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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

				
				
				

				

					14 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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				Transnational Thursday for January 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That's just another word for Indian. It effectively means someone from the country (of India, implicitly).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've heard the name, and I know it's got time travel in it, but little else. The very high rating is promising, I'll take a look, thanks!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I haven't finished it, but I read well over a hundred chapters. It's one of Wales' weaker works, it feels awfully dry, especially compared to Worth The Candle. The protagonist is about as cookie-cutter as it gets. Of course, weak-for-Wales makes it above average, but I find it hard to recommend very strongly.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The Years of Apocalypse on Royal Road.


A rare example of a time loop story done right. I can hardly name another two (Mother of Learning, and Reverend Insanity). The premise is standard fare for the genre. A student at a Wizarding College dies, wakes up in the past, and realizes she has to optimize her way out of a catastrophe. But the execution is where it distinguishes itself from the endless scroll of mediocrity on Royal Road.


It's good stuff! I found it off a recommendation on /r/rational, and the person who endorsed it noted a relatively grounded approach to the mechanics of time looping (consideration for the butterfly effect, at the very least) and an exploration of the psychological toll of reliving events while surrounded by people who start fresh.


Most time loop protagonists slide inevitably into sociopathy. If you know the people around you will reset to their factory settings in twenty-four hours, they stop feeling like people and start looking like NPCs. Their suffering ceases to have moral weight because it has no permanence.There are no consequences, after all. Unlike RI, the protagonist is a young woman, who, while competent, isn't an amoral monomaniacal monster. When she's cast on a competency-porn set, said competence is earned through hard effort.


It touches on the "Groundhog Day" problem but treats it with the severity it deserves. How do you maintain sanity when you are the only entity with continuity of consciousness? How do you avoid manipulating people when you know the exact sequence of inputs required to get a desired output? The story does not shy away from the fact that this process creates a hardness in a person, a callousness that is difficult to wash off.


The author, who actually bothered to read up on engineering or physics, treats magic as a branch of mechanics. This is "hard magic" in the Sandersonian sense, but it leans closer to hard sci-fi. When the protagonist constructs a spell, it feels less like chanting in Latin and more like debugging code or wiring a circuit. It scratches a very specific itch for competence porn, satisfying the part of the brain that enjoys watching capable people solve well-defined problems with available tools. The magi-tek is closer to tech than Harry Potter.


I'd tentatively give it a 8.5/10, as of reading about 80 rather lengthy chapters. The older I get, the more specific and niche my taste in fiction gets. It's a curse, but occasionally I can find a salve for the wound. This probably counts.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Hmm.. That's a possibility, though I've never actively applied for overtime. My understanding is that the NHS doesn't pay for unused vacation days, but I'll take a look at the finer details!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have a confession. I have no idea how my salary works, and my efforts to disentangle it using LLMs has even them scratching their heads.


Why do I bring this up? I just got a 25% raise on my last payslip, and there is absolutely nothing different in terms of work, and I haven't moved to doing more nights or on-calls (or extra locum shifts) which pay more per hour.


Is it due to an increase in seniority? I don't think so, though I'm not certain. It's grossly out of sync with the annual bumps that come with becoming a more senior trainee. If that was the case, I'd have expected a raise in August.


Is it to do with a recent increased pay offer from the Scottish government? The last time it happened, it was a decent boost, but not a whole 25%.


I'm on vacation, and actually examining my payslips requires an NHS computer, so the mystery will persist. If anyone has a clue, I'm all ears, but I'm certainly not looking the gift horse in the mouth, mostly because I'm not a dentist or vet. For now, I'll wait to see if this is a one-off or a regular thing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for January 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Both South Asian or Subcontinental work, since Bangladeshis are at least technically more likely to be in the reference class.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for January 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The names aren't "Indian". Islamic names tend to be quite similar across MENA, but I'm confident that the people named aren't, especially the ones for whom we've got pictures. Even going off priors, Indians in the UK don't work those kind of jobs.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I hate these things (why are they always made by people who phrase the prompts so poorly?)




Making a survey meant for the general population is the opposite of easy. We're wordcels on an argumentative wordcel forum, we have an unusually high tolerance for walls of text and complicated questions that consider counterfactuals and nuance.


For example, someone here crawled up my ass when I said that I agreed with (a statement asking if) genocide was evil, asking for a definition of evil. Some poor test writer or psychometrician really can't cover every edge case. Your best bet is to put yourself in a normie state of mind when evaluating a question, if not the answer.


Short of write-ins that are evaluated by humans, the only way to do significantly better is to use some kind of ML classifier or LLM to dig into things. Fuck it, I might see about making such a survey and grader myself. God knows that still won't stop some people from complaining about the validity of the questions, fair critiques or not.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Demis Hassabis? Terence Tao? How deep does this go?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I appreciate them making the chart black and white. Very helpful.


On a more serious note, I wonder if there's something off with the transcription, a lot of text is garbled. I wouldn't put it past the FBI to print and scan images.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I have decided to resign my position effective immediately with BG3 and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation.




Larian Studios has quite a lot to answer for, it seems.




talked with Chomsky about racial intelligence differences




WTF, I love Chomsky now.




Mods, remove this if it's a crappy post. It's hard to come up with a through line for this, other than "WOW he knew a lot of people".




It's fine. While more commentary would be nice, there's no need to say something for the sake of saying something.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm looking forward to Menace launching on the 5th of Feb. Finally a game that scratches that XCOM itch, while expanding the scope from 6 dudes fighting an entire alien army by themselves to... 40 dudes doing the same thing. Scale counts.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A "Hayekian Minarchist". Somewhere in the middle of the lower right quadrant.


Seems sensible enough. I'm not opposed to the idea of a state for the management of the commons and as a coordination mechanism, but it should be like a child, seen but not heard. The less interference with the affairs of consenting adults, the better. As you can imagine, living in the UK is torturous.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The presumption of competence is a rather... generous for an admin that ran DOGE.


Of course, it's all a hidden 200 IQ play. They're only pretending to be retarded. My opinion is that Minnesota was chosen not because it's an actual hotbed of illegal immigration, but as a show-of-force, to "own the libs".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Unfortunately, studies on the effects of semaglutide after developing Alzheimer's showed null results. But yes, as a preventative agent, it's up there with the best we've got. If you're diabetic or at high risk of developing Alzheimer's, I'd say it's a no brainer. Getting weight under control and improving glucose metabolism probably has a quadrillion other benefits. We're still in the early days.


The only thing preventing it from being a blanket agent, at this point, is the cost. But GLP-1As are only going to get cheaper, and they're already not that expensive.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Muscle wasting on semaglutide is comparable to that seen with equivalent weight loss from intermittent fasting or bariatric surgery. It can be entirely mitigated with concomitant resistance training.


In other words, if you're in a pronounced caloric deficit, you're going to lose a bit of muscle with the fat. It's not a big deal, the health benefits robustly outweigh the risks. There's an ongoing study, LEAN, that looks into it at scale, but preliminary studies support this claim.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


CVD is thought to be largely caused by dysfunctions in metabolism, which is also true to some extent for the other three largest killers in the west: diabetes, cancer, and dementia. While traditional medicine has had a ton of success eradicating traditional infectious diseases, it seems largely unable to effectively treat these “four horseman”




Eh? I present semaglutide. It obviously works for diabetes, and I did a journal presentation on recent research demonstrating a 50% reduction in risk for Alzheimer's (and probably vascular dementia) for people who started before diagnosis.


https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.14313




Semaglutide was associated with significantly reduced risk for first-time AD diagnosis, most strongly compared with insulin (hazard ratio [HR], 0.33 [95% CI: 0.21 to 0.51]) and most weakly compared with other GLP-1RAs (HR, 0.59 [95% CI: 0.37 to 0.95]). Similar results were seen across obesity status, gender, and age groups




The obesity epidemic, which is upstream of a whole host of other issues, is being cut down at the knee.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Such a blatant inconsistency gives your detractors a lot of ammo…




I'm only human. Self-made, in fact :(


They're both on long presses of "-" — — and I can't tell a difference when it's rendered here.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The Chad harem/offspring-maxxxing doctors and lawyers explain to the autist incel programmers and engineers their personal understandings of how friendship and romance work!




My uncle – a far more accomplished psychiatrist than I –* was telling me about getting his passport renewed and the very first stamp being from Chad. I told him it was a missed opportunity that he went to Niger next, instead of the Virgin Islands.


Look dawg, your autism is weapons-grade. Distilled in a lab. It's absolutely dual-use technology, you use it for both great good and mild evil. I'm not sure that there's any advice anyone could give you that would completely change the way your neurons are wired. It's not like doctors can't be autistic, just look at @SkookumTree.




I absolutely hated the idea of obtaining an actual friend or a romantic partner only to be constantly forced by that person to do random things in which I had no interest. It seemed like a continuation of how my parents would torture me by making me join after-school clubs and dragging me to museums, concerts, and weddings.




This varies a great deal. I've been in relationships where I've been subjected to stimuli as unpleasant as an ex making me watch stupid Victorian period dramas with her, and getting mad should I express disinterest or glance at my phone. I still shudder when I hear Taylor Swift, but other lovers have at least used earphones.


But the majority of my partners, and anyone I choose to call a friend, have been relatively understanding. In an ideal world, the fact that you're not interested in an activity should be both necessary and sufficient when it comes to getting them to desist from asking you to join them.


The Victorian-drama ex and I failed because she operated on the fusion model—she believed that love meant merged experience, that my dislike of her shows was a dislike of her. This wasn't true, for the record. I only started disliking her when she made my life a living hell in other ways.


Constantly forced? That's too much. I'd call that a deal breaker. But it's not that big of a deal to accompany a lovely lady to a summer market, or let her tell me about a new show she's watching.


Some claim that a partner should mirror your tastes. I think that's far from necessary. Commonality in values and beliefs is far more important than shared interests. If I want to talk about video games and AGI, that's what you mfs are for. Of course, you can get away with a little ho-scaring when you actually love each other, in the same way she's okay with you seeing her without makeup.




I assumed that any friend or romantic partner would require me to do such things. But now @daguerrean says that only an inferior, weak-willed "beta" man allows his romantic partner to lead him around by the nose to random events. So, is it normal friendship/romance behavior to drag the other party to an event in which he is not interested, or not? Has my entire life been a lie?




The man in the comment you linked is being mocked not because he is compromising, but because he is compromising on dignity rather than just preference. I have never been desperate enough for female attention to go to a protest for a cause I do not believe in. That involves a violation of my internal moral compass. Going to a museum just involves sore feet.


Relationships, like actual ships, require routine maintenance. You don't really resent a car for an oil change, and occasionally listening to something that doesn't actually interest you isn't that big a deal when you're getting mileage out of it.


*All em-dashes artisanally crafted by hand.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Eh? I've used both back to back, and I can assure you the ANC is miles ahead on the old model. I haven't seen that claim made in a professional review so far, and I did check quite a few before purchase. I didn't see much of a problem on the lows, but the most annoying noise you want to cancel is usually mid frequencies or higher in my experience.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Where do I begin? People starting fist fights after a bit of Bolivian Nose Candy, someone showing off his Thai girlfriend from a village without electricity about half an hour before his actual Scottish girlfriend (likely underage) showed up to pick his drunk ass up, someone telling me about his lengthy run-ins with the law, and then telling me he's the good'un, since his dad literally murdered people with grenades over football fandom disputes.


I've been in a stranger's apartment at 6 am, desperately chugging coffee to stay awake, because I didn't trust them enough to pass out in front of them. Some schizo guy telling me about his fervent patriotism for India (it was the dude with the Thai girlfriend) and general distaste for Islam. He offered to volunteer for the Indian Army if war broke out with Pakistan, and I had to gently dissuade him, telling him that if there's one thing the country doesn't lack, it's manpower.


I have stories. I've written some of them up, but I'm sitting on them for a retirement memoir, or because the GMC might dislike my openness to experience. Good times, as long as you know where the exit is.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm aware that the novel takes a few liberties and "romanticizes" historical events, but is still reasonably grounded. I'd honestly be fine with either, though if I had to choose it would be the Romance.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That's a shame, but I suppose the stigma around the hobby is there for a reason. I'm perfectly content reading the lore and playing the odd good video game that comes out.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What's the best bang for your buck (in terms of QOL) purchase you've ever made? The cheaper the better.


I'd say in-ear earphones with solid ANC are up there. I'm sitting outside the arrivals section of a busy international airport, and I felt mildly annoyed by the honking and general noise with earphones on and ANC engaged. Then I took them off to check and was practically deafened. Yup, they're cutting down 90% of the cacophony.


I own a pair of Galaxy Buds 3 Pros, purchased at about £130. I think they sound great, the ANC isn't quite as good as the Airpods I bought my brother on his birthday, but it's clearly a cut above my older Buds 2 Pro (Plus?). I happen to prefer the sound quality, and unless you've got an iPhone, they're about the best you can get on an Android device that isn't rooted and running Libre Pods. In fact, good ANC tends to improve sound quality overall in my experience, as it preserves bass by changing the acoustic impedance.


(The default Android kernel has a buggy, non-compliant Bluetooth stack. Until Google upstreams a patch, you need the root to get actual standards compliance and the ability to make use of all the Airpods' features.)