Sometimes someone will ask a Rapid Offensive Unit why it, a fully automated warship, keeps a human crew. Many ROUs don't, but those who do say that having humans around is nice. They're good company on long voyages, and fun at parties. Fellow Minds contacted over hyperspace comm channels may make for faster and more erudite conversational partners, but there's just something nice about having a bunch of little guys inside you. Humans are always up to something interesting.
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Mortality is voluntary in the Culture. You can back up your consciousness or not, it's your choice. Millions of people choose whether to be immortal based on what social media influences say is the current fashion. Every few years the fad switches from "it's important to practice good safety" to "life is only precious if it's finite" and back again. Nobody is going to force you into either choice, it's up to you.
Masaq' Orbital is a ringworld orbiting a slightly unstable sun. It has a very high backup rate in case a solar flare destroys it (which has never happened, but it might in the future). Because of the high backup rate, it's also home to the most dangerous extreme sports. If you want to fly in a wingsuit or go lava-rafting across the unfinished plates, knock yourself out.
Most organic culture citizens live hundreds of years thanks to good healthcare and ethical genetic engineering. They also have 200 artificial glands full of non-addictive psychoactive drugs, which can be activated with a thought. Some people use them for improved focus or other useful things, but mostly they're used for recreation.
There are no laws. Nobody steals, because nothing is scarce. Some people murder, but then a drone follows them around to stop them from doing it again, and they don't get invited to the cool parties anymore. Very few people intentionally hurt others, because very few people want to be thought of as a loser.
A more grounded version would see humans gradually becoming pets because it was the best option rather than by the aliens turning those that fight them the hardest into slaves.
That's what I thought HDG was before today! That's what I wanted, not apolitical subslop. I've been seriously misled by my friend who's into this fandom!
Also, the name sucks. A human domestication guide would be a resource for affini. The name implies an affini point of view. I was so shocked when I learned florets are almost always the point of view character and there's nothing in this setting for people who want to keep humans as pets. What's the point of the name then!
I haven't read any HDG yet. I was planning to at some point, but after hearing they try to avoid writing about politics, I've lost interest. Science fiction has always been political, and it needs to be taken seriously. We can't be treating slavery uncritically, even in kink, or we become accustomed to destructive ways of thinking. We should use science fiction as a tool to look within ourselves from a new perspective, and develop our ideas of right and wrong. If we're into bondage and pet play, then we should use science fiction to examine what that kink means to us and come to understand ourselves better.
I like The Culture. Culture Minds keep humans as pets, but more like free range cats than like dogs. The humans have absolute freedom to stay or go as they please, and are treated like small and weak equals, not property. It's definitely not slavery, it's anarcho-communism.
Human Domestication Guide is a collaborative writing project about alien plant dommy mummies who keep human pets and do lots of imperialism, but nice. Instead of killing political dissidents, they use mind control pheromones and forcefem them
You would not believe the rabbit hole you sent me on today. Or maybe you would. Here's the end of it: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/36083095
I'm mostly mad that the cool dommy plant ladies I heard about aren't cool or hot at all. I'm only attracted to three dimensional characters, I can't believe these submissives would make a perfectly good alien species and then neuter their presentation by being all apolitical
- JumpRemoved
Trust Us, Bro.
Hey, I'll have you know fetish fanfics and community writing projects can be amazing. Look at SCP's Antimemetics Division, or... um... well I want to give an example of the former but I don't want to make my kink list known to lemmy...
But anyway, if HDG writers can spend 10 hours worldbuilding a feminine plant penis but draw the line at portraying the character doing her job... well I'm afraid the transbians have re-invented misogyny. Fetishising a character whose internal world you refuse to explore is what men have been doing to women for the past 3000 years. We're just reducing dominant women to sex objects instead of all women this time.
See, I knew that when I first heard of them months ago, but just today I learned apparently the Affini aren't the protagonists? Apparently it's against the wiki rules to write stories about Affini culture and politics, because their whole society outside of the florets is noodle incidents?
I assumed the Affini were nuanced and relatable characters because I need to understand someone's internality in order to goon to them, but apparently the fanbase is all submissives who don't like to think about politics?
I gotta say, if that's the case I prefer the Culture a million times more. Minds keep humans as pets but also have political intrigues going on that the story is actually about. And they can still be hot!
You'll probably learn a lot from looking up attachment theory
You're welcome!
When you make an account on any social media moderated by someone else, you're putting them in a position of power over you. We haven't yet figured out a technology for social media without these hierarchies, and until we do, the only choice we can make is who to give power over ourselves.
People want you to make an informed and measured choice on who to give power over yourself.
When the Hungarian workers revolted against the Soviet Union with demands like a minimum wage and the right to strike, Stalin sent in the army with tanks to put down the revolution. Many Stalin supporters said this was justified.
A tankie is one of those supporters who will make excuses for the use of tanks to suppress rebellion.
Only Furies who picked the Stormwight subclass. The other subclasses can't turn into animals
Imho it's perfectly valid to have your goal to be a lifestyle sub 24/7, but you do have to accept the fact that most partners who are willing to lifestyle dom with no breaks are abusers, so you have a very high chance of being unhappy. Good doms who don't ever need a break are as rare as unicorns, so you'd better have plenty to offer them.
Then again, a lot of people looking for this kind of relationship on some psychological level want to be abused. It's a learned helplessness thing. Some people have lost so much of their ability to trust others, they need a partner who acts abusively (or pretends to) so they can let go of that feeling of paranoia that it's going to get worse. So they can stop looking over their shoulder and waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's not rational, but that's the kind of person you create when you abuse children. They grow up into adults who don't know what to do with themselves in a healthy relationship.
This author makes some iffy points about trans people and needs to be told how to separate constructive criticism from kink shaming, but otherwise I found their piece very informative and interesting https://archiveofourown.org/works/55277848
I have more fun having sex with a person than a doll. Well, except for dollgirls, but that's another conversation. People are political creatures. Take the politics out of a person, and a doll is what you get. How can a plant be hot if she isn't a nuanced individual? If a plant is turning me into a pet, she better exist as an individual (or a hivemind, I'll admit) situated within a cultural context, with an internal world and life experiences. Otherwise what's the point? You might as well tie yourself up for all the masturbatory character of the act!
The HDG fandom somehow found a way to take the doms out of domination, and it's as soulless as AI art