EphemeralNight comments on The Super Happy People (3/8) - Less Wrong

40 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 01 February 2009 08:18AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Article Navigation

Comments (50)
Tags: fiction

Comments (50)

Sort By: Old

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: EphemeralNight 05 April 2012 09:51:57PM 0 points [-]

Um, yeah, I have read that part just as many times as the rest of it. I'm still not getting how an accidental math pun causes everyone to go "Eww."

Comment author: arundelo 05 April 2012 10:10:52PM 3 points [-]

They're going "ewww" because they're watching tentacle porn. The tentacled alien is pushing the baby back inside the mother or something. (I don't see the accidental math pun.)

Comment author: EphemeralNight 05 April 2012 11:29:40PM *  0 points [-]

If that's why they're saying eww, then why did they only say "eww" many minutes after they started watching the tentacle porn, in response to the Lord Programmer pointing out that the humans in the porn are mouthing the multiplication tables?

Comment author: Vaniver 05 April 2012 11:31:52PM 3 points [-]

Because they enjoyed it until the tentacles started pushing the baby back in. (I think there's a technical term for that but I don't want to know it.)

Comment author: EphemeralNight 05 April 2012 11:46:24PM 0 points [-]

(I believe the term is "Unbirthing".)

And I'm sorry but I'm not seeing it.

They were clearly reacting to something about the implications of the depicted humans reciting multiplication tables. The Xenopsychologist says "I can't even begin to imagine why -" and then cuts off when the whole room suddenly realizes why they're reciting multiplication tables, which is apparently supposed to be both obvious and eww-worthy, but I'm drawing a blank.

What was the part "they" didn't understand, which resulted in porn in which humans recite multiplication tables while, well, multiplying, that also grossed out an entire room?

Comment author: shminux 06 April 2012 12:00:06AM 6 points [-]

As Vaniver said, "Because they enjoyed it until the tentacles started pushing the baby back in." They did not react to the math mouthing. You are confused by the coincidental timing of the Xenopsychologist's statement and the unbirthing clip.

Comment author: arundelo 05 April 2012 11:40:12PM 4 points [-]

They're saying "ewww" at the baby being pushed back into the vagina (presumably repeatedly, and probably accompanied by other weirdness), not the multiplication tables.

These paragraphs:

"Um..." said the Xenopsychologist. "Okay, I've got to admit, I can't even begin to imagine why -"

Then there was a uniform "Ewww..." from around the room.

"Oh, dear," said the Xenopsychologist. "Oh, dear, I don't think they understood that part at all."

are not about the multiplication tables. They are about something gross that you the reader can only guess at, but a clue is given later during the conversation with Big Fucking Edward:

We do apologize, I say; but who would ever have thought that a species would evolve to find reproduction a painful experience? For us, childbirth is the greatest pleasure we know; to be prolonged, not hurried."

"Oh," said the Lady Sensory in a tone of sudden enlightenment, "that's why the tentacles were pushing the baby back into -"

Frog dissected!

Powered by Reddit Powered by Reddit