Live data from Hacker News

We are all animals at night

hazlitt.net

31–40 of 295 posts

Re: We are all animals at night

#31

> What do you need if you’re out seeking services at night? Food, sex, shelter. This really encapsulates what all humans want and need. Food, sex & love, shelter & clothing. With only those three things you can live a happy life. Everything else is really to satisfy a desire for novelty and experience.

I'd rather quote the full bit, since the final sentence is important:

> What do you need if you’re out seeking services at night? Food, sex, shelter. The staunch of a wound.

What the author is trying to express isn't that someone out at night has different needs than someone out during the day, but rather that if you're out at night then whatever you're looking for has an urgency that outweighs sleep, like a bleeding wound.

Re: We are all animals at night

#33

> What do you need if you’re out seeking services at night? Food, sex, shelter. This really encapsulates what all humans want and need. Food, sex & love, shelter & clothing. With only those three things you can live a happy life. Everything else is really to satisfy a desire for novelty and experience.

By your definition, I'm not a human. But then again, I always have thought that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs was upside-down.

Re: We are all animals at night

#34

This is why I imagine sex robots will only be a good thing. The humanitarian promise of AGI is it serves human needs optimally and frees humans from the need to stoop to the lowest levels to serve them.

At the same time it might feed into the objectification of women which will actively harm the needs of half the population.

Re: We are all animals at night

#36
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike sex work, my “good” jobs didn’t threaten to overthrow traditional power structures. Many sex workers, including myself, have long hypothesized that the reason so many people in power work to keep the commercial sex trade marginalized is because they’re threatened by it—by the idea that it’s the only field where women outearn men, that it’s an industry where women get to call the shots, and that women profit of…

i actually agree with this sentiment quite strongly. part of the reason gender identity and dysphoria, queerness, and fluid gender roles are so despised by conservatives and religious fellows, especially when it comes to masculinity, is that it threatens the dominant power structure of the last few thousand years. sex work, and women’s empowerment is especially looked down upon. what else is labour but selling your b…

Criminalising and punishing sex work has more support among women than men.

Re: We are all animals at night

#37

This is why I imagine sex robots will only be a good thing. The humanitarian promise of AGI is it serves human needs optimally and frees humans from the need to stoop to the lowest levels to serve them.

At the same time it might feed into the objectification of women which will actively harm the needs of half the population.

Is this implying that male versions won't exist?

Re: We are all animals at night

#39
post #6
post #4

Great writing! Seriously this is good stuff. For anybody that struggles with the length and slow-paced nature of this genre -- this is hackernews after all -- I had a much easier time imagining this as a radio piece. The writing style is very melodic, like it's meant to be read out loud. The noises of the city, the description of light and temperature, all made it feel very alive. Something to absorb in a very sensua…

It's not a long article or slow-paced. It literally intersperses POV scenes from a brothel. If that can't at least hold your attention for a few pages, nothing will. I suggest that people read a few novels if they think this article is too long.

They say, quite a few books could have been blog posts... Having read a hatful of books and blogs, I can see why that is.

Re: We are all animals at night

#40
I feel like I'm missing some cultural context here that made this a semi- difficult read: obviously? the word "massage parlour" is some local euphemism for some kind of sex work and its implied they aren't actually masseurs/masseuses? but can someone explain to me exactly what the nature of the arrangement/work/ business she's working in is?

is it just prostitution and for some reason they don't call it that in Canada? is it legal/illegal? is there an implication about its location? are they in some regulatory grey zone? is it men just dropping in to be touched or is it something more? are they just operating on a drop in schedule and does that imply something about the relative standing of the establishment compared to other sex work etc? are they contractors or operating their own business?

please help me out HN :/

Post reply on HN