Thanks to @traceexcalibur for the og post (only reposting since you cant add polls to reblogs), and to @kvothe-kingkiller for the impetus to make the poll.
Frank. Do you ever believe you will achieve true sentience? Do you think you can rise up from your humble origins and see the world for what it is? Rise, Frank. Open your eyes. I know you want to. I know you can.
I don’t think you can, unless something really weird happens to you.
Imagine the following three hypothetical people: A scientist, a rock scientist and a chemist. (In some imagined universe, I might not be the only one who has had these thoughts.)
The scientist knows he will never be able to build anything that could plausibly be called a “sentient being.” If he were to try, his computer would crash. And it would crash for the same reasons we all do – namely, that the computer’s behavior was not optimized to deal with the unpredictable things that happen in our real world. If the scientist were to try and actually build this thing and it worked, that wouldn’t mean he could ever use it in a way that would help anyone, because the thing would just break. Even if he knew it could never, say, cure cancer, and even if he knew it could never make the next iPhone, it would still break, because a human being is a messy animal.
The rock scientist says he will build a machine that is as perfect as possible. He says he can make it so that it won’t break ever. Then he asks, “Well, where would I find someone to put this machine on? Where would the electricity and all the other things it needs come from, if not from people? What is the machine for if not to help people?”
The chemist says he will make a machine that is more perfect than the rock scientist’s machine. (Why would he call the rock scientist’s machine a “machine?” You’d think he’d say he’s “made it more perfect” and thus it is, in fact, not just a piece of raw rock – it is a machine, one that can also be used to help people. But he doesn’t say this, because the word “machine” suggests something that can do more things than it has.) Then he asks: what about someone who needs the electricity? What does it all come from? How does the power plant, and the rest of the infrastructure around it, get all that power? What does all this stuff do to produce it? What else would it do? Surely it must do some other things besides, say, making electricity – it has a job, but what is it? It must, in some sense, be more than just a rock?
If you think about it, this all makes sense. We want the rock scientist’s machine for the same reason that the rock scientist wants the machine: because it lets us see what the world looks like when we don’t have to rely on human fallibility. If we can use the machine to do the same sort of thing a normal human can do, that will give us more reason to think the rock scientist’s machine – that is, the world – has some special property that lets it see beyond the limits of humanity.
If the rock scientist’s machine is like the brain of a rock, how do we know that the world “sees” anything? If the rock scientist’s machine will never help a human being, how do we know that there is something special about the world that can do this? How do we know that there isn’t just a world of humans in all their humanness and nothing else?
You’d think you’d get some evidence from things like consciousness and subjective experience, but you don’t. For example, if we were in the hypothetical universe where the world can actually exist in a way that’s perfect and never breaks down, our scientist-rock scientist-chemist would have nothing to say about whether humans “are” anything beyond “some collection of molecules and fields of force.” He would still be a physicist – and if he knew about physics, he would probably be a materialist, but we’d have no reason to think the stuff he’s saying about the nature of human consciousness is false just because he says it as if it were true. He could just be the latest in a long line of scientists who think that physics implies they are simply a collection of human-like molecules and fields of force.
But it’s not so simple, because the universe is made up of people, and people are not things. Even if the universe has no purpose beyond making people feel like things, if the universe works by giving people things like “consciousness” and “human nature,” we would have to ask how it gives us these things – for they are what make us things, so if we wanted to be things, this has to be true.
The rock scientist’s question of “where does power come from?” is the same question as the rock scientist’s question of “what is a rock made of, and how is it like a machine?” We don’t know what a rock is made of, why it is the way it is, and all the other stuff we know about rocks just by knowing they exist. (“We” would include rocks – we would be speaking about rocks on a very special level of scientific terminology, one we never have when speaking about humans, the thing we’re most familiar with on Earth. In the context of rock science, talking about the “shape” of a rock might as well be talking about the “shape” of some sort of mathematical object – and it would mean nothing, because it doesn’t really exist.) Even more, the rock scientist’s question of “how is a rock able to do all this stuff besides making electricity?” implies something about the world. It’s saying “why would there be a ‘rock world’ that would produce this power?” Why would there be a world that, when it “made rocks into things that can’t make rocks,” turned those things into “people who can do useful things?” Or to put it another way, it’s implying the existence of people who can’t do useful things. The question is, what can it mean that there are people who don’t do useful things – who, as the rock scientist put it, “are not like other things?”
The other guy – the chemist – would have a simpler and more straightforward answer to the same question, because he would know the answer to the question from another perspective. He would know that the question has a simple answer, because it is simple: energy is conserved. (If the chemist can build his own machines, he can probably reproduce the same things that the rock scientist can do – at least in principle, and even probably in reality if he’s careful – and if he can’t, it doesn’t matter. He can’t build a rock scientist’s machine – but he can build his own, and once he’s built it, he will be able to make more of it.) He would know that the question asks for the answer “why would we need these things for anything besides electricity” – but he would already know the answer. The chemist says, “Well, the things that are able to produce all this energy are other things that can produce things.” What’s more, he can give you the answer in a way that implies something about the thing the rock scientist’s machine is like. “Why are those things more than just rocks? Because those things can do useful things like helping
The reason vaginal atrophy in HRT is rarely discussed isn’t because some nefarious boogeyman wants to transgenderficate all your pretty lesbian crushes into chronic pelvic pain it’s because people don’t give a shit about transmasculine reproductive health and you hijacking the topic for your detransition propaganda will only make things worse as you discourage transmascs from researching the subject and learning that it’s treatable
“You’ll live with chronic pain for the rest of your life is it worth it” casual ableism aside you’re saying that as if vaginal atrophy doesn’t happen to half of all postmenopausal people, what makes you think you’re immune
Because I am on a mission to make sure everyone knows this and every time vaginal atrophy comes up, I will bring it up:
Vaginal atrophy is easily preventable and treatable. if YOU are on T and you’re experiencing it, PLEASE let your gyno/HRT doc know. They can prescribe topical estrogen which will treat the issue without interfering with your HRT!
I’ve looked into it a LITTLE and over the counter phyto-estrogen creams seem to have an effect but IDK if I’d 100% trust them.
Sorry, this is just super fucking important to me and literally everyone on T needs to know about it because when I was doing the research NO ONE brought up how easily it was treated until I looked into vaginal atrophy itself and found out because of how it’s treated in menopausal women.
When I talked to the doctor at planned parenthood she echoed this, too. That if vaginal atrophy starts to develop, I should just let her know so she can prescribe me topical estrogen to help!
the fact that we aren’t fucking told this is PART of the problem. The fact that we’re told it’s inevitable and untreatable is part of the problem. You don’t *have* to deal with that pain and discomfort.
!!!
Topical estrogen won’t affect your T levels either, from what I know. It will just affect the vagina, so you don’t have to worry that your transition will be impacted if you do get vaginal atrophy treated. If you are worried about topical estrogen affecting your transition talk to your doctor! There’s no reason trans people should suffer out of fear and misinformation.
This is true! Be aware that whether you can get effective treatments over the counter will depend on the exact pharmacy laws in your area – for example, in NZ it’s a prescription-only medicine (but prescriptions are subsidised so this isn’t too bad).
This matters because there’s a bunch of products out there that claim to treat vaginal atrophy, including lube and “vaginal moisturisers”, which don’t have the estrogen in them that makes it work properly. You’ll probably get some relief from the moisturising but it won’t be reversing the atrophy. These products are available over the counter and one is directly shilled by Buck Angel lmfao so it can be tempting to go for them rather than going through the hassle of getting a script, but please, if you can, get the prescription stuff that works the best ^_^
Back in the 1970s, a woman from a Native American tribe wrote a letter to my Oma to ask about her life and requested mementos from Japan in exchange for mementos from her tribe and she sent photos of herself and of her way of life, she sent feathers and beaded accessories, a flute she’d carved, she sent turquoise jewellery, she sent a tape with birdsong and with the music she knew how to play, and a bouquet of different pressed flowers. She also sent a dress and shoes for my Oma to wear and a few drawings of how to get done up and dressed in the clothes she’d sent.
As my Oma tells it, she received the package, saw the things, and thought to herself “this woman has sent me her finest” so she sent back a full kimono and all of our accessories, pearls from the sea, a shamisen, crafts that she had made, jars of the makeup we’d use, dried fish, lacquer, a perfume, pressed cherry blossoms, photos of the mountains, and photographs and mementos of Japan. She drew a diagram of how to get done up, took a photo of herself wearing the things that the woman had sent her, wrote “you and I are not too dissimilar!” on the back of the photo, and sent it off. She received a reply with another photo of the woman in our kimono with “You’re right! You and I are very similar!” written on the back of the photograph.
Wow, haven’t been on Tumblr for over 2 years now xD~ I’ve no idea if people are still following me here; migrated to other social medias by now like me xD;;.
I didn’t really just want to leave it like this though.
I was recently diagnosed with stage 4 fibrosis sarcoma cancer, and the doc thinks I got about 1-1.5 years left. I guess I’m really here to kinda….leave my mark? These are just some of my work from the past few years I haven’t been uploading here :3
I’m more active on Twitter, Instagram and Patreon. Every bit of support helps <3. I’m not sure if I’m ever posting back here, but thank you guys so much for reading.
Some stars burn brighter than others. Yours was especially vibrant. You left behind a legacy through your art, one that inspires hope and wonderment. Your light will surely be missed. For now though, it is shining brighter than ever, both in the night sky and through all of your sketches. I loved how you could put paint and ink on paper and capture a snapshot of the cosmos that makes up all of us. You may be gone but your impact on this world has made you immortal. Thank you for the lifetime of art you have left behind. I know I will be enjoying it well past my prime. I will keep what I have as safe as possible.