Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 2952-2956 (4-8 May 2015)
CM_albion:
I like the idea of being in a world where you can choose what your body is, while being a functional sentient mind... :oops:
CaptainFish:
--- Quote from: bhtooefr on 08 May 2015, 06:29 ---
--- Quote from: Timemaster on 07 May 2015, 22:22 ---On the oher hand the humanoid AIs use verbally communication not only with humans, but between each other too. My guess is that they want to appear as human as possible not to freak people out or to raise prejudices against AIs. And verbal communication is a center trait of human existance and behaviour. The support group could be easily held online without the AIs having to leave their houses.But they meet personally in the convention center. And I see only one explanation: to act and behave as humans do, to embrace humanity as far as possible.
A built-in communicator would not really fit into this philosophy.
--- End quote ---
One interesting point with all of this: May doesn't appear to want to be humanoid, she wants to be a fighter jet - she's not in the chassis that she wants to be in at all. (Although, it seems that she'll grudgingly take humanoid over other non-fighter jet forms.)
There are quite a lot of implications that can be read into that, especially given how Jeph has used AI storylines in the past to approach human issues.
--- End quote ---
I did always May's situation was a bit incongruous with the idea that AIs can be whatever they choose to be along with the idea that you have to spend thousands of dollars on a more humanoid chassis. I thought it was a more ideal existence, but as things go on it seems just as bound to capitalism as regular human lives. An AI that wants to just be a toaster can do that because there's toasters everywhere, but if one wants to be a space station* or a fighter jet, what barriers do they face? The idea that one would have to steal because they're not the machine they want to be is a bummer.
And I don't really think the jet thing was entirely a throwaway joke, based on how that first arc ended with May wanting to look at the sky. It does seem like she enjoys just having nice people to hang around with, though, so maybe her lack of fulfillment was unrelated. I read her origin as being one without physical manifestation, so perhaps her crime stemmed more from a desire to take on a physical body and she chose a poor way to do it, avoiding more traditional means.
*I assume Station was created or worked along with Dr ... Hanners' Dad and was just the most convenient and capable choice along with having desire to be that station.
BenRG:
--- Quote from: CaptainFish on 08 May 2015, 07:19 ---*I assume Station was created or worked along with Dr ... Hanners' Dad and was just the most convenient and capable choice along with having desire to be that station.
--- End quote ---
Personally, I suspect that Station predates AI civil rights and was built into the space station from the start. He stays, even though he could go elsewhere if he wanted to (legally at least - in practice, there can be few other large processor complexes likely able to handle his algorithm) because he happens to enjoy working with Dr Elicott-Chatham and the others.
It reminds me of the paradox in Anne McCaffery's 'Brainship' stories. The Shell People, after a moderate term of employment, can 'buy out' their contract and work for anyone they want to. A significant minority don't want to do this because they happen to have come to like the work they do (usually the organic central processor of a starship or something fantastically complex like a space colony).
Zebediah:
My headcanon for May is that she was originally created to work for NASA on something space-related, but due to her sociopathic tendencies she was rejected. (The process of AI creation is not foolproof.) She then was placed in a menial job with an unglamorous chassis. So she tried to embezzle her way out of it and into something more glamorous and didn't really think it through. Now she's in an even more menial job than she was before. Of course she hates it.
CM_albion:
--- Quote from: Zebediah on 08 May 2015, 07:37 ---My headcanon for May is that she was originally created to work for NASA on something space-related, but due to her sociopathic tendencies she was rejected. (The process of AI creation is not foolproof.) She then was placed in a menial job with an unglamorous chassis. So she tried to embezzle her way out of it and into something more glamorous and didn't really think it through. Now she's in an even more menial job than she was before. Of course she hates it.
--- End quote ---
she's like a uni grad flipping burgers in a shitty mcdonalds, X1000
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