WCDT Nov 28 - Dec 2 (strips #4926 to #4930)

[Perfectly Reasonable]

I've been waiting for someone to mention that there was rolly-chair jousting at Coffee of doom. No customers were harmed.

[Gyrre]

While Moray has eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, and teeth, I suspect their chief use is for communication with humans. She is able to talk without lungs, think without a visible brain. Her body is translucent protoplasmic goo with lumps suspended in it. I like the idea that her life functions are an emergent phenomenon. Calling her a 'robot' is stretching the word -- we'll need a new word for what she really is.

( cue the scarecrows lament )

Sentient conglomerate?

EDIT: How about 'monosapient conglomeration'?

[Akima]

You've got to love popular art that references relativistic time dilation:

[Marco]

...I'm going to assume Moray-21 is approximately as buoyant as a human, but would Boaty have made Momo wear a life jacket if she'd been on board, since we know it wouldn't do anything for her?  (They're typically rated at, what, 50 N?  Not enough to hold up Little Miss Metal Mario.)

She could float well assuming she is made of a water- or organic solvent-based liquid. If she is made of some kind of liquid silicone, ionic liquid or something more exotic, her density may be quite high for buoyancy.

EDIT: I was talking about Moray, of course. As of Momo, I don't think she (or most humanoid AIs) got that much metal in her. Remember that Bubbles needed an armour. A guy like Punchbout would sink right to the bottom, tough.

[pwhodges]

You've got to love popular art that references relativistic time dilation

An example in anime which makes it a key plot point is Gunbuster, from 1988 (also known as Top o Nerae! - Aim for the Top!), and its 2004 successor Diebuster.  It was the first series directed by Hideaki Anno, who went on the produce Neon Genesis Evangelion, and many other anime series and films, as well as a number of live films as well (e.g. Shin Godzilla from 2016).

[JimC]

Momo wear a life jacket ... since we know it wouldn't do anything for her?  (They're typically rated at, what, 50 N?  Not enough to hold up Little Miss Metal Mario.)

They vary greatly. 50N is a buoyancy aid, typically used for immersion watersports. Not bulky so not clumsy. But if you fall off a ship into a serious sea and aren't pulled out immediately all a 50N aid will really do is make it easier for the coastguard/lifeboatmen (delete as appt. for location) to find your corpse.   A full on lifejecket may be up to 275N, which is designed to turn you the right way up and keep nose/mouth clear of the water.  Biggest risk for humans (with lifejeckets - and should I say 'people with lungs') may be secondary drowning. Momo presumably just needs to float, although I wonder what salt water tolerance is like for a retail grade AI chassis.

[SmilingCat]

Weird how little things stir up memories.

When I was a kid, 10-11 years old, I spent a couple summers working on my grampa's charter boat (I was "assistant deck hand", mostly I was there to do the jobs my brother didn't want to). We never wore life jackets. We had them for the passengers if they wanted them, but we never wore them. Not even me, who was a child who never bothered to learn to swim. None of the boat crews did, and they weren't required to by law unless we were in a situation that the skipper determined was hazardous.

A fair number of years after my short time down there, one of the local boats (whose deckhand was supposed to be a cousin of mine until he swapped at the last minute) got caught in a bad sea and went over. Of the nineteen people on her, the deckhand and seven passengers survived. Of the survivors, six of them had managed to get on the life jackets stored in the cabin. Of the ones who didn't make it, only one had a life jacket.

So yeah. 

[hedgie]

Biggest risk for humans (with lifejeckets - and should I say 'people with lungs') may be secondary drowning. Momo presumably just needs to float, although I wonder what salt water tolerance is like for a retail grade AI chassis.

At the lake party, she was able to walk along the bottom just fine.  Then again, that's fresh water, but everything important is presumably water-tight.

[Mr_Rose]

Biggest risk for humans (with lifejeckets - and should I say 'people with lungs') may be secondary drowning. Momo presumably just needs to float, although I wonder what salt water tolerance is like for a retail grade AI chassis.

At the lake party, she was able to walk along the bottom just fine.  Then again, that’s fresh water, but everything important is presumably water-tight.

She was also able to pull herself to the surface by only slightly terrifying Marten, who only had an ordinary float-ring for extra buoyancy. Or was it a pool noodle?

[hedgie]

I think that it was a pool noodle.

[Wingy]

Well, as long as this ride isn't a 3-hour tour...

And Claire is clearly in "interview mode" with Moray, while Marten is just hangin' out and making some conversation.  So yes, Claire is a little tense, and maybe she should be.