Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

What is Bubbles' sexual orientation?

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ToodleLew:

--- Quote from: fayelovesbubbles on 14 May 2018, 18:35 ---Do you think Bubbles was mostly straight until she developed feelings for Faye? Or is she gay? Or bisexual?

--- End quote ---

I think that you need a new terminology for the relationships that include AIs. Certainly the terminology of human-to-human relationships is complex enough, but (in Jeph's universe) AIs add another layer to the dynamic.

We discuss human sexual orientation in one of a couple of ways: either as an orientation contrary to a human's chromosomal sex, or in terms of the chromosomal sex of their partners1. However, Bubbles (and Momo and Winslow and Spookybot and Pintsize and Punchbot, etc) apparently do not have a chromosomal sex (XX or XY), and (as they can change bodies "at will") don't even need to be restricted by chromosomal sex. They are not "assigned at birth".

Their "orientation" is irrelevant - some choose partners that we'd expect, some do not, and some don't choose partners at all. There's no need to classify Bubbles partnership (romantic or otherwise) with a human-to-human label, as the relationship is not one that a human can have with another human. Indeed, it may be a relationship (from Bubbles standpoint) that only exists as an AI-to-human relationship.

As a side question: How would you describe a partner for a "straight" Bubbles? Would it be

* any AI, or
* any AI that identifies as "male", or
* any human that identifies as "male", or
* any sentient (AI or human) that identifies as "male", or
* any human, or
* an entity not fitting the above descriptions?
How about "gay", with respect to Bubbles? Or "Bi"?

In other words, what do you mean when you ask about a "straight" Bubbles vs a "gay" or "bi" Bubbles?

1 This is not the discussion I want to contribute here. I have my own views, just as you have yours. They may disagree, but they do not conflict. You go your way, and I'll go mine. I have no beef with you.

Is it cold in here?:
In situations like that it's good to fall back on functional descriptions even though they are longer. "Into male robots" would be an example. We don't know where Bubbles started with but "Compatible with a female organic" fits. "Fayesexual" is shorter but leaves us in the dark about whether there could ever be a triangle with another woman.

There couldn't be. Bubbles's loyalty would override even sexual attraction.

SpanielBear:

--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 15 May 2018, 14:17 ---There couldn't be. Bubbles's loyalty would override even sexual attraction.

--- End quote ---

Taking note of the existence of polyamory and that multiple partners does not automatically mean disloyalty, I still agree with you in this specific case. While sexuality can develop in ways that can surprise oneself (self-evidently, as the comic is showing), Faye has been explicitly monogamous in every relationship we've seen her in to this point, and Sven's unwillingness to meet her in that was the deal breaker. Bubbles we have not seen any evidence either way, but chances are if Faye has monogamy as a red-line, Bubbles wouldn't cross it whilst it was in place.

Dandi Andi:

--- Quote from: ToodleLew on 15 May 2018, 11:42 ---We discuss human sexual orientation in one of a couple of ways: either as an orientation contrary to a human's chromosomal sex, or in terms of the chromosomal sex of their partners1.

...

1 This is not the discussion I want to contribute here. I have my own views, just as you have yours. They may disagree, but they do not conflict. You go your way, and I'll go mine. I have no beef with you.

--- End quote ---

Yet that position is central to your thesis. You have argued that human sexuality labels don't apply because AI lack chromosomal sex. I would argue that you're wrong precisely because we do not define sexuality in relation to chromosomal sex. We define it in terms of gender. Those two things, while correlated, are not the same. Claire and Marten are not in a gay relationship because they both have Y chromosomes. They are in a straight relationship because Marten is a man and Claire is a woman. So in this case, our thoughts on the matter do indeed conflict. If we are in disagreement about how sexuality is defined in relation to sex and gender, then any arguments we make will be based on incompatible presuppositions and we can only talk past each other rather than with each other.

awgiedawgie:

--- Quote from: pecoros7 on 15 May 2018, 18:11 ---
--- Quote from: ToodleLew on 15 May 2018, 11:42 ---We discuss human sexual orientation in one of a couple of ways: either as an orientation contrary to a human's chromosomal sex, or in terms of the chromosomal sex of their partners1.

...

1 This is not the discussion I want to contribute here. I have my own views, just as you have yours. They may disagree, but they do not conflict. You go your way, and I'll go mine. I have no beef with you.

--- End quote ---

Yet that position is central to your thesis. You have argued that human sexuality labels don't apply because AI lack chromosomal sex. I would argue that you're wrong precisely because we do not define sexuality in relation to chromosomal sex.

--- End quote ---
I would add to that... What exactly is chromosomal sex? Human DNA is - in a manner of speaking - software that tells human cells (hardware) how to behave. So human chromosomal sex is, in fact, assigned in our "software", just as an AI's sex is assigned in their software - which basically means that AI's do have chromosomal sex. It's just defined by a slightly different process than in humans. That raises the question of an AI's gender, or sexual identity...

Can an AI whose software says they're female identify as a male? Who knows? We haven't seen any instances of AI transgenderism, but we've only met a handful of AIs. What if an AI whose software says they're female and who identifies as female is transferred into a chassis that appears male? Who knows? What if an AI whose software says they're male and who identifies as female is transferred into a toaster?

As I understand it, an AI's sex is indeed assigned at "birth". But a question that came up recently is whether that is a Read-Only value, or can it be changed - either by the AI themselves, or by someone else (such as when being transferred into a different chassis)? Can an AI simply choose to swap genders? Again, who knows? When Winslow said "I think I'm a boy", did he mean that he identifies as a boy - independent of that software value? Or did he mean that he was actually reading that value?

There are many questions about AIs that have never been answered in-comic, and some questions that even the AIs themselves don't know the answers to.

If one limits their conversation to the scope of their own personal views, or only what they know, they do themselves and those they converse with a great disservice. I have no doubt that my own personal beliefs are vastly divergent from the majority of the members (and in fact, I have no doubt that many of the members have views that are vastly divergent from each other), but I discuss topics in the scope of the entire community. I do not limit it to my own views. I have thereby learned a great deal about people who think very differently from myself. Has it changed the way I believe? No. But it has given me a greater awareness and respect for others.

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