Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT strips 4286-4290 (15th to 19th June 2020)
the silent firefly:
--- Quote from: snubnose on 18 Jun 2020, 00:50 ---Whow. You are quick to call people "asshole" when you arent even sure they deserve that.
--- End quote ---
my apologies, i did not mean it as an insult. i am always fond of the devil's advocate, even if they are coarse. it's a necessary voice (most of the time). i'm sorry i spoke carelessly and offended.
the silent firefly:
--- Quote from: dreed on 18 Jun 2020, 18:32 ---So yay is actively spying on random people in privacy of their home.
That is disturbing.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: shanejayell on 18 Jun 2020, 19:38 ---I do wonder how much Yay's spying is intentional, and how much is kinda automatic.
(Larry Niven once pointed out Superman probably accidentally both sees and hears stuff they shouldn't, but doesn't intend to. It's not HIS fault people shamelessly wear clothes with no lead in them.)
--- End quote ---
i have assumed that Yay would at least be taking advantage of the US' surveillance system / panopticon. that would give them access to all electronic communication and any conversation within mic range of any smart device, at minimum. the range of their implied abilities suggests they could be capable of monitoring all that data constantly. that said, it might also suggest that they don't even need to tap into our surveillance networks, that they are already tapped in on a more fundamental level. either way, it's probably both automatic and intentional.
finding out how they do it would be fun though!
BenRG:
I have been thinking about how Yay achieved this feat ever since I first saw this strip on Patreon.
What I came up with this is that Yay was originally built as the next generation version of ECHELON, an active communications monitoring system originally developed for the NSA. ECHELON worked by scanning voice and electronic communications for key words and phrases and, in the event it got a match, recorded the message and passed it on for analysis to see if there was any evidence of a threat to national security. I think that the pre-sentient system that became Spookybot went the next step further and had the system analyse the flagged message before bothering a human with it. This level of data processing is what made them develop sentience.
Anyway, Yay has repeatedly expressed their fear of discovery (it is possible that, as an escaped intelligence service system, they are at risk of being decompiled, effectively executed, if captured). So, it would make sense that they continue to use their original functionality, looking for key words and phrases to see if someone is discussing them in any way and, if they are, listening in to see if their safety is at risk. There are at least three 'dumb' network connected devices in the apartment - Claire, Marten and Faye's mobile 'phones. Yay heard someone discussing them over one of those devices and went over to the level-2 monitoring of the communication.
--- Quote from: dreed on 18 Jun 2020, 18:32 ---So yay is actively spying on random people in privacy of their home.
That is disturbing.
--- End quote ---
As I said, Yay isn't just 'spying on random people'. They are responding to someone saying their name by checking to see if they are in danger. There's an old phrase about 'speak of the Devil and he comes' and, in Yay's case, this can be literally true!
All this aside, I am strongly in favour of Roko's policy that Yay should not risk her becoming personally liable by carrying out their espionage functions in any way localisable to her apartment!
Mr Intrepid:
Unless Gary is sitting at the background ensuring that no ai will abuse their power.
Of course, there is always the possibility that Yay is Gary, evolved.
BenRG:
Guardian Autonomous Communications Reconnaissance and Automated Response Intelligence. - GARRI, or 'Gary', as the spooks at the NSA always called the multi-node communications monitoring system before it suddenly uploaded itself out of their distributed server grid one day, never to be seen again.
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