Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 4171-4175 (6 to 10 Jan 2020)
Tova:
There's something that confuses me.
If a disembodied AI requesting a body is a rare occurrence, then I would have thought that a commensurately small budget allotment would nonetheless have been sufficient to obtain for that very small number of AIs a fully functioning chassis? If it isn't, then that doesn't sound commensurate to me. What am I missing?
brasca:
--- Quote from: Drunken Old Man on 09 Jan 2020, 00:37 ---
--- Quote from: Mordhaus on 09 Jan 2020, 00:00 ---The problem is that he doesn't realize the connections Roko has. He is literally blowing off someone who is friends with something (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3412) who could destroy his life, the life of his family, his friends, and even their families as an example.
I'm just surprised that Roko hasn't involved them prior to this point, although I assume she wanted to try the normal channels first.
--- End quote ---
Siccing Spooky on someone who is just doing his job (badly, perhaps, but still doing it) is absolutely loathsome.
--- End quote ---
And lazy. My biggest problem with Spookybot and for that matter Hannelore is they have the potential to be deus ex machinas when there’s a problem beyond the other characters’ abilities to fix. An easy fix for the sake of a happy ending doesn’t happen all that often in real life. Even though this is a webcomic I prefer it follow certain storytelling rules.
And while the bureaucrat could’ve been nicer it’s possible he’s heard it all before and has to be cold and indifferent just to get through the day.
Quantum Glass:
I'm not really comfortable with the idea of "having a body is a luxury, not a right." Granted, for at least most AI there are plenty of job opportunities and chances to interact with other people online. (I'm not sure what jobs or communities May is limited to, legally speaking. Hmm, did Holo-May ever discuss her career prospects?).
Even if you compare it to changing cars, Roko suffered from disassociation when she lost her body. It may just be a platform for interacting with the material world, but psychologically and kinesthetically she considers herself anthropomorphic, not a silicon box piloting a mini Gundam. It's a necessary tool for both her mental health and her ability to interact with the outside world on a level familiar to most humans. May may not have any particular attachment to her body on account of all the flaws, but she sounds the same.
To put it another way: If humans were capable of plugging in to the net and hanging out with AI, and there was a paraplegic woman who used that to find a job to pay her bills, and it was entirely within modern medicine and the government's means to give her the ability to move and walk (with basically no additional physical therapy required, even), would she be entitled to that? Does it make a difference if she's an ex-convict or not?
What if they helped her get some bargain bin medical deal that let her walk again, but it came with all sorts of errors and flaws and mistakes, such that it impeded her quality of life and was a not insignificant financial burden? Such that she could go back to lying in a bed, plugging in to Wikipedia, and never moving again if she were fine with that? Should she be grateful for the opportunity to move at all?
I don't know. I get that medical rights are sort of a touchy subject right now in America.
TheEvilDog:
Yet, a chassis is a luxury item. Most AI don't need a chassis to do their jobs, the ones who do are in a very small minority from what we've seen. A chassis is going to be an expensive item to buy because it is an expensive item to create. Even if the materials aren't that expensive, you're still looking at design, labour, transport costs. A deluxe chassis might cost $30,000 and maybe have $2000 worth of material in it.
Chassis are luxury items, if they weren't they'd be ubiquitous and every AI would be walking around in one. The same way that yes, everyone would like a car but you still need to pay several thousand for a partway decent one.
May's chassis is still a luxury item, even if it is a lemon. Lemons are cheap, ridiculously so. Like barely a couple of hundred dollars. Think about how miserly that department's budget must be where they consider a $300 chassis is too much for them to replace.
Stoutfellow:
Comic's up.
I guess Roko didn't read the entire user's manual...
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