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Dumbing of Age

Alice Grove

Gunnerkrigg Court

Dilbert

X-Com

Avatar (Last Airbender or Legend of Korra)

Red Mars (by Kim Stanley Robinson)

Walkyverse

Other (Please specify)

[BenRG]

So, it is confirmed that there are currently no commonly known 'bio-bot' meat chassis. We also learn about another of Pintsize's fetishes. Like many of them, I wonder if he only has it to freak out people by discussing it with them! We also learned that the limit of Marten's tolerance is extreme body mods of the 'aesthetic cyborging' level.

I just thought about having a subcutaneous magnetically-induced current. Given the gauss that MRI scanners generate, it would probably be the last and ultimate 'buzz'.

P.S.: Maybe I'm over-interpreting but it sounds to me that Clinton has required several MRIs in his time, post-robo-hand. I wonder why?

[neurocase]

P.S.: Maybe I'm over-interpreting but it sounds to me that Clinton has required several MRIs in his time, post-robo-hand. I wonder why?

I think it's just clumsy phrasing. Claire is saying that if Clinton were to ever need one, he'll need to get his prosthetic mount removed. Using "he has" in that sentence does kind of make it read like he gets them often when you re-read it.

[USS Martenclaire]

"Welcome to Buttburger Drive-Thru. If you head round the corner, the guy with his arse hanging out the window will have your order ready in just a minute...."

[Sullivan]

Apparently people actually do have the ability to poop burgers.

Why did I click that link? I knew I was going to regret it. 'scuse me while I go and claw out my eyes.

If you knew why you clicked that link, you might be tempted to claw out your brain.

[hedgie]

Curiosity is a powerful thing.  On fora, I had seen warnings in followup posts about something being this thing called "goatse", and not to look at it for any reason.  Of *course* I had to click.

Just remember.  Curiosity killed the cat, but passing interest merely wounded it.

[zmeiat_joro]

IIRC when someone showed Marten's mom Goatse she recognised the guy as a friend of hers.

And when the title of the article (which is in the link) is "Japan scientist synthesizes meat from human feces" why would you click on it if you think you're going to be grossed out by SCIENCE?

[Akima]

This would be more impressive if the male contingent of the comic were any sort of competition,

Why is the sex of the "competition" relevant? Why is it more impressive for a woman to be smarter than a man than a woman? Is the implication here that men are generally more intelligent than women, and that is what would make it more impressive? If so, I'm disappointed that we haven't left that sort of gross sexism behind by now.

[Undrneath]

Actually by the phrasing it sounds to me like the intent is to state that none of the male contingent of the comic are as smart as any of the females which in general is true from a certain perspective. We men tend to not think about anything before we act. I feel that proper application of intelligence is what make one smart.

[TheEvilDog]

Quick question - has Claire moved in with Marten and Faye in the time skip? Because she always seems to be in their flat.

[BenRG]

Quick question - has Claire moved in with Marten and Faye in the time skip? Because she always seems to be in their flat.

She spends a lot of time at the apartment but she isn't living there yet. How do we know? In strip 3165, we see Marten sitting in bed, having a conversation with Claire by phone text.

[Is it cold in here?]

Isn't it a relevant bit of discussion of Jeph's art to look at how he has distributed intelligence, courage, good looks, and everything else among the characters? And how he's not bestowed hyper-intelligence on any of the men?

Relevant, but wrong. Sven had the kind of mind that can coast through school easily. At the rarefied heights of intelligence, Hannerdad and Station have prominent places.

[Penquin47]

There's also Clinton, who hasn't been shown to be a supergenius or anything, but probably is highly intelligent.

[St.Clair]

Apparently people actually do have the ability to poop burgers.

Why did I click that link? I knew I was going to regret it. 'scuse me while I go and claw out my eyes.

All organic matter on the planet has been through that particular cycle, multiple times.*
Is the additional abstraction afforded by more steps comforting to you?  Or the idea that one process is "natural", while another involves human action?  (Though again, that's been true of meat production for most of human history.)

* and before that, it was part of the protoplanetary nebula, and before that, various stars, including at least one supernova.

[St.Clair]

(separate post for separate topic)

And yet, for all that intelligence, they are all quite capable of being idiots.
Which is, in my experience, entirely true to life.

[jheartney]

Didn't mean to start a discussion of relative intelligence of genders. Just noting that the ordinary guys in this strip tend to be goofballs. Probably HannerDad is highly intelligent too, but I suspect his daughter is even smarter, albeit emotionally troubled.

Sven's one of those people who cruise through life without trying very hard. Dunno that this shows general intelligence so much as just luck. Plenty of highly intelligent folks have a rough time of it day to day, while some not terribly bright bulbs seem to have it easy.

[Kugai]

Pintsize - the one constant in an ever changing QCverse.

[TRVA123]

eh, there are different types of intelligence.

Steve was a freaking secret agent. I'd say that he at least knows how to get intelligence, if he needs it.

Sven is arguably a musical genius.

Hanners has that eclectic intelligence that being homeschooled on a space station can give you. Emily is obviously  some sort of savant.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Yay, 100 postings. Where´s the cake?

Cake for you!

[Zebediah]

Something that occurred to me: Clinton needing to have his hand mount removed would be a major operation. It appears to be pretty firmly integrated into his forearm - it probably attaches to the bone and is controlled by the nerves of his arm. So removing it would be tantamount to another amputation.

In short, they'd probably try to find any possible alternative to an MRI that they could in Clinton's case.

[Mad Cat]

Apparently people actually do have the ability to poop burgers.

Welp! There goes my plans to vacay in Okinawa.

[TheEvilDog]

Something that occurred to me: Clinton needing to have his hand mount removed would be a major operation. It appears to be pretty firmly integrated into his forearm - it probably attaches to the bone and is controlled by the nerves of his arm. So removing it would be tantamount to another amputation.

In short, they'd probably try to find any possible alternative to an MRI that they could in Clinton's case.

I'm not quite sure it would be as drastic as that.

A lot of current medical implants have to be MRI safe and are made from non-ferromagnetic materials. These materials would be tested to ensure that they can be used for implantation, but also so that they can be used and examined with the minimum of invasive procedures. Often in an emergency time is critical and if you have remove an implant because you think it might interfere with equipment, that's time that is potentially fatal for a patient.

Just a quick word - every implant is stringently tested because it is used on a patient, it will be used on a person. Every piece has a limit and those limits are generally within the range that is healthy for the patient. Because an MRI could last a few minutes to an hour, some implants can be made to last several hours under the conditions of an MRI, but after that, it will fail.

It also has to come down with the biocompatibility of the materials used, for example titanium is used a lot in hip and knee replacements not only because its got a strength similar to bone, but because it also does not provoke an immune response when implanted. The last thing you want is the body rejecting an implant. Because titanium has an extremely weak magnetic field compared to ferromagnetic materials, its used more often because it is safer from the patient's standpoint and because it can be safely checked through x-rays and MRIs.

With regards to Clinton, I don't think his prosthetic mounting would be permanently attached. If you have something with working parts close to human flesh, it can cause irritation or in rarer instances infection. So it would be case that if Clinton is feeling something on his stump, a doctor would need to examine the stump, which would necessitate removing the mounting.

Likewise, depending on how old Clinton was when he lost his hand, either he would have had to wait until he was fully grown before getting the prosthesis or gone through a series of prostheses as he was growing up. The hand he has is possible myoelectric, in that it is powered and controlled by the faint bioelectric that all muscles have, picked up by electrodes implanted in the arm.

The fact that Claire said that Clinton has to have the mounting removed, probably tells that there is a lock or method to quickly and safely take it off.

[mustang6172]

Speaking of attaching organic material to technology and said technology magically solving problems.



What's highly annoying is Jeph's assertion that there can be a wrong side of history.  This presupposes that morality is both objective and unable to change with time.  Furthermore, Napoleon said, "History is a myth that men agree to believe," which leaves the possibility that what we consider history is just the remains of pop-culture past.

[MrNumbers]

Isn't it a relevant bit of discussion of Jeph's art to look at how he has distributed intelligence, courage, good looks, and everything else among the characters? And how he's not bestowed hyper-intelligence on any of the men?

Relevant, but wrong. Sven had the kind of mind that can coast through school easily. At the rarefied heights of intelligence, Hannerdad and Station have prominent places.

I'd argue a much more relevant metric is intelligence from sexes by screentime, where you still have Hanners and Emily taking the lead in a core cast, more than one-panel-in-a-hundred basis.

On the other hand, I think a much more interesting discussion is which gender is written happier, where you have Marten's zen contentment against Emily's mania.

[Kugai]

Heavy meat (no pun intended) for a Friday

[Is it cold in here?]

Either Pintsize has grown up a lot or Claire has committed to dropping stealth globally.

Her expression in panel 2 was so poignant. She felt compassion for AIs.

[explicit]

He's a dick, not an asshole. Completely different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2GwrR-4Q9E

[Is it cold in here?]

Even if Pintsize has grown up enough to be trustworthy, possible I suppose, why would Claire trust him?

[hedgie]

He *did* choose the birdseed.  Her bluff was probably enough to earn her a sort of respect that none of the other cast have.

[BenRG]

Is it me or, in panel 5, did Pintsize actually seem rather surprised that he made a good point? I don't think that this was exactly his intention. Still, he got a Clairehug and something tells me that this is a gift for which he is appropriately grateful!

He also still managed to be gross at the end so, that's 'mission accomplished' as far as he is concerned!

[demency]

Something that occurred to me: Clinton needing to have his hand mount removed would be a major operation. It appears to be pretty firmly integrated into his forearm - it probably attaches to the bone and is controlled by the nerves of his arm. So removing it would be tantamount to another amputation.

In short, they'd probably try to find any possible alternative to an MRI that they could in Clinton's case.

I'm not quite sure it would be as drastic as that.

A lot of current medical implants have to be MRI safe and are made from non-ferromagnetic materials. These materials would be tested to ensure that they can be used for implantation, but also so that they can be used and examined with the minimum of invasive procedures. Often in an emergency time is critical and if you have remove an implant because you think it might interfere with equipment, that's time that is potentially fatal for a patient.

Speaking as a legit cyborg with a cybernetic biomedical implant, for me, it *would* be that drastic. The only way for me to undergo an MRI would be for them to open me up, remove the neurostimulator controller in my lower back, incise into my spinal canal once again, unwrap the electrodes from their seat attached to my spinal cord, break the scar tissue securing them in place, and pull them out of my body. It would be major, traumatic surgery. If they tried to give me an MRI with the device still in my body, the magnetic fields would make the battery begin discharging randomly and unpredictably, causing major damage to my spinal cord, just below my arms, and possibly killing me. So, yeah, it would be a really, really big deal.

That said, I also have a titanium rod in my right arm, and several screws, and those are all non-ferromagnetic, and safe for MRI's. (Although I can feel them vibrate and get warm at concerts, which is cool) For complex technology, requiring computers and batteries, however, like my implant, and like Clinton's, there's no real way around them requiring parts that interface very badly with strong magnetic fields. Not yet, at any rate.

[jaquio]

Not going to lie, I agree with the issue, but...

I find the whole "Very Special Episode" style with the character staring straight ahead and preaching directly to the reader/viewer to be, well, condescending.

I'd rather see these issues made through the art and demonstrated through the experiences of the story.  In just about all media I find it irritating when characters proselytize to the audience as a proxy for the author.  QC doesn't get a free pass, no matter how much I agree with the issue and enjoy the comic.

[pwhodges]

staring straight ahead and preaching directly to the reader/viewer

She wasn't - she was addressing Pintsize directly, and we were looking over the top of his head.  Her eyes were not looking at us.

[ZoeB]

Not going to lie, I agree with the issue, but...

I find the whole "Very Special Episode" style with the character staring straight ahead and preaching directly to the reader/viewer to be, well, condescending.

I'd rather see these issues made through the art and demonstrated through the experiences of the story.  In just about all media I find it irritating when characters proselytize to the audience as a proxy for the author.  QC doesn't get a free pass, no matter how much I agree with the issue and enjoy the comic.

It's been a very special week. I'm now forced to use the men's room in NC.

North Carolina lawmakers must have recognized that careful scrutiny of the bill would have doomed it. They convened a special session on Wednesday — which cost taxpayers $42,000 — to ram the bill through. The House allowed for 30 minutes of public debate, limiting speakers to two minutes.

And the Governor signed it that night.

I'm not the only woman born in the UK to have this problem.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3370261/Mother-five-accidentally-registered-boy-birth-reveals-s-spent-150-000-trying-mistake-corrected-hasn-t-managed-it.html

While aimed at LGBT people, it mainly affects Intersex ones, and those born in TN and other jurisdictions where birth certificate corrections can't happen. Only a handful of us, but far, far more than all the examples of the "danger" this law ostensibly seeks to avoid that have ever occurred in the entire history of the USA. It literally says that "biological sex" is defined by marks on a piece of paper.

So while it would be nice to be able to forget the frothing at the mouth animus shown by legislators,  or at least have the issue brought up in an aesthetically pleasing manner rather than overtly, there are actual. overt not aesthetic consequences here we can't ignore. Including the increased incidence of fatalities amongst children.

Transgender and gender non-conforming people frequently experience discrimination, harassment, and marginalization across college and university campuses (Bilodeau, 2007; Finger, 2010; Rankin, et al., 2010; Seelman et al., 2012). The minority stress model (Meyer, 2007) posits that experiences of discrimination often negatively impact the psychological well-being of minority groups. However, few scholars have examined whether college institutional climate factors—such as being denied access to bathrooms or gender-appropriate campus housing—are significantly associated with detrimental psychological outcomes for transgender people. Using the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, this study analyzes whether being denied access to these spaces is associated with lifetime suicide attempts, after controlling for interpersonal victimization by students or teachers. Findings from sequential logistic regression (N = 2,316) indicate that denial of access to either space had a significant relationship to suicidality, even after controlling for interpersonal victimization. This paper discusses implications for higher education professionals and researchers.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00918369.2016.1157998?journalCode=wjhm20

However, such discussion more properly belongs on the appropriate thread in the "serious discussion" group. It's only on very, very special occasions that the exception is... only human.

[USS Martenclaire]

I think today's comic is a very positive one. If even a being as degenerate, evil and f***ed up as Pintsize can figure out how empathy and understanding work, maybe humans can as well. ^^

[sitnspin]

Sadly, Pintsize is fictional. Fictional characters are capable of anything. Real people are less so.

I still hold out hope, tenuous as it may be.

[demency]

Not going to lie, I agree with the issue, but...

I find the whole "Very Special Episode" style with the character staring straight ahead and preaching directly to the reader/viewer to be, well, condescending.

I'd rather see these issues made through the art and demonstrated through the experiences of the story.  In just about all media I find it irritating when characters proselytize to the audience as a proxy for the author.  QC doesn't get a free pass, no matter how much I agree with the issue and enjoy the comic.

It's been a very special week. I'm now forced to use the men's room in NC.

Yeah. Ditto. :/ As a trans woman, it's pretty shit to wake up every morning and find out which states are trying to outlaw my existence now.

[Is it cold in here?]

Actually by the phrasing it sounds to me like the intent is to state that none of the male contingent of the comic are as smart as any of the females which in general is true from a certain perspective. We men tend to not think about anything before we act. I feel that proper application of intelligence is what make one smart.

There was stereotyping there. The mods got a complaint about it.

[Undrneath]

I don't see it, but fair enough.

[HiFranc]

I would like to see a cross over with Damsels Don't Wear Glasses.  Pintsize and Lave in the same room!

[Omega Entity]

Not going to lie, I agree with the issue, but...

I find the whole "Very Special Episode" style with the character staring straight ahead and preaching directly to the reader/viewer to be, well, condescending.

I'd rather see these issues made through the art and demonstrated through the experiences of the story.  In just about all media I find it irritating when characters proselytize to the audience as a proxy for the author.  QC doesn't get a free pass, no matter how much I agree with the issue and enjoy the comic.

I feel the same way. The message was uncharacteristically heavy-handed, namely panel 4 - it just doesn't feel like natural conversation. The message is great, and right, don't get me wrong. The delivery was just kinda... awkward? I dunno what word I'm looking for here.

[Akima]

I find the whole "Very Special Episode" style with the character staring straight ahead and preaching directly to the reader/viewer to be, well, condescending.

Jeph did NOT have Claire doing that, but quite obviously looking at, and speaking to, Pintsize.

I know it must be terribly dull, and annoying to hear trans people, women, racial minorities etc. banging on about discrimination aimed at them like it was important or something. Because of course we're good people, and of course we agree with the point being made. But we'll complain that  actually making it is condescending and heavy-handed; we're so supportive.

If you want heavy-handed, see the paragraph above, but I'm with Claire: "We have to fight that now."

[WareWolf]

Not going to lie, I agree with the issue, but...

I find the whole "Very Special Episode" style with the character staring straight ahead and preaching directly to the reader/viewer to be, well, condescending.

I'd rather see these issues made through the art and demonstrated through the experiences of the story.  In just about all media I find it irritating when characters proselytize to the audience as a proxy for the author.  QC doesn't get a free pass, no matter how much I agree with the issue and enjoy the comic.

It's been a very special week. I'm now forced to use the men's room in NC.

As a native North Carolinian, I apologize on behalf of my state. We didn't used to be batshit crazy. We had a corrupt Dem administration followed by an astoundingly  feckless one, and that's why we're currently run by the wingnuts. But we've suffered enough for that.

[Random832]

Jeph did NOT have Claire doing that, but quite obviously looking at, and speaking to, Pintsize.

Maybe she was looking at him, but she was absolutely not speaking to him. Pintsize hadn't said one word about technology supposedly solving non-technical problems such as bigotry. Sure, there probably were people in her life who did say things like that (for a minute I wondered if it was Clinton), that she was annoyed by (and that Pintsize's words resembled, if only superficially, enough to trigger that), but Pintsize himself didn't actually say that.

She was speaking to the people who had said such things to her (or, rather, to Jeph - the camera moved right on top of Pintsize's head for a reason)... and Pintsize hadn't actually set her up for it well enough for it to be seamless.

[Is it cold in here?]

Not going to lie, I agree with the issue, but...

I find the whole "Very Special Episode" style with the character staring straight ahead and preaching directly to the reader/viewer to be, well, condescending.

I'd rather see these issues made through the art and demonstrated through the experiences of the story.  In just about all media I find it irritating when characters proselytize to the audience as a proxy for the author.  QC doesn't get a free pass, no matter how much I agree with the issue and enjoy the comic.

I feel the same way. The message was uncharacteristically heavy-handed, namely panel 4 - it just doesn't feel like natural conversation. The message is great, and right, don't get me wrong. The delivery was just kinda... awkward? I dunno what word I'm looking for here.

It felt like natural conversation to me, because I was the Pintsize in a real-life version of it once.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Just to make one thing perfectly clear, that sofa is absolutely Naugahyde --- or Pintsize wouldn't be allowed on it.

[Tova]

It seemed in character to me. E.g.:

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2205

This is the assertive Claire that, as I recall, a handful of people took to disliking around about this time in the strip. Curious, that.

[Akima]

Pintsize hadn't said one word about technology supposedly solving non-technical problems such as bigotry.

Pintsize said: "Eh, it'll be fine. Eventually everyone will be able to have whatever kind of body they want." So he was certainly suggesting that technology would fix the problem of any mis-match between mind and body, and then everything would be "fine". Like Claire, I'm perfectly certain that it won't.

This is the assertive Claire that, as I recall, a handful of people took to disliking around about this time in the strip.

Just so.

[Neko_Ali]

Fixing the body is only one part of the problem, of course. Between that and thousands of years of bigotry and hatred... That's probably the lesser problem in many cases.

[TRVA123]

From a message point, YES, right on, this is what people need to hear right now.

From a storytelling point... I have to agree that it seems as though Jeph pulled a bit of a Sorkin. Occasionally in the show the West Wing, Sorkin would push a character into asking a question or making a point that that character might not ordinarily make (for example, the episode when CJ is forced to ask Sam what the census is...)  It doesn't quite flow as the story usually does.

It is enough of a break from Jephs usual storytelling style that it is noticable, but in this case it doesn't bother me much. I think that at this moment in history people might need to hear something a little more heavy handed. People can't just go "oh, bigots are on the wrong side of history, why should we even care about voting/fighting injustice now? Someday soon we won't have these silly laws."

[comicalArchitect]

My response to all this: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped