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tbf if you're working with software which is context aware enough to usually generate plausible sounding text-responses, training it to usually identify stuff y

tbf if you're working with software which is context aware enough to usually generate plausible sounding text-responses, training it to usually identify stuff you think is bad is a closely related problem. (Sure, there's still a fine line between "sick fantasy" and "Stephen King novel", but your procedural text generator has to attempt to handle that to not disgust its customers anyway.)

ben_w 6y ago
> there's still a fine line between "sick fantasy" and "Stephen King novel" Surely the important distinction is not the text itself but which character a reader empathises with — the monster or the victim. (Personally I don’t understand why violent horror as a genre exists, and literally cannot empathise with people who enjoy it. Nonetheless I recognise that enjoyment of horror does not make one a monster).
- scandox 6y ago
  Thomas Ligotti proposes a theory which I will paraphrase badly as "people who like horror need a horrific reality they can cope with, because the horror of actual existence is something they cannot face". This rather neatly makes those who do not like Horror the insensitive ones, reversing the more conventional view. There's a bunch of other stuff about The Nightmare of Consciousness and so on in his book The Conspiracy Against the Human Race.
- karlp 6y ago
  > Personally I don’t understand why violent horror as a genre exists, and literally cannot empathise with people who enjoy it. What's wrong with it as entertainment?
  - ben_w 6y ago
    No matter what the calm and rational part of my mind tries to suggest, the louder emotional part of my mind is shouting the following: """You’re entertained by torture and murder of characters who had done nothing deserving of such suffering.""" That part of me wants to continue with a long rant, but by this point my rational self can sit my emotional self down with a nice cup of tea and a biscuit.
- mLuby 6y ago
  Horror stimulates some brains and overstimulates others, just as Golf stimulates some brains and understimulates others.
  - ben_w 6y ago
    Knowing the underlying mechanism does nothing to create empathy. Sympathy, humility against my own feelings, sure. Not empathy.
Natsu 6y ago
> Sure, there's still a fine line between "sick fantasy" and "Stephen King novel" Not sure how much of a line that is, didn't "It' have an underage sex scene in it? Wouldn't it get banned here, too?

ben_w 6y ago

> there's still a fine line between "sick fantasy" and "Stephen King novel" Surely the important distinction is not the text itself but which character a reader empathises with — the monster or the victim. (Personally I don’t understand why violent horror as a genre exists, and literally cannot empathise with people who enjoy it. Nonetheless I recognise that enjoyment of horror does not make one a monster).

scandox 6y ago
Thomas Ligotti proposes a theory which I will paraphrase badly as "people who like horror need a horrific reality they can cope with, because the horror of actual existence is something they cannot face". This rather neatly makes those who do not like Horror the insensitive ones, reversing the more conventional view. There's a bunch of other stuff about The Nightmare of Consciousness and so on in his book The Conspiracy Against the Human Race.
karlp 6y ago
> Personally I don’t understand why violent horror as a genre exists, and literally cannot empathise with people who enjoy it. What's wrong with it as entertainment?
- ben_w 6y ago
  No matter what the calm and rational part of my mind tries to suggest, the louder emotional part of my mind is shouting the following: """You’re entertained by torture and murder of characters who had done nothing deserving of such suffering.""" That part of me wants to continue with a long rant, but by this point my rational self can sit my emotional self down with a nice cup of tea and a biscuit.
mLuby 6y ago
Horror stimulates some brains and overstimulates others, just as Golf stimulates some brains and understimulates others.
- ben_w 6y ago
  Knowing the underlying mechanism does nothing to create empathy. Sympathy, humility against my own feelings, sure. Not empathy.

Natsu 6y ago

> Sure, there's still a fine line between "sick fantasy" and "Stephen King novel" Not sure how much of a line that is, didn't "It' have an underage sex scene in it? Wouldn't it get banned here, too?