taco belle here is doing a good job of laying out the pretty obvious problems with weaving group sex parties, sometimes involving consensual non-consent, into AI industry culture:

You know, I thought I had a good handle on how weird and awful these people were, but somehow they’re both weirder and worse.

It's a little surprising that these people can still pull a "What the actual fuck?" from me, but here we are.

I should think not!

the idea of throwing a CNC event to which people who need the concept explained to them are invited tautologically negates the first C in CNC I’m honestly unconvinced it’s even possible for a CNC scene involving enough people to call it an “event” to still be CNC instead of outright non-consensual

Wonder how those same men would react to a woman taking the position of power and wanting to peg the guy? Does the dynamic of CNC work in that direction as well? Or does it only apply to men in that way?

given the entire industry is built on the non-consensual exploitation of people's data, I shouldn't be surprised. But here I am.

It's not so surprising to hear this happened with men working at Open AI, when Sam Altman is a rapist and also is purported to engage in rape parties of his own

Okay, tangential to the sex/consent stuff, but if lots of these folks are "expanding their consciousnesses" I can very much understand the paranoid apocalypticism they are developing about their work.

This part, this part that has been the issue for so many minoritized folks for such a long fucking time is what just destroys me constantly: "I wish that 55% of my brain was not devoted to strategizing about the survival of me and of my friends." We just want to do our goofy little stuff.

Of course these cretins tried to play word games with this...

Someone is going to get hurt

call the person who scooped NXIVM

This 100% happens.

They should be dropped in the South Dakota Badlands.

And it’s sickening how they twist words and concepts. Their actions have nothing to do with either rationalism or altruism. It’s also sickening how just about everything with any kind of power tends to devolve into a sex cult. Humanity is deeply broken.

Oh yeah I've seen that in sci-fi spaces and these are the same dudes. They looooove "casual nudity" too.

yes! I didn't want to muddy the point of the above comment, but I'm also screaming "where's the events for autistic/ND women who don't know how to establish clear boundaries, invite the attention they want from who they want without opening themselves up to abuse, and/or don't know how to flirt!"

Step 1: decide we are at a status level where all women must be socially confident and normatively hot Step 2: few of the AFAB people who have been techies forever go to your parties Step 3: see, women just aren’t interested in/good at tech

Wait nothing about that sounds bad

I think a lot of these people were into the older PUA culture, yes

On one ✋, there's a human tragedy there. Empty holes in their psyches/intellects that will never fill no matter how many SC they attend. Then I remember the massive pain they've caused and are causing (incl directs to me) and they can f right off.

What's the consensus opinion of kink.com these days? Seems to be far better than most, but I'm very out of the loop.

Oh, they didn’t want to go. Merely asked “What the fuck is this? Phil, do you know anything about this?” Me: [sighs deeply] Unfortunately, I do.

There are men who can go from zero to explicit talk and it will work for them. By you being in this class, you're not one of them. Light and breezy is where you should start. The minimum viable product (hey they're techies!) isn't sex or 2nd base: it's an enjoyable conversation for both.

the pressure you put on a conversation by treating it as a seduction tactic. it's not enough to have a nice interaction with someone you met, it has to be SO NICE and they have to be SO IMPRESSED that they want to see more of you & maybe even get in your pants. a friendly chat is treated as failure.

are humans going to change in a few 'woke' generations? I think not! we've been trying to change for 6000 years of recorded history. sigh... the good news is that species seem to last only 2-10million years, then speciation can happen.

literally all of these fucking dudes could engage in transactional relationships with sex workers for sex but they PREFER to have coercive sexual relationships with their employee because they like to demean them and get off on the abusive power dynamic

🤮🤮🤮

Based on the syllabus, they learn pickup artist techniques from the '90s mansophere.

And when I say problematic I mean harassment like stuff (non-sexual included). Doesn’t necessarily prevent stuff from happening but it puts some (mostly perceived) liability on people that should know better.

Me too 2: electric boogaloo is gonna need tribunals