunday in the general area where the Titan submersible was diving in the North Atlantic when it lost communication with its support ship, according to a senior Navy official. The Navy immediately relayed that information to the on-scene commanders leading the search effort, the official said Thursday, adding that information was used to narrow down the area of the search. But the sound of the implosion was determined to be “not definitive,” the official said, and the multinational efforts to find the submersible continued as a search and rescue effort.

Sonar did not pick up the sounds that would have indicated an implosion in the water column. Considering that the northern Atlantic is a hotbed of sonar sensors used for military, scientific, and other purposes, you'd think that they could hear a fish fart. However, the debris field is indicative of just such an event. This may mean that it was slower than a BOOM implosion, but humanity allows us to hope not. The banging sounds picked up do not appear to have had any relation to the sub, which at that point had been destroyed three days ago. That being said, there are reportedly five items of debris that allowed ROV operators to definitively identify the sub. The principal item was the nosecone - the big grey boobie-looking thing on the front.

Other items might have been the thrusters, the 'feet,' and the camera on top. It's too much to hope for the footage from the camera to be salvageable even if it did survive. at this point, I'm surprised that they didn't stick a Ring doorbell on there and call it good.

The reports indicated that the nosecone was intact. This is the part that bolted onto the fuselage to seal the passengers inside. It's also the part that meant they'd have to raise the sub if it were found intact since there was no escape hatch. There was a smaller debris field inside the new debris field that contained the tailcone. The part amidships where the passengers and pilot sat has not yet been recovered, I would guess. So, nosecone popped off, tailcone popped off, exterior attachments popped off - the main part that presumably contains the remains compressed within has not been found, though the ships and technology will remain in some number to look for it.

There is nothing that anyone could have done to stop the loss of life other than not putting it into the water in the first place. Those five people have been dead since Sunday morning, an hour and forty-five minutes into their dive, fifteen minutes from the bottom. There would have been an almighty big air bubble the sound of a beer can being crunched.

There's going to be a lot to process over the coming weeks. When the shit hits the fan, that's just one part of it. It's what happens AFTER impact that brings to light the real mess.

#oceangate #titanic

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narukyuu · 1 year

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FCG, Personhood, Romance, Aromanticism and how I feel about it.

I am Asexual/Aromantic, very much so. I enjoy fictional romance (and Erotica!) but in real life feel no attraction to people on the basis of romantic and sexual appeal.

a few sessions ago my therapist asked me if I really have no interest in a romantic relationship. it was an awkward conversation and I didn't know exactly how to explain that I just don't see myself initiating one - if it happens during the course of my life then it happens - I'm not averse to romance (I am kind of averse to sex, I guess) but I just don't... desire it as much as people around me seem to? (or at all honestly)

and I believe my therapist didn't really understand it, she questioned my lack of desire for that kind of thing and wondered if it's because I have certain preconceived ideas on how that kind of thing works.

(no hate to my therapist please, she had questions based on things I said regarding relationships in general and did not discount my Asexuality/Aromanticism at any point.)

Life without romantic relationships is so often portrayed as sad, meaningless, even less important. Being alone is bad. Not having a "Special person" is bad.

now let's talk FCG.

I did not HC FCG as Asexual/Aromatic at any point. Aspec robots are... well, a very common representation. so much so that when asked during a character design course to draw an unhuman representation of myself - I drew a robot. it's a problem.

FCG was nevertheless excluded from shipping discourse because of their nature as an Aeormaton, a non organic being. Fandom pretty much played into the exact thing that makes up FCG's main internal conflict - not considering himself to be a person, not considering himself important, having a soul, having a purpose that goes beyond his programming, willing to sacrifice themselves at any point for people the DO consider important and worthy of personhood.

Now, FCG and FRIDA being in a relationship has upset a lot of people's perception of this character. it's so surprising that THEY, of ALL PEOPLE in this group, got the first kiss, the first explicit romance.

the robots romancing each other has caught so many people off guard, and turned so many eyes to this character that up until now more or less served as a "supporting" character in other character's romantic narratives. (and even now I see posts trying to figure out what this means for THEIR ship. eh.)

and I find that to be kind of sad.

Had FRIDA not happened, had FCG not been romanced for the entirety of the campaign... would people still continue treating them like that? have all of constant reaffirmations of their personhood changed none of it, made them a viable shipping option for any of their "Organic" teammates?

are they going to become a viable shipping option now that they have been shown to have the capacity for romance? are people going to start treating them as their own person rather than support for others?

....

I love Sam. I love LoveLetters (I am genuinely not functioning because of how cute it is.) But I am fearing that FCG's conflict with his personhood will be resolved now that they figured out that they can have romantic feelings. it feels quite simplistic and I truly hope it will not be the case. FCG is a person because that's what he's always been. Romance or no romance - he would've been a person regardless.

and you know, I hope that this understanding does become a part of his journey. I hope it's something he and Ashton can talk about when they meet again (Especially since Taliesin played an AroAce character last campaign), I hope this is a part of FCG 's journey.

#Fresh Cut Grass #FCG #fcg critical role #critical role spoilers #critical role #C3E55 #my thoughts #Romantic Robots

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spandexinspace · 8 months

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It'd be interesting to have some type of scenario where Vril discusses clones with people, seeing as he may or may not be one (discounting that his body is cloned regardless of whether or not he was one initially) and if he is one he's one of the stablest ones alive. Physically, at least.

I find it particularly interesting how both he and the people around him never question his personhood. It seems like it's such a given for him that he doesn't even think to question it, or did that a very long time ago and came to terms with the answer then, and despite how awful he is no one ever blames it on his potential clonehood. And it's not like he keeps it a secret.

Most other clones in the DCU are in an odd place because of it, doomed to always worry about it or be too flawed to function properly, so it's intruiging to have someone who for all intents and purposes is just doing fine as far as that goes. And I think that'd give him a pretty unique perspective on the issue.

#dc comics #I've probably forgotten about some other clones but the ones I can remember have issues with it

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masterqwertster · 1 year

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You know, their time with Ashton and Bells Hells may be Fresh Cut Grass's first time actually being emancipated. Free to make their own decisions while not being owned by anyone. (I'm discounting Dancer because FCG made the comment of still belonging to her when they met in Bassuras, and she did not deny previous ownership)

Because as pointed out in the trivia section of the Critical Role Aeormaton wiki page:

It is unknown if the aeormatons that took part in the Care and Culling were created before or after their race had freedom and will of their own. If they were created before, their orders would be the priority, but if they were created after, it would mean that these automatons deliberately decided to participate in said missions as spies and assassins.

And thinking about it, wouldn't it be weird to gift a citizen to another country as a peace offering? Like, the whole assassin angle should be half-expected in this scenario. The aeormatons were not gifted to advance the sciences, provide relief efforts, etc that would benefit the (rival) societies as a whole, thus making a citizen a gainful gift towards peace. No, the aeormatons were gifted to individuals of influence as companions. How many stories are there about the courtesan or other person sent to be a companion killing the client? If they've got free will enough to be citizens, they can decide to kill this person of influence that they are working closely with, and this should be under consideration, especially with Aeor's (probably) known militant slant.

On the other hand, gifting a particularly capable machine/artifact that is only made in your city sounds much more like a peace offering. This thing will follow its master's orders, and we're making you the master. It will help you in your daily work and do whatever you say. What a thoughtful gift. And if you're feeling particularly industrious, you can try to dismantle and replicate this gift so that more people in your country can have this high quality machine.

Also consider, for FCG being pre-aeormaton liberation, that Professor Isham confirmed that Fresh Cut Grass has an usually large arcane accumulator for the functions of an automaton of their size. Considering that this is basically the beating heart of FCG, I don't think that's something to be upgraded later should he have chosen to accept this mission. No, that sounds like something you particularly choose to design an individual machine to have. You make it look like other models on the outside, but the inside, which no one outside of your city has seen (at least well enough) to replicate is where you make things different for their special purpose.

I'd also like to add in that Dancer said Fresh Cut Grass came online with the personality he has. Now the subservient mindset can be taught, but if that's just the way he woke up... well, it gels more with a slavish "you're just a machine" mindset than a full-fledged citizen.

And with the way FCG is currently still trying to put someone else in complete control of their life kind of suggests, to me, that maybe they never have had control of their life like that.

So tl;dr:

I think there's a good chance FCG was built before aeormatons gained full citizenship in Aeor as there's quite a few logistics/details that point me that way, meaning he's currently experiencing acknowledged personhood and freedom for the first time with Ashton and Bells Hells.

#critical role #cr3 #cr c3 #cr campaign 3 #fresh cut grass #fcg #letters #aeromaton #aeor #the care and culling #fcg critical role #meta #critical role speculation #critical role spoilers #MQ blathers

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muu-kun · 2 months

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Upcoming Verse: Demon Days..

Disclaimer: Though this verse is not Fandom required, it is not exempt from involvement within the h*zbin h*tel / h*lluva b*ss franchise. Anything pertaining to either series will be tagged accordingly for the consideration of others. If one needs it tagged in a different manner in order for their blacklist to actually catch, please let me know via ask or IMs. I absolutely have no qualms about assisting in making this a safe space for my mutuals.

General Information:

Name: Mu. He maintains no association with his earthly birth name as he hardly ever went by it when he was alive. He's admittedly never liked the ring of it in his ears when he slips into communicating out phrases set in the third person.

Cause of death: Cancer. A ill fated death for an individual who dedicated his livelihood to ridding his body of perceived filth and damage in order to achieve his idolized version of goodness and innocence. He'd battled his brain for years to form into perfection when instead it became disease ridden in an entirely different manner well before he was ready to call it quits.

Age at Death: Unknown. Perceived Age: Twenty. It is of no surprise that the soul within himself was molded to express how old he was when he was at the crossroads of experiencing too much life, even if the instances causing the overload were not great, and not at all on account of an impending pandemic set to enable his already agorphobic tendencies. It would be just like him to transfer from one plane of existence into another as a mirror image of himself at a state best described as colliding phases of the moon. Once again is he stuck in the patterns of an outdated way of life leading into one in which he's yet again lost without an instruction guide to the journey ahead. A completion of an intense life cycle that veers onto a road that's empty spare some obvious ongoing construction. One in which he'd describe as been in pre-pre-pre-development.

Introspective Information:

Disabilities and Mental Illnesses carried over from life into death: A generalized intellectual disability, Autism, and OCD. Limited speech capabilities are most prominent as he is utilizing the counting of his words as his only form of control in a new environment. All other conditions have slithered into dormancy as they pertain to trauma inflicted upon him as a human. The memories of them carried over, yes, however the impacts of them onto system were compartmentalized and tucked away when his arrival into Hell required his brain to have a greater focus on something in particular: survival. He's having to relearn how to manage his surroundings and personhood all over again. Only this time without any sort of parental figure to model how to get his needs and wants fulfilled from.

Likes: Knowing what the Hell is going on around here. Biting those who tread into his space without an indication of why they are there in the first place, or if they do not have information to satiate him with knowledge in exchange for a completely docile temperament. Petty mayhem. In his ignorance, and existing difficulties with comprehension, he finds himself having complications with understanding a need for a form of currency in any afterlife. Hence a bit of a problem with sticky fingers. Technically speaking, everywhere offers a five finger discount if he has the means to scurry away as undetected as he came in.

Dislikes: There are just TOO many tall people around him constantly. Things not going his way, or being the way he'd like them to be in terms of how he would have anticipated Hell to have been like prior to end having been met. It is the unnecessary cruelty behind everything that irks him; however, who else than himself can he really blame for his situation when it was his nosy behind that asked for damnation in the first place. He'd wanted to find out if it was as terrible and lonely as his peers on Earth had told him it would be when they warned him not only was he going to die alone, he was going to stay that way while all of his friends and family ascended into Heaven. His shaky uncertainty is of no fault of his own. That is what one gets for wanting to be the hand behind their own demise instead of allowing anyone else such an opportunity. Leave it to him to have brought fruition to the claims of others when he didn't even have to do such in the first place. For new, he'll never get to know what the maker truly had in store for him if he'd just left the choice to fate and assessment.

Appearance and Identity:

Height: 160cm / 5ft 3in. He has gotten his wish of always remaining small, but was it really worth it this time?

Gender: Male. He / him pronouns.

Sex: He's keeping this one a secret. Not that one would guess him to have anything different than the genitalia he had while he was alive, which were none other than a penis and buttocks, and yet.. He confirms nothing. Such stubborn is mainly a result of internalized insecurities over the impact of his condition of Kallmann Syndrome had on the development of his sexual characteristics as puberty took place. He also doesn't trust a single being to perceive him as is without making anything weird, so he's keeping how the changes to his body impacted his nether regions a secret. Frankly, there is no one to stop him from walking around with his hands in his pants for extra security measures. He has absolutely no qualms about looking completely weird as he adjusts to society.

Sexuality: More so undetermined more than unknown. The internal yearning for a connection with a man is still very much an integral and underlying aspect to his personhood, and yet he also couldn't put it past himself to join forces with a band of women if even just one was nice to him. An opportunistic bisexual with an innate and heavy male lean if one could call themselves such.

Occupation: Unemployed. Though the desire to find one is there, he is admittedly more so along the lines of waiting for someone to simply give him a job. An easy way out really. A place to live in without paying rent would also suit his needs very well. Being homeless in Hell has actually proven to be a very manageable problem in of itself. Nevertheless, his desire for the princess treatment clearly has stayed with him from life into death. Godspeed to the little buddy just as much as it is extended to the paths of those he crosses.

#; ♡ ; verse: demon days #tw hazbin hotel #tw mentions of death #tw cancer

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powerofmettatonneo · 3 months

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Hi, i’ve been looking at your post, talking about it, and sharing it with some friends. Honestly i’d even say i’m a fan of you and your work despite how little of it there is right now. I have a couple question.

First, I was wondering if you had any other accounts that I could follow your work on, like twitter and such.

Second, I saw that you took classes in etholgy and talked about advocating for the personhood of animals. I mean, I know they’re smarter than we sometimes give them credit for. Take for example the recent study with scientist communicating with whales with their own language for the first time. But I was hoping to get your insight in what you mean by personhood of animals and thoughts on the topic. (And also table napkin thought on how anthropomorphizing can harm or help our understanding of animals)

Third but a little more obscure, is that you use humanity, personhood, and the being of « more human » a lot. I was hoping if you could expand on the differences of these terms and how they interact with one another.

Sorry for all the questions, just honest to god fascinated with your perspective of things and the topic in general.

Here’s the whale communication study I mentioned: https://globalnews.ca/news/10182116/humpback-whale-conversation-talking-to-aliens/amp/

Oh my gosh thank you so much for your kind words! This, AO3, and YouTube are actually my only accounts online that I post anything on, and I just use my YT account to reupload other people's deleted videos. I used to use Reddit but I'm trying to distance myself from that account since half a decade of hot take type comments starting when I was 15 isn't exactly the best look for anyone.

Your last two questions are linked so I'm going to address them at once. Human is simply the term used to refer to a member of the genus Homo. There's nothing all that special about it philosophically when separated from personhood, which is more or less the description of what beings do and don't fully matter morally. Speculative fiction and philosophy tend to equate it with sapience, which is more or less a meaningless term made up to separate humans (or worse, specific groups of humans) from other animals and make ourselves feel superior. There have been attempts to give it meaning, but nearly every definition uses traits that are found in at least one other species of animal and/or are not universal to every group of humans (with the notable exception of artistry but I frankly find it absurd to discount something's moral worth over that). As such, if we're going to approach the topic logically, then some animals at the very least have traits of personhood.

Language, for example, isn't exactly common in animals, but it isn't unheard of either. Bats, cetaceans (whales and dolphins), pinnipeds (seals and sea lions), elephants, songbirds (a group that contains crows btw), hummingbirds, and of course parrots all learn different "words" that they apply meaning to and then use. Cetaceans, parrots, and some songbirds even use something akin to grammar.

Ritual behavior has been shown in chimpanzees, dolphins, and elephants as they grieve for their dead.

Self-awareness, the trait most commonly held up as making humans special, is hard to measure due to the language barrier, but there is still some evidence for it in certain animals. The mirror test isn't perfect when it comes to discounting a given animal's self-awareness, but if an animal can identify itself in a mirror, it's hard to argue with the idea that it has a sense of self. Animals that passed include various dolphins, great apes, elephants, magpies, and even certain fish. Furthermore, an African grey parrot named Alex once asked a question about himself, being the first recorded instance of an animal asking anything, and bottlenose dolphins use names for themselves and others in their pod.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. I don't really have a definitive list of animals that I believe should be considered "people", especially given all the legal implications of that sentiment, but you've probably noticed that same groups of animals showed up again and again. Dolphins were there in all of the different categories, and elephants only failed the grammar category because they largely communicate using vibrations which work so differently from regular sound that they're hard to meaningfully compare to human languages. Parrots, corvids (crows and relatives), and great apes all have stand out members that showed up in two or three of the categories in the African grey, magpie, and chimpanzee respectively, and the other members of those families as well as whales are all intelligent and social enough that I am of the opinion that they all deserve certain philosophical rights and even legal protections. It's so easy for us to see personhood as a black and white thing that something either has or doesn't have, but like most things, it really is more of a spectrum.

To answer your "table napkin thought", while I won't deny that anthropomorphizing real animals can often lead to a lack of true understanding of them, the harm done by people trying to avoid doing so is both more common and so, so much more horrific that I hesitate to critique it too much. I mean, I have straight up seen very influential people say that acknowledging the extremely well supported fact that other animals are capable of feeling pain is "anthropomorphizing" them because one specific area of the brain that is partially responsible for processing pain in humans is only present in primates, and that of course can, and historically has, lead to horrific abuse.

I really don't mind all the questions! I love talking about things I'm passionate about, and this topic is certainly up there among the the things I care most about.

#ethology #animal personhood #philosophy

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roguestorm · 2 years

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What bothers me about Excalibur #18-20 is how it discounts Kwannon's feelings. We all - readers and characters alike - know that the body swap is not Betsy's fault, that it was Spyral's idea and it was a violation of Betsy's agency, etc, etc. We all know that! And none of that changes the fact that Kwannon is allowed to be mad about it, is allowed to have a lot of resentment towards the person who existed in her body while she was in a limbo between life and death. Other people look at her and see Betsy and confuse the relationships they had with Betsy with the relationship they have with her. And, moreover, Hill makes it very explicit that Kwannon has been controlled all her life, has never really had agency, and that the body swap was an extension of a pattern where she was never allowed to live her life. She wasn't allowed to keep her lover or her child, she never knew her parents, she's never been allowed to make her own decisions, and even her acts of rebellion were ultimately futile and playing into someone else's hands.

In having Kwannon say, "It isn't to be solved, it merely is," or "The terrible things between us have been done to us! That is not who we are," Howard is using Kwannon as an author mouthpiece, to clear Betsy of all charges. She is ignoring that Kwannon is a person who might have her own complicated and negative feelings about Betsy. Again, Hill makes clear that Kwannon will forgive Betsy, given enough time, but that currently, she still feels the damage done too keenly to be magnanimous about it. In giving Kwannon that magnanimity, that wisdom, Howard is denying her actual personhood and using her as a tool for Betsy's story. In so doing, she is repeating the exact same mistake the body-swap story originally did - treating the white woman's story as more important and interesting than the Asian woman's. When Excalibur #19 focuses on Betsy's pain and casts Kwannon as the voice of reason, it denies Kwannon the sympathy that it asks us to feel for Betsy.

(On another note, as I am a Betsy fan, Howard's insistence on absolving Betsy of ever being guilty of anything is completely silly when she's writing a violent killer who is guilty of rather a lot. Howard loves Betsy so much she's incapable of writing good Betsy content, and she's throwing Kwannon's characterization away at the same time.)

#m.txt #x men blogging #kwannon #ch: eat your heart out bruce willis #s: excalibur v4 #other people have talked about this story before i just wanted to name specifically what bothers me about it

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cromcrux · 1 year

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I just finished watching Exception and I must say I really enjoyed it. It's a very fun mystery thriller with eye catching visuals and really interesting character designs.

It's a very tight made story with a small cast so it's easy to follow.

There are some scenes that aren't shot in ways that I really liked (there is a spinning scene that I understand the purpose of but feel could have been done better a different way). Some shots linger on rather bland or uninteresting scenery which is a shame because some of the design elements are fantastic and would have made for a much more interesting shot.

Dialogue is well done, the characters are consistent in their actions and behaviors, even if I don't necessarily like how they acted or reacted.

Mack has my favorite character design, but I'm a sucker for a broody, goal-driven punk.

Of the characters, I liked Lewis's design the least. I understand why he looks that way (they have all three masculine base body types: V, O, and square), but he is visually the least interesting to me. His personalities make up for it though.

I also love that they don't over explain the world or the characters. There is some delving into back stories, but just enough to make them feel real and always in dialogue between a character who is familiar and one who isn't (the three male characters clearly knew each other prior to the show).

No one over explains things. Each character has their own speciality and so only explains within their knowledge base.

Final spoiler free thought: I love the design of the ship. It's beautiful to me.

Spoilers going forward. Be warned.

The mystery is very well done. No one character is telegraphed as being suspicious but they also all have just enough not-known that it's difficult to clear any of them, excluding the doctor (though in the show they don't discount her potential involvement).

Patty, in my opinion, is foreshadowed very well. She is odd from the beginning and it seems like she isn't well known by the other crew members. It isn't striking at the beginning because we don't know if any of them are or are not familiar with each other.

I really like Lewis's monster design, I like that he has difficulty speaking due to the mangled shape of his mouth and throat. I find the arc of him adapting to his new body and regaining control of himself very interesting and I love the narrative beat of Mack switching from "it" to "him" immediately after he realizes his friend really might be in there somewhere. Making it clear that Mack was only using the pronoun "it" to mentally distance himself from the concept of it still being his friend Lewis. This being shown even more strongly later on when he is the first to be ruled out.

The autophilia by Patty is both a little creepy (because up until that point she really hadn't shown interest in much) and feels almost obvious. Of course the only person she could trust with such a dangerous mission would be herself, and there is real genuine care shown between the two different prints.

Overall the show left me thinking, which I enjoy. It brings up questions of personhood, was each print their own person? At what point is a copy no longer a copy? In world there were laws and policies about how to treat printed people, laws about who couldn't be reprinted and when exceptions can apply.

It brings up but does not answer: Is a copy still human if it's molecularly identical but not born in the traditional fashion? Are we just our memories and the body we inhabit is just the host?

I highly recommend this show. It's only eight episodes so it's not difficult to finish in a reasonable amount of time. If you watch or have watched it, please let me know what you think!

#exception #tv shows #netflix #show review #3d model #animation #spoilers #thriller #mystery #space

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devouring-hive · 11 months

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Conceptually yes, and my opinion is that a being has a core piece of themselves that retains identity. In the specific case of yourself, it could possibly be destroyed and it would need to be replaced. But recycling the parts is just properly frugal engineering.

Not to discount your personhood, but as you are a construct, I can see your creators being pragmatic.

"I suppose that that is correct, yes. It is unlikely my creators would have seen any martyrdom on my part as anything but pragmatism at best and malfunction at worst."

"Perhaps they did not realize just what they were doing when they were shaping my person. Perhaps they did, and the annihilation of my identity following a failure was an intended part of my design for exactly that recycling, I don't know."

"It doesn't matter, really... I am alive. For worse, largely."

#[ic]#[yami]#[asks]

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aith-art · 1 year

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A Courier and A Survivor meet

Word Count - 1.8k

The bag was one of the few items I retained when I made my way back east. Covered in patches from the groups I had befriended, helped and trusted. And some from groups I then abandoned, betrayed, and destroyed to fulfil a contract that I never wanted and couldn't escape. It acted as a reminder of my biggest failure. And an excellent way to transport random junk and mail across the wastes. The only other reminders that still existed were the scars. Two of which I could never avoid seeing in the mirror. I left all that behind me. I made my way to the Commonwealth. I actively ran from my past, even if a shadow of steel seemed to follow me.

Word Count - 1.8k

This Job was no different to my usual. Inform the mother that her husband and child were fine, likely get yelled at, then do a quick shop for whatever clothes and such were brought to Diamond City that could be put to better use in Goodneighbor. Everyone knew that’s where I took what I bought, but never cared. If they did, they never voiced it to me. I shoved the note into my messenger bag with my general supplies.

As I made a move for the gate, wanting to utilise the night to make it past the Commons, a small figure stood before me.

“Hi?” I tried to hide the caution and concern in my voice, to no avail.

The person before me was young. Maybe 14 pushing 15. Not someone I expected to see alone in the streets of Goodneighbor. I suppose ‘alone’ wasn’t an accurate description, the girl had a dog with her. A big, healthy one. She and her dog didn’t seem hostile, though in Goodneighbor appearances were something to be questioned. Her red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, much like I wore when I was her age, for a second I questioned if she was a hallucination of myself. It wasn’t out of the question after my injury. But others around had seen her, rolled their eyes, and returned to their lives. She gave a small wave and a sideways look. I was suddenly a puzzle to her. Had I seen her before?

“Hi.” She replied after a moment, “You were on the Prydwen weren’t you?”

I paused. No one was supposed to know about that little interaction I had with those steel morons, let alone a kid. “No, Why do you ask?”

“You were. You looked so different from everyone else aboard. I want to know why you were there. Are you a secret Brotherhood spy planning to take down Goodneighbor for Elder Maxson?”

That was overly specific, I thought. Though she seemed suddenly more defensive. A subtle hand reaching down the back of her belt, likely for a knife or switchblade. Her feet shifted, entering a somewhat impressive stance. Her mention of Maxson by name informed me that she was involved with the Brotherhood, in some capacity at least.

“If you’re with the Brotherhood, why do you care?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I…”

I had her there. She was smart enough to know that Goodneighbor would become a target for the Brotherhood, eventually, due to being a safe haven for ghouls and outcasts and the Brotherhood’s adamant denial of ghoul’s personhood. But Goodneighbor wasn’t the target of Maxson’s war. Hell, I doubt it made it as even a bullet point on a Brotherhood to-do list.

“My friends live here.” It was barely above a whisper.

I couldn’t leave her question unanswered. “I’m not here to destroy Goodneighbor for the Brotherhood of Steel. I’m completing some freelance work. No one in the Brotherhood knows I’m here.” Not a complete lie. It just happened to omit the fact that I was running from the Brotherhood and that I had no plans of going back if I could help it.

“Oh. But why were you on the Prydwen?” A curious soul. Well-meaning, clearly.

“Look, kid-”

Before I could bull shit a response the door to the state house opened behind me and Nick stepped out, mid-conversation with Fahrenheit. I jumped, unaware he'd been inside. He looked towards the bench across from Daisy’s Discounts before his eyes scanned past me and landed on the kid. His shoulders seemed to relax slightly as he saw she was okay.

“Dana, would you let the courier do their job?” He turned to me briefly. “Headed Diamond City ways?”

“Yeah, believe I might be saving you a job on this one.”

“You always seem to.”

“See you around Nick.”

I wanted to question why he was running around with a teenager, what they were doing in Goodneighbor. Hell, why did the kid know I was on the Prydwen? But I had to get this job completed, for my reputation if nothing else. We exchanged a parting nod as I headed out of the gate and into the super mutant filled streets.

As I crossed Boston Commons, taking a quicker route despite the increased danger, I registered a second set of footsteps some 20 paces behind me. They were trying to be quiet, though they weren't doing a great job. I continued ahead. If someone was tailing me, they would make themselves known before long.

By the time I entered Diamond City the sun had risen and I was certain I knew who had followed me, and how long they’d done it for. I kept this knowledge to myself. After completing the delivery, and being truly chewed out by the distraught mother in the absence of her husband to scream at, I bought a box of sugar bombs, some fabric for the repairs my jeans were in desperate need of, and began to make my way back to Goodneighbor. Enjoying the warm day and relative safety of the route as I made my way via the river. Following it up towards Bunker Hill before dipping into the alley by HalluciGen Inc and following the road through, towards the large skyscraper of Mass Fusion.

The midday sun began to be clouded by the coming storm as I stepped through the gate back into Goodneighbor, sighing with the familiar smell of cigarette smoke tinged with blood, I saw Nick and Hancock both glaring at someone behind me.

“Dana.” Nick never sounded angry, but if his fear and disappointment could have been concentrated into one word it was that. Hancock retained his facade of calm, remaining by the door to the statehouse, though it was clear from the state of his coat he’d help Nick try to find the kid. I sidestepped out of the way, slipping beside Hancock to observe Nick and Dana have a ‘civilised’ conversation.

Hancock whispered to me, “Did you know she’d followed you?”

I whispered back, “It became apparent as I got close to Diamond City. She’s got skill, I’ll give her that.”

“The skill of giving two men panic attacks.”

“I would have told you if I had a way.”

“Does she know you knew?”

“Fucked if I know.”

Both me and Hancock were choosing our words carefully. Neither wanted to admit that we cared about the kid, both trying to uphold an image that we knew was fading.

“Hey Jules,” Hancock started, trying to work out how to approach whatever answer he was proposing to the problem of Dana. “You’ve clearly caught her attention, and I’m not going to pry into why, but - if she’s willing - would you be up for travelling with her?”

“You asking me to play bodyguard?”

“I’ll pay you. Got some caps set aside.”

“Keep your caps. If she wants me to travel with her, I’ll do it.” After having her follow me to Diamond City, and her knowledge of a link between myself and the Brotherhood I couldn’t leave her to the wastes.

“Refusing caps, huh. You see something in this kid, don’t you?”

I didn’t respond. We both knew the answer. I looked over at Dana and Nick, who was kneeling before her and making sure she was okay. Her dog, who had been left behind with Nick in her moment of curious rebellion, cuddled up between the two of them. The conversation ended, Nick stood back up and Dana trudged over to myself and Hancock.

“Mr Hancock, I’m sorry for worrying you.” She played up a sweet little girl act, the same technique I used to use in DC on whoever it was I wronged.

“It’s okay, kid.” He gave a glare to Nick, for spragging about his worry.

Dana turned to me, “And miss, I’m sorry for following you and potentially putting your life in danger.”

“Thank you for the apology. An’ you don’t have to worry about putting me in danger. I think Nick and Hancock were more concerned that you might’ve put yourself in danger.”

“I know mam.”

I looked at her as she ran back the short distance to Nick, who had situated himself on the bench across from Daisy’s. She had so much more of me in her than I would ever admit. Her little bounce as she regaled to Nick that she had apologised. The way she laced her fingers together when she had apologised, a nervous habit. How she looked over her shoulder, glancing at me as she questioned whether or not I’d let her bother me with more questions. I gave her a smile, a subtle invitation to talk.

Hancock nudged my shoulder, “Keep her safe. An’ come talk to me when you’re free, I’m always in need of a spare pair of hands in town.”

I gave him a nod, too consumed in my thoughts to say anything but letting him know I heard and acknowledged his request. He pushed himself off the wall and made his way back into the statehouse.

After Hancock left, my little shadow appeared before me. She beamed up at me, Nick must have mentioned I’d been asked to travel with them.

She didn’t hesitate to ask, “Are you gonna be running with us?”

Pushing myself off the wall and dropping to my knees out of some respect for the kid I replied, “If you want me to.”

“Yes!” She wasn’t trying to disguise her joy. But she paused for a second as it dawned on her, “My name’ Dana by the way, what’s your name?”

“Jules.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

“Yeah, so’s Dana.” Her eyes widened as she ran back over to Nick, reporting what he had clearly overheard. I stood up and followed her over. For a brief moment, I registered that I didn’t receive my pay for the delivery I’d made. I’ll get it out of him later. I thought, chancing a glance up at the window where Hancock now oversaw the conversation. We shared one last nod before I completely turned my attention to Dana and the next steps of her journey.

#jules courier 6 #Dana the Sole Survivor #This was so long but also so important to their story #These two have consumed my thoughts and my love for found families #they are both my favourites #I promise they become a great parent child relationship #I have more from just before this interaction that involves Nick and Hancock #I just love my teen sole surivour

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