Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT: 2510-2514 (August 12-16, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Kisai:
--- Quote from: FuryoftheStars on 14 Aug 2013, 13:37 ---
--- Quote from: Rghfrgl on 14 Aug 2013, 12:23 ---
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 14 Aug 2013, 11:04 ---AIs are copyable. Pintsize got backed up to Marten's desktop computer at one point and continued conversing in a Pintsize-like way.
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Now that just makes things complicated. Do robots have souls? Do robot BACKUPS have souls? If Marten deletes the backup is it murder? Do robots cry robot tears in the recycle bin?
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Depends on how the AIs view themselves. If they consider the backups as being just that, backups and thus expendable, then I doubt they would consider the backups as having souls or deleting of such as murder (provided the original still existed). They may even consider their "soul" as something a little different than conventional thinking, perhaps more like their "state of being" (words are failing me there...). Also, backups would most likely be in a state of "suspended animation" as they're not actively running and thus be unaware of their current situation... so wouldn't be able to cry tears in the recycling bin. ;)
Oh, and hi everyone.
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I think this story line probably brought some new readers... if anything to learn more about the AI's. I actually read QC from beginning to end a week ago, and speculated what could happen to "May"
http://t.co/fichS7Pq12 (I did this on an iPad, forgive the crudeness)
My theory is that AI's exist in a state of non-existence, like when you turn off your PC, the state of the RAM is erased (human analogy, when the blood stops to the brain it dies.) To save it, there is a companion storage system for which the "hibernate" image is kept. When an AI transfers from one platform to another, this is the only thing copied. (COW=Copy On Write) otherwise ensures that the AI isn't destroyed from power loss, but may render their last few minutes in a unclean shutdown state if their platform were to be damaged and lost power. This is currently what Virtual Machines do when they migrate from one physical machine to another without shutting down. This image is likely huge and expensive. (IBM Watson has 15TB of RAM, 2880 cores (80 teraflops), and 22TB of Disk space.)
What Momo suggested was ejecting the storage medium prematurely (so the hibernate image is no longer present) and destroying it. Therefor "May" would either be stuck permanently as the companion AI until another storage medium becomes available, or until "set free" and having to find a platform that "May" can afford.
I speculate that either Momo will give May her old platform (the KawaiiPC) at some future point, or May will simply steal/take it and not give it back. Poor Impulse control and such. Another possibility is we simply don't see anymore of the maid hologram, but May takes it that Dale wants to be her friend ( http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2284 ) and assumes a role in Dale's life like Pintsize does with Marten.
One other possibility that does come to mind is we see more "Robot Jail" "May"'s as Dale continuously is selected for the companion AI program. "Nope, not again"
I do like that Jeph has never pushed anything unreasonable about the AI's thus far. Pretty much everything presented in the comic about AI isn't too much of a stretch. Both IBM's Watson, and Siri are primitive AI's but we don't recognize them as anything more than tools right now. Likewise the platforms (chasis) aren't much of a stretch either.
Is it cold in here?:
Welcome, new person! That's an outstanding first post.
KOK:
--- Quote from: WilliamCA on 14 Aug 2013, 16:32 ---http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2512
OMG. It's happening, it's really happening. IT IS HAPPENING!!!!! WE ARE AT HAPPENING DEFCON 5 HERE PEOPLE!!! I can sense the power of two gamers coming together to form a couple!!! And it shall be awesome!!!!!
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Defcon 5 means deep peace. Nothing exiting going on.
Dr. ROFLPWN:
Marigold, you should not be scared to talk to boys. You have touched a wiener--you know the male weakness!
And man the part where Jeph mentions that the end of the Dale/May arc will create feels has me worried. May said Robot Jail is horrible, and she clearly doesn't think Dale is... :-\
Luneward:
--- Quote from: Kisai on 14 Aug 2013, 20:52 ---
What Momo suggested was ejecting the storage medium prematurely (so the hibernate image is no longer present) and destroying it. Therefor "May" would either be stuck permanently as the companion AI until another storage medium becomes available, or until "set free" and having to find a platform that "May" can afford.
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Interesting theory. My problem with that is that as soon as you throw out the storage medium (IE the hard disk and presumably all of May's files), all that remains for a program to run is whatever is in RAM, and unless AIs somehow magically run differently, they can't operate without their files. You essentially have a brain that only has short term memory, and as soon as it needs anything... boom. General Protection Fault. Without some sort of significantly different in-universe computer system where an AI is contained all throughout the system, removal of a hard drive is essentially death - or at least a complete memory wipe (like what may have happened when Pintsize caught a virus).
So my interpretation was that Momo was indeed threatening May with non-existence at that point.
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