Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

'Obedient, yielding and happy to follow': the troubling rise of AI girlfriends

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 79 posts

Re: 'Obedient, yielding and happy to follow': the troubling rise of AI girlfriends

#51

Post by general1465 »

AnEro wrote: post #17

Theres alot of what about women arguments which is fair, but I think it's entirely fair to view this as a harm to men's mental health, and it should be the focus. Right now, we have a societal issue of isolating, vulnerable men. Men have the highest suicide rate, are statistically more likely to commit violent offenses and have a high rate of domestic abuse. 'Incels' who are likely these companies target market have…

> Incels' who are likely these companies target market have committed domestic terrorism.

No sex this month? Straight to jail for terrorism.

Re: 'Obedient, yielding and happy to follow': the troubling rise of AI girlfriends

#52

Post by general1465 »

atmavatar wrote: post #25
johnea wrote: post #10

The article, and the comments here, ignore the worst problem of "AI girlfriends": the fact that someone could think of images, audio, and text, only seen on a computer screen, as one's "girlfriend". The willingness to live in make believe, and the willingness to treat that make believe as if it were reality. This disconnect from physical reality, and the substitution of a fantasy world for reality, is at the root of…

Historically, it's been the case that a relatively small percentage of men have monopolized the available women of their time. Perhaps the most famous example of this was Genghis Khan, to whom something like 1 in 12 men in Asia and 1 in 200 men globally carry Y chromosomes linked to him. It is only somewhat recently that many first-world societies moved towards more egalitarian, monogamous marriages. However, dating…

> Historically, it's been the case that a relatively small percentage of men have monopolized the available women of their time. Perhaps the most famous example of this was Genghis Khan, to whom something like 1 in 12 men in Asia and 1 in 200 men globally carry Y chromosomes linked to him.

Bible (2000 years old) is heavily pushing monogamistic relationship from a simple practical reason - horny man is angry man, angry man is aggressive man and a group of aggressive men can completely destroy whole society. Polygamist societies are rare and unstable. If over supply of men is not used for military expansion, then they will collapse society from inside.

Re: 'Obedient, yielding and happy to follow': the troubling rise of AI girlfriends

#53

Post by subscribed »

AnEro wrote: post #17

Theres alot of what about women arguments which is fair, but I think it's entirely fair to view this as a harm to men's mental health, and it should be the focus. Right now, we have a societal issue of isolating, vulnerable men. Men have the highest suicide rate, are statistically more likely to commit violent offenses and have a high rate of domestic abuse. 'Incels' who are likely these companies target market have…

[flagged]

Re: 'Obedient, yielding and happy to follow': the troubling rise of AI girlfriends

#54

Post by tyleo »

weregiraffe wrote: post #30
tyleo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of one of my favorite memes. It has two images: 1. What men think about working out: a picture of a bunch of girls saying things like, “can I touch your biceps.” 2. What working out is actually like: a picture of a bunch of men saying things like, “nice lats bro,” and “what kind of protein do you drink.” I got a good chuckle. I work out and 2 hits the nail on the head for reality.

In my experience, people who work out do it mostly for themselves.

Yeah, admittedly I started working out in High School more because I thought it would impress girls. That didn’t work. It became a life long habit though and can be mediative. I like that it forces time away from a screen just getting my thoughts in order.

Re: 'Obedient, yielding and happy to follow': the troubling rise of AI girlfriends

#55

Post by cindyllm »

general1465 wrote: post #52
atmavatar wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically, it's been the case that a relatively small percentage of men have monopolized the available women of their time. Perhaps the most famous example of this was Genghis Khan, to whom something like 1 in 12 men in Asia and 1 in 200 men globally carry Y chromosomes linked to him. It is only somewhat recently that many first-world societies moved towards more egalitarian, monogamous marriages. However, dating…

> Historically, it's been the case that a relatively small percentage of men have monopolized the available women of their time. Perhaps the most famous example of this was Genghis Khan, to whom something like 1 in 12 men in Asia and 1 in 200 men globally carry Y chromosomes linked to him. Bible (2000 years old) is heavily pushing monogamistic relationship from a simple practical reason - horny man is angry man, angr…

[dead]

Re: 'Obedient, yielding and happy to follow': the troubling rise of AI girlfriends

#56

Post by xigoi »

acdha wrote: post #39
cultofmetatron wrote: post #8

At the risk of being downvoted, the dating scene in america is terrible. Masculinity in western societies is heavily pathologized to the point that men who aren't 6ft and very good looking have the deck heavily stacked against them. I can't blame men for turning to AI girlfriends. I myself left the united states and couldn't be happier. There are plenty of countries where its easy to meet women and end up in a relati…

> Masculinity in western societies is heavily pathologized to the point that men who aren't 6ft and very good looking have the deck heavily stacked against them I always find this fascinating because almost all of the women I’ve known complain about the challenges of finding men who respect them, do their share of the housework, etc. With one exception, everyone I’ve heard saying 6 feet and a six pack are mandatory w…

> I always find this fascinating because almost all of the women I’ve known complain about the challenges of finding men who respect them, do their share of the housework, etc.

That’s after having already accounted for the other requirements. It’s easy to find kind and respectful men if you lower your standards on the less important things.

Re: 'Obedient, yielding and happy to follow': the troubling rise of AI girlfriends

#57

Post by xigoi »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #46
xigoi wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making societial changes that benefit women?

That's actually one of the methods to achieve the goal of gender equality and the liberation of women from restrictive gender roles. If those goals were ever achieved, the need to make those societal changes would vanish.

Anyway, how is that relevant to my original comment?

Re: 'Obedient, yielding and happy to follow': the troubling rise of AI girlfriends

#58

Post by xigoi »

subscribed wrote: post #48
xigoi wrote: post #36

I don’t get why feminists are opposed to the idea of AI girlfriends. If it makes some men stop bothering real women, isn’t it a win?

If these men will stop needing women then no, it's not the _right kind of ein_ :)

Of course they would still need women. It’s hard to live in society while avoiding half of all people. They would just (ideally) stop showing romantic/sexual interest (or at least reduce it).

Re: 'Obedient, yielding and happy to follow': the troubling rise of AI girlfriends

#59

Post by kelseyfrog »

xigoi wrote: post #57
kelseyfrog wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually one of the methods to achieve the goal of gender equality and the liberation of women from restrictive gender roles. If those goals were ever achieved, the need to make those societal changes would vanish.

Anyway, how is that relevant to my original comment?

Because not being bothered by men is tangential to gender equality and the liberation of women from restrictive gender roles. The original comment confuses the goals of feminism.

Re: 'Obedient, yielding and happy to follow': the troubling rise of AI girlfriends

#60

Post by xigoi »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #59
xigoi wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyway, how is that relevant to my original comment?

Because not being bothered by men is tangential to gender equality and the liberation of women from restrictive gender roles. The original comment confuses the goals of feminism.

Weird. I see things like objectification, catcalling, sexual harassment, rape, etc. being discussed a lot in feminist spaces.
Post reply on HN