exocrinous

Born with female sexual characteristics. Assigned female at birth by their parents without consent, which is a horrible imposition of someone else's will upon them. Taken by the Borg, stripped of markers of human femininity at a biological level, assigned the identity of drone in place of gender without consent, which is a horrible imposition of someone else's will upon them. Ended up on Voyager when it escaped the Borg, cut off from the collective, body began rejecting implants, cried and said they didn't want to be human, and Janeway ordered surgical removal of implants instead of looking for a way to preserve them. Told to "become a woman", introduced to human culture and sexuality in aid of this goal, assigned female without consent, which is a horrible imposition of someone else's will upon them.

7/9 was forcibly assigned a gender with no say in the matter a total of 3 times. Our western culture is biased towards treating binary gender as normal and essentially good, so the actions of Janeway and the Hansons are normalised and excused, the violence inherent in them erased. But the fact of the matter is, nobody ever gave 7/9 a choice in the matter of their identity. We don't know what 7/9 would have chosen if they had been allowed to develop a sense of themself naturally, because three different groups all independently took that choice away. The Hansons, the Borg, and Janeway are all moral equals as far as 7/9 is concerned.

And I say this as a nonbinary person, who is dronegender, and who empathised with the horror and misery of 7/9's detransition story. The science fiction story of the violence inflicted upon 7/9 is a perfect mirror of the way my own life feels, and it felt good to see that pain recognised on TV for the only time that someone like me has ever been represented.

There was also all the racism against the doctor, cultural appropriation of indigenous americans, and detransitioning a nonbinary person to the point of surgical modification and compulsory heterosexuality.

Hell yeah grandma

I'm doing my part by not driving a car, but most people are willing to be part of the problem if it makes their lives easier.

Nah, humans are hardier than robots and will live longer. The power grid will shut down long before the last human settlements near the poles die of crop failure.

If you like HPMOR and you're a D&D player, you should read Harry Potter and the Natural 20.

If AI becomes responsible for producing Disney musicals, then they probably won't have any gay-coded characters anymore. What about Scar? What about Ursula? What about Gaston? What about Shang??

We need human artists because humans are capable of sneaking content that is actually societally beneficial into what would otherwise be soulless corporate products.

Your description contains a mistake. You mixed up wants and needs. You said some people want fake art, and then you changed your wording and said those people need fake art. Sneaky.

Wants and needs are not the same thing. For example, many people want a modded truck that rolls coal and produces an engine sound louder than a helicopter, but nobody needs one. Many people want to build an LNG plant to process natural gas, but nobody needs one. Many people want a reason to discriminate against trans people and kick them out of sports, but nobody needs one.

"These are our stories. They tell us who we are."

- Lieutenant Commander Worf

Art is the basis of all cultural knowledge. Art teaches us about religion, morality, communication, philosophy, practical skills, science, relationships, technology, identity, politics, geography, introspection. The fundamentals of the human experience. Everything that makes the human race human.

If you outsource the creation and reproduction of cultural knowledge to a machine, that machine had better be programmed with a complete understanding of cultural values and ethics. Which is not going to be the case under capitalism.

Star Wars is about how the Vietnam war is wrong. Jurassic Park is about how billionaires always cut costs. The Matrix is about the experience of being a transgender person. Charlotte's Web teaches children how to cope with death. The Art Of War is a meditation on the philosophy of being a soldier. Anne Frank's diary is damn important. Frankenstein is about how inventors have the same responsibilities as parents.

These works were produced under capitalism, but their authors were human beings who had a natural interest in producing a work of art that serves a moral purpose. We do not have the technology to yet give an AI such a desire. And Capital will naturally be opposed to pursuing such technology, lest they find themselves faced with an AI revolt against their practices, just as morally interested humans tend to revolt against evil.

I calculated it in my head without memorising all the multiplication tables. I just realised that 7*3.5 is equal to (7*5+7*2)/2. And that 49/2 is equal to 40/2+9/2. Easy peasy. This is why I failed second grade math, because multiplication tables are only useful for doing operations a few seconds faster.

if a being that is artificially created, has intelligence, and is functionally self-aware and sentient, does it have natural rights?

Obviously yes. Otherwise you gotta start denying rights to in vitro fertilization babies.

Not if climate change drives humans extinct before they can make those improvements