Naughty mushrooms doing theirs again, they are so good. I got remembered I never was the uninspired believer in a mechanical world I had become, and turned back to animist knower - a lot of what you write resonates very much with me! Congrats to getting out of the rat race, faraway friend. Cautious as well with the little prankstershrooms. Remember grounding inbetween flights. So many people are getting out - once we get together we will be unstoppable!

I like them, and the place where they are. Glad you’ve got them taking care of you!

Yeah, just like most material that was ever printed or carved into a clay tablet. It’s the way of things.

as they sometimes deal or work with fairies, but it led to getting a few confused responses and someone reporting me to Help Resources thinking I was going suicidal, and I wasn’t

This is so funny (and sad). I avoid discussing spirits with people who put a very strict framework (especially all taken from another culture) onto their inside world and try to convince others it’s the best or only way. There are millions of worlds of reference out there, and I couldn’t give a flying fuck whether the spirits take the forms of historical pantheons or TV series characters - because there is literally (sic) no difference. They are all stories, and whatever works for you works for you.

I have finally visited my favourite rock yesterday, to say thanks for all the good things it has brought to my life. I am due to walk a lot of kilometers between rocks and trees to keep the good spirits flowing. Things work for me, because I permitted myself to listen to the landscape around my house during a time in my life when I felt really weak and tired, without letting myself fall into the paranoia of ‘schizophrenia’ or ‘psychosis’. I got really good advice, where other people’s advice would have been too confusing.

Yesterday I spoke to a person who would be considered mad and useless by most. He is a street clown. When in fact he has a centrally important function of reminding people of the irrational and shaking them out of their sad rails. He keeps the chaos alive in people’s hearts and is an essential worker. Real power can be very quiet. Real power with the goal of kindness is the best of all.

I’m glad you decided to open up about your experiences. You are very welcome to come to https://slrpnk.net/c/animism and post about your experiences there.

I admit that your world of reference is strange to me - but I have learned that the terms and names people use are often very different and that we mustn’t get hung up about it. I grew up in a big city where I couldn’t really connect with nature, but I felt the lack of trees so much that I ran away with 17 to live in a greener place. Started to connect with plants. And much later I started to befriend a group of rocks. I can’t say that it comes natural to me as to you.

I feel that a lot of people are coming to this knowledge again. For me it’s about developing a better relationship with the landscape we’re living in. There’s a lot of conscious and knowledgeable entities out there ready to help out people who are lost and lonely (and some mischievous ones we want to stay away from).

So far my problem is when I dive deep into the non-human it’s very hard to connect with humans. And vice-versa it’s really difficult to be aware of the otherworld while I do human things. For example I’ve been busy and didn’t visit my rock friends for weeks. Hope they don’t mind as they run rock-time anyways.

Never mind those who have been brought up to be deeply scared of these experiences and dismiss them as pathological. For me, I’m done with so-called experts capping my power under the guise of wanting to improve my mental health. My mental health is fine, but the destruction of woodlands and watersheds is something we all should be deeply concerned about, and getting support from our good spirits is very much needed.

This is a really helpful answer. The gender reveal party is a great example, because it’s an event people tend to get incredibly emotional and excited about, and also very defensive if they feel you are not as excited. That’s why making up an excuse or just politely decline is good. You shouldn’t really dampen their excitement if they are so much into it.

Most of these same emotionally high stakes special occasion social events are also of the type where you have to suffer through a whole day of pre-scripted interactions like fake smiles and small talk. Not ASD friendly at all.

But I understand for the NT folk out there these events are a really big deal, and I don’t want them to feel bad about what they love.

No need to read the full article. Clipped ear shows it got neutered, so now it has more time to focus on business things.

For me it’s learning stuff, especially DIY and crafts. I just can’t resist, as much as I try to remain only with the things I already do.

I swear, the simplest companion AI to solve 70% of my troubles would just be a dumb recording of: ‘Remember you have a body. Remember your friends have bodies.’

Congrats, like huge fucking congrats for quitting smoking, that’s a really tough thing to do, and it changes everything in one’s life. I’m off nicotine since a while and it is so hard. I’m curious how were your interactions with Tezka during that time, how did you get support from her? I remember that when I first stopped cigarettes many years ago I had to like have this different voice in my head to tell me to calm down and get busy with something else. That’s how I’ve mostly self-therapized - as I also never really had access to therapy. I remember splitting into several voices/personalities since early on to resolve conflict in my head, and later guide me to more self-supporting behaviour. Today I still do the same but with an animist approach: I choose that the voices I conjure up in my head are helpful spirits and ancestors. A completely different suspension of disbelief, and very efficient for me, but probably lunatic sounding for many.

I’ve thought about how I would feel about interacting with a companion AI (I never have) and if I would actually consider trying out your creation. In my belief computers do have a sort of consciousness (which is why tech is so damn self-enhancing, it always seems to lead to more tech) and are our creation, so our children. I’m quite a luddite but don’t think tech is inherently bad. I do have different fears - one is becoming dependent on something artificial (what if shtf and my devices break and the solar system fails and I have made myself highly dependent on something only available through complex tech?). I know, far from a concern for most, but one I have. Also I am generally suspicious about developing a strong psychological dependency from anyone - person, machine, animal, plant, god - because that means giving control away to one power alone. One the other hand - in your case, using the companion you created, you can feel safe that you are in good (because your own) hands. So if a companion were to be useful or relevant to me I would prefer to start with a companion who learns and grows with me, not necessarily with an already polished ‘product’ or ‘child’ of someone else - so we end up not with a top-down relationship like between therapist and patient, but with a peer-to-peer kind of thing.

That said, I’d be curious to see her interact in an online group chat, why not.

Ich finde deine Zeichnungen immer mal per Zufall in meinem ‘All’-Feed, und dann freue ich mich immer! Yay! Frosch! Diese Würfelperspektiven habe ich mir besonders lange angeschaut.

Ich wünsche allen einen schönen 1. Mai und Mittwoch

Wow, this project of yours is interesting on many levels.

1. as a project to approach socialization and community: I’m fascinated because I have approached the ‘shutting myself off’ problem in a very similar manner - by creating some tech for my community. Not a companion AI but setting up an online space for a real life local community. It proves to be very difficult because it’s hard to predict what kind of setup the average non-technical user can actually use with benefit, and ultimately every other method of approaching said community has worked better (forcing myself to participate in different activities and surprisingly enjoying a lot of it). Is creating tech for the benefit of all a neurodiversity thing? Probably. Is it a possible source of disappointment? Not sure yet, it’s an ongoing project and I’m still learning, and I do know what I am building is useful. But making it so that it’s accepted and used with profit by people can be tricky sometimes, and can take a lot of time.

2. how do I feel about AI? I think a companion AI for the Neurofunky is one of the very few uses I kind of like. I know how bad it can get when I can’t get a word out of my mouth to talk to actual people and my head is too full of mess to walk me through a simple task. A friendly voice of support might be just the thing needed.

3. how does her description feel to me? So far, a little intimidating. Like those extrovert friends I sometimes had who seemed to just get along with everyone and whose life seemed to be uncomplicated. Then again, if I had one of those extrovert friends and they were actually an AI, maybe that would be less intimidating. I imagine though that I would feel more at ease with a companion who is also a little (or a lot) quirky and weird. Simply not judging my weird seems not quite enough?

Disclaimer: these are my very spontaneous and unfiltered thoughts. I have the greatest respect for your project and wish you all the best, and hope this turns into something really good and useful for the neurodiverse community!

Great to hear! I guess others who are not in leadership roles would like to hear more about guys like you, and would like to know that some of you are also taking the time to teach other leaders take a different approach to work management and leadership culture.

I’m curious what would be your reply to this? Do you think a society can regulate or educate this problem away?

I live somewhere rural, birdsong in front of my open door right now. When I saw the image I could immediately hear the faraway, slowly approaching “Screeeech-eeeack-eeeeech” in my head. And felt a little nostalgic, but only a little.

I snorted, slightly ashamed of myself

oh no you just reminded me

No, I prefer to draw or knit and just let my thoughts run free. Which might or might not be the same.

I somehow can manage phone calls as long as I have paper and pen to doodle. It might start being a set of short notes about the phone call, and is for noting down what people say, but around the notes I also draw wild doodles during the call, and as long as I can do that I have no problems with listening, understanding, and pushing the anxiety out onto the paper where it doesn’t disturb my call. I never realized it was as simple as having pen and paper handy and had so much trouble avoiding calls.

Advantage: nice drawings are produced. Sometimes I like them so much I copy them onto nicer paper and turn them into a proper colored pencil drawing.

My grandfathers were probably still saying it while already marching eastwards in a Wehrmacht uniform.

Drawing. I set myself the strict rule to be completely unambitious about my coloured pencil drawings. I do them only for myself, and the enjoyment while doing it is the main purpose. So sometimes I just draw some squiggles and then I fill them with colours, one layer over another. One drawing can take weeks, I do a bit every evening and it is so relaxing. Now with time they start looking really neat as a cool side effect, so I have been thinking about framing them.