Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

How many AIs are there? What are the social consequences?

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flfederation:

--- Quote from: hedgie on 27 Oct 2020, 11:43 ---As in, a long-lived race in a D&D game like a dwarf or elf will have a perspective that humans simply can't get, like simply waiting for an enemy to die of old age if they don't pose an immediate threat.
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I think the fact that it was in a D&D game means that humans certainly can get that perspective, though perhaps most people struggle with it a bit. People struggle with Brun sometimes, but she's human and thinks like a human. She thinks a bit differently than we expect her to think, but that doesn't mean her thinking is impossible to understand. People simply expect it to be more like a certain way of thinking that they've preconceived. That's a fair assumption, but when they encounter facts that don't support their assumption, they cling to assumptions and reject learning. It's really not the assumption that's the problem, it's the insistence.

Everybody does that, but it's possible to learn to do it less. When people do that less, they gain a better understanding of each other, on average.

N.N. Marf:

--- Quote from: flfederation on 27 Oct 2020, 11:14 ---The biggest stretch for the comic so far IMO, is that it was difficult for them to find a routine that can read PDFs

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I don't see any stretch here at all. I have one somewhere, and I'd probably sooner dig that one out from that rubble they call paperwork---that I should probably get sorted lest all copies of their originals are all garbled---than put yet another piece of software I'll forget to remove into my system. It's not that it's difficult to find or install one, but one must consider the full consequences of having one installed, including the possibilities of errors in it causing a malfunction, that might be exploitable, and---especially for a cybrid who cannot simply wipe-reinstall themself---removing it cleanly.
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--- Quote from: flfederation on 27 Oct 2020, 11:14 ---I'm not going to hold Jeph to any literary/technical standards higher than we could hold Asimov to, I don't know why anybody else would want to.

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Questionable Content is about as science-fiction as Red Dwarf---the `science' is loose, thematic, focusing on the persons, their interactions. I haven't read Asimov, but any his---anyone's, really---science fiction, even if focused on the personal or social, should be held to as high a standard as one would research---the rest being classed sciencey-fantasy.

--- Quote from: flfederation on 27 Oct 2020, 12:20 ---That's a fair assumption, but when they encounter facts that don't support their assumption, they cling to assumptions and reject learning. It's really not the assumption that's the problem, it's the insistence.

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And then there are persons correct by definition, often mistaken as obstinately clinging to outmoded ideals. The new data cannot invalidate their creed, because their creed adapts the new data, maintaining it's effective form. When it does become outmoded, the creed is reformed, preserving as much of it's effective form as possible. For example: Mathematics---has been more-or-less the same for a millennium, reformed (from arithmetical to logical foundations) about a century ago, after a couple centuries of dense research, and likely due another reformation in.. who knows, but there seems to be a minor one (set theory to category theory) likely ready sometime this century.
We don't need to fight our desire for intellectual stability---we need to channel it well.
The person was not `built' (yes, their bodies were, mostly---one is not one's body) but was created through an organic process. And metal has nothing to do with them (nor with ``robot:'' by derivation, slave, and in engineering: complex-movement machine) except as an accident of nature technique---they are not metal (rather, whatever matter they happen to be of) persons as much as we are not carbon (rather, whatever matter we happen to be of) persons. ``AI'' doesn't fit, either, because the artifice, too, is not essential nor entirely accurate. They are, however, cybernetical, whence seems ``cybrid'' (``-id'' as in biology e.g. felid from felis, so `cybrid' from cyber?)---but whatever we call them, I'm sure the bigots will slur it.

flfederation:
For what it's worth, in Quantum Vibe, Nicole insists on calling Murphy (she identifies as female, but she took her name from someone with a Celtic heritage) her "robot girl" and though Murphy insists "I'm not a robot" she eventually makes an exception for Nicole and allows it because she likes Nicole so much. Though it's basically accepted with an eye-roll.

Nicole is typically drunk when she says this, The point being that while Murphy doesn't identify as "human" and was in fact manufactured, she takes issue with the term "robot", at least for most people. There are overlaps between Faye+Bubbles and Nicole+Murphy, though they're not identical enough to change anything said so far.

I include this as a point in favour of your argument, not mine. You're willing to bring more passion and facts into this than I'm willing to argue with. If this were a formal debate I would cede here, instead I'll just say "well played", but it's not sarcasm.

N.N. Marf:
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--- Quote from: flfederation on 27 Oct 2020, 17:40 ---If this were a formal debate I would cede here, instead I'll just say "well played", but it's not sarcasm.

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The proper use of language is among my most impassioned idlings; as for facts.. I'd rather well-made fictions.

Cornelius:
Slightly off topic for this thread, but:


--- Quote from: N.N. Marf on 27 Oct 2020, 17:28 ---
--- Quote from: flfederation on 27 Oct 2020, 11:14 ---The biggest stretch for the comic so far IMO, is that it was difficult for them to find a routine that can read PDFs

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I don't see any stretch here at all. I have one somewhere, and I'd probably sooner dig that one out from that rubble they call paperwork---that I should probably get sorted lest all copies of their originals are all garbled---than put yet another piece of software I'll forget to remove into my system. It's not that it's difficult to find or install one, but one must consider the full consequences of having one installed, including the possibilities of errors in it causing a malfunction, that might be exploitable, and---especially for a cybrid who cannot simply wipe-reinstall themself---removing it cleanly.

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However, it has been shown before that they have desktops, and there seems to be a preference for not doing the paperwork in their head, so to speak - for one, I'll bet it makes it a lot easier to maintain something resembling a work-life balance. So, wipe-reinstall on their office machines would be possible.

To me, it really felt like a stretch, especially as it seems bureaucracy still works with paper files.

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