tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post7406701508177269740..comments2024-03-22T15:55:34.030-04:00Comments on Evo and Proud: The monster in the mirrorPeter Frosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04303172060029254340noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-66923915577500111732015-06-12T11:04:50.431-04:002015-06-12T11:04:50.431-04:00Reader,
They're not mutually exclusive, espec...Reader,<br /><br />They're not mutually exclusive, especially since "good job" in contemporary Western discourse isn't defined in terms of male economic and social status, as that would be regarded as sexist. A man can have a "good job" today while his social and economic status declines in general, and more importantly, relative to women.<br /><br />Also, individual cases wouldn't invalidate the general trend of a decline in male economic prospects damaging romantic prospects as well. <br /><br />Evolutionary psychologists say a lot of things. I don't think they assert that all women everywhere at every time behave in one exact way for one exact reason. <br /><br />There certainly are some women who decide to have sex with men based on their economic prospects. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-13828006286450849852015-06-11T18:14:50.943-04:002015-06-11T18:14:50.943-04:00Anonymous, something isn't right about that ar...Anonymous, something isn't right about that article you posted: it claims that Japanese men worry that "they've lost their economic muscle" due to an ecomomic downturn, but the man they're describing has "a good job" (first sentence). In general, all economic references are complete BS. Contrary to what evolutionary psychologists say, women don't decide to have sex with men based on the men's economic prospects, sorry.Readernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-30516038624513934162015-06-09T15:18:48.984-04:002015-06-09T15:18:48.984-04:00"Heartache for Japan's real-life 40-year-..."Heartache for Japan's real-life 40-year-old virgins"<br /><br />https://news.yahoo.com/heartache-japans-real-life-40-old-virgins-071715347.html#<br /><br />"Takashi Sakai is a healthy 41-year-old heterosexual man with a good job and a charming smile. But he's never had sex, one of a growing number of middle-aged Japanese men who are still virgins.<br /><br />Sakai has never even had any kind of relationship with a woman, and says he has no idea how he might get to know one.<br /><br />"I've never had a girlfriend. It's never happened," he said. "It's not like I'm not interested. I admire women. But I just cannot get on the right track."<br /><br />It might sound like the subject for a Hollywood comedy, but far from being the social misfit portrayed by Steve Carell in 2005's "The 40-Year-Old Virgin", Sakai is one of a crowd.<br /><br />A 2010 survey by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research found that around a quarter of unmarried Japanese men in their 30s were still virgins -- even leading to the coining of a specific term, "yaramiso", to describe them.<br /><br />The figure was up around three percentage points from a similar survey in 1992.<br /><br />The period corresponds with Japan's prolonged economic slowdown, after a stock and asset bubble burst and the one-time financial powerhouse suffered years of lacklustre growth.<br /><br />Matchmaking expert Yoko Itamoto says the economic emasculation has taken its toll on Japan's men, as more of them struggle to find secure, full-time jobs.<br /><br />"Many men seem to have lost confidence as they've lost their economic muscle," she said.<br /><br />"In the past two decades, the situation for Japanese men has been very tough and competitive."<br /><br />The pain caused by an inability to form emotional and physical relationships with women is something that one 49-year-old architect, who did not wish to be named, knows too well.<br /><br />Only twice in his life has he had romantic and sexual feelings for a woman -- the first time in his mid-twenties and then again two decades later.<br /><br />Both rebuffed him.<br /><br />"It was devastating," he told AFP. "It seemed to invalidate my life and take away my reason to live."<br /><br />On both occasions he suffered rapid weight-loss, and now fears he might live life as a singleton and a virgin.<br /><br />- 'Virgin Academia' -<br /><br />Directly comparable international statistics are difficult to come by, but Japanese people across the board appear to have less sex than those in other developed countries.<br /><br />In the 2010 survey quoted above, 68 percent of 18-19 year olds in Japan said they were virgins; a study carried out that year in Europe by condom maker Durex found virginity rates among those aged 15-20 were much lower.<br /><br />For example, fewer than 20 percent of young Germans had not had sex by the time they hit 20, while even in socially conservative Turkey, the figure was only 37 percent."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-15378501613428346252015-06-04T10:27:28.685-04:002015-06-04T10:27:28.685-04:00Some men look soo repulsive to many women that dol...Some men look soo repulsive to many women that doll sex could be a good and humanistic solution to this guy who never had a real women (even men) to have sex. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />SantocultoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-56624043165042103722015-06-03T22:22:38.392-04:002015-06-03T22:22:38.392-04:00"Some years ago on this blog there was a disc..."Some years ago on this blog there was a discussion of high sex ratios in today's Western societies leaving many young men single and lonely"<br /><br />This is a topic I hope to revisit this year, specifically the following points:<br /><br />- beginning in the mid-1980s, many babyboomers began to divorce and remarry with younger women. This had the effect of making the marriage market much more competitive for younger men. Today, this phenomenon is almost a spent force. Most babyboomer men are simply too old to be players in the 20-40 year old marriage market.<br /><br />- in the past, boys outnumbered girls only in very young age groups. Today, the male-biased sex ratio of birth is lasting right through to the fifth decade of life.<br /><br />- polygamy (also called polyamory) is becoming more socially acceptable<br /><br />- there is evidence that male exogamy by some groups, mainly Hispanics but also African Americans, is starting to have an observable impact on the ratio of single women to single men in the White American population<br /><br />In short, we are moving into a mate market where single women between the ages of 20 and 40 will be in chronic undersupply, particularly in the White American population. For various reasons (high levels of male incarceration, low sex ratio at birth, high male mortality, etc.), the African American population is unaffected.<br /><br />This is a long-term problem that won't go away. Eventually, there will be collective solutions, but "eventually" will be too far off in the future for anyone reading this. Over the short term, the excess demand will be met by increasingly intelligent love dolls. In fact, the two trajectories of technological development will converge. We will have affective androids.<br /><br />Whenever I discuss this point, especially with social conservatives, I encounter a lot of hostility, so let me be clear. I'm no more in favor of love dolls than I am in favor of famine or war. But if people -- out of shortsightedness or plain stupidity - do nothing to prevent the preventable, other solutions will have to be found.Peter Frostnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-85949992066805319332015-06-03T18:59:23.782-04:002015-06-03T18:59:23.782-04:00"No Sex in the City: What It’s Like to Be Fem..."No Sex in the City: What It’s Like to Be Female and Foreign in Japan"<br /><br />http://www.vagabondish.com/female-foreign-japan/<br /><br />"Cute baristas at Starbucks wouldn’t look at me, business men on bicycles ran over me and college students hurriedly backed away from me with mumbled apologies whenever I tried to strike up a conversation about the weather or ask for directions. They wouldn’t even give me the time of day. Literally.<br /><br />“You’ve got to be assertive,” my Japanese girlfriends advised. “Japanese guys are shy so you have to make the first move.” So I smiled invitingly at men in bars and on busses. I asked for help reading restaurant menus and subway signs.<br /><br />“Do you have any book / drink reccomendatioins?” was my usual line as I stood near them in bookstores or sat next to them on barstools. But the ‘come hither’ stare or conversation starter doesn’t work if the other person refuses to look at you. If they met my gaze at me at all, it was just to shoot me this panicked look, like I’d just asked them to father my unborn children. My boss had been right. It was hard to be a single, western woman in Japan. But why?<br /><br />I turned to the Internet for advice and was surprised to learn that the Dateless Western Woman was a familiar character in the expat world, at least judging from the score of postings on expat forums by lonely, single females.<br /><br />But as wide-spread as the problem seemed to be, it was one that many women avoided talking about. Understandably it was a tough subject to discuss without grossly overgeneralizing fifty percent of a country’s population or worse, sounding like a racist or a man-hating, snob.<br /><br />The pervading theory though, among expats and Japanese alike, was that Japanese men were in fact attracted to western women but were just too intimidated to do anything about it. Western women in Asia were like the Jennifer Anistons of the expat world. Strong, independent, assertive and outspoken, they were interesting to admire from afar, but no man would ever dream of striking up a conversation with one. Western women were so different, so foreign, they were virtually un-datable.<br /><br />Not true for their Y-chromosome-carrying expat buddies though. While the female expats spent Saturday nights alone, crying into their Ramen bowls, their male counterparts drank freely from the dating pool like they owned it. Which in a way, they did.<br /><br />If you’ve ever visited Asia, you’ve likely seen the pale, rail-thin, greasy-haired white boy walking hand-in hand with a perfectly made-up, mini-skirt wearing Asian chick. This would never happen anywhere else in the world. Because everywhere else, Barbie ends up with Ken, not his underemployed, socially-awkward, samurai-sword-collecting neighbor, Kevin. But in Asia, dating rules defy all logic or evolutionary law. In Asia, the nerd is king."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-31271058669896376552015-06-03T18:12:36.176-04:002015-06-03T18:12:36.176-04:00I was referring to the articles about British men,...I was referring to the articles about British men, ages 50-60, that Anonymous posted above (from the Daily Mail).<br /><br />But these men are part of the cohort who came of age in the 1970s when, according to this blog, there was an abundance of single women. The shortages of women started affecting later generations of men. So, this doesn't explain the lack of choices these middle-aged British men experience.Readernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-43721452747303871462015-06-03T17:12:13.748-04:002015-06-03T17:12:13.748-04:00The idea that local women who choice men in the s...The idea that local women who choice men in the sexual market, specially in the japanese context, seems wrong because Japan, as well most of human societies, has been patriarcal, where men choice women, because is the men who have create and dominate societies and not the otherwise.<br /><br />Japan is a country with little percentage of 'alpha' males, a nerdy nation. Is expected that a nation with a lot of nerdysh men will have a very introvert types too.<br /><br /><br /><br />SantocultoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-64892582716279007302015-06-03T00:40:12.885-04:002015-06-03T00:40:12.885-04:00Yes, Peter had some interesting posts a few years ...Yes, Peter had some interesting posts a few years ago on sex ratios in the postwar period, which would have affected men now in their 50s and 60s.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-18988217921472966792015-06-02T20:31:04.952-04:002015-06-02T20:31:04.952-04:00Some years ago on this blog there was a discussion...Some years ago on this blog there was a discussion of high sex ratios in today's Western societies leaving many young men single and lonely due to shortages of single women. Is this one of the outcomes of modern shortages of available women, mentioned around 2009? But keep in mind: here we're talking about older, mature men. In the articles posted by Anonymous above, 50- and 60-year-old men say they haven't been able to find anyone to date, despite trying and making an effort! Just like young men, older men are suddenly without opportunities. If this is the situation with older men as well, then things are really dire, or is it their own preference to be alone?Readernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-56094256045878956572015-06-02T15:21:05.446-04:002015-06-02T15:21:05.446-04:00Reader"The levels of testosterone in a given ...Reader<b>"The levels of testosterone in a given ethnicity are sexually selected for by the local women. ... it's not necessarily a "problem" that Asian men are "shy." In the current low-testosterone Asian man we see the result of the actual mating preferences of Asian females. In contrast, Middle-Eastern women like to see their men aggressive, masculine, and lustful, selecting for the dominance of those genes."</b><br /><br />No, it is more a case of testosterone not having been an important factor for reproductive fitness in the past because of the reasons Peter gave. A testosterone boost would probably be quite useful for a Japanese man in the modern social environment. Toxoplasma gondii infection has been found to give a testosterone boost in rats, and make rats (and men) more fearless and attractive to females of their species. Toxo, which is common in France, rare in Japan, goes for the brain and the testes, and vertical transmission of Toxo has been confirmed, as has lower digit ratio (more masculine) in infected human males. (A while ago I suggested that vertical transmission of a bug that made women sexier could be the cause of male homosxuality. See <a href="http://evoandproud.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-gay-germ-hypothesis.html?showComment=1366613690443#c4593869704687086273" rel="nofollow">here</a> Toxoplasma gondii would be a good candidate for a bug causing Lesbianism).Seannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-54375524146502206612015-06-02T00:30:49.254-04:002015-06-02T00:30:49.254-04:00"Me and my sex doll: The men who are in love ..."Me and my sex doll: The men who are in love with astonishingly realistic mannequins"<br /><br />http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2836514/Me-sex-doll-men-love-astonishingly-realistic-mannequins.html<br /><br />"With their long glossy hair, heavy make-up and perfect skin, at first glance these glamourous women appear to make the perfect companions.<br /><br />But look a little closer and their vacant stares give away the fact that they are in fact astonishingly realistic silicone love dolls, which sell for upwards of £1,000.<br /><br />Their owners, who enjoy long-term relationships with the dolls, were captured on camera by Copenhagen-based photojournalist Benita Marcussen, who approached the men via online forums - one of the only places where many of them can be open about their dolls - and spent nearly a year gaining their trust before photographing them for her series Men & Dolls.<br /><br />For some of the owners, the life-sized dolls are their sole companion, others are married with children, and in a few cases the dolls have filled the space left by lost loved ones following death or divorce."<br /><br /><br /><br />"Emotional pictures show lonely man’s trips out with “love doll” daughter"<br /><br />http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/05/06/emotional-pictures-show-lonely-mans-trips-out-with-love-doll-daughter%E3%80%90photos%E3%80%91/<br /><br />"Two years ago, Song Bo was diagnosed with a serious illness which gave him constant headaches and brought upon depression. Convinced he would never marry or have children, Song was browsing the internet one day when he stumbled upon a listing on China’s online shopping site Taobao that was to give him new hope.<br /><br />Song bought a child-sized love doll, just 145cm tall (4’10”), and now takes her everywhere with him. The doll may be pint-sized, but as this tender photo series shows, she seems to have changed his life.<br /><br />The photo series shows the two enjoying days out together at the cinema or in cafes. Song takes her on the subway around Tianjin and carries her tenderly across busy roads. He enjoys taking photos with her, such as these shots that were uploaded to Chinese social networking site Weibo.<br /><br />Song lives with his mother, who apparently did not object to her son bringing the US$2,200 doll into their lives. He treats the doll as a daughter, and has named her Xiao Die (小蝶 “little butterfly”). Wherever he goes, Little Butterfly goes too."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-56547430743756240102015-06-01T15:47:26.811-04:002015-06-01T15:47:26.811-04:00The 2001: A Space Odyssey film, which featured a m...The 2001: A Space Odyssey film, which featured a malevolent robot computer, came out in 1968. Perhaps that kicked off the negative portrayal of robots.<br /><br />There was a recent American film titled Her which I haven't seen but apparently gave a positive portrayal of a romantic relationship between a man and a female robot computer, not an android but a robot voice/intelligence.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-6733324390213929152015-06-01T13:26:15.937-04:002015-06-01T13:26:15.937-04:00Anon,
There was a case in Toronto recently of an ...Anon,<br /><br />There was a case in Toronto recently of an elderly woman being taken off life support because her hospital room was needed for another patient. There had apparently been an argument between the doctor and the woman's son, the doctor saying that she had led a full life and that her life was no longer worth living.<br /><br />JayMan,<br /> <br />Sorry, I should have thought about that :( I wanted to use Ex Machina as a lead into my post, since a lot of people are now interested in the subject.<br /><br />I used to be a fan of the Terminator series, but I was already losing interest when the Sarah Connor Chronicles began to air. It's creating an apocalyptic vision of robotization that is doing more harm than good.<br /><br />Anon,<br /><br />Yes, I should have worked that point into my post (the Japanese love of mascots). In Chobits, the mini-persocoms seem to have evolved out of this need for little fairies and other characters that can be carried around.<br /><br />Reader,<br /><br />I remember reading an international survey of male shyness. The Middle East seemed to have the lowest incidence, but I don't have the survey in front of me.<br /><br />Malcolm,<br /><br />I understand your point, but no human understands language perfectly. That's why spoken language has so much redundancy. If we simply say the minimum necessary, there would be much more misunderstanding and confusion.<br /><br />What does it mean to be human? I find it hard to imagine a definition that would include 100% of all humans and exclude 100% of everything else.<br /><br />Anon,<br /><br />I don't believe that robots will hurt us employment-wise. The next robotic revolution will be the creation of personal robots that can interact with humans not only in terms of recognizing faces and understanding language, but also in terms of showing care and empathy. Most of those uses are too high-priced to be done now by people, so there will be no increase in unemployment. In the area of elder care, robots (or rather affective androids) will be taking jobs where the need for workers is rising steeply. Again, job losses will be minimal. As I see it, robotization will be a win-win for most people. For instance, many couples will no longer be sandwiched between caring for their kids and caring for their aging parents.<br /><br />I've learned to be skeptical about what I read in the media. People tend to look at the future through the lens of current hang-ups. They cannot, or don't wish to, understand the future on its own terms.<br />Peter Frostnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-19035729515122905822015-05-30T23:03:29.438-04:002015-05-30T23:03:29.438-04:00This attitude changed during the 1970s with the gr...<i>This attitude changed during the 1970s with the growing possibilities for outsourcing of high-wage manufacturing jobs to low-wage countries and, conversely, insourcing of low-wage workers into industries that could not outsource abroad (construction, services, etc.). </i><br /><br />Incidentally, recently just over the past couple of years, there's been a flurry of articles and stories in the US media about robots and the economy, specifically about how robots are going to take all these jobs away from people real soon now, including white collar professional jobs that had been relatively safe from outsourcing and insourcing. <br /><br />But unlike the pre-1970s depictions of robots and automation making ordinary middle class people incredibly wealthy and having great leisure, the depictions in the US media today portray these robots as putting even upper-middle class people out of work soon and making only a very small class of people wealthier. Moreover, these same articles and pundits are often pro-immigration despite claiming that robots will take away all these jobs soon. Which makes you wonder if they actually believe that such levels of automation will actually take place as soon as they say it will, or if they see it as a good excuse for the wage and job declines that presumably will continue due to the outsourcing and insourcing they're in favor of. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-90762034627717223382015-05-30T21:17:13.476-04:002015-05-30T21:17:13.476-04:00In the '60s there was a movie called, if I rem...In the '60s there was a movie called, if I remember properly, <i>The Genesis of the Androids</i>, in which a scientist discovers a way to download a human's memory and intellect into a robot, providing it is done right after a person dies. One of the protagonists discovers that this has been done to him, and he exclaims:"This is terrible! I'm just a soulless robot!"<br />At this point, the scientist asks, "If your leg was replaced by an artificial leg, would your soul be any smaller?" He then goes on: two legs, two arms, <i>etc</i>, and ends up: "You've been given a body transplant."<br />In point of fact, androids which can exactly mimic human behaviour and emotions are impossible, because it is impossible to accurately program them this way. I have explained this in one of my own blogs:<br /><a href="http://malcolmsscifi.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/machines-cannot-think-or-feel.html" rel="nofollow">http://malcolmsscifi.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/machines-cannot-think-or-feel.html</a><br /><a href="http://malcolmsscifi.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/the-future-of-robotics_1.html" rel="nofollow">http://malcolmsscifi.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/the-future-of-robotics_1.html </a>Malcolm Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00672612354161787023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-6617993565327051852015-05-30T17:27:31.172-04:002015-05-30T17:27:31.172-04:00A low sex drive is related to low testosterone. So...A low sex drive is related to low testosterone. Some of its other markers, also applicable to Asian men, are little to no body hair, as well as very good scalp hair growth. Now, there are races with high levels of testosterone. In Turkey, young men are very aggressive sexually, and interviews with local women show that's what they actually like. <br /><br />Which leads me to my thesis: The levels of testosterone in a given ethnicity are sexually selected for by the local women. Peter, it's not necessarily a "problem" that Asian men are "shy." In the current low-testosterone Asian man we see the result of the actual mating preferences of Asian females. In contrast, Middle-Eastern women like to see their men aggressive, masculine, and lustful, selecting for the dominance of those genes.Readernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-14272551229143767412015-05-30T16:50:18.302-04:002015-05-30T16:50:18.302-04:00Perhaps related:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/1...Perhaps related:<br /><br />http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/12/world/asia/osaka-mascot-cull/<br /><br />"Mascots, known locally as yuru-kyara ("loose" or "relaxed" characters), are ubiquitous in Japan, and are used to promote everything from soap, food and train lines, to regions of Japan and even prisons. They come in every conceivable shape and size, including some downright bizarre creations, and are often conceived of and designed by amateurs, a fact that is often all too apparent.<br /><br />But despite the oftentimes amateur nature of some of these beloved characters, it's safe to say that Japan is truly enamored -- or obsessed, to quote one editorial -- with these guys.<br /><br />Noriko Nakano of the Japan Local Character Association told CNN by email that the Japanese have a long-lasting, deep emotional bond to "non-human" characters, with roots buried deep in an ancient polytheism. "Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-60209529593533459062015-05-30T11:49:00.133-04:002015-05-30T11:49:00.133-04:00Ummm, spoiler alerts, Peter? :) I haven't yet ...Ummm, spoiler alerts, Peter? :) I haven't yet seen <i>Ex Machina</i> and a few other of these films but would like to. <br /><br />In any case, on the Japanese:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/26/robear-japan-caregiver/" rel="nofollow">Robear is a robot bear that can care for the elderly</a><br /><br /><i>"In a study of 61 love doll owners, Valverde (2012) found them to be no different from the general population in terms of psychosexual functioning and life satisfaction."</i><br /><br />No difference, huh? Other than <i>owning a love doll</i>. :)<br /><br /><i>"But will the Japanese succeed? I cannot say for sure. I can only say there is a lot of pent-up demand for personal robots, especially androids with affective capabilities"</i><br /><br />Oh?<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3jCGZhWJnA<br /><br />Very clever post. I'll have more to say over at Unz's.<br /><br />(As an aside, the "I'm not a robot" box in the commenting panel seems to have a real special import for this post.)JayManhttp://jaymans.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-74092987331361405492015-05-30T11:46:35.263-04:002015-05-30T11:46:35.263-04:00The way Japan is treated by the west because it do...The way Japan is treated by the west because it does not buy into the immigration propaganda is truly nauseating. However, I'd neither want to be treated by a robot nor a NAM. Instead, I'll simply use the charchoal-burning suicide method or buy nitrogen and inhale that using a diving mask. There is no reason to live 100 years, or live at all if you're too weak to even read and write. Life is not worth it then, life is only worth it as long as you can work and are able to care for yourself. This is where I side with Sister Y from the View from Hell: suicide needs to get better promoted and seen as a valuable and worthy goal once you have enough or are getting too old.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-78403663417292854712015-05-30T11:12:48.439-04:002015-05-30T11:12:48.439-04:00The only serious movie about androids is A.I.The only serious movie about androids is A.I.FredRnoreply@blogger.com