Social Needs

Questions This Answers

The Multidimensional Nature of Social Needs

There are many needs for social interaction, however, they are not all one thing. It is not a matter of introvert and extrovert. Instead, it is a matter of specific internal states and needs in each moment. Social needs are multidimensional. They are not simply a yes or no state. A social need will vary in several factors:

How many people do you need to be social with?
- No one
- One person
  - Who to be social with? This can be specific or non-specific
    - A specific person
    - A type of relationship or level of trust by you
    - Literally anyone will do
- More than one person
What form of attention and/or communication is needed?
- Both giving and receiving attention from each other
- You receive attention from them
- You give them your attention
- You both attend to something else together, otherwise known as joint attention
Where you two are in relation to each other?
- Far apart
- Close together
- Touching
- A specific physical activity

To determine what your current social needs are, vary each aspect individually, while holding the other aspects constant. For example:

Picture or intend yourself in the same room as another person. Do not add any other details to this scenario until necessary. Do not define that person or what relationship you have with them. Do not assign them as a stranger either. They could literally be anyone, your spouse, a stranger, or even your mother. Assign no individual, relationship status, or feeling to that person. Did your body encourage that?
1. Yes? Add another undefined person and check again.
  1. Yes? Add more people.
  2. No? Remove the second person and start slowly defining the first person, starting with relationship status and moving towards checking specific individuals.
2. No? Remove the person and check again.
  1. Yes? You need to be alone.
  2. No? You need the person, but you need to vary the other details of the scenario that you are picturing or intending.
Change the direction of attention in the scenario. …
Change the directions of communication in the scenario. …
Change your physical proximity and/or physical activity in the scenario. …

With some practice, this becomes a quick process. Remember, however, that this is you determining your own needs in the situation. You are not determining their needs. Even if you need someone at a particular moment, that does not mean that they need you at that moment. They may need to be alone. It is not their responsibility to be there for you at that moment. If there is a need, it is your job to determine the exact parameters and alternatives of that need, to find the best solution for everyone, including yourself but not limited to yourself. Pushing your will on others will not help your relationships.

Attraction

There are many causes of attraction. Most of these are a combination of your current needs, how you are attending to the other person, different decision making processes your body is performing regarding that person, and that other person’s current needs.

The Strange Tracking Mechanism

When I was in my twenties, I spent all my time driving across the country. As I had nowhere to call home, and no way to get to know anyone in person to have a relationship with, my body kicked an odd attraction mechanism that it had at its disposal up a couple notches. I would be walking through a store when suddenly I would smell something that was odorless. My sense of smell would increase greatly and certain scents would smell disgustingly strong. However, there was a quality that I was picking up that was directionally attractive. It didn’t matter what I was actually smelling. The scent I was picking up had a direction, not an odor. Every time I followed it, the trail ended in a young woman.

As I was always only stopped for a few hours, I never said hello. I did, however, find it intriguing. It was incredibly difficult to pull myself away from the trail. When I did manage to pull myself away, the main pull to follow the trail would go away as soon as I was a couple meters from the trail. It would come back if I got back on the trail. Even when off the trail, though, there would still be a pull to get back on it.

This ability turned itself on at random, once or twice a year. After I discovered body communication, however, I wondered if I could use this ability manually. I tested it in grocery stores. I would let a woman pass me in an aisle and exit my field of view. Then I would put my attention on her while I was still where she had been and focus on my sense of smell. It worked. 1 out of 20 women in those grocery stores triggered a directional pull to follow that strange odorless scent to their current location.

I was working as an Uber driver at the time and spring break was coming up. I thought that spring break at a high-traffic beach city might be a good chance for some more tests of this ability. I drove to Fort Walton Beach and started accepting rides. Since this ability worked by matching a person and a scent directionally, I wondered how it would work in the closed space of a vehicle. Could it identify a particular person? Would the air currents caused by the air conditioning mess up the directionality of the indications? To test this, I decided that I would not look at anyone while I was performing these tests. I could only look at them after all tests were complete. When a group or individual would get into my vehicle, I would talk with them without my attention on them. I would listen and respond, but not look at them or use my attention on them directly. I would breathe in and determine what direction I was being attracted in, if any direction at all. After that, I would test the locations of each woman in the vehicle.

The results were interesting. 1 out of 7 women in this crowd produced a positive response, instead of the previous 1 out of 20 women from the grocery shopping group. The difference was likely due to this being a younger and healthier crowd. Sometimes there would be no attraction from an entire group, but there often was. Demographics and appearance did not appear to be a factor. I wasn’t looking until after running my tests, but I didn’t see any trends from appearance after the tests were complete. The air currents did not appear to interfere at all with identifying the direction of an individual source of the attraction. It always pointed to an individual woman. I never came across a situation where there were multiple directions provided. When testing each woman, there was a situation where two women produced positive responses, however, one response was stronger than the other, and the initial directional indication was towards the one that produced the stronger response.

There was only one situation in which I had a significant conversation with someone that produced a positive response. I did not look at her at all, but she sat in my front passenger seat and we comfortably talked the whole way to her destination. I drove home a few hours after dropping her off, after performing a few more tests with different people going in and out of my vehicle. I didn’t know it at the time, but having a conversation like that, with someone that my body was directing me to, caused a problem for me. Hours later, I still couldn’t get her out of my head. I had no way of contacting her, I had no idea who she was, and the only real information that my body had on her was her voice and that she was to my right. I was being attracted to someone I had never seen that was only known in my head as “to my right”.

I was already in a relationship and shared this problem with my significant other. I had an insanely strong urge to track that girl down, even though I had no idea where she was, who she was, or anything else about her. For the next three days, my body was strongly directing me to go all the way back to Fort Walton Beach City and look for her: a ridiculous notion. I relied on my girlfriend to keep me sane and from doing anything stupid like that. Thankfully, she obliged and didn’t hold it against me.

Three days later, the influence passed. I realized what had basically taken over my cognition and I was terrified of it. This appeared to be at least one mechanism for love at first sight. Hilariously, it didn’t require sight at all. I never believed in love at first sight, at least for myself. I thought I was too logical for that. I was wrong. This influence overrode all my personal priorities. It was a constant struggle until it passed.

This fear combined with later showing my body that it has to be careful about who we get into a relationship with led my body to shut down this tracking ability completely; a slow process that took over a month to complete. When the change was finished, this ability to identify and track women that my body wanted me to approach no longer worked. Any attempt to test it failed, and it never occurred again on its own. Maybe one day I’ll see if my body will turn it back on and help me run a few more tests, but for now, I’m ok with this weird tracking ability disabled.

Sexual Orientation

From a psychological and medical perspective, sexual orientations cannot be changed. It is not something that a person or treatment can cause. However, there is research indicating that changes over time do occur and some orientations are more stable over time than others. 8 Sexual orientation is remarkably stable, and individuals have no choice in their orientation. However, if something can change over time, that does indicate that it is likely not completely immutable. That, however, is theoretical.

I personally know that sexual orientation can change because I was always completely straight. I had no inclination, and instead an aversion, to males other than myself anywhere near my sexual arousal, in person or in pornography. It was a turnoff. This, however, changed suddenly and completely, unexpectedly for me. As is explained in 20.5 Rapid Cognitive Adaptation, I accidentally paved the way for rapid changes to how I function, cognitively, while providing a new avenue for the social cross-comparison of network structures. As a result, I went to sleep straight and I woke up bisexual.

This was very unsettling to me. A core aspect of my identity was modified without my permission or input. I have always been as straight as an individual can be, since I first became aware of liking girls when I was nine years old. I never felt that way about anything male or masculine. I accepted the change, as I always do, but it took me over a month to adjust to who I now was and the concept that I could be someone completely different tomorrow, without any say in who that would be. It was a difficult change for me, but this is who I am now. It’s not what I was, and it shouldn’t have been possible, but what happened unquestionably happened and I accept and am happy with who I am now.

Warning: I experienced this change and am aware of the causative factors, but that does not mean that anyone can experience this change or any similar change. Sexual orientation should be accepted and cared for, like any other bodily need. It may evolve on its own, but it is incredibly harmful to treat orientation as a choice. Sexual orientation is not a choice. Proposed therapies for treating non-heterosexual orientations do not work and are evidenced to, instead, cause harm. Furthermore, my sexual orientation change was from heterosexual to bisexual, not the other way around. It became more abnormal and more inclusive, not less. Love your sexual orientation and appreciate the orientations of others, what ever those orientations may be. Anything else is harmful to yourself, your friends, your family, and society as a whole. Please, be kind and understanding to yourself and to each other.

Relationships

Priorities

Relationship needs are complicated, and there are a lot of them. One of the first things that I noticed, relationship-wise, is that the need to do anything with each other, socially or romantically, is constantly changing. It’s not even as simple as two individuals with individual sets of changing needs. Instead, it’s a constant negotiation of the prioritization of needs between two people, in every area of need, in every moment of every day. Interestingly, the person doesn’t always agree with what their network is saying. In general, people don’t know what goes on inside themselves.

With limited awareness, and frequent changes in the prioritization of needs, it is a good idea to verbalize what you feel their needs are before acting on them. Make it a dialog, not only between their body and your body, but between two people. This can be difficult, especially since some nodes discourage talking in amorous situations. However, it is better for relationships. It can also be enticing to talk that way about what you’re getting from their body on their needs, especially since the information is accurate. Just don’t be pushy about their own needs. Remember, they are likely not aware of their own needs, and may have different priorities from their body. Asking is always better than telling or assuming.

There is one need that should be respected above all others, however: consent. If their network tells you no, stop immediately. If the person tells you no, no matter what their network tells you, stop immediately. You want to respect the person you are with. You want to respect their body, their network, just like you would want them to respect you and your body’s needs. You want them all to like you, so be kind to all of them and don’t make assumptions.

Keeping it Together

Working with your body’s network can introduce a new issue. Your network...

Infidelity

Sex Drive

Sexual desire is a combination of drive, motives, and values. 9 This section, however, is only about the drive itself and its relation to an individual’s network. Your motives and values are your own.

High Sex Drive

When I first discovered the network, my relationship needs were pushing the need to have sex to a rediculous degree. This reduced my ability to choose who to be with, so I had a discussion with my body in Dolish. I was hoping to somehow mitigate this issue.

The nodes that push for sexual behaviors don’t understand social situations or medical risks. To stop the extreme sexual needs that were making it difficult for me to find the right person to be with, I used body communication to convey to my body the medical risks of sexually transmitted infections and the social risks of bad relationships. I used imagined scenarios, action intentions, and memories of negative relationship events to accomplish that. Communicating this to my body triggered a few rebuilds that resulted in an immediate change in that system’s behaviors. My body became much more cautious in pushing sexual needs. It started taking cues from me on who to be with.

On the one hand, this allowed me to be much more in control of the process of finding someone to be with that is right for me. On the other hand, I don’t like some of the resulting effects of that cautiousness. The flow of amorousness isn’t nearly as powerful when the moment strikes as it used to be. I would fix that problem by making more changes to those systems, but I’d rather stick with the cautiousness for now. I plan to make further changes to that system, undoing some of the side effects, when I am in a stable relationship with someone that is right for me. If you have similar issues of getting into relationships that aren’t healthy for you, a solution like this may work for you too. However, as I said, there can be drawbacks to this specific change.

No Sex Drive

At the other end of the spectrum is a complete lack of a sex drive. This is a state without attraction or desire. It tends to occur during rebuilds and other major changes to internal functionality. It also can occur when something is going on with your immune system. However, if a lot of behavior is being inhibited by an immune system response, sexual need may push itself through that inhibition intermitently.

As-Needed Sex Drive

When there are a lot of internal changes going on, you may go into a state where sexual behavior is not being encouraged or inhibited. If someone you are with has a sexual need, you may suddenly feel the need for sex. This is a second-hand sexual need. It’s there for you to take care of their needs regardless of your current lack of sexual need. Basically, your sex drive is being inhibited a little bit, but not enough to where social systems can’t override it if they detect that someone else has a sexual need.

Sex

Leading Your Movements

You network has a sexual behavior planning system that can direct your movements with your partner. It gets some information from their body that you do not have access to, but you also have information that it does not have access to. It seems to be able to locate the G-spot effortlessly, on any individual with the right equipment, before you even touch them. Information like that can be useful. On the other hand, you actually know what pleasure looks like and feels like. This part of your body doesn’t have a clue, and by default it doesn’t really know that it should care about pleasure.

The best way that I have found to handle this is to make romance, passion, and sex a conversation between the four groups involved: you, your partner, your body’s network, and your partner’s body’s network. If you all work together, you will all learn a lot together, and it will be a better experience overall that will only get more enjoyable over time. Additionally, as the sexual behavior planning system and the massage planning node tend to work together, frequent checks for your partner’s massage needs can be great.

Gained full knowledge of what to do, when, and how in romance and passion. Instructions provided dynamically.
Dynamic instructions like massage sense but sensual.
How do I teach the limitations of this system? It’s not getting its information from every node on their network that it should, so its abilities need to expand considerably.
There are too many variables here. Too many abilities that I haven’t had the opportunities to explore anywhere near enough to feel like I can advise on how to use them.
But people will discover this part of the network if I publish this book, meaning I can’t leave it blank, but I also am not prepared to teach it. This is a severe issue. I need a consultant.

Gender Identity

Nodes may or may not have their own perceptions of themselves. However, the needs that they express can carry implications about who the body is, as a whole. The strongest needs are usually in agreement with the body and the individual, but this isn’t always the case.

Gender Dysphoria

Humans sexually differentiate across the spectrum of male and female, to different degrees. Most commonly, an individual ends up on one side of the spectrum or the other. However, there are other ways that an individual can be born, both physically and mentally. Mentally speaking, there are nodes that assume that they are in the body of either a male or a female. Both types of nodes exist in both sexes. Usually, nodes that expect an alternate sex are inhibited in their sex-specific behaviors. Even when they aren’t inhibited, nodes don’t normally become aware of what their body looks like. They are unlikely to discover that on their own.

If, however, a female node becomes aware that their body lacks female equipment, that node can start freaking out. Similarly, if a male node becomes aware that their body lacks male structure or equipment, that node can also start freaking out. There are even nodes that push copying socially observed looks or behavior from one gender or the other. In all of these situations, the gender dysphoric nodes will start informing other gender-specific nodes of their predicament. This serves to recruit power behind their gender dysphoric complaint. Eventually, that complaint will be felt and expressed by the self: you. Feelings of gender dysphoria can be incredibly difficult to deal with.

In my situation, I encouraged the removal of more inhibitors on my sex drive than I thought. These inhibitors were blocking the expression of sexual needs for all sexualities from both a male body and a female body. As I am male, I was immediately concerned that the female-body nodes were expressing needs involving reproductive equipment that I do not have. I made the mistake of communicating this lack of equipment to that node. It immediately panicked. I felt the panic.

To deal with this sudden gender dysphoria, I needed to be calm. I needed time to consider all sides of the issue, so I temporarily inhibited the expression of gender dysphoria of the female-body sex node. That was, however, only a temporary solution. This female-body sex node started recruiting other nodes that expected that they were in a female body. As that expanded, Translator kept the gender dysphoria away by applying new inhibitors of the dysphoria across my network. Meanwhile, I was considering my options.

I could inhibit these nodes again, permanently. I don’t like this option. Strong inhibitions like this are torture for nodes. Imagine always being hungry and always screaming for help, but you’re restrained in a soundproof room. No one can hear you. I couldn’t do that to my little buddies. The temporary inhibition I was using wasn’t much better, but I needed it to help me figure out the problem, and I didn’t intend to keep it there for long.
I could change these nodes. Since there are a lot of nodes with this issue, I don’t like this as a solution. Even if I did change them, what would I change the needs to? It would differ for each node, making this a tedious process that I might never complete, since there are so many of them. Additionally, this felt like a betrayal of all people, that identify as a different gender than their external form. These nodes are natural, just being themselves. They expected a female body but found themselves in a male. So what? It wasn’t my business to change them.
I could change myself. There are surgeries that would add female reproductive equipment below male reproductive equipment, without damaging the male equipment. This, however, is surgery. Nodes only tends to be in favor of that if a part of the body is messed up and harmful, likely due to infection. So I didn’t like this option either.
I could explore the possibility of my body changing itself. These nodes are part of control systems in my body. Perhaps they could affect it. As there are no built-in mechanisms for a changing a male body into a male and female body like this, however, I doubted that it would be possible in my lifetime.

Ultimately, I couldn’t make this decision. Every choice is problematic. I presented the problem with each possibility to the group of nodes that were expressing gender dysphoria. They were glad that I didn’t want to inhibit them again. They didn’t want that either, and were very appreciative. They also didn’t like the surgical option, as expected. Some favored changing the body themselves, but none of them thought of it as possible. That left changing the nodes themselves. However, they didn’t want me to change them either. They didn’t like any option that I presented to them. Instead, they made their own option: compromise.

We decided to do the best that we could under the current circumstances. I would express their needs physically and in imagination, as much as they wanted. They wouldn’t panic about the lack of equipment. We would all do the best we can to work with each other. The masculine systems would compromise with the feminine systems. I was happy with this solution, and they trusted me to express their needs, even without the requisite equipment. This may not work for everyone, but it did work for me. I did have to help negotiate several disagreements between masculine-specific and feminine-specific systems. A sorted list of the masculine and feminine disagreements that I had to help work out are shown in Table 8.1 below.

List of major feminine and masculine node conflicts. Resolving them helped dictate the design of a new self-image and associated system settings.
#	Groups	Issue	Decision
1	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine nodes want body hair removed, especially facial hair. Masculine nodes oppose this. Masculine nodes want the hair for mate attraction. This isn't very effective, and we need to be more choosey about our mates anyway. Masculine accepted that reasoning.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor feminine body hair distribution.
2	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine nodes want increased hip-thigh joint flexibility. Masculine nodes don’t want it but they don't care much.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor feminine joint flexibility.
3	Feminine vs Masculine	The over, inner, and underside of eye skin was singled out as a single area. Feminine nodes want more soft-contoured coloring in that area. Masculine nodes want more flat coloring. Feminine was favored, as this is an aspect of beauty and social expression: a more feminine-dominated specialty.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor feminine eye contour coloring.
4	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine nodes feel that the testicles are wrong, but they don't know what to do about it. I told them that the testicles are a male thing so they can leave that to the male nodes. Feminine nodes were happy with that.	Masculine favored. Changed default instructions in feminine nodes to favor testicles above the vagina in our self-image.
5	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine nodes have a socially informed problem with our hair shape. They want more feminine styles. The opposing masculine nodes don't care all that much. Feminine hair styles tend to be better than male styles.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor socially influenced feminine hairstyles.
6	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine nodes have a problem with the areas directly distal of our eyes. Something is wrong there, but they don't know what. Masculine has no problem with the current form. Eye contour is more a feminine field, and feminine nodes care more than masculine. This need is socially informed, on both sides.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor feminine eye contouring
7	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine nodes want very large breasts. Masculine nodes don't want breasts at all. Feminine would be happy with the current situation. It's apparently not a big issue to feminine.	Masculine favored. Changed default instructions to favor a small chest.
8	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine nodes have a problem with our cheeks. They want different contouring. Masculine nodes are fine with our current cheeks. Feminine cheeks tend to be more expressive.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor feminine cheek contouring.
9	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine nodes have a problem with our penis and lack of vagina. They would actually favor surgery to replace the dick with a vagina. Masculine nodes are against that. Feminine nodes wouldn't mind the penis if a vagina was under it. There is a surgery to add a vagina down there, below the testicles. That would require further discussion with my body, as being bottom-surgery-positive is not a common opinion in my body, from my last survey. I will continue to include a vagina down there in my mental images when taking care of sexual needs. Feminine nodes would like to include a vagina down there, below our penis, in our self-image. Masculine nodes aren't opposed to that.	Feminine partially favored. Changed default instructions to favor a vagina under our penis in our self-image and imagination only.
10	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine nodes have a socially informed problem with our ears. They want earrings. Masculine nodes don't care about earrings.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor feminine social ear adornment.
11	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine nodes have a socially informed problem with our buttocks. They want tighter clothes that show it off, like other women. Masculine nodes don't have a problem with this.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor socially informed feminine buttocks adornment.
12	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine nodes have a problem with our body shape. They want a slimmer figure, closer to a belly dancer figure. Masculine nodes would prefer a more muscular form. Masculine nodes are more ok with feminine nodes’ slim figure than feminine is for masculine's muscular figure. There might be a happy medium, but for now I'll favor feminine, as it puts less physical improvement strain on the body. Masculine's preference would require a DOMS prevention protocol. I don't think my body is ready for that yet.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor a female belly dancer figure.
13	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine has a problem with our belly. It wants the belly slim and flat. Masculine wants a big belly. Belly fat shortens lifespan. It's basically deadly.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor a slim belly.
14	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine has a problem with our chin that is hard to identify. Inquiring further, it's the facial hair. We're already taking care of that, as stated in issue #1	Feminine favored. Changed as above in #1.
15	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine has a problem with our neck. It's our voice, not our neck. It wants a more feminine voice. Its need for a feminine voice is socially informed, not in-built. It wants me to sound more like other women. It doesn't care about the depth of my voice. Only that I sound like other women. Masculine wants me to sound like other men. Neither like how I sound now. The only way to compromise on this is to train my voice and do both. I will learn how to sing and learn how to be a voice actor. My vocal range will encompass both male and female. This decision satisfies both sides.	Both favored. Changed default instructions to favor cooperative voice flexibility of both a feminine voice and a masculine voice.
16	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine has a problem with our neck flexibility. Masculine doesn't want flexibility. It wants more muscle.	Both favored. Changed default instructions to favor more neck muscles and more neck flexibility, simultaneously.
17	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine has a problem with our back. It wants increased flexibility. Masculine doesn't care all that much	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor increased flexibility.
18	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine has a problem with our behavior. It wants us to feel urine leaving our body closer to our pelvis than the penis allows. This is not possible with a male body. Masculine wants us to keep feeling our urine leave the penis head's urethral opening	Masculine favored. Changed default instructions to favor the sensation of urination from the tip of the penis.
19	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine has a problem with our pelvis. It wants a wider pelvis. Masculine doesn't care.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor a wider pelvis
20	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine wants us to be sedentary to reduce production from the reproductive system of something that, among other systems, the skeletal system wants. Masculine likes the current level of production. This is probably referring to the production of testosterone. Being sedentary would harm us, long term, so that's a bad idea. Feminine can reduce this production some other way.	Masculine favored. Changed default instructions to favor being physically active as more important than hormone production regulation, so that physical activity will not be vetoed by this regulation process.
21	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine has a problem with our head. It wants a more feminine face. Masculine would not mind a more feminine face.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor a more feminine face.
22	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine wants us to perform felatio on a guy and suck his testicles while looking up at him as he enjoys it. Masculine wants that a little, but also wants to jack him off at the same time. Feminine does not want to jack.	Both favored. Changed default instructions to separate or combine both behaviors, so both are expressed separately.
23	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine as a problem with our arms. It wants softer-colored arm hair or no arm hair. Masculine wants more, darker arm hair, but not too much. We already agreed to remove all arm hair Masculine is fine with that. Change default instructions just to make sure Masculine stays fine with it.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor light or no arm hair.
24	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine has a problem with our lack of long hair. These nodes want extreme length specifically. Masculine wants shorter hair but it's not all that important. I'm not sure how long I can grow my hair since I appear to have a pretty short terminal length. I may have to resort to wigs when appearing feminine.	Both favored. Changed as below in #39.
25	Feminine vs Masculine	Feminine has a problem with our buttocks. It would like it to be bigger and wider. Masculine would prefer it as is, straight in line with our torso. Feminine cares more than masculine.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor larger and wider buttocks.
26	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with an area in our upper to middle back. Masculine wants it to be stronger. Feminine wants it to be weaker than masculine. Feminine doesn't appear to care all that much. Masculine favored. I need to work out to make this a reality.	Masculine favored. Changed default instructions to favor a more muscular upper back.
27	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with the muscles between our mound and thighs. They want more muscle. Feminine is good with that.	Masculine favored. Changed default instructions to favor more muscle between our mound and thigh.
28	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our head profile from the back. It wants straighter lines on the sides for our head shape. Feminine doesn't have a problem with that.	Masculine favored. Changed default instructions to favor straighter lines on the sides for our head shape from the back
29	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our facial skin. We don't look healthy. Feminine agrees, though they want different contour coloring from each other. We'll work on it together.	Compromise favored.
30	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our lower legs. It thinks they are too weak. Feminine doesn't care.	Masculine favored. Changed default instructions to favor stronger lower legs
31	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our whole body. They, however, cannot identify the problem. This need is not socially informed. However, it is opposed by feminine. Feminine wants something head-specific that they can't identify either. Problem traced. Feminine;s problem is lip color. Our lip color is too dull. Masculine's problem is muscles. We aren't muscular enough, everywhere. These are two separate issues, yet they were both so generalized that they were opposing each other anyway. Masculine is in favor of an improved lip coloring. Feminine is in favor of more muscles.	Both favored. Changed default instructions to favor supporting each other, with both masculine and feminine programmed to be in favor of both improved lip coloring and more muscles.
32	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our shoulder flexibility. We are having trouble washing our back. Feminine is alright with that, but opposing it anyway.	Masculine favored. Changed default instructions to favor increased shoulder flexibility to wash our back.
33	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our head that I can't identify. Tracing back, it's our lips. Specifically, the shape of our bottom lip. I can't identify the specific shape problem. Feminine opposes. Feminine has a problem with the shape of our lips in general. I can't identify that specific problem either. These needs are socially informed. Females are more socialy focused on lip shape.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to conform to socially feminine lip form.
34	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our chin. It prefers a square jawline. Feminine prefers our jawline. We do not have a square jawline, and only surgery could correct that. Our jawline can work for both feminine and masculine. Also, feminine cares more about it than masculine, even though masculine has more power behind its opinion than feminine.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to favor a feminine jawline
35	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our lower legs and feet. It wants increased reaction times. Feminine doesn't care about that.	Masculine favored. Changed default instructions to favor increased leg and feet reaction times.
36	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our vomit reflex. Our muscles aren't as strong as it wants. They get tired of vomiting too quickly. Extra strength in these muscles wouldn't be detrimental in any way. Feminine doesn't oppose stronger muscles. Feminine only opposed because it has a problem with our fasting behavior. These are both upset regarding what went on when I fasted for 33 days, a decade ago. They both want me to be prepared for it to happen again. I explained that the fasting thing was my choice, I was wrong, I shouldn't have done it, and it will never happen again. They both gave up on these needs.	Neither favored.
37	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our arms thickness. It wants them to be thicker. Feminine likes them as they are. Feminine's instructions on this are default. Masculine's instructions on this are socially informed. There would be no problem getting a little thicker with exercise, but probably not to a great degree. Masculine is ok with that.	Feminine mostly favored. Changed default instructions to favor slightly more muscular arms but mostly feminine
38	Minority masculine vs Feminine & majority masculine	Some masculine nodes want me to urinate on a sexual partner before they perform felatio on me. This is a fetish for some and is likely the cause of the fetish. I am unsure what to do about it. I have no way of studying the purpose and results of this need being acted upon. It is a relatively uncommon need, and I am not able to express it currently. It is also rejected by feminine and other masculine-expressing nodes. For now, I will shut the need off.	Feminine and majority Masculine favored. Changed default instructions to NOT urinate on a sexual partner.
39	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with one of Feminine's preferences. Feminine wants flowing hair down to our tailbone. Masculine wants our hair to not go beyond our shoulders. Feminine is ok with shoulder length hair and even a buzz cut, so this isn't a strong preference or issue. A later issue is specific to hair down to our lower back and is not satisfied by shoulder length hair.	Compromise favored. Changed default instructions to favor all lengths of hair.
40	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our eyes, eyebrows, and the area medial and lateral from the eyes. It wants a neandertol brow ridge. I have no idea what to do about that. I wouldn't mind one, and maybe some of that can be achieved with larger facial muscles. No idea. Feminine isn't really against it though, so I'll allow a slight version of it.	Masculine favored. Changed default instructions to favor a slight brow ridge
41	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with our height. It wants us to have a perspective from a much higher point. Feminine favors this too. They were fighting each other over it, but they actually agree. They were actually fighting over what they want to look at from that perspective. Masculine wants to look at other people of the same height. It doesn't mind other heights for females or shorter males, but it really doesn't like taller males. Feminine wants to look at females of the same height and males of a much greater height. Shorter females are fine, taller females and shorter males and males of the same height are a bit less fine. Taller males are extremely desired. The main issue is males. Feminine wants taller males exclusively. Masculine hates taller males exclusively. Masculine sees how much feminine wants taller males and is willing to give that up to feminine.	Compromise favored. Changed default instructions to favor being taller and also for masculine to favor taller men.
42	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine doesn't like that we stand close to people that we don't know. Feminine doesn't mind being close to other females. Has an aversion to being near unknown males the same amount. Respecting space is fine, but I don't like having proximity aversions. Feminine's is the least restrictive of the two, even though it is a bit sexist.	Feminine favored. Changed default instructions to being comfortable being near females that we don't know.
43	Masculine vs Feminine	Masculine has a problem with us not having facial hair to attract a mate. Feminine wants no facial hair. This issue has already been handled in a less specific way in issue #1. Applying the same logic and solution.	Feminine favored. Changed as above in #1.

Needs of Other Species

While exploring the newly released sexual needs of all genders and sexualities, I came across some needs that didn’t make sense. They were needs with a concept of themselves as a different species entirely, with desires towards their own species’. I am currently cataloging them, but I have so far found needs from nodes with self-concepts that express various mammalian-like body forms. I haven’t catelogged them all, but I haven’t found any without fur, nor any that are non-mammalian in any other way.

These behavior instructions appear to be vestigial node instructions. Instead of changing the behaviors or removing the node entirely as species develop, they were naturally inhibited and left in place to develop and remain dormant. They only became active when the inhibitors on them were removed, resulting in me discovering them.

As I’m human, there was only one way to deal with this situation: change the nodes’ default instructions to be human centered. It needed to perceive itself as in a human and intend its desire toward other humans. I usually leave all other aspects the same. However, there was one behavior that I decided to have removed entirely: attempting to attract a mate through marking territory with urine. Pretty sure that won’t work with humans, so it was better to remove that behavior entirely. That node has its other jobs, so the node itself was glad to be rid of the behavior instead of having the need continuously inhibited; especially since continuous strong inhibition is torture.

List of major non-human node conflicts. Resolving them helped dictate the design of a new self-image and associated system settings.
#	Groups	Issue	Decision
1	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes expressed the desire for a tail. Human form was favored, as I do not have a tail and do not have a mechanism for tail growth. This situation is not easy. They have no idea how to build a tail. All they can do is complain about the lack of a tail. I tried to walk them through a possible process for learning how to build a tail, but they think it's too much for them to even contemplate doing. They want the need for a tail removed.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to not push the need for a tail to these nodes. I'm sorry guys. This is the best I can do for you.
2	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with us not having an area of the body that they are looking for. I don't know what part that is because they don't. Inquiring furthur, it's a tail, again. They just didn't know that's what it was because of our body shape and orientation not matching the attachment points that they expected. Human form favored, as I do not have a tail and do not have a mechanism for tail growth. Told them to group with the others that want a tail. If they can come up with a growth mechanism, I'd agree to it. However, that is unlikely.	Human favored. Changed as above in #1.
3	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our upright structure and posture. Upright, however, is more efficient and has gained us the ability to specialize our front limbs into arms and hands for tool use. We can't go back.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to human form and gait.
4	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our attraction to humans. It wants to sniff for a four-legged, stocky, thin-tailed, short-legged, furry mammal. We are human, so this is not an option.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to human form attraction.
5	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our nose not being on the end of our mouth; a problem with our flat mouth as opposed to a snout of some sort. I cannot form a snout, nor is that human. I also do not believe it would provide any benefits. Nor could I form a snout. This is not possible.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to human form snout area.
6	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our torso. They don't agree on what our torso should be, but they agree that it shouldn't be what it is. There's nothing I can do about my torso shape.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to human form torso.
7	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our nose/mouth/chin/cheeks/ears shape. However, they can't agree on a shape. They only agree that they don't want ours. I can't change these human aspects.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to human form nose, mouth, chin, cheeks, and ears shape.
8	Feminine Non-human vs Human	Feminine non-human nodes have a problem with our penis. They want female non-human genetalia. The female part agrees with the other feminine nodes, but this needs to be human-centered, since we are human.	Feminine & human favored. Changed default instructions to human form female genetalia below testicles
9	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our mound. They want it to be larger. I see no real problem with this	Non-human favored.
10	Masculine Non-human vs Human	Masculine non-human nodes have a problem with our stance. They want to be on all fours to mount and mate from on top.	Masculine & human favored. Changed default instructions to human stance male on female sex positions (upright, on knees, laying down from different angles, missionary).
11	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our ears. They want our ears higher up on our head. We have a human form.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to human ears.
12	Masculine Non-human vs Human	Masculine non-human nodes want me to mate with a small female mammal, as a small male mammal. This needs to be switched to human-form focused immediately.	Masculine & human favored. Changed default instructions to sex with a female human.
13	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our legs. They can't agree on what they should be but they don't like what they are. We have a human form	Human favored. Changed default instructions to human legs.
14	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our head. They can't agree on what it should be, but they don't like what it is. We have a human form.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to a human head.
15	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our legs. Too long and not angled perpendicular to our torso. We have a human form.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to human legs.
16	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our method of drinking water. They want to lap at water. This is a much less efficient way to drink, wouldn't look good socially, and messy.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to drinking from a water bottle.
17	Non-human vs Human	Masculine non-human nodes want me to lick the vagina of a female non-human, as a male non-human. This needs to be switched to human-form focused immediaately	Masculine & human favored. Changed default instructions to cunnilingus with a female human.
18	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes are not agreeing on a diet that we should be eating, but they are agreeing on inhibiting my body’s current diet plan. The non-human nodes do not appear to be digestively informed. The behavior patterns are confusing each other and preventing my normal diet plan. All I can do is shut these conflicting needs off in their default instructions.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to turn off all non-human dietary plans that are not informed by body care sensory information.
19	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes are messing up water intake and urinary need detection. My only way to deal with this currently is to shut them all off in default instructions	Human favored. Changed default instructions to turn off all non-human renal instructions.
20	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our back. They want our back to always be horizontal. This is not possible for a human.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to favor human posture.
21	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our face. They want fur all over. This is not an attractive masculine or feminine look.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to favor hair only on top of the head and nowhere else.
22	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes are engouringing nesting behavior. Unfortunately, that behavior is sedentary. That isn't good for us.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to favor being active rather than nesting.
23	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our shoulders. They want our shoulder to be a little wider than our head, but not this wide. That is not possible for a human.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to favor wider shoulders in proportion to our head.
24	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our mouth. They want larger teeth. This isn't possible for a human.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to favor human-sized teeth.
25	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes want us to, as a small furry creature with a wide head, cuddle up to a female in a tree hole for the night and perform grooming behavior on her in the morning. This is cute but needs to be human-centered.	Compromise favored. Changed default instructions to favor snuggling up in bed as humans.
26	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our wide ribcage. They want our torso to be much smaller. This is not possible for a human.	Human favored. Changed deafult instructions to favor a human-sized ribcage.
27	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our chin. They want the chin pulled in while the mouth stays in the same place. This isn't possible for us.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to favor a human chin.
28	Non-human vs Human	Non-human nodes have a problem with our head's orientation in relation to our spine. This is impossible to change for a human.	Human favored. Changed default instructions to favor human spine-to-head orientation.

Conclusion

Everyone inside your body has their own views about who you all are and what you need to do. You aren’t them and they aren’t you, but you all have to live together and work together, all day, every day. There are peaceful solutions that you can all come to together. You may fight sometimes. You may get scared sometimes. Their problems are your problems, their needs are your needs. Their lives are your life, and your life is theirs. Who you are may change as they change. How you define yourself can depend on your diplomacy with them. Ultimately, you’re stuck together. How you handle that is up to you.

Prayer

Feeling the Need to Pray

If you are religious, you will no doubt notice eventually that prayer is a social need that your body may sometimes communicate to you. I have even heard of atheists feeling the need for prayer, even though they have no one to pray to and the feeling makes no sense to them. Over time, you may notice that prayer is also frequently discouraged. It’s a human need, like any other, and it does serve an infrequent purpose. Prayer is an action that substitutes other social needs when the social systems involved are starved of some types of social attention behavior. Prayer is discouraged when those needs are either fulfilled by more applicable behaviors or inhibited.

The Functionality of Prayer

You may also notice that prayer is a form of network communication, similar to connecting to another person. However, unlike how other remote network communication appears to function, the connection formed during prayer does not go to an outside individual. Instead, the connection is addressed to other nodes within your body that provide a form of signal noise. The nodes addressed do not intend meaning in that signal noise. As a result, however, queries through the prayer social connection have a flat muscular response strength. They do provide both positive and negative indications, however those depend on your expectations. In this way, prayer does not function as a communicative social connection. Instead, it functions the same as an imaginary friend connection. Both prayer connections and imaginary friend connections are a form of social system maintenance when normal social behavior is lacking or not present.

Combining Prayer & Remote Queries

I once performed tests that attempted to query bodily need information from the prayer systems of other people. This went very badly. I do not recommend it. Please see Author’s Story: I ignored a rebuild, as testing this type of query is what caused that situation.

If you do run remote prayer or remote imaginary friend connection queries, despite the warning above, you may notice the initial query on each connection target produces a comparatively very strong response. Subsequent queries of this type will produce a much weaker response. This is due to the protective actions of both protected sectors and inhibitor nodes.

Depending on your personal religion, these findings regarding prayer may have religious implications to you. However, that is a personal matter beyond the scope of this documentation. This documentation merely outlines the network functionality of prayer needs and behaviors.

Shared Prayer

Just like solitary prayer, shared prayer is a social system self-maintenance need. This need is specific though. The social need is for shared attention, as in multiple people together focusing on the same thing, in the same direction. In developmental psychology this is known as joint attention or shared attention. Any person or object may be attended to, as a group, for this need to be fulfilled. The specific need for shared prayer is more likely when other social needs are starved and already pushing specifically for prayer, in lieu of exercising more fulfilling social behaviors that are currently found lacking.

Review

Lighting and Sleep

Positioning & Movement

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