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[Perfectly Reasonable]

Negaverse? You mean where Trump is president instead of Hillary?

----
Geeqie says:
Melon's hair: 28,167,74
Roko's usual hair: 149,24,81
R's Negaverse hair: 24, 149, 53

[Is it cold in here?]

Global Moderator Comment

Politics in DISCUSS and DISCUSS only, please.

Roko should have read her old manual as a job responsibility. Her chassis while she was on the force was her most basic piece of job equipment and she should have known it as well as she knew her sidearm.

[TieDyeKat]

And finally for today's musing, if Clinton gets told by Faye to cover his hand to keep it from getting all cruddy internally, why doesn't she insist Mays' hands have a covering?

Because biologicals like Clinton (and all of us, I am assuming) are messy and constantly shedding - body oils, sweat, dead skin cells, food particulates, fecal matter, saliva, makeup particulates if we use makeup, shed hair, ear wax... I would suspect AI corporeal units would lack much of this incidental debris.

[TheEvilDog]

Roko should have read her old manual as a job responsibility. Her chassis while she was on the force was her most basic piece of job equipment and she should have known it as well as she knew her sidearm.

That's all well and good, but the fact is that Roko's current chassis is the exact same as her old model. Its not. It just looks like it.

Roko's chassis when she was with the police wouldn't have been a deluxe chassis. It would have been a workhorse model, something that would do the job and do it well. Being able to change the colour of her skin and hair seems frivolous and unnecessary.

[rtmq0227]

And finally for today's musing, if Clinton gets told by Faye to cover his hand to keep it from getting all cruddy internally, why doesn't she insist Mays' hands have a covering?

Because biologicals like Clinton (and all of us, I am assuming) are messy and constantly shedding - body oils, sweat, dead skin cells, food particulates, fecal matter, saliva, makeup particulates if we use makeup, shed hair, ear wax... I would suspect AI corporeal units would lack much of this incidental debris.

The problem is that she works in human spaces, and when we shed all that stuff, it all ends up on surfaces and in the air, so she still encounters it.

My two theories are:

1. Her chassis was designed without a covering.  During Clinton's hand repair arc, it's implied that he's supposed to wear a cover normally, but chooses not to because the inner workings of his prosthetic hand are so cooooooool!  This is less like using a phone without a case and more like using your phone without a backplate.

2. The wear and tear Faye pointed out was not actually part of the original reason for repair, but something she brought up while she was already working on his hand.  He's never complained of performance issues (like Roko did with the hitch in her ankle), but did mention it felt smoother once it had been cleaned out.  This would indicate that the damage from not using a covering is only minor, and given May's position I doubt she'd even notice the difference with all her other maintenance woes.

So either the grit problem is one that can be designed around (and Clinton was just being irresponsible) or it's not a major issue, so Faye isn't about to shame May over it while her leg and arm keep falling off.

[JimC]

Anyone got inversion software (mine has gone awol) and verified the hair colors on Melon and Roko are inversions of each other?

[Thrudd]

Looks like the hair isn't but Melons hair and outfit seem to be ... well on this monitor anyways.

[Tyr]

Anyone got inversion software (mine has gone awol) and verified the hair colors on Melon and Roko are inversions of each other?

That's straight inversion, which also flips the value AKA darkness/Lightness. A more accurate change would be color 'rotation', which changes the Hue without affecting saturation or value as seen here->

[hedgie]

Don't feel bad, Joe. My experience with Scottish food is limited, to say the least.

And I avoid it for the same reason I do most Mexican food as well... 

Scottish food is excellent!   Even when not going for a simple fish and chips, many of the curries are quite nice, and if one is less than sober, even the kebabs are quite palatable.

[Is it cold in here?]

Roko should have read the manual on her old body to know how to take care of it so she could perform her job duties.

[pendrake]

For comic #4282...

Coming later this year 2020...

The Questionable Crisis of Infinite Contents

QC-4166 ~ the NegaVerse...  Beware your Durrpelganger.

QC-3760 ~ the MelonVerse...  Where Melon is a melon.

What other 'Verses are out there...?

[Eternal_Newbie]

Inspired by Tyr's post, I like the idea that Negaverse Melon (Nelom?) is just as ditsy as QC Prime Melon, and occasionally gets sucked into what she thinks is the Negaverse too.

[Wingy]

Inspired by Tyr's post, I like the idea that Negaverse Melon (Nelom?) is just as ditsy as QC Prime Melon, and occasionally gets sucked into what she thinks is the Negaverse too.

Melon has a precarious grip on QC Universe reality.  I wonder if she'd be autistic if she were a human and not an AI.

[Zebediah]

What other 'Verses are out there...?

There is, of course, the Bakeryverse. But it’s supposed to be a secret.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Also: "Again"? Just what is the everyday life of Melon? Is she just one of those imaginative people who can effortlessly go on fantastic voyages in the privacy of her head or is the QC universe weirder than any of us imagined before? Certainly, this raises the possibility that the scorpion pit where we saw her working is only how she likes to perceive her place of work rather than its objective reality. Much like all of us, I think!

Melon follows an arrow labeled 'work' to reach her workplace. Which i now believe is just another room in their apartment. Once there, she pulls a string which releases a cascade of paper slips labeled 'scorpion', 'centipede' and so on. Which are transformed by melon-vision into the semblance of live vermin. When 'work' is over, she follows the arrow labeled 'home'. My head-canon, anyway.

Yes, Melon's grasp of reality is ... flexible.

[shanejayell]

NO, it turns out Roko never read her manual. *lol*

Yay New Friend/Spooky, that's kinda stalkerish. Just saying.

[Gyrre]

Inspired by Tyr's post, I like the idea that Negaverse Melon (Nelom?) is just as ditsy as QC Prime Melon, and occasionally gets sucked into what she thinks is the Negaverse too.

Melon has a precarious grip on QC Universe reality.  I wonder if she'd be autistic if she were a human and not an AI.

Trouble grasping reality is schizophrenia.

[BenRG]

The unspoken part of Yay's reveal about that nodes new residence is: "Congratulations, Roko! Now you are never more than a few minutes away from the joy of association with us!" I'm sure that Roko will be able to control her paroxysms of glee at this news, although I don't know how!

Yeah, somehow Roko strikes me as the sort of person who wouldn't be interested in something's functionality beyond: "Does it do what I want it for?" Lots of people are like that. You'd be surprised the number of pre-loaded apps I have on my tablet that I have never used or pre-loaded URLs I got with my ISP account that I've never followed! I still wonder just what hidden weirdness may be in that body though! Something tells me that Roko will be better off finding out now in the comfort of her home before another safety feature or worse trips her up on the street again!

Melon has a precarious grip on QC Universe reality.  I wonder if she'd be autistic if she were a human and not an AI.

Trouble grasping reality is schizophrenia.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that a symptom of schizophrenia is getting easily distressed by faces being presented in a non-standard way. That matches her near panic attack at green!Roko but it might just be a coincidence.

[JoeCovenant]

Don't feel bad, Joe. My experience with Scottish food is limited, to say the least.

And I avoid it for the same reason I do most Mexican food as well... 

Scottish food is excellent!   Even when not going for a simple fish and chips, many of the curries are quite nice, and if one is less than sober, even the kebabs are quite palatable.

Whereas I'm sure the above was written in the spirit of jest  (  ) ... apparently Chicken Tikka Masala was invented in Glasgow!

[Wingy]

Melon has a precarious grip on QC Universe reality.  I wonder if she'd be autistic if she were a human and not an AI.

Trouble grasping reality is schizophrenia.

No reason it can't be both.  I'm considering her inability to remember and model appropriate social customs and her ability to be highly focused on what most of us would consider minutia.

[Wingy]

The 4183 panel 3 poses of remind me strongly of Marigold and Dale's early interactions. 

And Roko's look away in Panel 4 reminds me of Vicky Lawrence and Tim Conway (Roko and Yay, respectively) in the Elephant sketch.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qqE_WmagjY  I can just hear Roko saying "Of course you did." in an exact imitation of Vicki's tone/voice at 4:15...

And I just realized just how under-endowed Yay is.  I suppose that's an advantage for one that may want to present as male on occasion.

[BenRG]

I'm pretty sure that the Spookybot chassis are genuinely and fully androgynous. However, I have got the impression that the various nodes have their own 'flavour' of presentation. This particular one, which is the one that uses the 'Yay' name, is somewhat more feminine whilst others are more masculine in presentation and behaviour (the suited one who helped Bubbles and later 'persuaded' Corpse Witch to surrender comes to mind).

[Dngrsone]

I think Yay is non-binary

I can't imagine the chaos that would ensue if Melon, Emily, Raven, and Pintsize collaborated on something... let us not forget that Melon launched her ass into low-earth orbit and that Emily Raven not only makes clothing capable of adjusting to any size abut also a made Faye's Expressosaur travel through time.

[cesium133]

The time-traveling Espressosaur was Raven's fault, not Emily's (Emily was hired after Faye was fired).

[Mr_Rose]

Oh no. Ellicot-Chathams’s Angels: a show about a cloud cuckoolander, a genius ditz, and a topological savant recruited by a reclusive eccentric to save the world (from boring days), coming soon to Amazon Prime….

[hedgie]

Whereas I'm sure the above was written in the spirit of jest  (  ) ... apparently Chicken Tikka Masala was invented in Glasgow!

I was quite well aware of that, which inspired my post to some degree.

[Wingy]

Oh no. Ellicot-Chathams’s Angels: a show about a cloud cuckoolander, a genius ditz, and a topological savant recruited by a reclusive eccentric to save the world (from boring days), coming soon to Amazon Prime….

I was gonna volunteer to write an episode, and then realized this had already been done on one of the latter McGyver (sp?) incarnations.

[dutchrvl]

The time-traveling Espressosaur was Raven's fault, not Emily's (Emily was hired after Faye was fired).

Yeah, I always imagined Jeph wanted to retain the ditzy genius aspect of Raven while not wanting to retain her other established personality traits, hence introducing Emily and writing out Raven (well technically not written out, but not seen since forever).

[notStanley]

RTFM!  The second thing I do after opening the box.  First is spread out the pieces to see if they match the inventory listed in the manual.

Though now days the "manual" packaged in the box can be darn slim, if it exists at all :{

[Dngrsone]

I'm usually good about RTFM before I violate the warranty... not to say I don't violate it-- I'm a modder, but at least I know beforehand how the thing is technically supposed to act prior to me breaking it.

[cybersmurf]

Melon has a precarious grip on QC Universe reality.  I wonder if she'd be autistic if she were a human and not an AI.

Trouble grasping reality is schizophrenia.

No reason it can't be both.  I'm considering her inability to remember and model appropriate social customs and her ability to be highly focused on what most of us would consider minutia.

To me, Melon kinda feels like she doesn't want to understand. Might be resignation, might be ignorance, might be incapability of whatever kind.

I'm usually good about RTFM before I violate the warranty... not to say I don't violate it-- I'm a modder, but at least I know beforehand how the thing is technically supposed to act prior to me breaking it.

Technology has advanced too far to not RTFM.

And finally for today's musing, if Clinton gets told by Faye to cover his hand to keep it from getting all cruddy internally, why doesn't she insist Mays' hands have a covering?

Because biologicals like Clinton (and all of us, I am assuming) are messy and constantly shedding - body oils, sweat, dead skin cells, food particulates, fecal matter, saliva, makeup particulates if we use makeup, shed hair, ear wax... I would suspect AI corporeal units would lack much of this incidental debris.

The protection against "short distance organic matter" is one thing, but since it was meant to replace a human hand, it's meant to look like a human hand. May is meant to look like a robot/android anyway, so her body/model has a more mechanical look (as opposed to Roko and Momo).
Also, it might a price thing - to keep cost down, the mechanical parts are not meant to take all the wear, and superficial damage should be replaceable easily and cheaply. And the money goes more into the man/machine interface (which is probably harder and messier to do than just building a robot) - unless that's done in the stump, and the hand is "pure robot tech".

[hedgie]

Technology has advanced too far to not RTFM.

I dunno.   Last time I read a manual was the motherboard manual the first time I built a PC.  My general mode of operation is to poke around until I can do whatever it is I want to do, in which case I learn very little, or until I break something at which point I start to actually learn how it works.  Then again, I don't *yet* have a kickass cyborg body with eyes that shoot lasers.

[jwhouk]

I would contend that there is a difference between Clinton's hand and Roko's Philomena body: one does not have an AI operating it, but a human being.

[Is it cold in here?]

Meddling would be easy to do without Roko knowing.

Imagine that a popup appears on every Congressman's screen saying they can either vote for the AI First Step Act or have their Ashley Madison account published. That's the sort of thing Eminence Grise could do with the least amount of their power.

[shanejayell]

There needs to be a band named "Unspeakable Urges."

 

[immortalfrieza]

I shutter imagining how many paper clips Pintsize would need.

[SomeCanadianWeirdo]

I love Yay's expression in the last panel.

[Tova]

I shutter imagining how many paper clips Pintsize would need.

You mean how many he’d need if he actually wanted to distract himself from unspeakable urges?

I think he’d need something more distracting than paper clips.

[Gyrre]

Anybody else read Melon's line in Andrea Libman's voice?

[Gyrre]

Melon has a precarious grip on QC Universe reality.  I wonder if she'd be autistic if she were a human and not an AI.

Trouble grasping reality is schizophrenia.

No reason it can't be both.  I'm considering her inability to remember and model appropriate social customs and her ability to be highly focused on what most of us would consider minutia.

I'll assume you mean 'a diagnoses of having both' as hallucinations aren't a hallmark of ASD.

[BenRG]

Roko seems to be doomed to be unusual AIs' keeper. She's done a fairly good job of stopping Melon from demolishing the building (because she didn't understand why she wasn't supposed to) and now she's in the position where she's stopping Yay from doing weird thing to the economic and political nature of the planet to impress her with their benevolence! Even if that means having to pretend to be fooled when they are trolling for praise!

Meanwhile, it's beginning to seem more and more like Jeph has decided that Melon has the AI equivalent of schizophrenia. She has a system for controlling intrusive thoughts and sudden antisocial impulses too!

[JimC]

Scottish food is excellent!   Even when not going for a simple fish and chips, many of the curries are quite nice, and if one is less than sober, even the kebabs are quite palatable.

Cullen Skink is delicious... Its a fish and potato soup, it only sounds like something made from lizards...

[cybersmurf]

Roko seems to be doomed to be unusual AIs' keeper. She's done a fairly good job of stopping Melon from demolishing the building (because she didn't understand why she wasn't supposed to) and now she's in the position where she's stopping Yay from doing weird thing to the economic and political nature of the planet to impress her with their benevolence! Even if that means having to pretend to be fooled when they are trolling for praise!

Usually, everyone has that one friend. For Roko, that one friend is a normal one.

Meanwhile, it's beginning to seem more and more like Jeph has decided that Melon has the AI equivalent of schizophrenia. She has a system for controlling intrusive thoughts and sudden antisocial impulses too!

For what seems to be was meant as a one shot comic relief, Melon sure managed to stay.
Also, I wonder what real world diagnoses (or whatever the plural of that word is) could be applied to Melon.

[pwhodges]

Cullen Skink is delicious... Its a fish and potato soup, it only sounds like something made from lizards...

I make it regularly.

[Tyr]

You mean how many he’d need if he actually wanted to distract himself from unspeakable urges?

I think he’d need something more distracting than paper clips.

You're assuming he finds any of his urges 'unspeakable'. He speaks about many of his more outré urges quite openly, after all. 

[Wingy]

You're assuming he finds any of his urges 'unspeakable'.

I'm pretty sure he'd speak out about anything if he thought it would rattle his listener somehow, even if it wasn't really one of his own urges.

I'm still waiting for May to realize Pintsize was serious when he asked her to marry him during the fart-app incident.

[BenRG]

I shutter imagining how many paper clips Pintsize would need.

You mean how many he’d need if he actually wanted to distract himself from unspeakable urges?

I suspect that the only urge Pintsize has is to troll people into thinking that he has unspeakable urges.

[Eternal_Newbie]

Considering Melons ordinary urges result in property damage and injury to herself I think she might want to keep that paperclip

[Gyrre]

Considering Melons ordinary urges result in property damage and injury to herself I think she might want to keep that paperclip

And maybe get a bigger one.

[Wingy]

Considering Melons ordinary urges result in property damage and injury to herself I think she might want to keep that paperclip

She has at least a whole drawer full in her kitchen.