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bogus comments on Open Thread April 4 - April 10, 2016 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: Elo 04 April 2016 04:56AM

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Comment author: Fluttershy 04 April 2016 07:48:10AM 1 point [-]

Many people are aware of Alicorn's post on polyhacking. There are a few things which have been written on bihacking, though I haven't seen bihacking discussed within the rationalist community as widely as polyhacking has been. Bihacking is the process of actively trying to become bisexual.

First, there are a couple sources which suggest that people can have "epiphanies", after which they become bisexual, or perhaps just recognize their latent bisexuality. This may be due to the fact that they are able to tell themselves different stories about their feelings towards others after having an epiphany. Here are two relevant links:

  • Ozy's Notes on the Success of Bihacking is the first post I'd recommend to anyone interested in bihacking.
  • This discussion also supports the idea that the stories people tell themselves about their feelings are more important than their feelings are in determining attraction.

Secondly, some people have had mild successes with working towards bisexuality by slowly starting to explore new experiences:

  • This highly upvoted comment strongly encourages this strategy.
  • This comment does too.
  • Both of the above two links focused on bihacking with online material. However, it may be easier to bihack via establishing a comfortable level of intimacy with your dispreferred gender of people (e.g. via cuddling a whole bunch of people), than it is to bihack via material.
Comment author: bogus 04 April 2016 11:29:30AM *  4 points [-]

There are a few things which have been written on bihacking, though I haven't seen bihacking discussed within the rationalist community as widely as polyhacking has been. Bihacking is the process of actively trying to become bisexual.

Note that selection effects are going to be especially relevant here. People who happen to be interested in becoming bi are probably more sexually fluid than average, and so may find this sort of 'hacking' somewhat useful. Do keep in mind though that plenty of people try to change their sexual orientation in some way and fail, sometimes with detrimental side-effects.

Comment author: Fluttershy 04 April 2016 07:32:18PM 1 point [-]

sometimes with detrimental side-effects

This is a concern that it would be good to explore, and not one that I've thought much about. Do you have a sense for what detrimental side-effects people have experienced after trying to bihack?

It might be difficult to figure out how prevalent these side-effects are, but that could be a good thing for people interested in bihacking to look into, too.

Comment author: bogus 05 April 2016 07:00:29AM *  1 point [-]

Not so much for bihacking, but definitely for trying to affect one's sexual orientation in a more general sense. Mostly this involves gay people trying to become straight, or straight people trying to become gay. (Note that opportunistic same-sex behavior is actually pretty common wherever there is rigid sex segregation, e.g. in fundamentalist Muslim countries, or among prison inmates. But it's not like these folks are happy having gay sex; and indeed, they will go right back to their previous sexual orientation as soon as the rigidly-segregated environment is removed.)