5 ms·

This is just a form of digital makeup. I predict that using a young attractive avatar will become the social norm and this sort of thing will be entirely unobj

by cwkoss 7y ago

This is just a form of digital makeup. I predict that using a young attractive avatar will become the social norm and this sort of thing will be entirely unobjectionable within a decade.

devoply 7y ago
Yeah pretty much. And no one should be against this. This is allowing people to be who they want to be instead of being limited by who they are... It is no different than someone getting plastic surgery to change their appearance... which I guess some people still despise but I don't see it any differently from someone who is transgender and wants to get an operation and drugs to make them more like their chosen gender.
- flagfeedingusa1 7y ago
  Why can't people just learn to be happy with who they are? Perhaps the truly toxic individuals are the ones telling everyone they should indeed undergo hormone replacement therapy, invasive surgeries and other life changing decisions. Maybe people need to actually accept who they are and by extension what they look like to actually find inner peace, and chopping off your genitals may not be the way to do that.
- sdegutis 7y ago
  "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The words vanity and vain come from the Latin word for empty, or without substance or value. When we alter our appearance, it's because we put value or merit in something that inherently has no merit. We all want a reason to hold our head up high. Some look for it in athletics, others in academia, others in financial success. This woman looked for it by faking her physical appearance. But the best reason is something we can't merit: we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are all little images of God, and if we truly understand that we have inherent dignity, then nobody can take that from us, no matter how poor or ugly or uneducated we are. And then we won't feel the need to put ourselves high up. And we won't feel the need to put others below us. We'll want others to know their own dignity, so they might stand tall with us!
  - devoply 7y ago
    > we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are all little images of God, and if we truly understand that we have inherent dignity, then nobody can take that from us, no matter how poor or ugly or uneducated we are. That's pretty easy when you invent a God. Rhetorical non-sense aside, fact is that appearance matters to people a lot... as does age. Making up rhetoric does not fix any of this, and only makes people's biases more subconscious. The best way to overcome their biases is technology, rather than words... as you can not subvert what you are seeing, as seeing is believing, where can easily subvert what you claim you believe.
    - sdegutis 7y ago
      > fact is that appearance matters to people a lot Appearance matters even taking God into account. How we dress is a silent way of communicating to others what we value, what our business is, what kind of extra dignities we have, and how we think of others. If for no good reason, the President went to the store in either his pajamas or renaissance clothing at 2pm on a Wednesday, he wouldn't be conveying his dignity as leader of a whole nation, he wouldn't be properly communicating his business there, he would be communicating his values, and he would be setting an example and a precedent.
      - pjc50 7y ago
        I have some bad news for you about the Presidential Twitter feed.
        sdegutis 7y ago
        The more Fulton Sheen shows I watch, the more I realize that Idiocracy doesn't have to continue to become a documentary. But that's going to require a moral change, especially among our youth. That's not the main reason I study morality and train my children in it, but if more parents do likewise, we'll have a very real chance of turning the country around. Unfortunately, most adults I've met believe the same thing I was taught growing up: there are no absolute truths or absolute morals, you have to come up with them yourself, etc. That's how you get Trump for President.
CM30 7y ago
To be honest, it's kind of already happening. It's long been a trend for certain people to use cartoon representations of themselves that look a lot younger/more conventionally attractive than they may be in 'real life', and there are quite a few YouTubers and Twitch streamers using either animated portraits of themselves or fictional characters as their avatars. The big difference in future will be that more people will be using avatars that look more like actual people/deaged photographs of themselves instead.
lostphilosopher 7y ago
David Foster Wallace predicted not only that, but its rise and fall. http://declineofscarcity.com/?page_id=2527 http://declineofscarcity.com/?page_id=2527
- Balgair 7y ago
  Great Read! I'm reminded of a Nebula(?) Award winning short story about hive-rats interacting with nobility in the 'future'. The nobility is shrouded in apperance/voice/stim tech such that the AIs are more the person than anything. A princess is brought to the under-city by her father to a shop that can fix the princess' tech, as it is malfunctioning. The daughter of the shop owner tries to peer into the princess' life and psyche as the shop owner tries to fix the princess. The princess has implants that stimulate her face, voice, and body to say the right things at the right times, to move the right way, that changes her face via lightsheets to be most beautiful to the observer she is with, that causes her to say just the right thing at just the right time and be increbily witty. But the daughter of the shop owner tries to peer through the tech to see the woman behind the veil. She discovers that the person behind it all is nearly mute and has the intelligence of an infant. The tech had been installed before ego formation and the person behind it all didn't really exist. She discovers it is also true of the man that brought the princess down to them too. The entire nobility is essentially faking it. I am SO sorry that I cannot find the link to the actual story. If anyone has the title or author, I would love to know!
  - peorthyr 7y ago
    I'm really curios about it, do you remember at least the year?
  - lostphilosopher 7y ago
    Do report back if you find it! I'll check it out. Part of the premise of the Deus Ex games (thinking specifically of Mankind Divided) is "augmentations" that can make people better in all kinds of ways, but are generally only available to the wealthy elite which leads to all kinds of trouble. What happens when the "elite" don't just seem better - but objectively (and universally) _are_ by real measures. Longer and more accurate memories, longer life spans, more knowledge of their surroundings, better judges of character, stronger, faster, smarter - etc. Not necessarily "faking it" they really do remember more, but that's because they can store their memories in a chip in their head. All at a cost that prevents the 99% from having these advantages. (Though, the progress made by these folks can be broadly beneficial.) Yes, yes, I know somebody is already itching to comment that this is present state - I'll leave you to it.

by cwkoss 7y ago

This is just a form of digital makeup. I predict that using a young attractive avatar will become the social norm and this sort of thing will be entirely unobjectionable within a decade.

devoply 7y ago

Yeah pretty much. And no one should be against this. This is allowing people to be who they want to be instead of being limited by who they are... It is no different than someone getting plastic surgery to change their appearance... which I guess some people still despise but I don't see it any differently from someone who is transgender and wants to get an operation and drugs to make them more like their chosen gender.

flagfeedingusa1 7y ago
Why can't people just learn to be happy with who they are? Perhaps the truly toxic individuals are the ones telling everyone they should indeed undergo hormone replacement therapy, invasive surgeries and other life changing decisions. Maybe people need to actually accept who they are and by extension what they look like to actually find inner peace, and chopping off your genitals may not be the way to do that.
sdegutis 7y ago
"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The words vanity and vain come from the Latin word for empty, or without substance or value. When we alter our appearance, it's because we put value or merit in something that inherently has no merit. We all want a reason to hold our head up high. Some look for it in athletics, others in academia, others in financial success. This woman looked for it by faking her physical appearance. But the best reason is something we can't merit: we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are all little images of God, and if we truly understand that we have inherent dignity, then nobody can take that from us, no matter how poor or ugly or uneducated we are. And then we won't feel the need to put ourselves high up. And we won't feel the need to put others below us. We'll want others to know their own dignity, so they might stand tall with us!
- devoply 7y ago
  > we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are all little images of God, and if we truly understand that we have inherent dignity, then nobody can take that from us, no matter how poor or ugly or uneducated we are. That's pretty easy when you invent a God. Rhetorical non-sense aside, fact is that appearance matters to people a lot... as does age. Making up rhetoric does not fix any of this, and only makes people's biases more subconscious. The best way to overcome their biases is technology, rather than words... as you can not subvert what you are seeing, as seeing is believing, where can easily subvert what you claim you believe.
  - sdegutis 7y ago
    > fact is that appearance matters to people a lot Appearance matters even taking God into account. How we dress is a silent way of communicating to others what we value, what our business is, what kind of extra dignities we have, and how we think of others. If for no good reason, the President went to the store in either his pajamas or renaissance clothing at 2pm on a Wednesday, he wouldn't be conveying his dignity as leader of a whole nation, he wouldn't be properly communicating his business there, he would be communicating his values, and he would be setting an example and a precedent.
    - pjc50 7y ago
      I have some bad news for you about the Presidential Twitter feed.
      - sdegutis 7y ago
        The more Fulton Sheen shows I watch, the more I realize that Idiocracy doesn't have to continue to become a documentary. But that's going to require a moral change, especially among our youth. That's not the main reason I study morality and train my children in it, but if more parents do likewise, we'll have a very real chance of turning the country around. Unfortunately, most adults I've met believe the same thing I was taught growing up: there are no absolute truths or absolute morals, you have to come up with them yourself, etc. That's how you get Trump for President.

CM30 7y ago

To be honest, it's kind of already happening. It's long been a trend for certain people to use cartoon representations of themselves that look a lot younger/more conventionally attractive than they may be in 'real life', and there are quite a few YouTubers and Twitch streamers using either animated portraits of themselves or fictional characters as their avatars. The big difference in future will be that more people will be using avatars that look more like actual people/deaged photographs of themselves instead.

lostphilosopher 7y ago

David Foster Wallace predicted not only that, but its rise and fall. http://declineofscarcity.com/?page_id=2527 http://declineofscarcity.com/?page_id=2527

Balgair 7y ago
Great Read! I'm reminded of a Nebula(?) Award winning short story about hive-rats interacting with nobility in the 'future'. The nobility is shrouded in apperance/voice/stim tech such that the AIs are more the person than anything. A princess is brought to the under-city by her father to a shop that can fix the princess' tech, as it is malfunctioning. The daughter of the shop owner tries to peer into the princess' life and psyche as the shop owner tries to fix the princess. The princess has implants that stimulate her face, voice, and body to say the right things at the right times, to move the right way, that changes her face via lightsheets to be most beautiful to the observer she is with, that causes her to say just the right thing at just the right time and be increbily witty. But the daughter of the shop owner tries to peer through the tech to see the woman behind the veil. She discovers that the person behind it all is nearly mute and has the intelligence of an infant. The tech had been installed before ego formation and the person behind it all didn't really exist. She discovers it is also true of the man that brought the princess down to them too. The entire nobility is essentially faking it. I am SO sorry that I cannot find the link to the actual story. If anyone has the title or author, I would love to know!
- peorthyr 7y ago
  I'm really curios about it, do you remember at least the year?
- lostphilosopher 7y ago
  Do report back if you find it! I'll check it out. Part of the premise of the Deus Ex games (thinking specifically of Mankind Divided) is "augmentations" that can make people better in all kinds of ways, but are generally only available to the wealthy elite which leads to all kinds of trouble. What happens when the "elite" don't just seem better - but objectively (and universally) _are_ by real measures. Longer and more accurate memories, longer life spans, more knowledge of their surroundings, better judges of character, stronger, faster, smarter - etc. Not necessarily "faking it" they really do remember more, but that's because they can store their memories in a chip in their head. All at a cost that prevents the 99% from having these advantages. (Though, the progress made by these folks can be broadly beneficial.) Yes, yes, I know somebody is already itching to comment that this is present state - I'll leave you to it.