Amazing crossover post between two topics seldom discussed. We need more analysis of how technology will change interpersonal relationships

Beautiful means you stand out from the normal.

But if everybody was beautiful, then it's basically the new normal.

So any person currently ugly might become the new normal of "beautiful".

I don't think your deductive argument is sound. All playboy models stand out from the normal. Nobody would argue playboy models as a result of living at the playboy mansion are now not beautiful since they're the new average.

I agree with your observation that beautiful people that our from the normal. But I believe this is largely because they have beautiful shapes and symmetry, which are rare.

All that would be left to distinguish them would be their personality

I’m finishing editing on a story about the metaverse situation. It’s actually AR based - people won’t just be reskinned in virtual environments; you can make them look how you want in ‘reality’ too.

Imagine if everyone could make their spouse look like Scarlett Johannsen or Chris Hemsworth. Of course, that’s just for looks, reality will bite when you reach out for a hug if their physique doesn’t match. But still yes, it will drastically change the value of beauty.

My experience with beautiful people is they have mostly developed an entitled personality or no personality at all. They're accustomed to people being extreme sycophants.

You don't need to tell me the title of the story. But in the story are there any situations where the tables are turned? For example an attractive person who no longer is showered with attention? Or an ugly person who finally gets to blend in and make romantic friends instead of living in isolation?

This will sound very outlandish and impossible or just hundreds of years in the future but what I'm about to discuss is something that will be normal in most peoples alive todays lifetime.

When we achieve true ASI, we will transition to a world of abundance. Part of that will be an ability to change matter into different forms and it will be regarded as trivial. This will also be true of very complex systems such as living tissue. The structure of living tissue being modified in a relatively short time will be easy. Basically it will be trivial to change your appearance dramatically in a short time.

You will also be able to change other characteristics like your stature eg. Height and weight, your ethnicity/race, gender, age, features and anything else that you want. I can imagine whole fashions coming and going related to your body. I suspect initially at least you will find lots of waifu and other characters along with those who choose an indestructible body.

Life will be very different and advantages will disappear. Personality really will be more important at that point.

yeah i didnt think so too.

dunno why i said that.. just sort of blurted out like a normal person

There's a short story called The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect that's about a post singularity society where, among others things, people can alter their looks at will. During one part of the story, the protagonist remarks that a person who she had know pre-singularity (as her nurse-aid) had altered herself to look like a supermodel, but because most people had made similar alterations, it was considered boring.

You seem like a nice person.

90% this post will be get locked/banned, tends to happen whenever these subjects are discussed (def. with politics).

well, I don't think you were completely wrong. If everyone followed the present standards of beauty, then nobody stands out.

(not making a statement, but just go with it).. blue eyes are considered more beautiful than brown eyes generally... but if everyone ONLY had blue eyes, then they would not be different, and if someone had brown eyes, they would stand out and be considered beautiful for their exotic looks.

If every girl looked like a Victoria's Secret model, would it mattered you you were attracted to? they would all look the same. Nobody would look "special".

As for the playboy models, they are only beautiful "compared" to those that are not at the mansion that were not beautiful. If everyone looked like a playboy model? how fast would that get boring.

They just released two drugs, Wegovy and Mounjaro, that have the same effect as the gastric sleeve surgery. Average weight loss for Mounjaro is 52 pounds. That’s just the average. Some people are losing 100+ pounds on it. It’s looking a lot like it’s going to be a blockbuster drug once they can manufacture enough. That means obesity is going to be a thing of the past. What happens when everyone is lean? Thin people have always had rediculous advantages in dating and life. What happens when everyone is thin? We’re about to find out.

I think it's important to distinguish between novel beauty and just novelty. The best foods of every country have stood the test of time to generally be considered things that most people don't consider "disgusting". In other words people don't mind trying new foods when they get bored of old foods. But nobody likes eating rotten food. A thin African model and a thin Swedish model will have more in common than not compared to either an ugly African or an ugly Swedish.

you must be fun at parties

You must be a handsome man who enjoys laughing at people like me who don't go to parties. You put "Dad" in your name to passively brag about your genetics going on. I've never been invited to a party in my life because I'm disgusting to look at. Have an enjoyable evening with people who find you attractive. I bet you're exhausted because you've had lots of children as a result of your visual genetics being hyper desired.

When asi come, i will want from asi to be a very handsome gay man, beautiful lesbian, handsome hetero man and beautiful hetero woman. I want to try everything.

This can be interpreted as suppression of ugly people from having an equal voice.

Well these topics can become heated, and it may take away from the subreddit at times. If everyone is respectful and level-headed I think these conversations can still be had.

yes. everything physical will lose their meanings. reality will lose its meaning. Man will finally have to undergo a severe existential crisis/awakening that can either propel us towards a godlike status or towards extinction. this of course is the Singularity itself. within the next decade, Augmented Reality will fundamentally change human perception as we know it. once AGI is created, FDVR and BCIs will be mainstream. by the 2040s/2050s, "sex market value" will mean nothing. reality will mean nothing. how could it mean anything if you've suddenly subjected yourself to be in 3 layers of simulations? what will Reality mean to mankind once the internet and the real world merges into one?

well, I'm not rotten that's for sure.
so unpretty isn't like rotten foods. more like uncommon foods.

Have you not seen before and afters of the Kardashians?

Advertising will become customised to your personality. The commercials you see will have ai generated images that appeal to you specifically.

You will be able to have an ai partner, including sex robot. You will be able to decide their expressed personality. And so, as they treat you in the ways that you always wanted, you will love them.

uh.. thanks I guess?

Bit of both actually. About a former prom queen who was disfigured in an accident wondering how long she can keep her date from finding out by them both staying filtered via AR.

Maybe work on developing a more beautiful inner you today, because that is all that will matter when the metaverse is a reality and you can choose to look like a supermodel - or a wolpertinger, or whatever suits your fancy.

Volunteer in your community.

Do kind things for people with nothing to offer you.

Try to be a light in the darkness.

And stop comparing yourself to others.

cringe

>What happens when everyone is lean

Ask people in Eastern Europe. The answer might surprise you:

People will walk more, eat less, and still be people; some will be good company, some will be insufferable.

If you can confirm that you're ugly and single and plan to be single for the rest of your life then I'll consider your advice valid because it's your personal solution from real life experience. However I have no interest in getting advice from people who are attractive and who have a partner.

I don’t understand

The answer is no, and you need to find somewhere else to cope about your shit looks.

OP, real talk time. Those who have not struck the genetic lottery do have a little bit tougher of a time, but "ugly" people still get friends and partners. I know this because I see it all the time.

And I put ugly in quotations because few people walk around thinking "oh that's an ugly person". They're just a person and when you get to know someone, their personality is how you view them, not their appearance.

What seems to be your problem is not anything about how you look, but your personality. I don't know how you expect anyone to read a comment like this and come away thinking "wow, this is a really chill person, why is nobody their friend?"

If you act anything close to the way you are acting here in real life, I would seriously suggest working on that. I know you said no shrinks, but you're kinda inviting it.

By the way, I'm never invited to parties either and while I'm not a 10, I'm also not "ugly". I have a reserved/awkward personality and that has held me back in the social world. And a lot of those "ugly" people have a way better social life than me because they are a joy to be around. I know this and fully own it and am working on it. Looks really have less to do with things than you think.

You should visit r/transhumanism

Probably look at countries like Sweden where most people are thin, life goes on. I guess the next thing will be becoming 'fit' when everyone is merely thin!

Great comment.

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Attractiveness will always have a lot of value. I don't see that decreasing. If anything, as other tasks and responsibilities transitioned to ai and less human intellectual input required, there will be a greater emphasis placed on beauty.

Plastic surgery methods will improve, and designer babies can be selected for attractiveness. How much improvement remains to be seen. Body parts can be grown and form induced but you still have to deal with scar tissue and invasive surgery.

If we have nanobots that can make changes at a cellular level then eventually you can look like a totally different person without the scar tissue inherent in plastic surgery and degradation of artificial implants which require recurring maintenance and replacement.

It means there are countries where the majority of people are lean, and we don't need to much wonder what will happen.

Lol, wow I guess 70% of the entire US population didn’t get the memo. This drug is about to literally change the lives of most people in this country.

Hahaha, here is some good advice "Lower your standards"

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If I had gold to give, OP please consider this comment🥹

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What life is like in Japan does not tell us anything relevant to what life in America will be like when the stock value of “thin” is reduced to nothing because it will no longer be scarce. To say nothing will change is not thinking deep enough about the implication of zero obesity.

More likely that beauty becomes MORE valuable. Think about it — as technology improves, resource scarcity will drop towards zero. So now money and social status means less.

The only thing left will be beauty.

Synthetic biology will enable people to change their appearance whenever they want.

However, that's not what I'm interested in; I'm attracted to animated characters, not people, so full dive virtual reality is what I want.

Animated 2D (not 3D; 2D > 3D, after all) illustrations experienced through full dive virtual reality will change everything because people will have the same perspective as animated characters.

I bet there's millions of asexuals like me who are perpetually horny but can't do anything but masterbate because who they want to fuck are pixels from another dimension, but thanks to technologies that are on the horizon, people will be able to transcend and enter those dimensions (and I do mean that literally as a result of enhancing the neocortex).

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true, but just for a simile, I worked in a 5 star restaurant when I was younger, (loooong ago) and we got to eat whatever was served there for our dinner. so awesome steaks, game hens, whatever. I can't tell you how much better a cheap hamburger tasted sometimes. When all there is is one food, you can get tired of it. So if everyone is the same, then the beauty standards no longer apply.

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This pattern already does seem to occur in tandem with a nations wealth level. For example "providers" aren't valued in places where there is little threat of starvation or poverty.

Man, I was born beautiful. I cannot prove this, but my momma and grandma insist it is true, and I choose to believe them.

My favorite things to do have nothing to do with my looks.

I prefer solitude, reading books, and creating the best art I can with the meager talents I have developed. I sometimes volunteer in my community, which makes me happy and might sometimes also help others.

How you look should take a backseat to what you do, regardless.

All I know is, if you aren't beautiful on the inside, then you will not be more fuckable in a post-pretty world.

I’m a home health PT and certified personal trainer. Don’t talk down to me about shit you know surface level facts on. Also the idea that food coloring and artificial flavorings is somehow leading to obesity is asinine. It’s more calories consumed than used. This is due to most people working sedentary jobs and the calorie density of prepared foods since most people don’t have the time or energy to cook after work. Telling people to eat less and move more is great and all but it doesn’t change the reality that for most people that advise won’t change shit about their BMI. Temporarily sure, permanently no. The hunger level people experience from losing a lot of weight is profound and enduring. Grelin is increased, leptin is decreased, Down regulation of GLP1 agonists. That’s what most obese people deal with indefinitely once they’ve lost a significant amount of weight. Not to mention the body’s self defense mechanisms like decreasing NEAT. You couple that with the fact that most people commute, sit chained to a computer all day, and you have a recipe for failure. Look up the statistics on long term weight loss. It’s mind blowing. Weight loss that lasts longer than 5 years is basically an anomaly and it’s not because 70% of people are fuck up retards. Maybe 65% but not 70% /s.

Your comment about waifus and other animated characters is right on the money.

I don't think enough people have seriously considered how dramatically society will change when there's virtual reality that has 2D art with 3D movements (and it doesn't even have to be full dive right away for such technology to change everything overnight).

Consider how many people (including myself) obsesse over anime, and then imagine those same people having access to VR that allows for experiences that puts them into the anime, resulting in a lot of people spending the overwhelming majority of their time immersed in different stylized environments instead of the single boring enviroment of our present reality.

You claim you're ugly on the outside. What are your views about your inside?

Most Americans were lean when I was growing up.

I remember that we spent more time outdoors than people seem to, nowadays.

Army recruiters had an easier job.

Diabetes was more rare.

There were rich people and poor people, mean people and kind people...

"Body positivity" was an unknown phrase. Fat shaming was more culturally accepted.

Maybe being a bunch of lazy fatasses will be the thing that saves us.

The horror shows of WWI and WWII would have been a lot more complicated to produce, if only we had all been a bunch of fat fucks.

Ain't nobody got time to dig trenches or try to outrun bullets when they are tubby.

This comment completely invalidates the first paragraph of your post. Get help buddy.

sending love no matter how ugly you are.

I would consider this attraction an addiction like cocaine. It really is phenomenal how much I like looking at an attractive person even when I know they're a horrible person.

Not sure how it invalidates it. Anyways that person who's bragging about having children started this part of the chain.

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This sounds like the wishful views of watching scifi and not from knowing about science

>what will Reality mean

I came across a book that explored this idea briefly. AGI's are characters in this nook, and like to spend as much time as they can in 'infinite fun space' simulating worlds within their minds etc. But they still value the 'real world' because if they die in RL, they can't continue to have fun in virtual worlds.

Reality becomes like brushing your teeth, it's not fun but it's vital to take care of that so you don;t end up with bad outcomes in the long term.

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With so many experiences, shows, entertainments etc in VR worlds, will there be much of a shared culture?

"Have you seen X?"

"What's X, never heard of it? I've got a 'to watch' list a mile long so I'll probably never watch that."

Or AI can pair you with people with similar tastes so you can be able to talk about what you've experienced with others and have them relate to that, because they've experienced it as well.

It's going to be some interesting times we'll live through, and I can't predict what it'll be like.

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One temptation will be to generate emotions and sensations directly, independent of events, experiencing art, or interacting with other people.

Kind of the same as drugs are today, but without side effects....except maybe the side effect of making watching movies seem pointless, because you can just feel excitement and happiness directly without any time investment in watching something. 'Wire heading'.

why does this kind of read (even if unintentionally) like so high-school-level petty you might as well ask if your former bullies/the popular kids at your old high school will have their glamorous jobs automated so they'd be forced to do manual labor to survive

Hahaha my dude we don't even know what you look like

The problem with the modelling thing is everytime someone tries it, there is a huge outcry because it is adjacent to false advertising and people want to see what their clothes look on real people instead of simulations. That is why they aren't replaced by mannequins or photoshop. If you buy cheaper stuff it's almost never an actual photo of the product.

Same is true of intelligence. Intelligent people will lose their edge in the coming decades as intelligence becomes commoditized and abundant.

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What makes you think our personality wouldn't be equally modifiable?

By the way, anime artstyle is techinically 3d, not 2d. In anime you can clearly see the 6 directions and depth. Sorry but it is clear to me you do not understand spatial dimensions. If anime was truly 2d then there would be no depth and only 4 directions which we clearly don't see.