Comment by Eliezer Yudkowsky - I may never actually use this in a story, but in another universe I had thought of having a character mention that... call it the forces of magic with normative dimension... had evaluated one pedophile who had known his desires were harmful to innocents and never acted upon them, while living a life of above-average virtue; and another pedophile who had acted on those desires, at harm to others. So the said forces of normatively dimensioned magic transformed the second pedophile's body into that of a little girl, delivered to the first pedophile along with the equivalent of an explanatory placard. Problem solved. And indeed the 'problem' as I had perceived it was, "What if a virtuous person deserving our aid wishes to retain their current sexual desires and not be frustrated thereby?"
(As always, pedophilia is not the same as ephebophilia.)
I also remark that the human equivalent of a utility function, not that we actually have one, often revolves around desires whose frustration produces pain. A vanilla rational agent (Bayes probabilities, expected utility max) would not see any need to change its utility function even if one of its components seemed highly probable though not absolutely certain to be eternally frustrated, since it would suffer no pain thereby.
My personal belief is that most pedophiles can be put into two groups:
Those developmentally stunted, who can’t see themselves as adults and therefore lust for people of their own ‘mental age’.
And those who have a thing for power, and having an erection over controlling a minor, guiding them through everything and having full control over them.
There may be a third option - these people who try hard to argue that pedophilia and ephebophilia aren’t the same thing, but I just write them off as idiots.
idk, people who are otherwise totally unremarkable seem to be pedos. it really seems more like any other variation in human sexuality except that it’s profoundly harmful
It is a registered anomaly, a disorder, that deserves counseling. It just so seems we don’t hear much from people legitly strugling from it, but from rich people not knowing what to do with their free time besides fucking kids.
@andrew_bidlaw For most people who suffer from paedophilia in the ICD-11 sense (which is a mental health disorder) and undergo years of treatment and therapy while living in terror that they might one day give in to their own instincts and do something unspeakable… it’s not surprising they prefer to not give interviews.
I made one out of morbid curiosity years ago but this was way before they decided to start crypto grifting for cash, so I’ve got no doubt my blah blah self-sovereign something something decentralized mumble mumble digital property has been liquidated by the king for not paying taxes
My personal belief is that most pedophiles can be put into two groups:
Those developmentally stunted, who can’t see themselves as adults and therefore lust for people of their own ‘mental age’.
And those who have a thing for power, and having an erection over controlling a minor, guiding them through everything and having full control over them.
There may be a third option - these people who try hard to argue that pedophilia and ephebophilia aren’t the same thing, but I just write them off as idiots.
idk, people who are otherwise totally unremarkable seem to be pedos. it really seems more like any other variation in human sexuality except that it’s profoundly harmful
It is a registered anomaly, a disorder, that deserves counseling. It just so seems we don’t hear much from people legitly strugling from it, but from rich people not knowing what to do with their free time besides fucking kids.
@andrew_bidlaw For most people who suffer from paedophilia in the ICD-11 sense (which is a mental health disorder) and undergo years of treatment and therapy while living in terror that they might one day give in to their own instincts and do something unspeakable… it’s not surprising they prefer to not give interviews.
True.
Yudkowsky is pretty open about being a sexual sadist
Did you know brent dill is back on twitter?
I did not. Got any details?
Also FWIW I discovered this yesterday: https://archive.ph/SFCwS
No idea if it’s true, but even if so I don’t think it would exonerate him (though it would put Aella in a worse light)
first of us to give in and get an Urbit account clearly gets the best dirt
I made one out of morbid curiosity years ago but this was way before they decided to start crypto grifting for cash, so I’ve got no doubt my blah blah self-sovereign something something decentralized mumble mumble digital property has been liquidated by the king for not paying taxes
@GorillasAreForEating @andrew_bidlaw
Yes, but, having now put that image into our minds, what does that make *you*?
the basilisk