Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT: 2281-85 (24-28 September 2012) Weekly Comics Discussion Thread

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Akima:
I suppose, for a humanoid robot like Momo, plugging an iPod into her ear, skull-jack or whatever is the equivalent to putting on headphones to shut out an over-chatty fellow-passenger in the next seat of an airliner. After all, Momo is continuously on-line and could stream/download any music she wanted. Perhaps Emily is a Taoist and has been reading Zhuanzi:

"Once Emily dreamt she was a toaster, a toaster cooking bread and crumpets golden brown, happy with itself and doing as it pleased. It didn't know it was Emily. Suddenly she woke up and there she was, solid and unmistakable Emily. But she didn't know if she was Emily who had dreamt she was a toaster, or a toaster dreaming it was Emily. Between Emily and a toaster there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things."

DSL:
Frakkin' toasters.

Mr. Doctor:
How do they work?




--- Quote from: idontunderstand on 26 Sep 2012, 00:38 ---Jeph is really into "Emily is weird" stuff lately. It's kind of funny but not my cup of tea I guess.

--- End quote ---

I'm afraid he's overdoing it to the point it might get old for me.  :-\

cesariojpn:
Emily could've said worse to Momo.....like asking if she was a Sexaroid.

no one special:
Momo's views on her and Marigold's relationhsip is interesting, as Marten and Pintsize are SO not equals.   

The timeline on this gets a little complicated.  In this comic, Clinton asks Marten if the Artificial Intelligence Equal Rights Amendment (for lack of a better term) had "changed [his] relationship" with Pintsize.  This questions, to me, makes it feel like the AIERA hadn't been ratified all that long ago - or, at the very least, that Marten already had Pintsize for quite a significant amount of time before the AIERA was ratified, and that the post- AIERA timeframe is comparatively shorter.  So how long do we think that Marten has had Pintsize, and how long ago was the AIERA ratified? 

Another interesting point is that we haven't seen Pintsize attempt to change the parameters of his and Marten's relationship since the AIERA was ratified - apparently new rights didn't imbue him with a desire to be treated differently.  Not that Marten treats him poorly, clearly, but one would wonder if Pintsize might have legal recourse (not that he would exercise it) over being thrown against the wall, dented, put in the freezer, etc. 

Contract aside, the relationship between Marigold and Momo is very much different, clearly one that exists on much more equal footing.  Regarding today's comic - it is interesting that:
a) Momo is not "owned" by Marigold, since it's been fairly well established that Marten owns Pintsize and that PT410X also has an owner.  (In that comic, though, note that PT410X puts the word 'owner' in quotes.  He doesn't consider himself owned - he had self-declared his independence before it was even law.)
b) Momo called the contract "standard." That would seem to imply said contract was not only established, but commonplace at the time that Marigold and Momo signed it.  That means that the AIERA has already been established for a significant amount of time, long enough for its changes to no longer be a cause to bat an eyelash.  Jeph's comment further implies that sufficient time has passed (since ratification) for Emily to understand that questions of ownership and function (i.e. purpose) should be considered highly insulting.

All of this begs the questions:

1) How long has it been since the AIERA was ratified?   (mentioned above, yes)
2) How quickly do cultural mores change in this world?
3) How long have Marigold and Momo been friends?
4) How long had Marten had Pintsize?  (also mentioned above, yes)

Hmmm...

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