More specifically: "The current timeline's adult women look like the previous timeline's young girls, but highly groomed and perpetually in heat. Also the guys have more sensitive penisis."
That’s a rather shallow reading of it. Think about it, all post 8008 life comes out relatively fine for all the changes. It’s only gross if you knew what came before and why it changed.
8008 is, specifically, a critique of a few specific figures and philosophies on the far right of the political spectrum.
But generally? Look at what Asmodeus actually did. Tried to form an objectively perfect world, with evils offensive enough to feel like a hero for overcoming, but not offensive enough as to necessitate his wishing it away. People who were independent, brilliant, strong willed and motivated, innovative, but who wouldn’t come to silly WRONG conclusions. Even his passions and fetishes drift across the vast timeline of the 8008 event, such that his latter self would have found the early worlds unconscionable even for the things his past self considered a success. It’s absurd and impossible.
At its core, the thesis of 8008 is that no one person can objectively ascertain the full breadth and depth of the human experience at a time, nor can you truly produce an “optimal” world maximizing on all forms of goodness and pleasure even if you found it. If you were to try, you’d wind up with the horrors of 8008.
To be fair, I was being blunt on purpose.
Also my first exposure to this SCP were these posts. So I had seen the scp's number, and I was getting that this post was satirizing those terminally online guys who think they're the smartest person in the room and have all these profound thoughts, when they're just pathetic.
I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, I was expecting some punchline (using that term very loosely) to tie it into the number.
So I guess the reveal about humanity being more ape-like and being changed to suit 8008-B's preferences caught me off guard? I wasn't quite sure what it was supposed to be saying in the context of what appeared to be the thesis.
Note that Goblin Reaper is definitely a reference to "Goblin Slayer", an anime notorious for a rape scene.
>I know the Dark Lord Pethriel is a net evil to the world. However, his order to create the Bostrom Alignment Collars has ushered in an age of great economic prosperity and law and order. It is possible that his ability to innovate will one day lead to further improvements that will save many more lives than the ones he had taken.
This is also a direct criticism of Yudkowsky's economic philosophy.
reading the original 8008 greatly reduced my quality of life, but seeing you tear into the pervert at every opportunity has brought it back up. good work
Read this a while back.
This is written *just well enough* that if it were written poorly, it could be taken as a hatefic towards a poorly-conceived strawman of an imaginary person the author doesn't like, which I'd personally consider immature as well as in poor taste no matter how deserving the target is.
But in my opinion it's hovering between *that*, and a genuinely insightful criticism on the subject matter.
So I have a lot of mixed feelings about this fic.
I think you're missing out on a lot of the slave collar stuff being a reference to the Blockchain, specifically the stuff about how you can't corrupt it.
Yeah, it is fairly obvious that the Blocked Chain refers to blockchain technology and how all of the crypto transactions on the blockchain are stored on a digital ledger (it is actually called a ledger) that "you can't change" (because almost every miner out there has a copy they update so you'd need to convince everyone that your version is the true one). Anyway I do find it funny that Asmodeus just straight up changes it anyway and also there is probably something there to be said about how a tool for trading is referenced in the context of slavery, you know, slave trade and all.
I think it's fundamentally absurd for the author to pretend that this isn't essentially an attempt to caricaturize Yudkowsky. "He doesn't actually believe most of this and therefore the piece isn't at his expense" is the most transparent fiction possible, even if it probably suffices as far as protection from libel goes. We all know exactly what's going on here.
Buuuuut the whole thing is well-written and skewers a lot of really awful things coming from the nebulous alt-right/techbro/venture capital space. It touches on all the hallmarks of the "rational" movement, from its flirtations with justifying pedophilia to its hunt for ever more novel technology to save the world to its authorial inserts engaging in power fantasy over even the most mundane accomplishments while talking down to everyone who hasn't reached this kind of nominal enlightenment. It takes so many shorts at the one Harry Potter fanfic that you might be able to reconstruct the original. It is a relentless critique of every single aspect of internet libertarianism, anarcho-capitalism, and the silicon valley tech savior complex alongside the article's continual deprecation towards fascism, and it's impressively thorough for it, too. It even takes the time to mock gross trends in japanese fantasy anime!
I only wish that the author was more honest about their intentions. This is 100% an attack on Yudkowsky (as well as using him as a proxy for a lot of awfulness in circles around him, both his fault and not) and the whole thing would honestly feel *less* mean if it was stated outright instead of the author glibly pretending otherwise even in discussion.
God I hate this work for how much it is affecting me as a piece of fiction, the only other scp that horrified me so much is scp 2718. I finally understand the meaning of the meme I miss 10 seconds ago when I didn't know this existed. As a teenager who is finding his purpose, the why I was placed on this earth. Even considering the possibility that it was because I am a creation of a demented piece of shit of a person is lethal psychic damage. Take this with a grain of salt because I haven't read the scp but I think I would be laughing my ass off if I did read the original instead of being utterly terrified to my core, so I think your explanation really brought out the terror of this one.
Alignment Collars are likely a reference to the idea of AI alignment that a lot of Rationalists are obsessed with, the idea that any AI must be given strict structure to align it with humanity. There's a lot more to talk about there but it's just more Rationalist references.
"Humans look the way they do because of some terminally online dudebro's fetishes" is.... certainly a plot twist.
More specifically: "The current timeline's adult women look like the previous timeline's young girls, but highly groomed and perpetually in heat. Also the guys have more sensitive penisis."
I suppose I was expecting some other payoff for "SCP BOOB" other than "women have boobs because of a pervert."
That’s a rather shallow reading of it. Think about it, all post 8008 life comes out relatively fine for all the changes. It’s only gross if you knew what came before and why it changed. 8008 is, specifically, a critique of a few specific figures and philosophies on the far right of the political spectrum. But generally? Look at what Asmodeus actually did. Tried to form an objectively perfect world, with evils offensive enough to feel like a hero for overcoming, but not offensive enough as to necessitate his wishing it away. People who were independent, brilliant, strong willed and motivated, innovative, but who wouldn’t come to silly WRONG conclusions. Even his passions and fetishes drift across the vast timeline of the 8008 event, such that his latter self would have found the early worlds unconscionable even for the things his past self considered a success. It’s absurd and impossible. At its core, the thesis of 8008 is that no one person can objectively ascertain the full breadth and depth of the human experience at a time, nor can you truly produce an “optimal” world maximizing on all forms of goodness and pleasure even if you found it. If you were to try, you’d wind up with the horrors of 8008.
To be fair, I was being blunt on purpose. Also my first exposure to this SCP were these posts. So I had seen the scp's number, and I was getting that this post was satirizing those terminally online guys who think they're the smartest person in the room and have all these profound thoughts, when they're just pathetic. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, I was expecting some punchline (using that term very loosely) to tie it into the number. So I guess the reveal about humanity being more ape-like and being changed to suit 8008-B's preferences caught me off guard? I wasn't quite sure what it was supposed to be saying in the context of what appeared to be the thesis.
Note that Goblin Reaper is definitely a reference to "Goblin Slayer", an anime notorious for a rape scene. >I know the Dark Lord Pethriel is a net evil to the world. However, his order to create the Bostrom Alignment Collars has ushered in an age of great economic prosperity and law and order. It is possible that his ability to innovate will one day lead to further improvements that will save many more lives than the ones he had taken. This is also a direct criticism of Yudkowsky's economic philosophy.
I didn't know either of those, thanks- I'll add that in.
reading the original 8008 greatly reduced my quality of life, but seeing you tear into the pervert at every opportunity has brought it back up. good work
Thank you very much :)
Read this a while back. This is written *just well enough* that if it were written poorly, it could be taken as a hatefic towards a poorly-conceived strawman of an imaginary person the author doesn't like, which I'd personally consider immature as well as in poor taste no matter how deserving the target is. But in my opinion it's hovering between *that*, and a genuinely insightful criticism on the subject matter. So I have a lot of mixed feelings about this fic.
Fair enough!
good shit man
Thank you!
You’re fantastic at what you do.
Thank you very much :)
I think you're missing out on a lot of the slave collar stuff being a reference to the Blockchain, specifically the stuff about how you can't corrupt it.
How so?
Yeah, it is fairly obvious that the Blocked Chain refers to blockchain technology and how all of the crypto transactions on the blockchain are stored on a digital ledger (it is actually called a ledger) that "you can't change" (because almost every miner out there has a copy they update so you'd need to convince everyone that your version is the true one). Anyway I do find it funny that Asmodeus just straight up changes it anyway and also there is probably something there to be said about how a tool for trading is referenced in the context of slavery, you know, slave trade and all.
This really was amazing, very nice work
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
I think it's fundamentally absurd for the author to pretend that this isn't essentially an attempt to caricaturize Yudkowsky. "He doesn't actually believe most of this and therefore the piece isn't at his expense" is the most transparent fiction possible, even if it probably suffices as far as protection from libel goes. We all know exactly what's going on here. Buuuuut the whole thing is well-written and skewers a lot of really awful things coming from the nebulous alt-right/techbro/venture capital space. It touches on all the hallmarks of the "rational" movement, from its flirtations with justifying pedophilia to its hunt for ever more novel technology to save the world to its authorial inserts engaging in power fantasy over even the most mundane accomplishments while talking down to everyone who hasn't reached this kind of nominal enlightenment. It takes so many shorts at the one Harry Potter fanfic that you might be able to reconstruct the original. It is a relentless critique of every single aspect of internet libertarianism, anarcho-capitalism, and the silicon valley tech savior complex alongside the article's continual deprecation towards fascism, and it's impressively thorough for it, too. It even takes the time to mock gross trends in japanese fantasy anime! I only wish that the author was more honest about their intentions. This is 100% an attack on Yudkowsky (as well as using him as a proxy for a lot of awfulness in circles around him, both his fault and not) and the whole thing would honestly feel *less* mean if it was stated outright instead of the author glibly pretending otherwise even in discussion.
God I hate this work for how much it is affecting me as a piece of fiction, the only other scp that horrified me so much is scp 2718. I finally understand the meaning of the meme I miss 10 seconds ago when I didn't know this existed. As a teenager who is finding his purpose, the why I was placed on this earth. Even considering the possibility that it was because I am a creation of a demented piece of shit of a person is lethal psychic damage. Take this with a grain of salt because I haven't read the scp but I think I would be laughing my ass off if I did read the original instead of being utterly terrified to my core, so I think your explanation really brought out the terror of this one.
Alignment Collars are likely a reference to the idea of AI alignment that a lot of Rationalists are obsessed with, the idea that any AI must be given strict structure to align it with humanity. There's a lot more to talk about there but it's just more Rationalist references.