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pretending to do one thing while actually using the glasses

tagged people

tagged stores

tagged bathrooms

gaming

recording

taking pictures

holo maid

porn

Come on, why didn't you mention my use for them?!

[DSL]

@people saying comic artists have no idea of women etc:
...are you aware of the irony of making that ridiculously generalized claim HERE of all places?

Jeph is in a relationship.

Responding only for myself, the woman speaker whose name I cannot remember (dammit) was referring to comic book superhero artists. And you cannot deny that fabric, in particular spandex and its relatives, does NOT behave in the real world the way it does in the comic book world. Nor do most skeletal or muscular structures. Indeed, I begin to think the most commonly required superpower, tvtropes be damned, is the resistance to spinal problems later in life and the ability to recover from some of those poses into which (especially) superheroine characters are drawn.

Jeph's depiction of anatomy, making allowances for his consciously chosen and evolved style, is among the more realistic.

[GarandMarine]

Swears constantly, impulse control issues, wants to be a jet fighter. That seals it. May is clearly my spirit animal.

[Overkillengine]

You'd think an AI would realize they have all the time in the world to earn the money needed to buy such a thing; unless they have some sort of built in obsolescence?

[Border Reiver]

So, no way she could have volunteered for military service? 

Unless of course there's some sort of pre/early ACW nonsense about how AIs could not possibly be employed in fighting roles due to (insert racist rant here)

[katsmeat]

So, no way she could have volunteered for military service? 

Unless of course there's some sort of pre/early ACW nonsense about how AIs could not possibly be employed in fighting roles due to (insert racist rant here)

If they can match up AI's to people as companions, then presumably AIs can be screened for certain jobs. It's reasonable to speculate that she did apply and got turned down as somebody decided that no way in hell should she be put in charge of weapons.  Probably she was considered not even responsible enough to be a civilian aircraft.

Though somebody then put her in a position where she could access millions of dollars of other people's money. Which is fair enough as  that kind of monumental cock-up seems to be a semi-routine part of the RL world of  finance.

[weisbm]

Though somebody then put her in a position where she could access millions of dollars of other people's money. Which is fair enough as  that kind of monumental cock-up seems to be a semi-routine part of the RL world of  finance.

Just wondering why anyone would find this surprising in the current world financial situation 

[Random832]

Responding only for myself, the woman speaker whose name I cannot remember (dammit) was referring to comic book superhero artists. And you cannot deny that fabric, in particular spandex and its relatives, does NOT behave in the real world the way it does in the comic book world. Nor do most skeletal or muscular structures. Indeed, I begin to think the most commonly required superpower, tvtropes be damned, is the resistance to spinal problems later in life and the ability to recover from some of those poses into which (especially) superheroine characters are drawn.

Counterpoint:


There is substantial reason to think that comic book artists just suck at anatomy generally.

[gopher]

I'm not convinced a drone would be much use without a trained ground crew to support it. $750 million seems a lot for one flight then being stuck on the ground with no fuel, lubricant or spares. As for the larger story May seems to be the first completly unsympathetic character we have had for a while.

[Zebediah]

May as mercenary fighter jet would have been a really, really bad thing. She got off easy being turned into a maid, given some of the other possible options. Garbage truck. Aerator at a sewage plant. Toaster. 

[cesium133]

Imagine the havoc she could cause in any of those positions. Garbage being flung everywhere. Shit hitting the fan. Burnt toast.

[Neko_Ali]

My mind boggled seeing that picture of Captain America, Random. Then I read who the artist was. Liefied has always been absolutely terrible at anatomy, men and women... Still it breaks the mind and makes me want to scream "PEOPLE AREN'T MADE LIKE THAT!"

[DSL]

Liefeld is kind of the reductio ad absurdum of the comic book anatomy argument. Aside from the overexaggeration in the infamous Cap drawing, there's the offsetting of his chest, the uncertainty over where the lower parts of his anatomy begin, and a face that's pretty much impossible. At least with that build, Cap can't see (how Liefeld would have drawn) his feet.

[Game and Watch Forever]

Oh boy Liefeld... I'll just leave this here for anyone that wants to get more acquainted with how horrible unique his work can be.

[rschill]

Responding only for myself, the woman speaker whose name I cannot remember (dammit) was referring to comic book superhero artists. And you cannot deny that fabric, in particular spandex and its relatives, does NOT behave in the real world the way it does in the comic book world. Nor do most skeletal or muscular structures. Indeed, I begin to think the most commonly required superpower, tvtropes be damned, is the resistance to spinal problems later in life and the ability to recover from some of those poses into which (especially) superheroine characters are drawn.

Counterpoint:


There is substantial reason to think that comic book artists just suck at anatomy generally.

Looks to me like the artist got sidetracked and started to draw a typical comic book woman's chest, and then did some weird contortion trying not to own up to it. 

[Border Reiver]

No, from looking at his body of work, he has no idea of how to draw humans, or how clothing works, or about perspective, etc.

[katsmeat]

Bloody hell. Even The Tick looks more like a human being than that.

I disagree with the typical comic book woman's chest theory. I think it was a storyline where CA grew wings. And taking a scientifically meticulous approach, the artist put in the breast/flight muscles that would be needed if a bird was scaled up to human size.

Then they changed the story and he deleted the wings, but forgot the rest. 

[Salty]

Rob Liefeld is kind of the lowest common denominator when it comes to comic art anatomy.

Absolutely everybody makes fun of him and his incredibly obvious flaws. Even people who aren't artists.

[Overkillengine]

I'm just amazed they kept him from adding random pouches to Cap.

[Redball]

I wonder how he'd draw QC characters.

[muon]

And you cannot deny that fabric, in particular spandex and its relatives, does NOT behave in the real world the way it does in the comic book world. Nor do most skeletal or muscular structures. Indeed, I begin to think the most commonly required superpower, tvtropes be damned, is the resistance to spinal problems later in life and the ability to recover from some of those poses into which (especially) superheroine characters are drawn.

It's an unfortunately common disability among female comic book characters.

http://www.superstupor.com/sust01252012.shtml

[Mr_Rose]

There should be a "liefieldify" filter on Instagram. Instant buy.

[Is it cold in here?]

They're bound to have safeguards and surveillance in place to ensure she can't go rogue or escape.

I wonder how reliable those are in the QC world.

[DSL]

I wonder how he'd draw QC characters.

There was a "Strong Female Characters" joke/gag/meme/whatever circulating among a few webcomickers not too long ago. Jeph joined in and the results are somewhere in his Tumblr. You could get a partial idea from that.

[KOK]

They're bound to have safeguards and surveillance in place to ensure she can't go rogue or escape.

Maybe she did escape. Or almost. Still running on the jail hardware, but communicating with the outside without the knowledge of the jailers. In which case she is most likely looking for a way to escape completely.

[CrowFairy]

There was a "Strong Female Characters" joke/gag/meme/whatever circulating among a few webcomickers not too long ago. Jeph joined in and the results are somewhere in his Tumblr. You could get a partial idea from that.

LINK for the original idea.

And LINK that includes Jeph's contribution as well as a bunch of other people's.

(NSFW if your workplace isn't nipple-friendly. )

[FunkyTuba]

For more in this same vein, don't forget the venerable (and hilarious (and NSFW in places)) Escher Girls


My favorites are the redraws, especially when they try to draw the anatomy as is and have to annotate it with "WTF SPINE?"

[Storel]

(click to show/hide)

If tagging works like this for AR, I want it. Now.

Never mind the tagging; if AR could be programmed to hypersexualize every person's appearance (though hopefully with more accurate anatomy), you know there'd be a lot of buyers.

Of course, then someone would come up with a patch you could download for your Glasses that doesn't change the hypersexual bodies but digitally erases everyone's clothes. I saw a patch like that for The Sims, years ago.

...boob socks?

Tops that are perfectly tailored to each individual breast, a result of an artist just drawing a naked figure and then coloring it to look like clothes, sometimes with a half-hearted attempt at fabric lines.
Actual clothing tends to fit around both, blurring and compressing their shape into what's sometimes referred to as a "monoboob" - a relatively undifferentiated horizontal bulge.

Well, in a world as futuristic as that, who's to say they haven't invented a sort of "cling fabric" that sticks firmly to every part of your skin it covers, but can still be removed easily when you want to take your clothes off? It wouldn't even have to be all that high-tech -- you can do some amazing things with static electricity. 

You'd think an AI would realize they have all the time in the world to earn the money needed to buy such a thing; unless they have some sort of built in obsolescence?

I believe the urge for instant gratification is part of what defines "poor impulse control". You see something you like, you want it NOW, not twenty years from now.

Besides, you know something as high-tech as an intelligent robot is going to be totally obsolete in less than ten years. A ten-year-old computer is a dinosaur; why wouldn't it be even worse for AIs?

This conversation is now reminding me of the Neal Stephenson character who had "POOR IMPULSE CONTROL" tattooed on his forehead as a sort of punishment (or warning to everyone else?), who firmly believed that everyone could be induced to listen to Reason. Turned out that Reason was the name he'd given the (barely) portable chaingun he carried around... or was it the name of the tactical nuke he also kept with him? One of those, anyway... 

Counterpoint:

(click to show/hide)

There is substantial reason to think that comic book artists just suck at anatomy generally.

Hm... looks like Cap here was genetically designed for life on a high-gravity world that, somehow, has very thin air. Or, more likely, the air is as dense as you'd expect with that gravity, but has a very low oxygen content.

But why does even his shield have muscles??

[SageJiraiya]

a relatively undifferentiated horizontal bulge.

That reminds me of Kim Possible's tatas.

[SageJiraiya]

something as high-tech as an intelligent robot is going to be totally obsolete in less than ten years. A ten-year-old computer is a dinosaur; why wouldn't it be even worse for AIs?

A truly self-sufficient AI would be able to upgrade itself I think.

[Spiff]

So, no way she could have volunteered for military service? 

Unless of course there's some sort of pre/early ACW nonsense about how AIs could not possibly be employed in fighting roles due to (insert racist rant here)

The AnthroPC at the shop where Momo got her current chassis used to work as the AI of a submarine, so it should be possible.

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1997

[Akima]

$750 million is way more than even an F-35 costs.

An F-35 isn't nuclear-powered, or capable of space flight, and can't transform into a giant mecha. You get what you pay for. In QC-world the YF-29 apparently comes from China (Chengzhou?), so perhaps it is the cheap option. You know, like Huawei vs. Samsung or Apple. Or May is confusing dollars with yuan; so far she doesn't seem too bright.

So, no way she could have volunteered for military service?

Perhaps she did. I'm sure modern military organisations perform some sort of psychiatric screening...

[LTK]

I believe the urge for instant gratification is part of what defines "poor impulse control". You see something you like, you want it NOW, not twenty years from now.

Besides, you know something as high-tech as an intelligent robot is going to be totally obsolete in less than ten years. A ten-year-old computer is a dinosaur; why wouldn't it be even worse for AIs?

Given the speed at which AIs process information, if you've got a criminal one on your hands, your bank account will have been emptied the moment you let go of the mouse button after clicking 'Connect AI'.

'Poor impulse control' has an entirely different meaning to an AI. If May cannot or wishes not to consider the consequences of her actions, her desire to become a fighter jet will have translated into action within miliseconds. In fact, I'd wager she was probably caught by some sort of AI police, because no human is going to be able to react fast enough to a 750 million dollar transfer. That would also make her incarceration a lightning-fast procedure, if it has to be done by fellow AIs. The QC universe may be suffering from millions of crimes perpetrated by AIs every second if the barrier to actually commiting a crime is so low for an AI - by human standards, thinking about doing it costs almost no less time and effort than actually doing it.

[Is it cold in here?]

This conversation is now reminding me of the Neal Stephenson character who had "POOR IMPULSE CONTROL" tattooed on his forehead as a sort of punishment (or warning to everyone else?), who firmly believed that everyone could be induced to listen to Reason. Turned out that Reason was the name he'd given the (barely) portable chaingun he carried around... or was it the name of the tactical nuke he also kept with him? One of those, anyway... 

I believe that was two different characters.

[GarandMarine]

Raven is the guy with the "Poor Impulse Control" punishment tattoo on his forehead and his own personal nuke. He's also one of my most despised characters of all time, but then I didn't like Snow Crash at all.

[cesium133]

"No, silly, it's on my arm and it says 'Princess'. I'm not commenting on the nuke, though."

[cesariojpn]

Raven is the guy with the "Poor Impulse Control" punishment tattoo on his forehead and his own personal nuke. He's also one of my most despised characters of all time, but then I didn't like Snow Crash at all.

"No, silly, it's on my arm and it says 'Princess'. I'm not commenting on the nuke, though."

Goddamnit, now I envision Raven as a convincing crossdresser or a post-op.

[Valdís]

or a post-op.

Who aren't "guys".

Edit: I also don't see what that particular kind of surgery has to do with it anyway.

[Mr_Rose]

Where's the facepalm poster when you need it?

[J]

Responding only for myself, the woman speaker whose name I cannot remember (dammit) was referring to comic book superhero artists. And you cannot deny that fabric, in particular spandex and its relatives, does NOT behave in the real world the way it does in the comic book world. Nor do most skeletal or muscular structures. Indeed, I begin to think the most commonly required superpower, tvtropes be damned, is the resistance to spinal problems later in life and the ability to recover from some of those poses into which (especially) superheroine characters are drawn.

Counterpoint:


There is substantial reason to think that comic book artists just suck at anatomy generally.

(click to show/hide)

honestly though, i kind of find it hard to hate liefeld. when i look at his art, all i see is a little kid who loves drawing and superheroes, but has never actually gone to the trouble of taking an art class, or picking up an anatomy book, or done the work to develop any kind of technical skills whatsoever.

it's just the fact that he got paid to do this that hurts my brain.


for additional fun, or fun-like bi-product, here's a list

[Perfectly Reasonable]

I think the 'Chengzhou YF-29' is meant to suggest a knock-off off the original YF-29. And didn't the Macross storyline include a completely autonomous AI fighter plane that was -really- bad news?

OK, little missy --- Suppose you -do- have your YF-29. You'll need an airfield to fly from, hanger space, maintenance and spare parts. To say nothing of fuel. All that comes free with the job in the military of course, but then they are into things like 'discipline' and 'following orders'. If you want to fly in controlled airspace, you'll need to file a flight plan. Or else someone will scramble a couple of -real- fighters to come look you over. And don't even -think- of trying to spoof your transponder code.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

"Macross Plus" is what I was dimly remembering. Sharon Apple, a holographic AI idol singer with creepy hypnotic powers, takes over the unmanned Ghost X-9 prototype stealth fighter and ... bad things happen.

DO NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES allow May to view this anime!

[Redball]

I've read about a slender young female moving a huge sum of money into a secret bank account in the last few years. She had a dragon tattoo.

[Is it cold in here?]

A mercenary company might make a home for a jet fighter who had no moral inhibitions.

[J]

I think the 'Chengzhou YF-29' is meant to suggest a knock-off off the original YF-29. And didn't the Macross storyline include a completely autonomous AI fighter plane that was -really- bad news?

OK, little missy --- Suppose you -do- have your YF-29. You'll need an airfield to fly from, hanger space, maintenance and spare parts. To say nothing of fuel. All that comes free with the job in the military of course, but then they are into things like 'discipline' and 'following orders'. If you want to fly in controlled airspace, you'll need to file a flight plan. Or else someone will scramble a couple of -real- fighters to come look you over. And don't even -think- of trying to spoof your transponder code.

i'm guessing she just didn't think the whole plan through very well.




honestly though, wouldn't it be easier to correct something like this with a software patch?

[celticgeek]

Well, yeah.  Poor impulse control pretty well describes it, May.

Edit:  Holy cow!  Ten years of Questionable Content!

[Sorflakne]

So how long would a sentence be for robot jail, since AIs are technically immortal...

[Somebody]

May, you've already been turned into a bodiless anime maid with no genitals (insert obligatory 1658 reference here). And you still apparently consider this preferable to Robot Jail, which says something about RJ.

You should really spend a few minutes dwelling on Dale's words in the last panel, rather than your dreams of fighterjetdom and protesting too much. First step to resolving a problem is recognising it IS a problem, not an excuse, and all that. And that they may have reasons for not just taking your word on your future behaviour...

[St.Clair]

"Poor Impulse Control" was also Guld's problem ... one of them, anyway.  And as he discovers, when you're a fighter pilot hooked up to an experimental control system that translates your thoughts (even the idle, vindictive ones) into actions, that quickly becomes everyone's problem.  (At least everyone within range of your missiles.)

[cesium133]

There's a bit of a cameo appearance in today's Dumbing of Age...

[ab720]

Thank you Spiff, I did not remember the Nuclear Submarine who transferred to customer service, yet retained nuclear launch codes and apparent insanity.

While it may not have been addressed directly, it is nice to see that Jeph fears the possibility of skynet.

I also like LTK's idea of a Cyber-crimes division among the AI.