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The facial expressions are fantastic. And of course it would be Pinkie.
FAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTHHHHEEEERRRRRR
Do I wanna know what a tulpa is ?
I know plurality and things like DID are real. But is tulpamancy a thing? The description sounds like a meme
Unironically, yes. The brain is really weird about a lot of shit. It’s not that difficult to make it believe something if you’re committed.
I got involved in this around a decade ago learning a bunch of “brain hacking” stuff. Can confirm, it is real. Can’t say it’s something I’d recommend to the average person, though. It’s a fast track to some major instability if you aren’t used to playing around with your own thought processes in detail.
Buddhist spirit that ancient monks would summon along the path to enlightenment
The first vtuber (I am aware of) debuted in 2016, making vtubers closer to 2012 than 2026.
I’m old…
My first exposure to VTubers was the tool bear, who would tell you things about cheap tools.
I was always curious because why did this guy need to use a digital bear skin to talk about tools? And then he quit using the V-Tuber skin and he’s just a regular guy, so it doesn’t make any sense to me.
Looking at graduation video at the start bear was easier than IRL camera/studio/background for a starting youtuber. But problems with vtubing software killed the bear. Boils to: Not having full rights to bears likeness, new versions not adding more features for expert user, old version that wouldn’t activate on new pc and new version of software costing more $, or even worse be a monthly subscription.
He must have been upset a bunch of weebs stole his idea
The concept is much older, but just didn’t have much popularity
Oh, so like imaginary friends for adults!
My computer mommy could beat up your sky daddy.
Yes, but where the imaginer has invested so much energy into it that they lose control of it, usually tinged with some sort of mild to moderate mental illness, which may either be a cause or a consequence of creating a tulpa.
plurality isn’t a mental illness, it’s just a nonstandard way of brains working. like being autistic or ADHD
I’m friends with My partner’s parogen, he’s a cool guy. His name is Anthony and he’s imaginary-British.
The word tulpa has been removed from its original cultural context in a way many people aren’t okay with. So the plural community now calls them parogens.
I’m friends with someone else’s parogen
further reading in case anyone is curious
Parogen is just as fucking stupid as the use of tulpa.
It wouldn’t cost much to phrase that in a nicer way
It means intentionally created. In the context of plurality, it makes perfect sense, because it distinguishes parogens from traumagenic, walk-in, and other kinds of system members.
I work in tech, and one of the things that we learn early on is to not use tech jargon around people who are not also in the tech field because it can alienate them and make them feel stupid.
So while you may have a fully fluent and valid mental construct of parogens and all of the assorted lore attached to that, talking about them as if it were common knowledge to people who have not been exposed to the same information is at best off-putting.
tbf half the point of these communities is to be sheltered and insular. being told off by the wider population only drives people deeper within them.
Yeah, this is true. But I feel like tech is esoteric, whereas metal health and psychology aren’t. Plus the stigmas are different.
Sort of, but dumber. At least a tulpa is a display of a quirk of the human mind that it can create an imaginary friend that feels like a different person, and isn’t done for the titillation of strangers. Vtubers are just the laziest automation of a ventriloquist act.
They don’t learn the subtle art of throwing their voice and looking like they’re paying attention, practicing a skill like a magician. They don’t even engage sincerely with an esoteric religious tradition like tulpamancers. They just run a software to control the digital dummy and do the exact same thing every other streamer does. Give it a few more years and they won’t be anime girls, it’ll all be AI Pokimane bodies with AI modulated voice changers played by the 50 dudes who sold their souls, their cars, and their neighborhood children to get ahold of the only 100 consumer graphics cards to leak out of the Nvidia pipeline.
It’s a digital fursuit, it’s gonna be okay
At least a fursuit is something someone put real time, energy, and talent into bringing to existence. I have no respect for someone who just runs a piece of software someone else made to change how they look. It’s Instagram filters but dumber.
have you ever actually been around a vtuber?
those models aren’t free. nor are they magic. to get a good one you need to commission somebody or have the extensive knowledge required to create one yourself
so yeah similar to a fursuit in that regard
Furries also do not make their own fursuits.
They pay +1000€ for someone else to change how they look. It’s like clothing & make-up but “dumber”.
Many (most?) furries don’t make their own fursuits.
Then they don’t get my respect either. Buying clothes doesn’t make you special.
Some of them are coding their own.
Those few get some credit, but I doubt that’s the norm.
![[Flork of Cows] Tulpa](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e2de2a16-037b-45a8-8091-db1e541231f2.jpeg){kind=link}