Moonchild's recent activity

  1. Comment on Weekly Israel-Hamas war megathread - week of May 13 in ~news

  2. Comment on Those who read a lot of fiction shown to have improved cognitive abilities in ~science

    Moonchild
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    I read a lot more fiction as a kid than I do now, and I was much smarter, but I don't think the two are related, and I don't think reading fiction as much as I did was a good use of my time. And...

    I read a lot more fiction as a kid than I do now, and I was much smarter, but I don't think the two are related, and I don't think reading fiction as much as I did was a good use of my time. And as far as empathy and theory of mind—the specific areas they highlight—go—night and day am I much better at these now (not surprising given kids generally suck at them).

    The paper is not open-access (nor in sci-hub), alas, but the interview and abstract say the effect is small. So if you have noticed a large change, it seems likely there is a different cause. (It wouldn't surprise me if they were correlated, having a common cause.)

    5 votes

  3. Comment on Visa Onchain Analytics Dashboard in ~finance

    Moonchild
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    You're a retailer and I'm a customer, and we want to agree on a chargeback policy for some transaction. You don't want me to be able to unilaterally perform a chargeback, and I don't want you to...

    You're a retailer and I'm a customer, and we want to agree on a chargeback policy for some transaction. You don't want me to be able to unilaterally perform a chargeback, and I don't want you to be able to unilaterally deny my chargeback request. It makes sense, therefore, to involve a trusted third party—such as, for example, visa—and say that the chargeback can only happen if that party agrees (perhaps alongside some other conditions, e.g. there's a time limit).

    Ideally, the technology would be completely oblivious to the choice of mediator. Visa is obviously incentivised to design something that privileges it, so it can continue spying on people and charging exorbitantly high transaction fees. But the technology naturally lends itself to interoperability because you can construct cryptographic proofs and thereby perform inter-chain transactions. And interoperability opens the door to a more gradual levelling of the playing field.

    I would guess visa's interest is a combination of 1) fomo and 2) wanting to economise trust with its large corporate partners. Insofar as it's 2, this is completely neutral for consumers (again, I don't buy the efficiency argument—no one's doing bitcoin anymore): it likely isn't going to change anything meaningful for the transactions consumers individually perform; insofar as it's 1, it has the potential to improve matters somewhat.

    4 votes

  4. Comment on Visa Onchain Analytics Dashboard in ~finance

    Moonchild
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    I don't know what visa is doing, but this ('visa and crypto') isn't conceptually a bad idea. Chargebacks and fraud protection are a really good idea. With cryptocurrency 1) I can negotiate a...

    Visa and crypto. All the inefficiencies of the blockchain and all the centralization, tracking, and lack of control over your money that the big banks bring. Truly the worst of all possible worlds.

    I don't know what visa is doing, but this ('visa and crypto') isn't conceptually a bad idea. Chargebacks and fraud protection are a really good idea. With cryptocurrency 1) I can negotiate a mediator and mediation policy on a per-transaction basis, and 2) the transaction can remain private until or unless mediation is actually required. Both of those—but particularly the second—are big wins over the status quo.

    Inefficiency is not a very big concern.

    3 votes

  5. Comment on What does “going with your gut” feel like to you? How did you learn to “trust your gut”? in ~talk

    Moonchild
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    Two mistakes I made; one from following my gut, and one from not following it: A couple of years ago, I quit my job. I felt unproductive and oppressed, and like I had to make a change. But,...

    Two mistakes I made; one from following my gut, and one from not following it:

    A couple of years ago, I quit my job. I felt unproductive and oppressed, and like I had to make a change. But, quitting my job was not really a solution to these, and really, I was to some extent misattributing the sources of my stress—the job was a symbol for it, and I did feel a weight had come off my shoulders when I left, but really, I'm going to feel unproductive in pretty much any form of gainful employment (alas, pending UBI, to keep a roof over my head I have to pursue ventures which are obviously economically beneficial to other people in the short term...), and, covid being in full swing, I was isolated. The work was uninteresting, but not oppressive; and I liked the people I worked with, and they liked me and were interested in finding me something to do that was more to my liking. I had started to make some noise about leaving, and they had started to negotiate concessions, when I left rather abruptly to take a gamble that was pretty obviously not going to work out. The right thing to do would have been to take a few weeks off, return to work with a different perspective and find something else to do that was more mutually beneficial, and pursue the gamble concurrently.

    In high school, somebody asked me out. I hardly knew them—they'd become infatuated with me. I had to say something—quick!—on the spot! And they'd just gotten me a nice dinner too. I knew, right away, that it wouldn't work out. There was nothing between us, no reasonable grounds on which to form a meaningful connection.

    ...I said yes. Something rational said 'that's unfair. You don't know that. You don't actually know them. Go on and see what happens—isn't that what dating's for?' But that was just plausible deniability—I could plausibly deny (to myself) that I knew it couldn't work out, so I pretended (to myself) that I didn't—horrid justification for anything. I still feel really bad about that. (A few months later, I had to break up with them, the situation having unfolded exactly the way it was bound to have, and flubbed that too...)

    1 vote

  6. Comment on A Reddit-led boycott of Loblaws, one of Canadas largest grocers, begins today in ~finance

    Moonchild
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    I hadn't heard of this. The only loblaws-owned store I regularly shop at is t&t; I may skip going there for the rest of the month out of solidarity, but it's not clear to me how much of a...

    I hadn't heard of this. The only loblaws-owned store I regularly shop at is t&t; I may skip going there for the rest of the month out of solidarity, but it's not clear to me how much of a difference it makes? Groceries are expensive everywhere, and I haven't noticed its being especially worse at t&t.

    7 votes

  7. Comment on British Columbia to recriminalize use of drugs in public spaces in ~news

    Moonchild
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    somebody left a used needle in my mailbox a few months ago... (at least they had the decency to cap it first?)

    somebody left a used needle in my mailbox a few months ago...

    (at least they had the decency to cap it first?)

    2 votes

  9. Comment on Instagram's Nudify [non-consensual fake nude photo generator] ads in ~tech

    Moonchild
    (edited )
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    I've written before on the topic: I think the question we need ask ourselves is: what does the proliferation of these images and technology tell us about the people distributing and generating...

    I've written before on the topic: I think the question we need ask ourselves is: what does the proliferation of these images and technology tell us about the people distributing and generating them and the people consuming them, and what effect do they have on those people? I'm not trying to make a particular object-level point here—I've learned that I have no understanding of how most people relate to eroticism—but I do want to argue for a particular frame and some directions.

    Here's an anecdote. I remember distinctly the first time I read anything on 4chan—I had decided it was high time I checked out this infamous website for myself. The first thing I saw: somebody had posted three pictures of women in swimsuits, purportedly people they knew in real life, and asked: 'which of these should I rape?' The replies were filled with discussion of their ... respective merits.

    Pre ai craze, there were internet communities dedicated to producing fake nudes manually, the old-fashioned way—with photoshop (contrast a 'deep fake' with a non-deep one). These were fringe for economic reasons: producing a single convincing fake image takes a nontrivial amount of time and effort, and not everybody has the skill to do it. Ai-nonsense democratised it, fundamentally changing its social role. Forging an image of somebody in a compromising position is now just as easy as talking about raping them—and, if I may be so bold as to do what I said I wouldn't and speculate about other people's sexualities, both comprise a sort of virtual para-violation of the subject by the consumer—the latter already happens, and the former is a market substitute for it.

    My point is—how big of a deal is this? A doctored image presumably evokes a more visceral reaction. How much does that actually intensify the feelings of people viewing them? By how much does it increase the market for these dynamics? I leave these questions to others, but in any event I fear the images are a convenient distraction and excuse to ignore the underlying problems.

    8 votes

  10. Comment on The troubling trend in teenage sex (it's strangulation) (gifted link) in ~life

    Moonchild
    (edited )
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    Broadly good article, but some things about it rubbed me the wrong way. Principally, problematic subtext that was neither properly hedged nor fully explicated. No individual instance would have...

    Broadly good article, but some things about it rubbed me the wrong way. Principally, problematic subtext that was neither properly hedged nor fully explicated. No individual instance would have been worthy of comment or even necessarily overtly bad, but taken together, they seem to reinforce a narrative which I thought it had been agreed was harmful and outmoded.

    Among girls and women I’ve spoken with, many did not want or like to be sexually strangled, though in an otherwise desired encounter they didn’t name it as assault. Still, a sizable number were enthusiastic; they requested it.

    Is it the case that: 1) the boys are pressuring the girls into letting them choke them, 2) the girls are pressuring the boys into choking them, or 3) they're both into it? Of course all three happen (and there are a lot of in betweens), but what's the balance? I'd genuinely like to know—those situations all have different dynamics. The phrasing of the text here wants you to think that 1 is dominant, but it avoids saying so explicitly—there's no way to know which of 'many' and 'a sizable number' is bigger, let alone how much bigger it is. (Nor which of that 'sizable number' are closer to situation 2 vs 3.)

    Then the follow on:

    In my interviews, college students have seen male orgasm as a given; women’s is nice if it happens, but certainly not expected or necessarily prioritized (by either partner). It makes sense, then, that fulfillment would be less the motivator for choking than appearing adventurous or kinky.

    The interview result is interesting. The baseless speculation ('it makes sense that...') is not, and presumes sex is only pleasurable if you orgasm.

    When, for instance, she asked one male student who said he choked his partner whether he’d ever tried using a vibrator instead, he recoiled. “Why would I do that?” he asked.

    Perhaps, she responded, because it would be more likely to produce orgasm without risking, you know, death.

    Obviously, his incredulity is likely reflective of some problematic views on his part. But her response makes the same problematic presumption. And in particular, the 'instead' carries with it a lot of other assumptions that are not unpacked.

    Nonfatal strangulation, one of the most significant indicators that a man will murder his female partner (strangulation is also one of the most common methods used for doing so), has somehow been eroticized and made consensual, at least consensual enough.

    Like ... yes? Okay? People can do things consensually which would be extremely problematic if done non-consensually? I mean, forget strangulation; what about sex? The principal problem is that strangulation (consensual or otherwise) is actually dangerous, and people (apparently) don't know that.

    If you wanna have the 'men choking women, even consensually, is reflective of ... patriarchal ... subjugation ...' conversation, then fine, have at (I might even agree!), but then you have to criticise sadomasochism in general. But no, they try to have it both ways ('I’m not here to kink-shame').

    42 votes

  11. Comment on Scammers are targeting teenage boys on social media—and driving some to suicide in ~life.men

    Moonchild
    (edited )
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    I agree with you that it is sexist. That's not the point. The point is that gender is completely incidental to the underlying problems. They happen to express themselves in a sexist fashion. It...

    I agree with you that it is sexist. That's not the point. The point is that gender is completely incidental to the underlying problems. They happen to express themselves in a sexist fashion. It seems a lot more constructive to focus on solving the underlying problems, which will make education more equitable and better for everybody.

    Edit: to put this another way. How much effort should we really be expending on getting boys to do better on broken metrics in a system which is fundamentally abusive to and disrespectful of everybody involved in it?

    2 votes

  12. Comment on Scammers are targeting teenage boys on social media—and driving some to suicide in ~life.men

    Moonchild
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    sure, education is sexist, but the girls aren't being treated well. the structural problems have nothing to do with gender

    sure, education is sexist, but the girls aren't being treated well. the structural problems have nothing to do with gender

    3 votes

  13. Comment on Scammers are targeting teenage boys on social media—and driving some to suicide in ~life.men

    Moonchild
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    Well...sure. Children are being massively failed by the education system, and if this is your wakeup call, I don't know what to tell you.

    wonder if it’s possible to improve the young boys’ maturity through education

    Well...sure. Children are being massively failed by the education system, and if this is your wakeup call, I don't know what to tell you.

    3 votes

  14. Comment on There used to be a people’s bank at the US Post Office in ~finance

    Moonchild
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    this is a policy level decision; the purpose of cryptocurrency is simply to provide mechanisms for attestation and auditability. aside from that, all of these are just one problem (not to minimise...

    fraud protection

    this is a policy level decision; the purpose of cryptocurrency is simply to provide mechanisms for attestation and auditability. aside from that, all of these are just one problem (not to minimise that problem): adoption. the banking system is successful today not because of any particular technical merits, but simply because it's already successful

    1 vote

  15. Comment on Scammers are targeting teenage boys on social media—and driving some to suicide in ~life.men

    Moonchild
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    Sans paywall. I have been seeing these PSAs around town, but didn't realise and hadn't considered the extent or nature of the problem. Cynically—and of course meaning no disrespect to those...

    Sans paywall.

    I have been seeing these PSAs around town, but didn't realise and hadn't considered the extent or nature of the problem. Cynically—and of course meaning no disrespect to those targeted—at a societal scale, this feels like a market-level response to certain forces driving the behaviour and sentiments of boys (which have been discussed to death in ~life.men); which response may cause some rebalancing and perhaps ultimately some good. (Hrm, is that cynical? I can't tell.) On the other hand, perhaps the whole AI image generation thing will nip the problem in the bud.

    13 votes

  17. Comment on US Senate Republicans furious over Donald Trump derailing FISA bill in ~misc

    Moonchild
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    remember 'SSL added and removed here! :^)'? yeah... e2ee works when it works but many things are not e2ee, and metadata is often more interesting anyway (even nsa doesn't have the resources to...

    the internet has made great strides in rolling out SSL, end-to-end encryption, and the like

    remember 'SSL added and removed here! :^)'? yeah...

    e2ee works when it works but many things are not e2ee, and metadata is often more interesting anyway (even nsa doesn't have the resources to store all the data indefinitely—but it does store metadata and doesn't even have to decrypt anything for that)

    3 votes

  18. Comment on Where will people commune in a godless America? in ~humanities

    Moonchild
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    this is closer to the munchausen trilemma and perhaps the church-turing thesis than godel (which is saying something extremely specific which we should be careful about generalising), but under a...

    If you consider yourself to be rational and scientifically minded, you must accept there are aspects of life which are both true and unprovable (see: Gödel)

    this is closer to the munchausen trilemma and perhaps the church-turing thesis than godel (which is saying something extremely specific which we should be careful about generalising), but under a coherent metaphysics we should not rule out the possibility that there is a coherent, convincing explanation for everything simply because we have not come up with one yet

    7 votes

  19. Comment on Where will people commune in a godless America? in ~humanities

    Moonchild
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    If I claim to have seen a demon, and that the demon told me that the world will end unless we all do some thing, then you are completely within your rights to refuse to do that thing. But if I...

    If I claim to have seen a demon, and that the demon told me that the world will end unless we all do some thing, then you are completely within your rights to refuse to do that thing. But if I claim to have had an experience of seeing a demon, you are no more within your rights to claim I didn't have that experience or to demand proof of it than if I claim to have had an experience of being sad.

    10 votes

  20. Comment on The dark reality of Japanese host clubs in ~life

    Moonchild
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    I think the issue is simply that the theory is bad and the practice matches. You can, for instance, hire a therapist; that institution seems to be broadly somewhat successful, and I would...

    I think the issue is simply that the theory is bad and the practice matches. You can, for instance, hire a therapist; that institution seems to be broadly somewhat successful, and I would attribute the difference to its incorporation of clear boundaries and constructive goals from the outset.