self_made_human
amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi
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
20hr ago
Entirely a possibility, but I'm very grateful to say that the people with AN that I've known personally and professionally have been far, far easier to sympathize with. That's my general thesis, buried as it is: it is entirely possible to have a serious mental health problem while not letting it turn you into a cruel, twisted husk of a person. I suspect that even in the most rabid pro-Ana circles (not that she seems to be a part of them anymore, or ever), her approach would be considered... radical. She radicalized herself, after receiving minimal pushback from well-intentioned enablers. And she's proud of it. That's what gets stuck in my craw.
self_made_human
amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi
20hr ago
I know plenty of people without depression or ADHD? My age, older, and younger. They're the majority, especially when accounting for self-diagnosis or the wink-wink kind of diagnosis that's the legal way to get stimulants and extra time on tests.
I have technically tried religion, in the sense that I prayed sincerely once, at the age of 4, and then became an outright atheist at the age of 5. Didn't knock it before I tried it, and it didn't stick.
self_made_human
amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi
20hr ago
I didn't want to say BPD, but let's be honest, it's probably BPD. I'm not sure if she meets the usual criteria for sociopathy (which is a far looser and more informal qualifier than ASPD, which I doubt she has), but she's clearly a massive narcissist, with a genuinely impressive capability to make everything about her. Maybe that warrants a formal diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder too, but I'm only willing and able to go so far. Her black and white mentality/splitting is evocative.
My therapist calls my tendency toward logistical care-taking a manipulative bid for control. I call it efficiency activism.
I'm starting to think the therapist might be part of the problem too... Then again, is she a reliable narrator? Fuck it, surely she can't have found someone as bad as her right? I'm siding with the therapist out of professional solidarity.
She knows, pretty directly, what she's doing and that she's hurting herself and others doing it. The fascination and fixation on appetite is, itself, an excuse.
Agreed. She does get off on control, both direct and indirect forms. "Oh, sorry, you dared to take medication that I disapprove of? What exists without my knowledge exists without my consent, and you know that I'm a big fan of consent culture."
self_made_human
amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi
20hr ago
That's a new one, I don't think anyone has ever said that in response to me before. Thanks? I usually don't write polemics, since that's cultural appropriation of Penguins, Polar Bears and people from Central Europe. I'm glad it landed well!
self_made_human
amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi
20hr ago
That's the nicest way anyone has ever tried to get me to walk into traffic of, and I'm grateful for that haha.
self_made_human
amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi
22hr ago
I had not heard about it before it showed up on Twitter a day or so ago, and in all honesty, I was happier without the additional insight into some parts of the female psyche. The more I read it, the more I had to resist the urge to hurl. Why is there even a market for this stuff?
If I can be frank, I think this essay of yours could benefit from some Wegovy itself. Making it 50% shorter would make it better.
Brevity might be the soul of wit, but I'm an atheist. When all I have is a hammer, then you bet that nail is going to yell for mama.
As for the story itself, while Ortega is a drama queen of the worst calibre, her unnamed friend, who clearly knew that Ortega had issues with losing weight and with people around her trying to lose weight, should've not tried to hide her use of semaglutide. Instead, she should've told her in advance, "I know you don't like this stuff, so I am doing you a favor by letting you know that I will be taking Wegovy. I'm not asking for permission or hinting at an intervention, I am just informing you so you can decide what this means for you."
I doubt this would have worked. Ortega doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would be that... reasonable. On the flip side, that would be less material for this awful essay, and we would all be better off for it.
self_made_human
amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi
22hr ago
This looks like your words. Please tell me it was all your words and not GPT-enhanced. I don't want to be taken in. The writing is good, but bloated, which is why I am still narrowing my eyes a little.
https://old.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/s/PgukJm97zk
99% my words? I usually keep a "100% human" original draft around these days, not because I have to, but because it's the best evidence I've got that I put in actual effort. Unfortunately, this is the one time I didn't bother, because I started writing at 12 am and didn't finish till 3. Version control is neither a passion nor a strength of mine. All edits happened inside a single Google Docs file. I'd share the full chat, but as I've complained before, Anthropic doesn't allow this without leaking my actual Christian name.
Best I've got to back me up on this are screenshots of me arguing with Claude, and then ignoring its advice. Here's a handy album:
https://ibb.co/bgC8L5m8 https://ibb.co/SD70zq4D https://ibb.co/Rp2xQNvb
It's 5 am, as the screenshots will demonstrate. Pardon my laziness, I'm going above and beyond because it's you asking, specifically. And to add hilarity, the chief complaint was that my essay could do with a trim, though I'm not sure if that's in the screenshot and I'm not going back to look.
What did I use it for? Typo pass, I think it strongly insisted I put in title headers (and in all fairness, actual Real Humans have asked me to do that in the past). It wrote a nice image prompt for the Substack version. Yay.
2000 words to say "I am fat and my friend wants to not be fat and this made me have feelings."
She's not even fat! Slightly chubby, maybe, but no red blooded man is going to call her a torta, let alone not fuck her.
Sometimes, I am genuinely grateful for being a man, even if I acknowledge that I'm unusually emotionally attuned for one. The shit women say and do to each other? With a smile on their face? I'm glad our gender's approach to intrasexual warfare is mostly seeing who's taller and and more muscular. I can work with that, nobody is trying to stop me from going to the gym because I'm perfect at any size.
Thanks, but don't worry about it. I got excited thinking that you might be willing to look past your previously expressed distaste for the use of AI generated prose, minimal as it was even back then. If nothing else, I've got handy documentation the next time someone else asks.
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