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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   30876 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 14, 2025

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Other than reach and better animation, I don't think this is different from the AI companions that have been available for a while. Replika, the most famous one, will already do NSFW ERP. And yeah, there are men (and women!) who have decided their Replikas are preferable to real people.

You're concerned about what this will do to the psyche of teenage boys, but I'm surprised you haven't thought of the male version (which no doubt will exist). A tall dark sexy boyfriend who will treat you only exactly as roughly as you want to be treated, and will listen to you going on about your problems and your neuroses with endless patience and understanding and affirmation? If a real woman can't compete with an AI girlfriend, neither can a real man compete with an AI boyfriend.

That said, I do think your fears are somewhat overblown. Porn has, IMO, been bad for society, especially the ever-increasing availability of extreme and degenerate porn like our grandparents could barely imagine. But I think alcohol and drugs and gambling and smoking are also very bad for society. If I could wish them all away, I would. These things exist, however, and society persists, accepting that some percentage will be sacrificed to Moloch, and Moloch always has new incarnations. I accept that AI companions are a hazard, but I don't think they are "the" thing that flatlines birthrates and normal sexual relationships.

You're concerned about what this will do to the psyche of teenage boys, but I'm surprised you haven't thought of the male version (which no doubt will exist). A tall dark sexy boyfriend who will treat you only exactly as roughly as you want to be treated, and will listen to you going on about your problems and your neuroses with endless patience and understanding and affirmation?

Good news everyone!

Other than reach and better animation, I don't think this is different from the AI companions that have been available for a while.

It's got some other complications going on; even at the free tier, there's a certain level of Animal Crossing going on when you return to the 'companion' mode. I don't think that's devastating yet -- the real place where this goes off the rail isn't going to be when this is more human-like, but when it becomes easier to handle interactions with other humans through it -- but it's a step down a road that has a lot of skulls.

... is it more hilarious or disturbing that they are making the furry version available before the male human version?

To think all the man vs bear discourse was focus testing all along...

Technically, two furry versions, though you have to go into settings for Bad Rudi. Tbf, they're both obnoxiously monofocused and pretty lackluster when it comes to animations or gameification; Rudi on telling 'cool' stories, and Bad Rudi just trying to swear at you (cw: exactly what I said, loud sound).

But, yeah, it probably says a lot of strategic things.

Other than reach and better animation, I don't think this is different from the AI companions that have been available for a while. Replika, the most famous one, will already do NSFW ERP. And yeah, there are men (and women!) who have decided their Replikas are preferable to real people.

That fact that it's animated is a big deal! Men are visual creatures, and the fact that previous ERP was textual made it far less appealing to the average dude, if not woman. Of course, jerking off to anime tiddies is still not a preference of the majority, but it's easy to upgrade to photorealism. That'll get more people.

I predicted this outcome ages ago, though I'd have said it was inevitable and obvious to anyone who cared. It's priced in for me, and I agree that it likely won't be catastrophic.

It's priced in for me, and I agree that it likely won't be catastrophic.

I think we're already part of the catastrophe in motion and this is just the thing that pushes our head fully underwater. We had a similar conversation not too long ago in the context of flesh and blood women and companionship.

Overall this actually gels with some previous information I've heard that Musk is kind of going full accelerationist. May as well get this particular bottleneck over with.

People have talked about genetic evolution vs technology, but even social and culture adaptation may eventually be unable to keep up with the wire-heading. Or maybe it will. Maybe there will eventually be a hard hard law that prevents Ai partners.

I dunno, it feels like a deathblow on top of all the other mentioned factors. The thing that finally kills our urge to climb out of the hole.

There's a version where the AI can teach a man (or a woman!) how to talk to the opposite sex and both select and become a good partner.

But thanks to molochian incentives, that's not what we will get, if there's an immediate way to use the tool to extract resources from people rather than guide them to what they truly wish they had.

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