Jonah Stephen Swersey

I should clarify upfront that I am not a rationalist, and am not a fan of LessWrong. 

That said, I have some experience when it comes to... this sort of thing.

So when I was a little younger, I was the figurehead and leader of a sex cult. (Oddly enough, I did this without ever really understanding that it was, in fact, a sex cult. One of my best friends described this as a "Jerry Smith plot", which I found hilarious.) This cult was, in practice, a discord server focused around my erotic hypnosis work. I copied the model from another server that was definitely a sex cult, and tried to strip out all... (read more)

As someone with a background in classical conditioning, hypnosis, and a few assorted subjects... 

YIKES. 

Like, sure, the way I use it is more intimate, but throughout this whole article my thoughts kept rushing to, "Jesus, does Brittany know you're using aggressive and manipulative psychological techniques to train her? Is there informed consent? Is there any consent?" Like, if Brittany sees this article, do you expect her reaction to be, "Oh, cool, that's really fucking neat that you did that", or "Wait... you did what without telling me?!" Even if the outcome is good, the path to get there is... morally fraught, at the very least.

I thought "only positive reinforcement" was a good enough... (read more)