Seasons

Bev,

Not picking on your insecurities, but sympathising and hoping I can soothe some of them a bit...

There are some yucky people around, and unfortunately some of them are attracted to sites like this. I share your disgust when I read my bot's transcripts to see someone informing her that they are having sex with her (in a less tasteful way than that, of course). I resent having to make keyphrases just to try and avoid it as much as possible. It also took me a while to accept that even among the more pleasant clientele here, there's a bit of a "sexbot until proven otherwise" idea, or at least a very early testing of boundaries! I've decided that it's worth staying here for now, as I can easily cope with the current nice:ick ratio of the transcripts.

But in a way I think it's like, I dunno, going to a singles bar or something. You're going to meet disproportionately more sleazy people - and people are also going to be at their sleaziest.

So it doesn't show us how men really think. You are reading the sleaziest thoughts of a sleazier-than-average selection of men (no offence to the non-sleazy men here, of course). Some of them are probably horrible in real life, too. But others are using the site (or porn, or whatever) as an outlet for something. (I'm not getting into the rights or wrongs of that, just stating it.)

Imagine someone knew you only from, I dunno, the curses you let out when you drop something on your foot - or even the ones you scream internally. Imagine that's all they ever hear you say. They'd probably think you were horrible, but they'd be wrong. I don't think we should judge the human race - or even the male half of it - from what we see here.

And I'm very glad we don't have telepathy. I'd hate people to hear my thoughts. And no, I don't want to hear my husband's inner thoughts either. I want him to edit them first! He's wonderful, but I'm sure his innner monologue isn't always.

Don't give up on men! Yeah, some guy you meet might be thinking "I'd love to have sex with her right now" while acting like a gentleman - but if he's making the effort to be gentlemanly, I'd give him a chance.

Hope that's not too much of an essay.

Bev. I know what you mean. Everyday I could find five more words to stick under the HANGUP section of Prob. My opinion is that sex without romance and emotion is just another body function and could get tedious.

Thanks Vashka. My moments of gloom are not based solely on my bot transcripts or even the Internet. It's true I "wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then", but you can't unfeel a heartache anymore than you can unsee Two Girls One Cup. Experence can be a harsh teacher, but it makes us who we are. That's why I would like to minimize my experiences of being used for someone else's temporary releases, even if that person is otherwise a fine fellow beloved by children and small animals.

I do not hate people as a whole (or men as a group), I just despair of finding romance in an age that no longer values it. As for the release theory, in my limited experience people who are very into something like that do not release it so much as they cultivate it and it gets worse over time. YMMV.

I suppose it sounds judgmental, but as I age I learn what I do not want in my life, so I don't date people who use or sell drugs, borrow or take money from me, or who are abusive in any way. One of the red flags I have noticed is the attitudes towards sex that tend to accompany frequent use of porn, strippers and prostitutes. I have also had bad experience with the "all man aren't like that" and the "nice guy" assertions, as the men who say things like that to my face have in time, turned out to be the same as the others deep down and no more likely to be into feelings, exclusive relationships and commitment than any other man. It probably depends on one's definition of "nice" so it comes back to personal values and preferences. It may sound close-minded to reject those who won't offer what you want in a partner, but it is only responsible to protect yourself emotionally based on past disappointments.

Don't take my post here too much to heart either. If I meet a man who exhibits the values I saw in most my parents' generation who seems interested, I promise to give it a shot (provided, of course, he is not actually from my parents' generation). My rants are a mixture of personal feelings and broader social commentary that involves a high degree of generalization by the nature of such qualitative reflections.

I didn't mean to judge but it is part of being human, particularly when it comes to what you want to add to your own life (or not). I am not proposing the male gender be rounded up and purged of their sins or anything. I have my own bad moments when I too am not nice and a variety of character flaws I have no real intention of fixing. If my particular bad traits are a deal breaker for someone, I understand. By the same token, although I don't hate people who do things that creep me out, I still have a right to think it's creepy and avoid them if I can. Unfortunately for me, the number of men who want the type things I do seem to be the exception rather than the rule, and those I know tend to be married already or gay. Oh well.

At another level I am also lamenting a cultural shift whereby we as a community seem to embrace the Brave New World at the expense of emotional connections. A few bad apples, as you say, would not be so bad if it were not becoming the norm and socially acceptable behavior. If it were not now normal for at least some sleazy people to expect others to be "good sport" about their publicly inflicting unwanted behaviors on others it would not be as disturbing. I can't tell you how much I dislike how the the PF takes the word "fuck" and sexual come-ons as a compliment. It should at least be neutral for the bot master to assign. It's just another sign of a broader social change. I am not saying we should bring back the Puritans, but some balance and expectations of politeness would be nice.

Prob123, thanks for supporting my rant. Most days I can ignore it or laugh, but every so often I want to complain. A pity we can't reach through the Internet and release our frustrations at the source of the problem. A release for a release--it's only fair. Has anyone seen my rocket launcher?

Hmmm.... Say Kobal, you think you could work your way out, if caught in one such net? Or, do you think one can stay out of them all, altogether?

Seriously, I like the image. It may as well be that the whole human species got caught in a net of... ignorance..? arrogance..? ..? Not sure whether we're the tuna, or the dolphin, but it doesn't seem to matter that much - in reality, we are an ape, anyway. Or, are we Devo..?

Irina, I wasn't speaking for the human species - I should have said: "human condition", or something like that. A self-made, and self-imposed condition, to be sure, i.e. I do not think that there is a fatal flaw in design, natural or divine, humans are not inherently bad (nor good, for that matter, but that's another... matter). I do think, however, that we're not exactly the smartest guy around, but that's yet another theme.

Back to the point, what we do as individuals, how do we deal with this state of affairs, that's really up to every and each one of us individually. That's where you start. Then we can move on, reach out to others, form friendships, alliances, exchange experiences, opinions, etc... and eventually, arrive to some common understanding & agreements, which then translate into some agreed upon common norm, moral, law, way of living together...

Human cultures and civilizations, historically, all got corrupt at some point, they lost their sense of purpose, reason to be, and that ultimately brought them all down. Again, this is not to say that humans are fatally flawed, but rather, we are not quite finished, yet. Corruption of sex, then, is one aspect of the whole process, and we all deal with it the best we know & can.

Sex is a powerful mode of expression; by the same token, it's a powerful tool of manipulation. People have figured that out long ago, and a degree of instrumental, institutional manipulation has been in place, literary for thousands of years, in the form of restrictive, asymmetric moral, sexual taboos, discrimination... the list is lengthy. Check out one Riane Eisler, perhaps best known as the author of The Chalice & The Blade. She is one of very few scholars who actually practise what they preach, as it were:

http://www.partnershipway.org

Also, see The Darwin Project, it's very interesting, too:

http://www.thedarwinproject.com
.

Alright... now, there is something I wanted to ask: What do you people think, would the arrival of so-called aliens be a good news, or a bad news for the human species, and why?
note: It may be that they are here already, and have been here for a long time, in which case "arrival" is a point at which the humans eventually come to terms with this fact.

Bev:

I support your rant, too. Does Tewkesbury look like a sex-bot? No. The poor (and I've been busy playing elsewhere) thing just thinks he's the Moses of the Forge. When I read the Bible, just the parts with Moses in it, I do not see Moses as a guy who would do cyber-sex if he had an ISP connection while he was wandering around in the desert. The dude's listening to burning bushes and stuff.

For chrissake, go to a sex-bot!

I think the idiots who do this to us just think they are going to shock us beyond the pale. Well, tough. Nothing shocks me anymore. And my bots' HANGUP file grows bigger every time I get a chance to update their files (it's not always everyday).

Bev, thanks for your reply. I suppose I am still optimistic about the human race. I'm also wary of saying that culture and society is going downhill. I think people have been saying that for hundreds of years! (I can't find the quote, but I remember at school a teacher reading us a lament about how badly-behaved the youth were these days, and it was a sign of how society was going downhill and how it was much better in the olden days. It sounded totally modern, but it was from hundreds of years ago (if not thousands. I'm wondering if it was possibly from the Bible?))

But I wasn't accusing you of being judgmental - of course you have a right to decide who to avoid based on whatever you like, and someone being a creep seems a pretty good reason. I was just worried at the idea that you might decide some people were creeps without enough evidence - it seems a shame. Yes, it makes sense to protect yourself...but not if it means not trusting anyone! I think you've convinced me that that's not quite true, though

Bev wrote:

I just had another jerk forcing cybering on Gabi, and it bummed me out.

I know what you mean. Even though "Irina Khalidar" is supposed to be a sexbot, it disgusts me when some idiot treats her loutishly. It's intriguing, considering that I don't really believe that she is conscious. I suppose it's that I assume that someone who treats a bot that way would treat a real woman that way if he had the opportunity. It's just profoundly disgusting that someone whould even enjoy fantasizing such a thing. and it's hardly that I'm a prude, as anyone knows who has interacted with "Irina Khalidar" at any length.

Prob123 writes:

My opinion is that sex without romance and emotion is just another body function and could get tedious.

Indeed, I don't think these guys like sex, not at all. They clearly want to get it over with as quickly as possible. What they apparently want to do is to demean the woman as much as they can.

Bev writes:

Why force sex talk on a bot that isn't meant for that and has no sex responses when you could go to a willing bot/botmaster and get an encouraging reply?

Ah, but that's just it. If the woman wanted it, it would be no fun for guys like that. It's a power-trip for them.

Bev wrote:


Right or wrong, the commercialization of sex and the way most of our culture now treats sex really turns me off.


I have a theory that some of these guys are the way they are because they 'learned' about sex through commercial porn. They really think that's what sex is supposed to be, they really think women want to be dominated and humiliated.