No sex

[Nearly Sane]

I am saying the opposite HH. 

I am saying that Britain is not so over crowded that the mechanisms that ekim has mentioned should be set in motion there.  So it is surprising that people in Britain don't find the Japan experience unusual.

I think you are misinterpreting here that people don't think something scary or sad, is not the same as thinking it us usual. Plus it's worth noting that while Britain is 'relatively' low down in population density, England isn't.

[Harrowby Hall]

Sorry - I got hold of the wrong end of Sriram's stick!

I actually do side with him. (As I write, the Radio4 PM problem is doing an item on Japan and no sex.)

I'm probably with Sriram here. My 33 years of marriage were the most fulfilling and precious of my life.

[Sriram]

Sorry - I got hold of the wrong end of Sriram's stick!

I actually do side with him. (As I write, the Radio4 PM problem is doing an item on Japan and no sex.)

I'm probably with Sriram here. My 33 years of marriage were the most fulfilling and precious of my life.

Agree about marriage and family. 

[Shaker]

Other people's mileage may vary.

[Sriram]

Sorry - I got hold of the wrong end of Sriram's stick!

I actually do side with him. (As I write, the Radio4 PM problem is doing an item on Japan and no sex.)

I'm probably with Sriram here. My 33 years of marriage were the most fulfilling and precious of my life.

I have had a good career, rose to senior positions in the corporate world, made some money and retired after 35 years.  But I hardly remember all of that and it doesn't mean very much to me today. What I  remember happily is my family. I remember  the times spent with my wife, my parents, my in laws. I cherish the  time spent with my children as they grew up, teaching them things, showing them the world, enjoying movies, eating in restaurants, going for holidays.

I am sure most of our forefathers were like that and  many people are like that even today. 

I can understand a few people being dedicated to some special cause and giving up on sex and family life.  But how nearly 50% of youngsters can do that,  for routine jobs, is beyond me. A sign of the times I suppose! Nature is telling us something here!!

PS: Maybe the focus on AI and robotics in Japan has something to do with it.......   

[ekim]

PS: Maybe the focus on AI and robotics in Japan has something to do with it.......   

You could be right Sriram ..... http://tinyurl.com/y7bsmogj

[Robbie]

Agree about marriage and family. 

So do I - 31 years to date.

But:

Other people's mileage may vary.

Agree with that too.

I think it's just the way things are or appear to be in Japan at this time, not anything to worry about.
At the same time I think it's good that people enjoy being single.

[Sriram]

You could be right Sriram ..... http://tinyurl.com/y7bsmogj

Thanks ekim.

Yes...amazing how the human mind is able to accept even a doll as a companion.  We all do it when we are children I suppose, when we have not yet learnt to adjust to our real world.  But adults doing it can be a sign of a disorder. If more and more people start doing it,  it could lead to a major calamity in that society.

It could lead to population reduction eventually of course, but a rather bizarre way to achieve it IMO.  Nature can be ruthless sometimes.....like a river that is overflowing will go any which way possible.

[Robbie]

Using dolls is, to me, really weird but frankly i find it difficult to believe the practice is that widespread.

[torridon]

You could be right Sriram ..... http://tinyurl.com/y7bsmogj

I'm not going to ask how come you are familiar with rubber doll sites ....

[torridon]

Thanks ekim.

Yes...amazing how the human mind is able to accept even a doll as a companion.  We all do it when we are children I suppose, when we have not yet learnt to adjust to our real world.  But adults doing it can be a sign of a disorder. If more and more people start doing it,  it could lead to a major calamity in that society.

The Japan case illustrates why I would expect that humans will be falling in love with their domestic synths in the future.  If it looks like a human and talks like a human and walks like a human, we will take it for a human.

I have an Amazon Echo in my home and although I know it is an artificial intelligence machine, I find myself talking to it with politeness and courtesy as I would if it were another human.

[Shaker]

I have had a good career, rose to senior positions in the corporate world, made some money and retired after 35 years.  But I hardly remember all of that and it doesn't mean very much to me today. What I  remember happily is my family. I remember  the times spent with my wife, my parents, my in laws. I cherish the  time spent with my children as they grew up, teaching them things, showing them the world, enjoying movies, eating in restaurants, going for holidays.

I am sure most of our forefathers were like that and  many people are like that even today. 

I can understand a few people being dedicated to some special cause and giving up on sex and family life.  But how nearly 50% of youngsters can do that,  for routine jobs, is beyond me. A sign of the times I suppose!

Vastly more likely, AFAICS, to be a sign of your failure not so much of imagination as of empathy.

You are not all the world and all the world isn't you. Not everybody thinks of what you think of as important as important.

There are lots of people (in India I'd have thought you would have noticed) and that means that what people consider a fulfilling, worthwhile, meaningful and purposeful life will vary. Vary quite a lot.

Fallacies of antiquity ("people have done this for a long, long time") and numbers ("lots of people do this") are fallacies when mounted as would-be arguments so don't even go there. Just don't. We're good at this shit; you're not. You'll get soundly spanked and you won't like it.

I can't believe I'm having to say this to another adult, but quite obviously in some cases it seems necessary.

[The Accountant, OBE, KC]

Haha - Shaker you are funny - it's the way you tell 'em.

Sriram - don't worry about Shaker - he couldn't spank a fly if his life depended upon it but he's amusing enough. We like diversity here so your views are as welcome as anyone else's.

[Shaker]

Haha - Shaker you are funny - it's the way you tell 'em.

Sriram - don't worry about Shaker - he couldn't spank a fly if his life depended upon it but he's amusing enough.

A notably poor effort even by what for want of a better word I shall call your standards.

We like diversity here so your views are as welcome as anyone else's.

Speaking very much for yourself there, evidently.

[Sriram]

Haha - Shaker you are funny - it's the way you tell 'em.

Sriram - don't worry about Shaker - he couldn't spank a fly if his life depended upon it but he's amusing enough. We like diversity here so your views are as welcome as anyone else's.

  Well said! The thread on 'Atheists less tolerant' comes to mind!   

I have never hesitated to express my views on any subject even when the whole lot of folks on this board (and BBC) have fallen on me like a ton of bricks!!   

So...why would I take him seriously!   Them and their 'fallacies'!!   

Some people seek attention through ad hominem and supposedly 'clever' one liners, rather than through serious views and ideas.   But having said that, the situation was quite 'violent' some years back....it is much less so now. Not bad!

Thanks anyway Gabriella. 

[Sriram]

The Japan case illustrates why I would expect that humans will be falling in love with their domestic synths in the future.  If it looks like a human and talks like a human and walks like a human, we will take it for a human.

I have an Amazon Echo in my home and although I know it is an artificial intelligence machine, I find myself talking to it with politeness and courtesy as I would if it were another human.

Maybe at one level we are still like animals and are unable to distinguish between natural and synthetic.   Our instinctive reactions probably arise based only on visual and auditory cues. Our movie experiences are an example.

But at another level we humans certainly can and should use our discretion and powers of discrimination to act in certain ways knowing what is real and what is not. 

[Shaker]

So...why would I take him seriously!   Them and their 'fallacies'!!   

Er no ... it's actually you and yours.

Some people deploy them constantly (seemingly without either knowing or caring that they're doing so), some of us merely point out that fact ... every fucking day

And so the first group get edgy and defensive that their fallacious thinking has been identified as such, and whine about the second lot.

Come on over to the Christian Topic; it's a daily occurrence there.

[ekim]

I'm not going to ask how come you are familiar with rubber doll sites ....

What's a rubber doll site?

[The Accountant, OBE, KC]

A notably poor effort even by what for want of a better word I shall call your standards. Speaking very much for yourself there, evidently.

That's the thing - I don't think I am speaking just for myself. I think other people also welcome your diverse views on here Shaker. Even when you have an over-inflated view of your abilities.

[Shaker]

That's the thing - I don't think I am speaking just for myself. I think other people also welcome your diverse views on here Shaker. Even when you have an over-inflated view of your abilities.

Alas, the only over-inflation of abilities around here comes from the likes of the egregious Burns (for example) and his one-man mission to get people to believe in his god via his stunning arsenal of howling logical fallacies.

This is after all a man who claims absolute certainty.

If I had an over-inflated sense of my abilities I would consider him capable of rational thought and able to advance a non-fallacious argument for us to take seriously. He clearly isn't.

[Nearly Sane]

Of course lots of people are still having sex and babies, arguably too many


https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jul/09/2017-the-year-we-lost-control-of-world-population-surge-london-family-planning-contraception-summit-trump

[jeremyp]

Sorry - I got hold of the wrong end of Sriram's stick!

I actually do side with him. (As I write, the Radio4 PM problem is doing an item on Japan and no sex.)

I'm probably with Sriram here. My 33 years of marriage were the most fulfilling and precious of my life.

I hope you are feeling nice and smug and superior about it.

I, on the other hand am quite comfortable in the knowledge that my carbon footprint is vastly smaller than that of almost anybody in this country who has children.

[Nearly Sane]

I hope you are feeling nice and smug and superior about it.

I, on the other hand am quite comfortable in the knowledge that my carbon footprint is vastly smaller than that of almost anybody in this country who has children.

Don't see any comment about children. Nor do I see anything smug or superior in HH's post.

[Rhiannon]

Agree, NS. The years of my marriage were the worst of my life but I can appreciate that for others they are something good and fine. And marriage doesn't necessarily mean having children.

And I note the smugness there from Jeremy about his carbon footprint. He can enjoy that when my kids are paying their taxes in order to fund the stuff his generation wants and uses in a few years' time.

[Sriram]

I think people are increasingly becoming robotic.  Reluctant to show emotions, scared to approach the opposite sex, scared to commit to any relationship, frightened of personal responsibilities, seeking immediate rewards for any work done, always trying to be politically correct, scared of causing offence.... and many more such things.

All this drains us of our natural and spontaneous actions and reactions.  Giving in to natural impulses can be scary and sometimes even an offence.