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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   3031 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026

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I'm sorry, but it's hilarious to me that Chatoyance ponyfic is getting posted to themotte, of all places. Not because I'm part of her substantial hatedom, but because rational fanfiction is without exaggeration one of the most intellectually influential literary movements of the 21st century, and notwithstanding that, it is substantially about ponies. And the mainstream literary establishment doesn't even realize that! Not even because they're constitutionally opposed to it, as they might be to right-wing or incel literature... But because it's compromised predominantly of middle aged women who would rather read about schizoid trans men than autistic trans women.

I read a quote somewhere that, when you talk to the people working at AI companies, they say the were inspired by sci-fi like Asimov; but after a few drinks, they’ll admit they were really inspired by this exact ponyfic.

rational fanfiction is without exaggeration one of the most intellectually influential literary movements of the 21st century, and notwithstanding that, it is substantially about ponies

100% true. No lie detected. I have no conflict of interest with this claim and am an impartial observer.

rational fanfiction is without exaggeration one of the most intellectually influential literary movements of the 21st century

Is that entirely counting HPMOR though? Or were you referring to something else? I'm not sure any of the other rational fanfictions have had any kind of impact outside of their tiny niches

I would wager that, looking at the segment of the AI and EA intelligentsia that reads as a hobby, a significant fraction have read at least some of the rational/ist corpus. I base this off my own social group, where I keep discovering that my friends also discovered and read books like Worm, Metropolitan Man, and Friendship is Optimal at formative stages of their life. It might not be 20% of the AI world, or even 5%, but ideas are promiscuous-- if even one person in an organization has read Cordyceps or There Is No Antimemetics Division they're going to talk about the relevant ideas to their friends and coworkers, especially when those ideas are relevant to the tasks they have at hand.

It's like the article about the silicon valley serial entrepreneur addicted to pokemon smut fanfiction.

...actually I lied, it isn't. I just thought the article was hilarious and wanted to link it.

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