This post hits a really specific nerve for me. As a fellow catgirl, I find myself getting caught up in the (potentially false) dichotomy between my community of cat/dog/thing friends and the SF-associated crowd of tech-adjacent people taking frontier AI progress seriously. In a way, I feel like aspects of my life are the mirror image of what you are talking about in this post; I have a great community of IRL animal friends but getting any of them to take topics that smell of bay-area-vibes/rationalism seriously is such an uphill battle.
Which is all a lot of words to say I really appreciate and respect the niche that you occupy! You post at the intersection of a lot of worlds (that I didn't realize could cross) and I think that is very cool.
I'm not situated in the Bay Area, but I *do* habitually wear a cat-ears headband when I go out to interact with people. It'd be better if it could be more always-on—if I could also wear it habitually at home, when going on walks by myself, et cetera—but wearing headbands for extended times makes me very headache-prone, and I've grudgingly compromised in the "only for ~public-facing activity" direction to mitigate that. But, yeah, I sure do seem to get decently-many people complimenting my cat ears (including at rat-ish meetups when I go to those) and far fewer people following in my footsteps, and the latter is somewhat sad.
With that said: I've experimented only minimally with clip-on cat ears, so far, and been dissatisfied with the results, while your top favorite model is apparently of the clip-on variety. So: do you have advice on how to make them hold a stable position relative to one's head, when clipped on? I keep having a problem with mine where they end up pretty substantially floppy, clipped onto my hair not-quite-at-the-root and thus with a bunch of leeway to shift positioning and angle relative to my head (in a "blatantly not actually properly attached" way, not a cute emotive way) rather than clipped right by the root where they'd (I assume?) be stable. I have yet to figure out any way to achieve the latter result reliably, and would be interested in any insights you might have in that direction.
This post has inspired me. I immediately put my cat ears on and I will wear them to many more events. I only wish I could wear them to work.
My preferred style are the QinRuan Cat Fox Faux Fur Ears Headband, Zblack color.
They have good volume, great shape, and ideal size. They can be manipulated to change the shape and position of the ears and hold that well. And of course I prefer the white fuzz ear insides.
When you get them you’ll want to push/bend the ears forwards a bit. This is essential to the experience, when I ordered replacement ears wearing them had a visceral sense of wrongness until I fixed their positioning.
"I get people are busy and working on real things, I am glad for this. I know it’s “just aesthetics”, but it’s also a kind of lack of caring. And I find this kind of sad."
I feel like this is an hurt I've felt at the heart of a lot of rationalist-y stuff, that sometimes it just doesn't feel warm or personable or heartfelt. Like it lacks soul or something
I find it surprising how ppl can be very like 'intellectually' interested in like philosophy and psychology and stuff but then like, not actually be that warm/personable/emotional themselves? i don't mean this in a mean/condescending way, more like how I also think it's very surprising how I have extremely loving and kind religious friends that are unfortunately also homophobic. it seems like such a jarring contrast
it's like the thing that Yudkowsky used to say, about how Catholics probably (this was like 17 years ago or smth) do more good than rationalists on average, despite like, you know, not being as rational about it
"But long before we can begin to dream of any such boast, we secular humanists need to work on at least matching the per capita benevolent output of the worshippers."
As a tech furry who wants to go much farther than just cat ears, I liked the article and would have liked to be one of that catboys in the experiment if I were nearby. I think your ideas are far more appealing to people in private than you realize. But people are naturally conservative about their appearance, not wanting to stick out too much from the crowd. Give it some time and keep having fun.
I love the bay so much but I do think that people's hardcore mission-orientation actually replicates the trap it's attempting to avoid in some ways. friend groups outside the research cohort become untenable, partners fall by the wayside, hobbies people do just for fun shrink or disappear - entire portions of a person's identity become minimized, ostensibly for a greater cause.
I have a hard time with this though. The idea that serious things and maybe less serious things that still track with professed endgoals can't coexist seems parochial to me. The people most committed to imagining a radically different world are running the same zero-sum model of attention as everyone else, but with higher stakes as the justification. And to be clear, if that's how people want to approach it that's totally fine! To each their own - it just doesn't work for me. I really really admire your response being to just provide the cat ears.
as someone from the bay area i was shocked that anyone would even think this way from first paragraph gosh the fact that this world even exists…..?????
This post hits a really specific nerve for me. As a fellow catgirl, I find myself getting caught up in the (potentially false) dichotomy between my community of cat/dog/thing friends and the SF-associated crowd of tech-adjacent people taking frontier AI progress seriously. In a way, I feel like aspects of my life are the mirror image of what you are talking about in this post; I have a great community of IRL animal friends but getting any of them to take topics that smell of bay-area-vibes/rationalism seriously is such an uphill battle.
Which is all a lot of words to say I really appreciate and respect the niche that you occupy! You post at the intersection of a lot of worlds (that I didn't realize could cross) and I think that is very cool.
I was honored to be one of the catgirls at the fair! ☺️
I'm not situated in the Bay Area, but I *do* habitually wear a cat-ears headband when I go out to interact with people. It'd be better if it could be more always-on—if I could also wear it habitually at home, when going on walks by myself, et cetera—but wearing headbands for extended times makes me very headache-prone, and I've grudgingly compromised in the "only for ~public-facing activity" direction to mitigate that. But, yeah, I sure do seem to get decently-many people complimenting my cat ears (including at rat-ish meetups when I go to those) and far fewer people following in my footsteps, and the latter is somewhat sad.
With that said: I've experimented only minimally with clip-on cat ears, so far, and been dissatisfied with the results, while your top favorite model is apparently of the clip-on variety. So: do you have advice on how to make them hold a stable position relative to one's head, when clipped on? I keep having a problem with mine where they end up pretty substantially floppy, clipped onto my hair not-quite-at-the-root and thus with a bunch of leeway to shift positioning and angle relative to my head (in a "blatantly not actually properly attached" way, not a cute emotive way) rather than clipped right by the root where they'd (I assume?) be stable. I have yet to figure out any way to achieve the latter result reliably, and would be interested in any insights you might have in that direction.
based. remind me to wear cat ears if we ever meet up
Clip on cat ears are not transhumanist damn it. I want my fucking nanoaugmented vision so I can wear sunglasses at night NOW. Why did I even read this
This post has inspired me. I immediately put my cat ears on and I will wear them to many more events. I only wish I could wear them to work.
My preferred style are the QinRuan Cat Fox Faux Fur Ears Headband, Zblack color.
They have good volume, great shape, and ideal size. They can be manipulated to change the shape and position of the ears and hold that well. And of course I prefer the white fuzz ear insides.
When you get them you’ll want to push/bend the ears forwards a bit. This is essential to the experience, when I ordered replacement ears wearing them had a visceral sense of wrongness until I fixed their positioning.
https://www.amazon.com/Headband-Halloween-Cosplay-Handmade-Animal/dp/B0B36HGZGC?
Related: https://www.gleech.org/enhance
Love this post!
"I get people are busy and working on real things, I am glad for this. I know it’s “just aesthetics”, but it’s also a kind of lack of caring. And I find this kind of sad."
I feel like this is an hurt I've felt at the heart of a lot of rationalist-y stuff, that sometimes it just doesn't feel warm or personable or heartfelt. Like it lacks soul or something
I find it surprising how ppl can be very like 'intellectually' interested in like philosophy and psychology and stuff but then like, not actually be that warm/personable/emotional themselves? i don't mean this in a mean/condescending way, more like how I also think it's very surprising how I have extremely loving and kind religious friends that are unfortunately also homophobic. it seems like such a jarring contrast
it's like the thing that Yudkowsky used to say, about how Catholics probably (this was like 17 years ago or smth) do more good than rationalists on average, despite like, you know, not being as rational about it
https://www.readthesequences.com/Can-Humanism-Match-Religions-Output
"But long before we can begin to dream of any such boast, we secular humanists need to work on at least matching the per capita benevolent output of the worshippers."
As a tech furry who wants to go much farther than just cat ears, I liked the article and would have liked to be one of that catboys in the experiment if I were nearby. I think your ideas are far more appealing to people in private than you realize. But people are naturally conservative about their appearance, not wanting to stick out too much from the crowd. Give it some time and keep having fun.
I love the bay so much but I do think that people's hardcore mission-orientation actually replicates the trap it's attempting to avoid in some ways. friend groups outside the research cohort become untenable, partners fall by the wayside, hobbies people do just for fun shrink or disappear - entire portions of a person's identity become minimized, ostensibly for a greater cause.
I have a hard time with this though. The idea that serious things and maybe less serious things that still track with professed endgoals can't coexist seems parochial to me. The people most committed to imagining a radically different world are running the same zero-sum model of attention as everyone else, but with higher stakes as the justification. And to be clear, if that's how people want to approach it that's totally fine! To each their own - it just doesn't work for me. I really really admire your response being to just provide the cat ears.
as someone from the bay area i was shocked that anyone would even think this way from first paragraph gosh the fact that this world even exists…..?????