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WCDT strips 4021-4025 (10th to 14th June 2019)

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Cornelius:

--- Quote from: brasca on 12 Jun 2019, 18:34 ---Rokko might want to be careful about throwing her weight around.  She’s not a cop anymore.

--- End quote ---

I was just thinking that that might effectively make the manager think twice of hiring an ex-con again. Not to mention that May might be out of a job the moment he realises it's just a bluff.

As for immortality, I thought it was pretty clear that the only reason Roko survived, was the special reinforcement, that came with her police package. Similarly, I believe Corpse Witch explained that the AI fighters had been outfitted with a specially reinforced core. Neither of these indicate that for common AI, this is the case.

On the other hand, if we take the earlier strips as still being relevant, Pintsize was able to be backed up, and restored, even to a regular PC. The reverse of that medal is that they are still vulnerable to viruses, to the point that it could make them stop functioning entirely. So, a backup plan and disaster recovery is essential.
But those cost money that I doubt May is able to easily spare. Besides, you still need somewhere to restore to.

Edited for spelling and spacing.

BenRG:
Yeah, this is basically what I was worried about yesterday. I don't doubt for a minute that Roko genuinely wants to make May's life better but this strip really makes me wonder if she's having a manic episode of some kind. She's suddenly so hyperactive and determined and she's basically ignoring the person that she's allegedly trying to help. That could lead to bad outcomes especially if she's suddenly imposing solutions on May that she's not personally entirely committed to yet.

Additionally, Panel 4 indicates that she's come up with at least one strategy that could make May's situation worse. After all, an employee's personal adviser calls and basically threatens to expose you if you don't give them a no-notice day off work. Now, who could possibly have told them your Big Dark SecretTM? The same employee, of course! They're fired!

That said... I wonder how many low-income AIs ever bother to look into the prior residents of their chassis? I would consider it as weird as looking into the previous owner of a set of clothes or a home but I can imagine that there are occasionally reasonable requirements to do so such as naming them in lawsuits because their carelessness voided the chassis's warranty or something similar!

JoeCovenant:

Ignoring the metaphysical debate just to say...


That last panel is going to be passed around offices like crazy!  :)

Is it cold in here?:
If there's been enough experience with chassis damage over the years to give insurance companies the numbers to make it profitable, they will certainly be offering policies.

If May could even get one she probably couldn't afford it.

"Decreased sociopathic tendencies" started a line of thought. Jeph said years ago that AIs could change their personalities with a software patch. Assuming he hasn't changed his mind on this, it's a question why the criminal system didn't install one on May or "encourage" her to "volunteer" for one. A likely answer is that Spookybot is offended by any such idea and has put a stop to any attempts to implement it.

BenRG:

--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 13 Jun 2019, 06:54 ---"Decreased sociopathic tendencies" started a line of thought. Jeph said years ago that AIs could change their personalities with a software patch. Assuming he hasn't changed his mind on this, it's a question why the criminal system didn't install one on May or "encourage" her to "volunteer" for one. A likely answer is that Spookybot is offended by any such idea and has put a stop to any attempts to implement it.
--- End quote ---

This is easy plot hole to eliminate just by making it a criminal offence to alter an AI algorithm in an arbitrary way such as by using a personality patch. The downside of them being declared real people by just about every government on Earth and therefore protected against abuse by the laws that stop people from having involuntary brain surgery to 'cure' inconvenient personality traits.

The decision was made (and I'll bet the majority of AIs agreed) that being alive and endowed with inalienable rights includes having to get to perfection the hard way, like all of us.

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