No apologia, no exegeses will explain sinkdog. The apophatic definition of sinkdog is a being of thirst and of grime. Do you see? The insight such theologies as those of the sages provide offer us no salve, bring us no closer to enlightenment.
You know, when I started working on @post-self, it was in the context of kink. The idea was, if I could fork, create however many copies of myself that I wanted, I could more efficiently give blowjobs in parallel. When Qoheleth came out, despite the relatively un-kinky plot, that remained at the core of my mind as I wrote it.
The origins
The Origin of Post-Self — a conversation on Twitter in ~2015:
title: postsingularity polyamorous bullshit
Plz upload foxes. Zero pressure.
Seriously, how cool would that be? :3 Multithreaded, distributed foxes. Infinitely useful.
If you could fork a fox, what would you do with them?
(per previous tweets, all instances would read about all other instances in a daily summary, you're not off scott free :P )
Today on #postsingularityquestions: if a poly person is uploaded and forked to have multiple monogamous relationships, are they still happy?
Ct'd: if they're reading their other selves' stories daily, is compersion enough to sate whatever passed for "innate polyness"?
Which spawns two questions:
Are forks their own individuals?
Is there a condition that sates a mono fork of a poly personality?
Is it kosher for a mono fork of a poly personality to SIGHUP when a relationship ends?
In a pseudo-mono relationship, how much ought the partner know about metamours? How much is the poly's responsibility to disclose?
E.g: is it irresponsible for a poly personality to form a mono relationship with a mono partner if the fork is monogamous?
DAMNIT, this was supposed to be sexy...
... 5. If a jealous mono partner induces SIGHUP in a mono instance after finding out about poly core, are they guilty of murder or manslaughter?
See #1, if they're their own people with irretrievable memories post termination, is that different than if the memories rejoin the gestalt?
Listen.
This started as the most efficient way to give the most blowjobs. Promise.Indi: @makyo Also is there a meaningful distinction to be made between merge and rebase?
Reply to Indi crap, and what if there are conflicts? Who types rebase/merge --continue?
Indi: @makyo Maybe it’s all pull requests reviewed by the target? Wait or maybe a consensus?
Reply to Indi: two-thirds majority of 👍S?
Fox-instance leader-elections oh jeez I'm so lost
Distributed foxes are a non-trivial problem..
K: @makyo one solution is to disallow mono..
Reply to K: that could only every be a guideline, given how romantic attachment has worked for me in the past.
Reply to K: oooh! Or maybe an instance rebels against that rule and gets in a mono relationship, what then?
The reception to the project was startling. It touched in a chord with plural folks in particular and left them feeling all sorts of ways. Hell, it left me feeling in all sorts of ways! I went into writing these works singular, and came out something else. I wrote Toledot and my fursoña changed from a snow leopard to a skunk. I wrote Nevi'im and my style changed dramatically. I wrote Mitzvot to round out the cycle and, suddenly I was no longer singular. I was one partner richer (or perhaps several, depending on your conception of plurality).
Suddenly this project was more than just myself. Others started writing in the space. Others started calling their systems "clades". So many others became skunks that we joked about Post-Self Induced Skunk Syndrome.
At the core, however, remained the kink. I expanded on it. Others expanded on it. It is just that the project is larger than me, and the kernel of kink that was at its heart is no longer the sole defining feature. I am uninterested in "the death of the artist" except as a descriptive term, watching this world grow larger than I had ever dreamed.
So, yes. Reduce the concept of sinkdog to its barest edges and discard the feelings it engenders in others. Take shootposts too seriously. Lift your nose snootily up into the air as though to escape some rancid smell. It will never not be true that, for some unknown reason, I and so many others have taken from it more than the artist intended.1, 2
It doesn't have to be my holy for it to be holy.
Thanks, @rejoyce
