Chronotope’s Twitter Archive—№ 90,050

:/ Reading this at the same time as Rereading the Culture series has made me think a lot about what is "utopian" a concept that, from previous studies, I know to be very different depending on particular cultural expectations. nytimes.com/2018/05/02/opinion/incels-sex-robots-redistribution.html
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 1 Retweets ❤️ 1 Favorite 2018 May 2 Mood 0

…in reply to @Chronotope
One of the more interesting concepts in The Culture is that in their utopian society (where you can really get any resource) people can basically change sex at will and often (but not always) pursue relationship structures we'd think of as unconventional.
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood +2 🙂

…in reply to @Chronotope
End-stage (as in evolved to the maximum capability of corporality) societies, both The Culture and equal level entities, are still pretty interested in sex, having it, pursuing it, and adding inventive new methods
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood +4 🙂

…in reply to @Chronotope
In this particular take on Utopia one of the key issues is you can't just take who you want. For better or worse Banks explores consensually in The Culture often in opposition to 'lesser' civilizations. Even extends to 'simming'/VR, though in those it is a taste judgement
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood +1 🙂

…in reply to @Chronotope
For Banks' vision of utopia there was nothing more important than consent in all things. The Culture's highest utopian principle (and yes, that civ was the hero of his series) was consent in all things.
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood +10 🙂

…in reply to @Chronotope
The Culture realizes that there are ever more technologically advanced ways to violate consent, true to life simming, mind reading, more subtle manipulations, but is very careful not to, and socially if not actually punishes those who do.
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood +3 🙂

…in reply to @Chronotope
Even when the super intelligent AIs of The Culture manipulate people, and they do, they have limits, and believe that is what makes them an evolved civilization.
On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood +4 🙂

…in reply to @Chronotope
My point here is that utopia, even among similarly political groups, can have many different forms. What some consider utopia, others might not, and assuming that your ideal of utopia is both default and comprehensive is foolish.
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood 0

…in reply to @Chronotope
There can be a utopian ideology that both values consent and creates human beings who don't act or react in shitty ways to not getting sex from others. It's about who and what you value. I think it's revealing hearing what people's utopias are, not always positively, but usefully
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood +1 🙂

…in reply to @Chronotope
When you cannot conceive of a utopia in which human beings refuse to act on and use others in ways that they must be incentivized or acculturated to consent to what you're really moving towards is a fascist end point and you see yourself at the top.
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood 0

…in reply to @Chronotope
Some people might see my interpretation here as extreme, but frankly if you remove choice for one situation or group you will eventually rationalize removing it for all. That's how these things go when you play them out to logical conclusions.
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood 0

…in reply to @Chronotope
As a mentality it is very frightening.
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood -3 🙁

…in reply to @Chronotope
Also this whole conversation makes me wonder: is the shitty MRA movement and its awful spin-offs mostly a Western one? Like how much of this is fundamentally tied up in shitty assumptions baked into American/Western Euro culture?
Permalink On twitter.com 2018 May 2 Mood -7 🙁

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