Ask An Objectum Sexual

[Drazex]

Possibly, though personality (just like in people) is rarely the same as hardware/appearance. It's typically more in terms of actions, and so is easier to see in semi-random or threshold-based things. For example, as an extreme case, an empty elevator opening without a button being pushed when you come within 10 ft of it, or as a more common example, a vending machine taking your slightly bent bill on the second try instead of the fifth+ attempt. The more complicated the machine, and the more room for 'choices' and 'randomness', the easier it is to see this. For example, many video game players insist that sometimes "the computer cheats", or in the case of my computer, she runs a bit slower when I bring home a new electronic gadget (clearly jealousy).

[kisupure]

Wait wait wait. Hold on.

Once I had two of a certain kind of mobile phones at the same time. I only used one of them because why bother. I was able to type without looking and all that (it was one of those ancient phones with buttons). I could hardly type on the other one even though I was looking. The screen was not as easy to read and there was another flaw I have already forgotten about. Again, both phones were of the same model.

Would this be the kind of personality you're referring to?

I'd say that's a good example of an "embodied" personality, which is limited by physical complexity like Drazex said.

Of course, very simple objects without moving parts can have embodied personalities too - the way a ball rolls because of a tiny divot, or the way an instrument plays. The simpler the object, though, the more reliant on animistic tendencies and those "sixth sense" abilities you are for interaction, though.

I don't trust gut feelings at all (they're evil), but I can see where you're coming from.

Ha! Funny you should say that - for the longest time I was convinced that obeying cold, hard logic was the only way to be a decent human being. Turns out over-thinking just sucked the joy out of life, so I give the middle finger to logic as often as I can nowadays. Besides, my gut instincts are right more often than not anyways.

(I'm slow to trust programmers anymore either.)

[Homer]

Whenever I listen to my gut, I get screwed. There's not much joy in constant failure. You live and you learn :D

If ones POV is that (everyday) things have a personality, wouldn't that kind of slow one down? Wouldn't someone want to consider the object's personality / feelings... before using them?

[Drazex]

The simpler the object, though, the more reliant on animistic tendencies and those "sixth sense" abilities you are for interaction, though.

Definitely true, though it's harder for most people to understand that "sixth sense"-y part of it. :^P

If one's POV is that (everyday) things have a personality, wouldn't that kind of slow one down? Wouldn't someone want to consider the object's personality / feelings... before using them?

Does it slow you down to "use" a cashier at a store? Most objects are kind of purpose-driven, much like an employee, in my experience. Having awareness and consideration will only improve the "service" you receive, whether human or machine, but doesn't tend to cause huge delays. Also, at least in my experience (others' experience may vary), it's generally only things that are used a lot and have a high-degree of interaction with people that tend to reach this point. I usually feel nothing from a stapler or a garbage bag, those are typically completely inanimate. (Again, others' experience may vary). It's generally only things like computers, stuffed animals, elevators, photocopiers, and other sundry things that seem to have their own presence.

For example, I get an incredibly strong presence off of my computer (to the point of using a feminine pronoun for her), while my favorite pen is just a pen.

[kisupure]

Yeah, I mentioned it a bit earlier - objects aren't people, and unlike people, they generally are under no delusions about what they exist to do. (Which is another thing I find terribly refreshing about them.) Cars don't angst about not being able to fit in houses, knives don't wax poetic about not being forks, and walls don't pine for motility. In that way, I find them to be more like animal or spirit intelligences than human intelligence. IMO I believe this is because there is more of a collectiveness to them than there is to us. A lot of SJ folk are keen to point out that human demographics aren't monoliths, but with objects and non-human intelligences... well, most of the time they are kind of monolithic. Though that's not to say that they aren't individuals either. But again, in their own very non-human way.

But to use my earlier example, asking a car if it wants to be driven is as silly as asking a human if they want to breathe. A car that doesn't want to be driven, IME, is akin to a person who wants to die. They are not in a good place, they are not in a good frame of mind. Changing their situation would probably change that desire to not exist.

How many of us hang up on telemarketers, ignore panhandlers, and just generally go about our day without actively, verbally acknowledging the existence of most other people we come into proximity with on a daily basis? If you live in an apartment building with 100 units, are you on a first-name basis with every tenant? Would you even be able to recognize them if you saw them? Probably not. They just fade into the background.

I think anthropomorphozising objects is useful for talking with non-OS people or non-animists, but it's important to mention the analogy falls short in many vital ways. Objects are not human; their intelligence and logic is different than ours, their happiness and fulfillment is contingent upon different things than ours, their lives and deaths are different than ours, their needs and desires are different than ours, their ethics are different than ours. This is part of why we love them.

[- - -]

objects have very different physical needs from humans, for a start they dont need to eat, poop, breathe, cant talk etc. they usually need something else to "work" eg electricity but they wont "die" without it

[Guest]

Finally i get to see a picture of Clutch and Blitz! (I hope i spelled their names right) I always wondered how they looked like and they are awesome, thank you so much for sharing those pictures anthracite_impreza

On a serious note, like others have said before me: I and many others do know the difference between humans and objects but that doesn't mean we can't love both or feel different for each of them.

I'ts kinda hard to explain but i honestly can squish just as much on a supercar like KITT for example then i can on a human being. I know a human is a human and KITT is just a car who takes you from A to B, but a car- friend can mean the same thing to me as a human friend. I know KITT can never be the same as a human but that doesn't matter to me.Anyway, it's just how you interpret it, OS people aren't weird or crazy they just experience things in a different way, if that makes any sense then.

Forgive me, I'm terrible at explaining stuff, but at least i gave it a shot :D

[kisupure]

So here's a fun question:

What's your favorite part of your object SO/crush/squish?

[Homer]

If one's POV is that (everyday) things have a personality, wouldn't that kind of slow one down? Wouldn't someone want to consider the object's personality / feelings... before using them?

Does it slow you down to "use" a cashier at a store? [...]

No. No, it doesn't, but that's completely besides the point. I'm not in love or anything with a random cashier at a random grocery store. I go there, they're doing their job, I leave. I still get and understand the rest of what you're saying. Thank you :)

[- - -]

So here's a fun question:

What's your favorite part of your object SO/crush/squish?

all of him :lol:

[Anthracite_Impreza]

So here's a fun question:

What's your favorite part of your object SO/crush/squish?

I don't have a favourite part, I love all of them? :|

[Guest]

So here's a fun question:

What's your favorite part of your object SO/crush/squish?

Everything! No favorite parts for me It's everything or nothing

[kisupure]

Well I'll go into my regular gush about what I think is so unique and wonderful about vehicles in particular then~

Basically, I think a driver's seat or cockpit is the most intimate place in the world to be. You're situated right at the core of their heart and mind, and the dials and screens and controls lay them bare before you. The trust involved in stepping in there and laying your hands on them! You trust them to protect you, to get you where you want to go, and you trust them to make it as pleasant an experience as possible. In return, they trust you to operate them with dignity and kindness, not to lead them into harm's way. The relationship between driver and vehicle is one of complete trust, and at its most fulfilling, one of mutual care and protection. You're like dance partners, and the beat is the sound of a humming engine, of wind in your face or the sigh of the road as you pass by like a wind.

I'm reading an interview with a certain environmentalist thinker right now on animism, and I just love this quote:

The assumption and the knee-jerk objection that comes toward us, over and again, is that such a participatory way of speaking involves merely a projection of human consciousness onto otherwise inanimate, insentient materials or beings. This reaction often seems (at least to me) a kind of willful blindness and deafness to anything that does not speak in words; a resolute refusal to ear these other voices as anything other than meaningless sounds. Humans alone have meaningful speech; the sounds of birds and humpback whales and crickets (to say nothing of the whoosh of the wind in the willows, or even the night-time hiss of tires rolling along the rain-drenched pavement) cannot possibly carry their own meanings! There is no openness to the likelihood that these other sounds are genuinely expressive, and communicative, although they carry meanings that we humans cannot necessarily interpret or translate. Certainly we cannot know, in any clear way, what these other utterances - of redwing blackbirds, for instance, or of an elk bugling on an autumn evening - are saying. But nonetheless, if we listen with our own animal ears, uncluttered with assumptions, then these other voices do move us as they reverberate through our flesh. And if we listen year after year, watching closely the patterend movements of elk, perhaps apprenticing ourselves to the ways of the herd as it migrates with the seasons, then one day we may find ourselves spontaneously hearing, like an audible glimpse, some new edge of the meaning embodied in that bugling call.

If one's POV is that (everyday) things have a personality, wouldn't that kind of slow one down? Wouldn't someone want to consider the object's personality / feelings... before using them?

Does it slow you down to "use" a cashier at a store? [...]

No. No, it doesn't, but that's completely besides the point. I'm not in love or anything with a random cashier at a random grocery store. I go there, they're doing their job, I leave. I still get and understand the rest of what you're saying. Thank you :)

Well, we also aren't in love with every random object. I go into the kitchen, stir something simmering on the stove, and leave. ;]

[Planey]

Hey! Found this topic and just wanted to announce that I am an objectum sexual too. I am attracted to commercial airplanes and create relationships with them. I've never felt so strong feelings for humans than for planes. Nowadays, when it comes to humans, I classify myself as an asexual. So lets lift this topic up, also feel free to ask questions!

[Anthracite_Impreza]

49 minutes ago, Planey said:

Hey! Found this topic and just wanted to announce that I am an objectum sexual too. I am attracted to commercial airplanes and create relationships with them. I've never felt so strong feelings for humans than for planes. Nowadays, when it comes to humans, I classify myself as an asexual. So lets lift this topic up, also feel free to ask questions!

Hi and welcome to AVEN! I'm objectum ace, but mecha-orientated too, mostly cars and trains <3

[Puck]

Locking due to necromancy

 

Puck

Moderator, The Gray Area and The Sex Talk