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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1745 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 17, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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Except most of the dogs in Japan

I wonder if dog culture in Japan is more considerate of non-dog lovers than in the US, or if lack of consideration and assumption that dogs are some unalloyed good is just a feature of dog owners that transcends local culture.

I do get your impatience for dogs, though. Though yours is more a hatred and disgust. My own impatience is mostly for the owners.

I would say my hatred and disgust is mostly for the owners as well. My feeling towards the dogs themselves I would liken mostly to how you might feel about a dog-sized cockroach or tarantula that people could not stop shoving into your face so it can rub its secretions on you. For whatever reason (probably a heavier than usual dose of autism, even for a place like this), I'm largely immune to the wiles of most dogs and find them rather ugly (the ones that basically look like wolves can be cute, but the more obviously their appearance has been selectively bred by humans the more off-putting I find them).

I feel as if you were in the wilderness or countryside and had a loyal dog you might change your mind. I could be wrong, though.

I have a hard time ascribing "loyalty" to a dog. Their behaviors are compulsions that humans chose for them, some because they give the appearance of loyalty and that makes humans feel good. I could see how a dog might be useful in a wilderness scenario, but my feelings toward it would be no different from those for ChatGPT sycophantically praising me when I ask it for code. They do what we programmed them to do and don't have the agency to do otherwise.

ChatGPT sycophantically praising me when I ask it for code.

That's the best part of my workday right there. Some hours I use more tokens self-glazing than solving the problem.

By "programmed", do you mean conditioned via training or something like selected through breeding?

Both, but with more emphasis on the latter. Owners tend to anthropomorphize dog psychology in a way that I think is in contradiction to their unique evolutionary history. A human was more likely to keep and breed a dog that not only followed commands but exhibited behaviors we instinctively pattern-match to things like happiness and loyalty while doing so. Over generations, these became as hard-coded as the instinct to eat. Modern owners don't consider this and assume that these are genuine displays of affection (I can't definitively say that isn't the case, but I don't think it's the most likely one). From the outside looking in, it feels like watching a bunch of people who are convinced that an LLM really is their best friend - some sort of twisted mass psychosis.

Are you saying you don't nuzzle up to your ChatGPT?

Regarding tarantulas and cockroaches, kill them with fire. We used to have quite large (big-ass) cockroaches in Alabama, and once I felt the hair on my neck stand up when I saw one launch itself from a high wall and flutter its infernal wings as it glided to the floor. As for spiders I am a lifelong arachnophobe. The camel spiders of the Kalahari (yes yes not arachnids) compounded that trauma tenfold.

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