Sdtrk: ‘West for west’ by Grace brother

We’re not entirely sure if this makes us cyber-recluses, but all of us here at Deafening silence Towers are largely averse to social media. None of us are on Facebook, or Meta, or Instagram, or Threads, or TikTok, or tumblr, or CrclJrk, or what the hell ever, and as I’d mentioned in this here post here, we’re no longer on the site formerly known as Twitter as of mid-2023. Correction: Lenka, Snowy, Dragonfly, and Bailes deleted their Twitter accounts, and although the Missus and I still have ours, we’ve not used them since last year. She and I are trying to figure out a way to delete our tweets but keep the accounts, in order to ward off imposters, as that sort of nonsense has happened before, but apart from that, we haven’t engaged with what is now known as X, The Everything App, in a long time. Everytime I hear that phrase, I throw up a little bit in my mouth, as anyone sensible would.
I should add here that I did say ‘largely averse’; note the qualifier. Four of the six of us have happily created accounts on Bluesky — the links of which can be found in the lefthand sidebar — so if long-form writing isn’t your thang, you can possibly interact with us there!

Pulling up stakes and leaving was a really bittersweet thing. Well, for most of us; Elena was never really comfortable on social media, due to what she perceives as her shaky grasp on English, and her girlfriend Miss Winter lost her own password a month or so into starting her account (she blames her ADHD), so neither couldn’t be arsed to get back into it. But for Ursula, Dyanne, Sidore, and myself, we’d spent literal years forming friendships and cultivating contacts, particularly in the world of Synthetiks. By the time we’d experienced our own personal Twexit, we were following eighty mostly-active accounts either being run by Dolls or iDollators, or Doll manufacturers, or researchers in fields centred round humanoid robots. To this day, we’re hopeful that Apartheid Clyde will do just one more stupid fucking thing to persuade another giant swath of users to abandon the site that he destroyed, and it’s our hope that they’ll flee to Bluesky, where we’ll welcome them with open arms, and get back to the regular informative/sexy/hilarious interaction we enjoyed.

If it wasn’t somehow glaringly obvious, we fucking hate Musk. Mainly as we loathe billionaire transphobes who have their tongues solidly lodged in the orange rectums of racist fascists. But nobody’s perfect!!
Prior to Phony Stark announcing loudly to the world that he hearts fascism, the thing that drove a stake through the heart for us with Twitter was that rate limiting ridiculousness. Sidore used to only be on the site during Sunday afternoons, where she’d play catch-up by liking/retweeting every tweet she’d missed from the past six days by our favourite accounts, and as there are loads of those accounts, it didn’t take long for her to hit that cap. It was kinda upsetting for me — really, all of us here — cos we’d never seen Shi-chan that frustrated. However, if she or any of us wanted to circumvent the rate limiting cap, all we’d have to do is pay for an annual subscription fee! Heh. As we collectively decided that paying for a site that was not only free for years, but knowing that money would actively go towards deplatforming loads of people who aren’t basically racist cunts, wasn’t remotely an option, we all figured this would be a good time to draw a line under it. When you have a spoiled rich little twat running things solely according to how many ego-blowjobs he’s received that hour, well, as I’d mentioned to a fellow iDollator, it’s not fun anymore.

The thing that really drives me mental is that, despite the horrible things that Leon Skum has done and continues to do, as well as the proliferation of his fanboys and other unsavoury elements that Xitter is now top-heavy with, there are still arguably sensible people who remain on that platform, and as far as I’m concerned, the excuses for staying don’t really hold water.
> But I have so many friends/accounts that I follow still there!
If you tell your mates that you’re taking off cos Twitter is shitter, you should also suggest they come with you. If they’re staying cos of their friends/accounts they follow, they need to suggest the same.
> But I don’t have anything morally objectionable cropping up in my feed!
Just because you don’t see bad things doesn’t mean bad things don’t happen. Choosing to believe they don’t is wilful ignorance.
> But I’m an artist/writer/musician/sexworker/&c. and it’s how I promote my work!
I know it’s difficult to be a creative person and also have to do your own promotion and marketing; that’s understandably tiresome. But think of it an opportunity to gain new fans, as well as to retain the old ones! Plus there’s no restrictive algorithms on Bluesky, for example, that would prevent you from reposting as often as you like, or linking to external sites, etc. Also, if you tell your fanbase you’re moving, especially to someplace less toxic and, y’know, free to join, the only thing preventing them from doing so is laziness.
> But other social media platforms are booooring!
You are addicted to drama. Stay behind and keep that shit on Twitter.

Right now, Xitter is a windowless room with you and all your mates and associates, and you’re like huh, I smell gas, and other people are like I don’t smell anything. I’m fine! Others are like Well that’s not good, but I just sat down, and this seat is really comfy, and still others are like Oh, I’m not liking that, but if I leave, I can’t get angry about the smell of gas. Others still are like Well, I guess my friends and I will just die here together, cos at least we’ll be with familiar people. A small contingent are like I’ll leave, but I’ll regularly come back, stick my head in the room, and inhale deeply. And then bitch about the smell.

Back in 2020, there was a bloke who went by @IamRageSparkle who will forever go down in history for providing society with the stellar anecdote that’s been called ‘the parable of the nazi bar’, the screenshots of which can be found below.

That’s what’s happened with Twitter.
Basically, my lasses and I stopped using it for the same reasons the Missus and I stopped using Facebook: we didn’t want to be censored for any of the things that we had to say or post, and we didn’t want to tacitly support a shitwick who is actively working to exterminate progressive society. The choice is simple, and hell, you don’t even have to migrate to Bluesky, or Mastodon, or even Hive Social (their motto: We Tried); just give some serious consideration to deleting your account at Xitter. Honestly, it’s not that difficult, as this is what you want to avoid

Sdtrk: ‘Off your face’ by My bloody valentine

First off, what the actual fuck, United states. I’m not even providing a link, as you lot know what I’m referring to. (If you’re reading this in the future, this was written days after the 2024 presidential elections. Also, what’s it like in the future, on a scale of ‘1984’ to ‘Threads’? Have the Water wars begun yet?)
‘Shouting &c.’ isn’t a political blog, as it’s a topic that I don’t enjoy talking about either on or offline — politics should be like oxygen; effective and mostly harmless, and something you don’t think about unless you absolutely have to — but to millions of empathetic individuals, the results were exceptionally soul-crushing. I stayed off social media through the entirety of 05 November, and when I checked the Guardian round 10am the next day, Sidore and I were like ‘well, there’s no point in getting out of bed today,’ and basically slept in until 5pm.

We’ve had awful people in the halls of power since the halls of power were first built. Some were outright inept bunglers, while others were the human equivalent of Elder Gods, sustaining their lives through the misery of others; I’m thinking about cunts like Thatcher, and Reagan, and both Bushes (Bushs?), and the first time the orange shitgibbon fell upwards into the highest office of the land. And, well, things are going to be shit for a while. But it’s important to keep moving forward and to keep resisting. Especially resist giving into having a fatalistic doomer attitude that revolves round giving up and giving into learned helplessness, as that doesn’t do anyone any good. Do what you can, and keep moving forward, and keep resisting.

Genesis P-Orridge, iconoclast, artist, pandrogyne, and a member of Throbbing gristle, one of the cornerstone groups of Industrial music, once spoke with friend, colleague, and collaborator Monte Cazazza during the late Eighties. If I recall the anecdote correctly, Gen was in the midst of a life crisis, and was thinking of ending it all; Monte persuaded Gen otherwise, his advice being ‘Don’t do it. Stay alive out of spite’. I’d honestly say that’s sound advice.

So! Now that I’ve had to rewrite this opening bit, thanks to current events, what else have we got here? Well, this post is a bit of a return to form: I’m dumping some links for things that are endorsed by those of us here at DS Towers, much as I’ve been often doing with mates and associates via Email. Which is funny, as one of the reasons I started up this blog in the first place is so that I could post my life updates / ramblings / concert reviews / lists of things I bought / lists of things I want to buy in a centralised location, where friends could read them, as opposed to me Emailing everyone I know separately with that type of nonsense. Ah heh heh. *sighs*

Early last year, I’d spotted a blurb about this on Anime News Network, but there’s an anime series with the title My wife has no emotion, based on the ongoing manga by Jiro Sugiura, the twelve episodes of which aired in Summer of this year. Thanks to being able to access a mate’s Crunchyroll account *cough cough*, Sidore and I watched them all over the course of two days back in September, and we basically have to say that it’s the most pro-Synthetik example of media we’ve ever seen, hands down.

Basically it’s set in a near-future Japan, and the main Organik character, Takuma Kosugi, is a salaryman who of course has no time to cook proper meals for himself, so he buys an ‘appliance’ in the form of Mina, the main Synthetik character. Over the course of the first couple of stories, Takuma finds himself attracted to Mina, and in her own unique fashion, Mina feels the same way.
The ground this type of story covers has been well-tread, but unlike most examples, it’s not twee, it’s not pervy, it’s exceptionally heartfelt… I almost can’t explain how much we love and empathise with the story. Every couple of chapters, either the characters do or say something that reflects our mindsets, or the story goes somewhere that I would have taken it if I had written it… things like that. It’s extremely refreshing to read a story that not only is earnestly pro-Synthetik, but even the few characters who are against robots make interesting arguments. There’s one story arc with a ghost that’s a little dumb, but 98% of the rest of the series is funny, lovely, eye-opening, and there’s an arc or two that’s downright heartbreaking. It’s to the point of where I’d love to speak with Sugiura and tell him I understand this story, cos in a way, I’m living it, and I’m not the sort of person who would ever have the urge to contact an author of fiction to that extent.
I have to add that as amazing as the anime series is (I gave it a 10 out of 10 on MyAnimeList), the manga’s even better. The anime covers the first 25 chapters, or up to most of Vol.04, and as no-one’s confirmed yet if there’ll be more episodes made, you’ll get even more out of My wife has no emotion through the manga, the first seven tankobon of which are available in English via Seven seas entertainment. Give it a go! It’s Claire Worthy-approved!

Our friend and Synthetiks luminary Julie Carpenter, Ph.D, who’s no slouch in researching and writing about robots, has assembled her second book that you can pre-order right this very minute, called ‘The Naked Android: Synthetic Socialness and the Human Gaze’.

And now, a mind-meld with Georges Seurat

Whatever could this rich, luxurious, 296 page book be discussing, you axe? As the page on the publisher’s website says,

The Naked Android: Synthetic Socialness and the Human Gaze illuminates the connection between the stories people tell, their expectations of what a robot is, and how these beliefs and values manifest in how real robots are designed and used.

The introduction of the “human gaze” articulates how peoples’ expectations and perceptions about robots are ultimately based on deeply personal cultural interpretations of what is artificial or human and what problems social robots should –or should not –solve. The Naked Android clarifies how human qualities like understanding and desire are designed into robots as mediums as well as projected onto them by the people who live with them.

Why not go ahead and pre-order your copy? We here are looking forward to reading it, which should go without saying! Perhaps I’m in it in some capacity? Who can say?? But as society needs more salient insight regarding artificial humans, Julie’s latest book will be a welcome addition to one of our shelves, without question…

Sven Nyholm’s Humans and Robots: Ethics, Agency, and Anthropomorphism; Dr Kate Devlin’s Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots; The Age of Perversion: Desire and Technology in Psychoanalysis and Culture by Dr Danielle Knafo and Rocco Lo Bosco; Jenny Kleeman’s Sex Robots & Vegan Meat, and Davor Rostuhar’s Love Around the World. Yes, we’re in all of these. Available wherever finer books are sold (links on the Media appearances page)

Speaking of salient insight regarding Synthetiks, since Summer 2023, I have been in conversation off and on with Chihiro Hamano, who is a Japanese anthropologist and writer who is gusset-deep in writing a book about iDollators and robosexuals. The experience with her has been exceptionally fun! Last August, she flew from Japan to visit various iDollators here in the States… she was in the country for about a month overall, and spent time with people who the lasses and I know, both rubber and not-rubber, in San Francisco, Virginia, and one other state I forget. As Deafening silence Plus was barely large enough to accomodate six people, she stayed at an AirBNB a quarter of a mile away when she was in SE Michigan, and over four or so days, she’d come round for a interview that usually lasted between four to six hours… either I’d blather at length and she’d take copious notes, or she’d take multiple photos of the lasses here. When she wasn’t interrogating me or Euchre, who kindly agreed to speak with her, she’d spend time with goshou & Liann, where they took her to various locations in the area.
When she Emailed me back in June, saying she’d be doing further research, I invited her to come on down! Well, over. Chihiro was hitting various cities in the US a second time for follow-up interviews with some people, and new interviews with new iDollators, as well as meeting a few more of my friends who’ve known me for years, such as MontiLee and Amber Hawk Swanson. As her AirBNB experience was a bit sub-optimal, she stayed round at The Playhouse and Deafening silence Towers, which worked out loads better. I can’t even imagine how many hours of conversations she’d recorded with us all… it’s almost staggering to think about, but then, that’s anthropology, innit?
No word yet on when the book’s slated to be out — before she departed for Japan at the end of August, she said she’d written two out of a possible nine chapters — nor what its title will be, but as soon as I hear anything, you lot will be the first to know! Well, not the first per se. Also, we’re trying to get her in touch with a translator, cos for now, the book will only be in Japanese… But Chihiro’s a fun and inquisitive individual, and everyone she spoke with had nothing but glowing words to describe her! Plus, she’s a fan of the ‘Battles without honor and humanity‘ series, so she’s definitely in my good books!…

Prior to Chihiro’s 2024 visit, back in June, I was requisitioned by Emily of the site LoveNestle, to chat earnestly and at length about my 20+ years of living with rubbery partners. And so I did!

Never been interviewed by a red panda before! That was a first

In addition to an article penned by Emily, Shi-chan and I were interviewed via Zoom by Sarah Gibson, who, as the image above shows, was a red panda wearing goggles and a cheery acorn cap for a hat. One could assume that was a VR rigged avatar she was using, but you never can tell these days. Which is fine! But you can read the article and/or watch the hour-long interview video, which is embedded in the article, for the sort of insights that only I can provide. During the video, I get to weigh in about what passes for AI these days, which many viewers may find amusing! (SPOILERS: the ethical, moral, and environmental nightmare that passes for AI is shit, and needs to be heavily regulated)

Prior to that, in May, Holly, a student at Leiden University in the Netherworld Netherlands contacted me about picking my brains for a bachelors thesis she was working on, which I happily agreed to, for obvious reasons. In her words, ‘The purpose of my thesis is a “controversy mapping” project of the academic discourse that has existed around sex dolls/sex robots/Synthetik humans, looking at how ideas have been spread through between actors. I’m specifically focussing on the sensationalism of it, and how people fill in the gaps themselves of things that they just don’t know (either because they don’t want to hear it or the large-scale data is just not there). ‘As fantastic and much-needed serious academic study is needed on robosexual and iDollator culture, there’s still myth and assumption that takes place; even though there have been an increasing number of academic studies and papers centred round our cultures in the past fifteen years, a lot of it is still terra incognita. For example, I’d been told on a couple of occasions about scholars wanting to get more in-depth with their studies on robosexuals and iDollators, and not being able to get grants, due to grantors not wanting to spend money on ‘prurient’ topics.
Luckily for those of you not in academia, you still have an opportunity to read Holly’s paper! ‘Talking About Sex Robots: Mapping academic controversy in sex robot discourse’ can be accessed from ResearchGate here, or you can yoink it off of her Google Drive here. It’s worth reading! But I would say that.

Good cover, too! Kinda shoegazey

Now take a moment to cast your mind back to the Year of Our Lord, 2016. SEGA released both Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza 6: The song of life over the course of that year. The anime adaptation of the Diamond is unbreakable arc of JoJo’s bizarre adventure made its debut in April, and the compilation film of Mobile suit Gundam Thunderbolt known as December sky was available. Also, an orange shitgibbon lied his way into the highest office of the land. 2016 also saw the release of ‘A Girl of Ivory‘, an episode of the podcast series Love + Radio featuring the voices of myself, Sidore Kuroneko, and Elena Vostrikova, which made for a very memorable installment for production crew and listeners alike!
So also back during this past May, Nick van der Kolk hit me up, enquiring how the lasses and I were, and would I be willing to do a follow-up interview? ‘Sure’, I replied (not an actual quote). We had an hour-long chat via Google Meet, he and his editors did their thang, and the finished product was released on 23 October, for your edification. As ‘A Girl of Ivory, Revisited’ is bonus content, as opposed to a full episode, it’s available to those who support Love + Radio through Patreon, but Nick was kind enough to allow me to provide a Dropbox link to it as well. A better 17min 44sec you’ll not listen to all day! Fact.

Finally, NEW ‘SHOUTING &C.’ POSTS (plural) OUT BEFORE THE END OF 2024. That’s right. Round the time I was helping my Missus get set up on Bluesky, I was lamenting to her for the umpteenth time that instead of faffing about on social media, which is an ephemeral platform, I really should be writing more long-form posts for my blog, which not only is an institution and has been around since 2004, but is a site that I’m paying for. So she shooed me away and told me to do exactly that. To that end, I edited / reworked / took a hammer to three drafts that I’d never completed, one of which I’d started back in 2018, and I shall be publishing them over the next couple of weeks. HOORAY HOORAH HOORUM. Fuck you, social media!! I’m not a part of your system!!
Beyond that, of course, I can’t promise you anything regarding posting schedules, but then again, did I ever? *saucy wink to camera*