Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3191-3195 (4th to 8th April 2016)
Nepiophage:
HORGS
DSL:
--- Quote from: katsmeat on 09 Apr 2016, 10:09 ---
--- Quote from: WareWolf on 09 Apr 2016, 08:44 ---Interesting question...and what if the original decided she didn't want to be erased?
There's an SF short story called "Think Like a Dinosaur" in which emotionless reptilian aliens are abut to give us access to the universe by way of their version of "transporter" technology in which someone steps into the booth on one end, the button is pushed, and an exact duplicate is created on the other end light years away--after which another button is pushed and the original is vaporized. In one instance, however, the human operator doesn't receive confirmation of the reception on the other end and lets the original out of the booth. After some time passes, they finally do get confirmation and he's ordered to kill the original by the reptiles...but he's fallen in love with her in the meantime.
--- End quote ---
It's not a new idea - CGP Gray covered it in the usual amazing manner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQHBAdShgYI&nohtml5=False
--- End quote ---
The "kill the original" aspect of the Treksporter has been discussed at least since James Blish brought it up in "Spock Must Die!" snd SF stories have dealt with the duplicate (usually a robot) thinking it's the original for decades for that. The Starfleet People Fax simultaneously fascinates me (for all the missed story opportunities and tech speculation) and repels me for that reason. (Ens. Redshirt's dead on the planet's surface? Just rerun his file and send down a copy!) Got the Galloping Space Crud? Beam him up and, while the machine is mapping him, give him the best medical exam-and-repair he's ever going to get.
Carl-E:
--- Quote from: WareWolf on 09 Apr 2016, 08:44 ---
--- Quote from: katsmeat on 09 Apr 2016, 06:24 ---
--- Quote from: Pilchard123 on 07 Apr 2016, 00:23 ---Are they solely software, or is there some hardware part of them? If there isn't a hardware restriction, then what's to stop a single AI being copied/copying itself everywhere?
--- End quote ---
Presumably for somebody else to copy an AI, it goes without saying their consent would be required. How often this is given, and if there are AIs who actively want to be copied is something unexplored.
Saying that, when AI's move between chassies, they are effectively being copied. We're well into the realm of the Transporter Paradox with this one. Was the original Momo effectively just copied and erased when she got a new chassis?
--- End quote ---
Interesting question...and what if the original decided she didn't want to be erased?
There's an SF short story called "Think Like a Dinosaur" in which emotionless reptilian aliens are abut to give us access to the universe by way of their version of "transporter" technology in which someone steps into the booth on one end, the button is pushed, and an exact duplicate is created on the other end light years away--after which another button is pushed and the original is vaporized. In one instance, however, the human operator doesn't receive confirmation of the reception on the other end and lets the original out of the booth. After some time passes, they finally do get confirmation and he's ordered to kill the original by the reptiles...but he's fallen in love with her in the meantime.
--- End quote ---
I am reminded of Clifford Simak's "Goodnight, Mr. James" (1951), which he once said was the only story he ever wrote that was disturbing enough to be adapted for TV. (The Duplicate Man, Outer limits (1964)). Bear in mind, the TV version had a happier ending. Here's what I mean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Duplicate_Man#Background
Mr_Rose:
--- Quote from: DSL on 09 Apr 2016, 20:14 ---
--- Quote from: katsmeat on 09 Apr 2016, 10:09 ---
--- Quote from: WareWolf on 09 Apr 2016, 08:44 ---Interesting question...and what if the original decided she didn't want to be erased?
There's an SF short story called "Think Like a Dinosaur" in which emotionless reptilian aliens are abut to give us access to the universe by way of their version of "transporter" technology in which someone steps into the booth on one end, the button is pushed, and an exact duplicate is created on the other end light years away--after which another button is pushed and the original is vaporized. In one instance, however, the human operator doesn't receive confirmation of the reception on the other end and lets the original out of the booth. After some time passes, they finally do get confirmation and he's ordered to kill the original by the reptiles...but he's fallen in love with her in the meantime.
--- End quote ---
It's not a new idea - CGP Gray covered it in the usual amazing manner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQHBAdShgYI&nohtml5=False
--- End quote ---
The "kill the original" aspect of the Treksporter has been discussed at least since James Blish brought it up in "Spock Must Die!" snd SF stories have dealt with the duplicate (usually a robot) thinking it's the original for decades for that. The Starfleet People Fax simultaneously fascinates me (for all the missed story opportunities and tech speculation) and repels me for that reason. (Ens. Redshirt's dead on the planet's surface? Just rerun his file and send down a copy!) Got the Galloping Space Crud? Beam him up and, while the machine is mapping him, give him the best medical exam-and-repair he's ever going to get.
--- End quote ---
This is probably why the trek transporter is specifically designed as a superior atomic vacuum cleaner rather than a fax: specifically it uses the exact same atoms to reassemble the transportee as were part of them at their origination point… and you remain conscious throughout. Further, the "patterns" are established to be so huge and complex that storing them in conventional computer memory would cripple most starships and stations because it would take up most every single addressable byte.
Remember they had the transporter for literally a century before they figured out how to use the tech to copy stuff in canon.
And also, that thing about diseases? It is also established that the trek version does do that but it's kinda like the anti-virus on your PC; it needs constant updating with new "known malicious" patterns to look for or weird space bugs will get through and infect the crew.
BenRG:
Okay, it's Sunder over here in the UK so the time has come to summarise the poll results!
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What We Were Not Meant to Know - Your QC brain-bleach trigger
1 - Sven/Hannelore is the most healthy friendship either of them has ever had - 29.2%
2 - Is Juicy Marten, Faye and Hannelore's landlord? - 22.9%
3 - There is spider poop and dead bugs in CoD's coffee! - 16.7%
4 - Marigold inflicts TMI about her sex life upon Hannelore - 12.5%
=5 - Momo considers May her friend - 6.3%
=5 - Claire has the sort of mind Pintsize fears - 6.3%
7 - Steve is the normal one in this comic - 4.2%
8 - Faye liked imagining Bubbles in different outfits - 2.1%
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So, there we have it! The forum has spoken. The possibility that Sven Bianchi can have a healthy, adult and platonic relationship with Hannelore and that Hannelore can have a meaningful relationship with Sven is the single biggest trigger for nightmares amongst readers of Questionable Content!
FWIW, I voted for Juicy = landlord and it created a possible future story arc hook in my head:
Hannelore gets her revenge on her nemesis in some ultra-clean way but Juicy figures out who is responsible. Hannelore gets evicted on some grounds and, when they try to defend her, so do Marten and Faye. Fortunately, there is a solution in the form of a large house on the outskirts of Northampton (the house that Hannelore was talking about when she fantasised about being a reclusive shut-in communicating with the others by notes). It's a 'fixer-upper' and the rent is a bit high for the three of them. Fortunately, Claire wants to move out of Casa Augustus and her contribution more than covers the shortfall with room to spare. There follows much strange domesticity and everyone learning a lot more about each-other's private lives and kinks than is entirely desirable for any party.
The inspiration for this is Robin and Leslie's house in David Willis's Shortpacked!. In this story, several other main cast members moved in at Robin's suggestion, creating an odd post-College commune where the differences between college and adult housing requirements quickly become comedically apparent.
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