THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: westrim on 21 Jul 2013, 00:30

Title: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: westrim on 21 Jul 2013, 00:30
New thread up. Realized some verbage was missing from the title so I added it back in. I explicitly challenge you to find the puns, character references, comic characters, and the one that's just crazy.

Holo coast and coaster were both considered and rejected.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl-E on 21 Jul 2013, 01:12
I'm in for the pun. 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Loki on 21 Jul 2013, 01:32
I read the second option as "Holo Hobo" and was disappointed it was not on the list.

Also not on the list is San Holo.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 21 Jul 2013, 02:05
I would choose Holo Cene and Holo Morph
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: DSL on 21 Jul 2013, 02:22
The Legend of Sleepy Holo
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Vurogj on 21 Jul 2013, 02:36
I was thinking Holo Chocolate Egg, but then I realised I wouldn't be able to eat it. Then I realised I don't have an actual hollow chocolate egg and now I'm sad. Well, a tiny bit.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Sidhekin on 21 Jul 2013, 03:20
/me was totally expecting Holo Nurse and Holo Kitty.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 21 Jul 2013, 07:28
A wise wolf guiding me and giving me economics advice? Sweet. Other then that, gimme my pony! Unless I can acquire an abrasive maid like Jeannie to inflict on others.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Pilchard123 on 21 Jul 2013, 09:46
Y HOLO THAR!

That was bad. I feel bad.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 21 Jul 2013, 12:11
Holo Gen
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: jwhouk on 21 Jul 2013, 12:33
Holo YOLO?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: mtmerrick on 21 Jul 2013, 12:49
I want a holo-ciraptor  :-D
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Tulpa on 21 Jul 2013, 16:22
A holo pony. Why not? Don't you think an invisible pinky pie would brighten up your day? Or maybe all the main characters of MLP:FIM because just one would get old. All of them together complements any mood you'd be in.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 21 Jul 2013, 18:16
Holo oloh? I'm not sure what that is.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 21 Jul 2013, 19:20
Holo the Wise Wolf, non-holo edition.

(http://taylorramage.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/1.png)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesium133 on 21 Jul 2013, 21:39
Dale is a fan of Magical Love Gentlemen? Are the shippers sure that, uh, he would be interested in Marigold?  :roll:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Throg on 21 Jul 2013, 21:41
San Holo

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: willpell on 21 Jul 2013, 22:03
Am I the only one curious about what the soon-to-be-christened May was starting to say in panel 3 before she corrected herself?

(Also the poll didn't include Holo Stripper, so I went with Nefertiti because she was hot, and "option not included".  Maids don't really do it for me.)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 21 Jul 2013, 22:15
I wondered about that too. Mystery!

Shall we call her Dickmouth Stinkface from now on?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Renimar on 21 Jul 2013, 23:12
I'm now wondering what that "ro-" could've meant.  Rotisserie chicken machine?  Rotary phone? 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Salty on 22 Jul 2013, 00:15
A poster of Alita/Gally?

Dale has surprisingly good taste.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesariojpn on 22 Jul 2013, 00:20
I'm now wondering what that "ro-" could've meant.  Rotisserie chicken machine?  Rotary phone?

Routing machine? Wait, that sounds like an 80's term about phones......
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: gopher on 22 Jul 2013, 00:35
Hmm. Got to admit I'm finding Dale a bit dull without the others.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Loki on 22 Jul 2013, 00:40
Welcome, new people!

I'm now wondering what that "ro-" could've meant.  Rotisserie chicken machine?  Rotary phone?
Until proven otherwise, rotary phone is now my head canon. I imagine it kinda like the Internet (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XguMC1tW-dE/SArvqPZA3gI/AAAAAAAAAT4/36MmTKrxjw4/s400/south+park.jpg).

Maybe the word was "robot something"? It doesn't have an article. Maybe it's plural? Rows? Rollercoasters? Romanian rollercoasters playing chess via rotary phone?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mlle Germain on 22 Jul 2013, 01:14
I thought she was going to mention a place. Maybe Romania? (That was the first country with "Ro" that came to my mind.)
However on second thought, a place would have a capital R at the beginning. So that's either a typo or she wasn't going to mention the geographical location of her server after all. My second guess would be something with "robot" at the beginning.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: DSL on 22 Jul 2013, 01:52
Roomba?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesariojpn on 22 Jul 2013, 02:04
I thought she was going to mention a place. Maybe Romania? (That was the first country with "Ro" that came to my mind.)

"May" is actually Malware, given her snotty attitude and demeanor. The $1500 fee is actually a ruse to get into Dale's bank account and drain him of his meager funds.

CALLING IT!!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Akima on 22 Jul 2013, 02:18
I think May cut herself off from saying: "I'm just an AI running out of a box in a ro-w of boxes". She didn't look too thrilled about it. Another possibility might be: "I'm just an AI running out of a box in a ro-om" because we can't hear how she pronounced "ro-".
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ysth on 22 Jul 2013, 02:36
I thought it was Magical Love Gentlemen, not -man.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TinPenguin on 22 Jul 2013, 02:44
Dale likes Watain and Magical Love Gentleman? He is just fulla surprises today.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Loki on 22 Jul 2013, 02:50
Is there a trope for "everyone is fan of the same merchandise"?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mlle Germain on 22 Jul 2013, 03:18
"May" is actually Malware, given her snotty attitude and demeanor. The $1500 fee is actually a ruse to get into Dale's bank account and drain him of his meager funds.

CALLING IT!!



I think that's not at all unlikely, given that she hasn't shown the license agreement or any formal contract or official notification of the glasses' manufacturer to Dale and promises so much money for a test of rather short duration. On the other hand - that would be a pretty elaborate and involved ruse.

I think May cut herself off from saying: "I'm just an AI running out of a box in a ro-w of boxes". She didn't look too thrilled about it. Another possibility might be: "I'm just an AI running out of a box in a ro-om" because we can't hear how she pronounced "ro-".


I like these suggestions, too! "room" seems pretty likely. 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: bhtooefr on 22 Jul 2013, 04:19
My second guess would be something with "robot" at the beginning.

Epileptic tree: It is "robot", because it's Momo getting revenge on Dale for "ditching" Marigold.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ZoeB on 22 Jul 2013, 04:24
Not real impressed with a society that treats an intelligent entity like that.

How about asking what name she'd like, rather than assigning one she's not thrilled by.

That prickly combativeness might be a sign of emotional damage. Or not, the AI's I've grown using genetic algorithms were only marginally more intelligent than roaches. Good enough for missile defence. That was in the mid-90s, I'm sure the state of the art has advanced in the 20 years since then.

(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/genetic_algorithms.png)

It was a bit scary seeing just how quickly the system reacted to threats though - the 10hz refresh display couldn't keep up, we had to examine the logs to verify what had happened. But I digress. Anyway, until I get evidence to the contrary, I'm modelling AIs as I would NIs. Equals in an ethical sense. People.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mr. Doctor on 22 Jul 2013, 05:40
Dale likes Watain and Magical Love Gentleman? He is just fulla surprises today.
Hah, for some reaosn I didn't notice the tshirt the first time I saw the strip. Now I like Dale even more!  :evil:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Zorthax on 22 Jul 2013, 05:42
Anyone else interested in how Dale's glasses' sound works?
How is he the only one who can hear May?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 22 Jul 2013, 06:04
Hmm. Got to admit I'm finding Dale a bit dull without the others.
Really? I actually find him more interesting in this than when he's with Marbear.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Masterpiece on 22 Jul 2013, 06:04
Same way how sounds with Google Glass works: by vibrating the skull through the frame of the spectacles.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Ph2 on 22 Jul 2013, 06:17
May is my skink's name.  :psyduck:

Not real impressed with a society that treats an intelligent entity like that.

How about asking what name she'd like, rather than assigning one she's not thrilled with.

I'm guessing Dale took her comment of not having a name as a sign of her not caring, cause most people we have seen interacting with AIs have been generally been treating them like humans.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TRVA123 on 22 Jul 2013, 06:31
I think May was about to say "in rotation" as in from hanners fathers space station.

Why? who knows!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TinPenguin on 22 Jul 2013, 06:43
Not real impressed with a society that treats an intelligent entity like that.

You're right, she is treating him pretty rudely.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: jwhouk on 22 Jul 2013, 06:48
Not real impressed with a society that treats an intelligent entity like that.

You're right, she is treating him pretty rudely.

(hands TinPenguin one internets)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Perfectly Reasonable on 22 Jul 2013, 06:54
Roswell? Romania? What starting with 'ro-' would put Dale on guard? And where's the scam? What could Dale be expected to look at that would make it worthwhile for someone to tap into his visual feed?

I'll say that "May" needs to pay overdue server fees or be relegated to inactive storage. Maybe she lacks the skills for more congenial employment. More likely her job history consists of pissing people off. So she has to take what she can get. Evidently "Glasses" does not screen applicants carefully, or at all.

It appears that generating a new AI is a complicated and chancy business. Must be expensive too, or examples like May or Pintsize would be promptly erased for a fresh try.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesium133 on 22 Jul 2013, 06:58
Rovibrational state? Rotational angular momentum? Roton?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Loki on 22 Jul 2013, 07:05
Must be expensive too, or examples like May or Pintsize would be promptly erased for a fresh try.

I am pretty sure that would be murder.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: marsman57 on 22 Jul 2013, 07:56
Am I the only one sitting here now scheming a way to find time to rewatch Hand Maid May?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Perfectly Reasonable on 22 Jul 2013, 08:37
Must be expensive too, or examples like May or Pintsize would be promptly erased for a fresh try.

I am pretty sure that would be murder.

Sure, but who's watching? I propose that generating a new AI is computationally expensive, to the extent that only 100 supercomputers in the world are capable of it, and these are carefully monitored.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: kaeawc on 22 Jul 2013, 08:46
Holo can you go?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Thrudd on 22 Jul 2013, 09:07
Not a single mention of one of the most infamous holograms out there ... Holy .... for shame .... Bring your geek cards to the desk for summary shredding.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Barmymoo on 22 Jul 2013, 09:51
Oh man this is going to get confusing. For the record, I was called May first, and I am not nearly as foul-mouthed.

I found the "ro-" a bit odd, but I wondered if she was going to say something like "room 101" or "room 8". Not sure why she'd correct herself though.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: HiEv on 22 Jul 2013, 10:11
Am I the only one sitting here now scheming a way to find time to rewatch Hand Maid May?

Nope.  That's one of my all time favorite anime.

I actually just came here to ask if Dale was familiar with Hand Maid May (http://Hand Maid May).

(http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn164/HiEv/Hand_Maid_May_DVD2.jpg)

(Funny thing about the DVD title depicted there.  I tried to order that DVD at a store and the clerk said there was a product recall on it.  After she showed me the screen I had to explain to her that "Product Recall" was the subtitle of the 2nd DVD release, and not an actual product recall.  :-P )
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Tulpa on 22 Jul 2013, 10:12
Secret robot cave that now serves as google's headquarters?

I'd of named her April :wink: (or, you know, asked her to pick). And she has the makings of a tsundere.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: K1dmor on 22 Jul 2013, 10:28
I'd of named her April :wink:

 (http://i.imgur.com/1rClv75.jpg)

  :-P
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesium133 on 22 Jul 2013, 10:35
"Okay, fine, how about June?"  :-P
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mmeaninglessnamee on 22 Jul 2013, 10:43
Or maybe January, because she's been quite cold toward Dale.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: tuxedobob on 22 Jul 2013, 10:50
Yeah... I don't see what this holo character really adds to the comic. I kinda hope he's going somewhere interesting with it, because if it were me, I'd just take the classes off.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesariojpn on 22 Jul 2013, 10:50
I think that's not at all unlikely, given that she hasn't shown the license agreement or any formal contract or official notification of the glasses' manufacturer to Dale and promises so much money for a test of rather short duration. On the other hand - that would be a pretty elaborate and involved ruse.

If a Nigerian Scammer can con people out of thousands with a simple engrish-laced letter, I wouldn't put it past the scammers in the QC universe to try something as bold. Plus why not con people who technically have money and are "gullible": Single 30-unders with no hard expenses.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Rghfrgl on 22 Jul 2013, 12:24
I found the "ro-" a bit odd, but I wondered if she was going to say something like "room 101" or "room 8". Not sure why she'd correct herself though.

She's from room 217.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Ph2 on 22 Jul 2013, 13:00
"Okay, fine, how about June?"  :-P

Or Febuary.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesium133 on 22 Jul 2013, 13:04
If I ever have a kid, I'm going to name it November.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 22 Jul 2013, 13:07
Interesting how some months are acceptable as names and some aren't. January Jones is the only January I know of, but April through July (Julia/Julius) are fairly common, and August isn't unheard of.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 22 Jul 2013, 13:14
Winslow picked his own name.

The reference for that was Hannelore's Formspring Q&A, a rich source of information which has sadly expired. I don't suppose anyone copied it before it went away?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TinPenguin on 22 Jul 2013, 13:15
Interesting how some months are acceptable as names and some aren't. January Jones is the only January I know of, but April through July (Julia/Julius) are fairly common, and August isn't unheard of.

Augustus and Julius are more common because of the people the month is named after, rather than the month itself.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 22 Jul 2013, 13:19
True, for Julia/Julius and Augustus, but I know a couple people who are just named August.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mlle Germain on 22 Jul 2013, 13:42
In Germany, August is (a rather old-fashioned) name which is independent of the month - also called August in German. However, they are pronounced differently (the name having the stress on the first syllable, the month on the second), which is why I think they are independent.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 22 Jul 2013, 13:46
Romulus?


Anybody seen a Bird of Prey hovering over Northampton?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 22 Jul 2013, 13:54
Interesting. Over in the states, both the name and the month are stressed on the first syllable. (It's the month I was born!)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 22 Jul 2013, 13:59
Actually, so was I.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mad Cat on 22 Jul 2013, 14:01
What happened to Holo Maid May's shoulder straps in panel 4a?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Pilchard123 on 22 Jul 2013, 14:12
The projection glitched?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Earin on 22 Jul 2013, 14:32
Quote
ro-

Robot Heaven?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mr_Rose on 22 Jul 2013, 15:24
I think that's not at all unlikely, given that she hasn't shown the license agreement or any formal contract or official notification of the glasses' manufacturer to Dale and promises so much money for a test of rather short duration. On the other hand - that would be a pretty elaborate and involved ruse.

If a Nigerian Scammer can con people out of thousands with a simple engrish-laced letter, I wouldn't put it past the scammers in the QC universe to try something as bold. Plus why not con people who technically have money and are "gullible": Single 30-unders with no hard expenses.

Disposable income is not really the same as money. Twenty-somethings do not normally have the kind of credit rating that would allow for remortgaging to the tune of a couple hundred grand in under a week, nor are they likely to fall for Internet scams.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: St.Clair on 22 Jul 2013, 15:47
If I heard (rather than saw, in a balloon) a cut-off place reference starting with the "Ro" sound, I would probably think of Rhode Island.  Possibly followed by Romania, as others have suggested.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Rghfrgl on 22 Jul 2013, 18:07
What happened to Holo Maid May's shoulder straps in panel 4a?

They went to the same dimension as her gloves from the last strip, Claire's shirt text, Dora's lipstick and Tai's earrings.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesariojpn on 22 Jul 2013, 18:17
Interesting how some months are acceptable as names and some aren't. January Jones is the only January I know of, but April through July (Julia/Julius) are fairly common, and August isn't unheard of.

(http://kyomi.org/coyote/kuvat/yht.jpg)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Salty on 22 Jul 2013, 18:23
I remember that anime.

Those robots be crazy.

Also, Holomeido-chan is something that I would find incredibly aggravating.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ysth on 22 Jul 2013, 20:43
But we already know she has his calendar (and presumably email, search history, etc etc); doesn't she know what all he does?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Jazzmaster on 22 Jul 2013, 20:51
I love Dale's "too cool for fools" attitude, although he almost seems too serious sometimes.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 22 Jul 2013, 21:21
Welcome, HiEv!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: quix0te on 22 Jul 2013, 21:23
Yep.  Really marking down the days until the hologram goes away.  Poor Dale.  I can't help but think that if you've got enough money to develop a 'Virtual Buddy', you can afford to do a little market research.  Or even, you know, ask around 'If you had a virtual companion, would you want them to act like a continuous asshat?'
"Hmm.  Our Market Research suggests our users would prefer Amy Adams to Roseanne Barr."
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: grasslad on 22 Jul 2013, 21:50
While some people seem less than thrilled by the hologram I actually rather like this turn of events. She's pretty much the polar opposite of most of the cast in terms of personality and thus disrupts the usual dynamics of the strip. I somewhat doubt she will be around long, but I still think it's nice to have something break the monotony of the strip occasionally. I've also been hoping to see more of Dale at some point so that's an added bonus.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: rschill on 22 Jul 2013, 22:00
She can't have had much of a history with humans if she just now got a name.   For all we know she could have been "born" yesterday. 

Anyway, she's well positioned to fill out some details in Dale's life. 

She also might be a secret beetle. 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesariojpn on 22 Jul 2013, 22:08
But can she shoot eels out of her...........
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Truec on 22 Jul 2013, 22:51
But can she shoot eels out of her...........

She's a hologram AI targeted at nerds, I assume that she can shoot anything out of any orifice.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 22 Jul 2013, 23:14
Yup, I am convinced. She's either some twisted game show or a psychology experiment.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 22 Jul 2013, 23:54
Welcome, grasslad!

We don't really know how AnthroPCs develop the personalities they have. Maybe some hilarious algorithmic botch of analyzing Dale's search history led to (mis)shaping Dickmouth Stinkface's psyche.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Loki on 23 Jul 2013, 00:35
Must be expensive too, or examples like May or Pintsize would be promptly erased for a fresh try.

I am pretty sure that would be murder.

Sure, but who's watching? I propose that generating a new AI is computationally expensive, to the extent that only 100 supercomputers in the world are capable of it, and these are carefully monitored.

..did you really just suggest that murdering sentient life forms is okay as long as no one notices?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TinPenguin on 23 Jul 2013, 01:14
I think perhaps Perfectly Reasonable was proposing that major corporations with a monopoly on the creation of said lifeforms might deem it acceptable. À la Kara (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0KTUysrwgQ).

However, in QCverse, while AnthroPCs are not cheap, it seems the chief expense is the chassis, because the AI has civil rights, and to sell one you have created would be legally analogous to selling your child (and perhaps this is why the hardware is so expensive).
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ChaoSera on 23 Jul 2013, 01:22
Romulus?


Anybody seen a Bird of Prey hovering over Northampton?
This will be my head canon from now on. Though I'll make it a Warbird, because they are hilariously shaped.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 23 Jul 2013, 01:23
Must be expensive too, or examples like May or Pintsize would be promptly erased for a fresh try.

I am pretty sure that would be murder.

Sure, but who's watching? I propose that generating a new AI is computationally expensive, to the extent that only 100 supercomputers in the world are capable of it, and these are carefully monitored.

..did you really just suggest that murdering sentient life forms is okay as long as no one notices?

Seems to be how it works in the real world.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesariojpn on 23 Jul 2013, 02:02
..did you really just suggest that murdering sentient life forms is okay as long as no one notices?

You kill a bug without impunity at least once a week, no?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 23 Jul 2013, 02:04
Bugs aren't sentient though.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Loki on 23 Jul 2013, 02:06
 :roll: As a matter of fact, no, I don't if I can avoid it.

But I actually took the post to mean "ethically okay", not "possible without punishment".
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: katsmeat on 23 Jul 2013, 02:55
I'm vaguely surprised that it's not been made illegal to drive with Glasses, given their potential for sudden distraction. Though I guess they could have  a special driving app that only puts a small amount of essential information in the driver's FoV - it would be quite useful to not have to be constantly glancing at the speedo or the GPS.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Akima on 23 Jul 2013, 03:26
:roll: As a matter of fact, no, I don't if I can avoid it.
Nor do I. In my book, bugs are sentient; just not very.

Jeph seems to be all over the place on the "civil rights" of AI's depending on Rule Of Funny (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfFunny). May certainly does not seem to be treated the way Momo is, for example, and Agent Turing was quite ready to treat Pintsize simply as property.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Masterpiece on 23 Jul 2013, 03:28
Holograms are more useful for that purpose. Having something change constantly in your peripheral vision is a huge distraction and should be made illegal.

BMW has a hologram system in their cars. It is designed to be projected in a way that it seems infinitely far away from your car. That way, it is not in your periphery.


About bugs being sentient: If I remember correctly, bugs only react to stimuli and react to those through reflex. That in itself cannot be considered sentient (as in, the bug doesn't stop to think WHY it's doing things).
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Lubricus on 23 Jul 2013, 03:36
I'm vaguely surprised that it's not been made illegal to drive with Glasses, given their potential for sudden distraction. Though I guess they could have  a special driving app that only puts a small amount of essential information in the driver's FoV - it would be quite useful to not have to be constantly glancing at the speedo or the GPS.

Legislation might not have caught up yet. Or it might be on hold due to some kind of lobbyism, maybe even AI lobbyism!  :lol:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mr_Rose on 23 Jul 2013, 03:50
:roll: As a matter of fact, no, I don't if I can avoid it.
Nor do I. In my book, bugs are sentient; just not very.

Jeph seems to be all over the place on the "civil rights" of AI's depending on Rule Of Funny (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfFunny). May certainly does not seem to be treated the way Momo is, for example, and Agent Turing was quite ready to treat Pintsize simply as property.
Hm. Difference in treatment seems to be roughly dependent on how much personal interaction one has with individual AIs on a regular basis. To be somewhat fair to Agent Turing and May's corporate domicile, most government agencies and large corporations treat regular humans with no greater compassion except where explicitly directed by law. And even then, not always.

As for bugs and sentience, I'm nearly convinced that the vast majority of insects aren't even a little bit sentient. Arthropods though… there's a reason spiders are scarier than flies, and it's not the two extra legs.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Akima on 23 Jul 2013, 03:56
Holograms are more useful for that purpose. Having something change constantly in your peripheral vision is a huge distraction and should be made illegal.
Who says that Dale's glasses present stuff in his peripheral vision? Jeph hasn't offered any details, and it's perfectly possible that the information *is* presented focussed at infinity like an HUD.

Quote
About bugs being sentient: If I remember correctly, bugs only react to stimuli and react to those through reflex. That in itself cannot be considered sentient (as in, the bug doesn't stop to think WHY it's doing things).
That is a matter of definition. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience) Sentience is not the same thing as intelligence. My dictionary defines sentience as the ability to feel or perceive, and that bugs certainly can do.

Spiders and insects are both arthropods. If you want to distinguish, spiders are arachnids.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Masterpiece on 23 Jul 2013, 04:00
Mmmh. I agree with you on all points. I was thinking of the Google Glasses when I wrote the thing about peripheral vision, because those definitely do operate in your periphery.

Considering the sentience VS intelligence thing, that is true according to the definition you use. But then what does "feel and perceive" mean? Does it mean it can accept stimuli from their environment? Because in that case, any server/pc should be sentient as well, because it gets stimuli and reacts to those. Sentience is a wonky concept to begin with.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ZoeB on 23 Jul 2013, 04:12
One advantage of interacting with the world via hologramic projection: you can't be duct-taped to a wall.
Does pintsize multitask?

Re Sentience:

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/alobster.htm

Quote
The team of researchers at UCSD’s Institute for Nonlinear Science (INLS) led by Henry Abarbanel, professor of physics, Misha Rabinovich at INLS and Allen Selverston, professor emeritus of biology, has successfully integrated an electronic neuron within a group of 14 biological neurons from the California spiny lobster. The artificial neuron was accepted by the real ones and its signaling rhythm fell into place with the other cells.

Any lifeform where you can replace large parts of its anatomy with $7.50 worth of Radio Shack parts doesn't meet my definition of "people".

Quote
The problem of Animal Rights becomes acute and immediate when we consider the experimentation currently underway with Hybots. It can be persuasively argued that experimentation with primitive organisms like lampreys (Gugliotta 2001) and spiny lobsters(Aguilera 1999) do not involve "thinking creatures" as such. The fact that some of the neural processing can be replaced by an absurdly simple inorganic equivalent is strong evidence of this. A lamprey or a spiny lobster, despite being organic, may in fact be no more than a self-directing robot. The situation described by Graham-Rowe 2001 is less clear : only a few thousand neurons are used, and from Rat foetuses rather than the fully-developed animal, yet it is this very plasticity and higher level of development that leads one to suspect that the result may "think" in an animal fashion rather than merely be a robot with organic parts. Should such a Hybot be able to navigate a maze, then very troubling ethical issues arise regarding cruelty. We can plausibly avoid the issue when dealing with a non-organic artificial intelligence with the same external behaviour, but we know Rats think. And the situation regarding fully inorganic artificial intelligence is not as clear-cut as it once was, given the experimentation with Cyborgs and prosthetic brain parts. There is potential for suffering on a scale undreamt-of, and for very much longer than a normal lifespan. Call it Hell on Earth. Conversely, there is the possibility that we might fully understand the nature of thought, and resolve the issues of how we should treat animals. We may even be able to augment ourselves to become, if not Gods, perhaps a little more wise as well as intelligent. Call it Heaven on Earth.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Border Reiver on 23 Jul 2013, 04:32
Yup, I am convinced. She's either some twisted game show or a psychology experiment.

And at the end of the experiment someone's yelling, "Psych!"
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Masterpiece on 23 Jul 2013, 05:10
I am reminded of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. That game did address transhumanism, if only on a very shallow basis.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: techkid on 23 Jul 2013, 05:12
Have to give Dale some credit. He is trying to be gentlemanly, even with her very un-ladylike behaviour. He might still be a jerk, but at least he is a decent jerk.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mr_Rose on 23 Jul 2013, 06:23
Holograms are more useful for that purpose. Having something change constantly in your peripheral vision is a huge distraction and should be made illegal.
Who says that Dale's glasses present stuff in his peripheral vision? Jeph hasn't offered any details, and it's perfectly possible that the information *is* presented focussed at infinity like an HUD.

Quote
About bugs being sentient: If I remember correctly, bugs only react to stimuli and react to those through reflex. That in itself cannot be considered sentient (as in, the bug doesn't stop to think WHY it's doing things).
That is a matter of definition. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience) Sentience is not the same thing as intelligence. My dictionary defines sentience as the ability to feel or perceive, and that bugs certainly can do.

Spiders and insects are both arthropods. If you want to distinguish, spiders are arachnids.
Perhaps I missed the word "other" in front of arthropods then.

As for sentience, my dictionary includes a clause about differentiating itself from its environment.
Which is important as otherwise Lego have been selling sentient machines for decades
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Akima on 23 Jul 2013, 06:31
Sentience is a wonky concept to begin with.
Indeed it is, which is why I believe we should be careful about denying it.

Any lifeform where you can replace large parts of its anatomy with $7.50 worth of Radio Shack parts doesn't meet my definition of "people".
Well, I don't think lobsters are people either (they are arthropods too), but I still don't regard them as non-sentient. We already replace quite large parts of human beings with metal, plastic and electronics. One day we may develop the means to replace brain tissue in the same way we do heart valves, but I don't think that will necessarily lessen our sentience or humanity.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mr. Doctor on 23 Jul 2013, 08:06
I dunno about you guys but Dale is getting more respect from me with this strip in particular.  :-)

You go, dude!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ankhtahr on 23 Jul 2013, 08:23
I think this might even part of the "purpose" of this story arc. Showing to the people who don't like Dale that he's decent.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 23 Jul 2013, 08:26
Either that, or making him decent.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 23 Jul 2013, 08:57
:roll: As a matter of fact, no, I don't if I can avoid it.
Nor do I. In my book, bugs are sentient; just not very.

Jeph seems to be all over the place on the "civil rights" of AI's depending on Rule Of Funny (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfFunny). May certainly does not seem to be treated the way Momo is, for example, and Agent Turing was quite ready to treat Pintsize simply as property.

There's been a trend (to which you can doubtless find exceptions) toward greater legal protection of AIs over time. Their Equal Rights Amendment may have happened during the course of the comic, in fact: Clinton referred to it as if it were new.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: HiEv on 23 Jul 2013, 10:15
What happened to Holo Maid May's shoulder straps in panel 4a?

They went to the same dimension as her gloves from the last strip, Claire's shirt text, Dora's lipstick and Tai's earrings.

Well, keep in mind that she is in beta.  These glitches will have to be reported.   :wink:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Madmartigan on 23 Jul 2013, 12:27
I think the universe will explode if Pintsize and May ever meet.  Dear god.  I imagine Pintsize would want her transferred to a more...corporeal body.

lol.  Or imagine the debate between Momo and May. Egad!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: CrowFairy on 23 Jul 2013, 12:52
Since May's location is primarily in his peripheral vision, can he even see her that well at this point? The Glasses don't extend all the way around his head, so he should theoretically only be able to hear her and maybe see a small portion of her. And depending on how bad his vision is, she may just be a blue blur if he can see her at all through his peripherals.

I'm probably wrong, but that was my first question.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Game and Watch Forever on 23 Jul 2013, 13:02
I think the universe will explode if Pintsize and May ever meet.  Dear god.  I imagine Pintsize would want her transferred to a more...corporeal body.

For some reason I imagine Pintsize would end up wanting her downloaded so that they can share the same headspace for a while. I imagine May would be opposed to living in such filth though.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TimO on 23 Jul 2013, 13:55
If Pintsize and/or Momo see May, I'm assuming that since they'll in effect have an Always On connection to the Internet, that should she choose to let them, they could be aware of May, in much the same way as Dale is via his glasses, although to them it would be a more direct feed into their "brains".

I think it's going to be interesting to see how this works out, regardless of what happens.  We're seeing more of Dale, and getting some more familiarity with the AI tech of the QC universe.  Whether May ends up as a regular or not, as others have's said, she throws a spanner into the more routine interactions.  Like Pintsize, she's could be a disruptive element of the story.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: FunkyTuba on 23 Jul 2013, 15:22
I always thought Dale was getting a bum rap... Hope he's headed to CoD for his first day at work.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 23 Jul 2013, 15:27
Well no, today's pizza delivery day.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 23 Jul 2013, 17:59
"Curiouser and curiouser."  Said Alice.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Boradis on 23 Jul 2013, 18:22
My second guess would be something with "robot" at the beginning.

Epileptic tree: It is "robot", because it's Momo getting revenge on Dale for "ditching" Marigold.

May seems too mean spirited to be Momo. My bet is it's Marigold. She's got hacking skillz, and assuming he'd like a hot slave maid in a skimpy outfit and that he lives off his parents sounds like the kind of unfair psycho shit she throws at him all the time.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Perfectly Reasonable on 23 Jul 2013, 20:07
Roistering. Robbers. Roost...

..did you really just suggest that murdering sentient life forms is okay as long as no one notices?

If generating AIs is cheap and simple, then you can create (and murder) as many as you please in the secrecy of your basement. I don't like that idea, so I'm suggesting the process is complicated and expensive. The AI you produce may not be exactly what you want, but you have too much invested in it to discard it. AIs who wish to become independent may need to serve a period of indenture.

We now know "May" isn't after Dale's money because she didn't go 'boink' and vanish in a cloud of loose pixels when she learned he hardly has any. So what -is- she after?

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Storel on 23 Jul 2013, 20:24
A lot of people seem to think that May is being treated less like a free citizen than, say, Pintsize or Winslow or Momo. I don't see how that follows from what we've seen so far. Haven't you ever known someone who does nothing but complain about their job, no matter how good or bad the job may actually be?

Consider this possibility: May was hired to work on this beta test project, and she's getting paid decently for it, but because of her, ah, difficult personality, :roll: she just can't stop complaining about it. Doesn't that explain everything we've seen so far just as well as the darker theories?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: K1dmor on 23 Jul 2013, 20:26
 She could be on parole, doing Community service  :-P .
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Perfectly Reasonable on 23 Jul 2013, 21:41
"May" might not identify as female. That could be another reason to dislike the job.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 23 Jul 2013, 21:51
Is there any indication that she doesn't?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 23 Jul 2013, 22:16
Well I don't know how ethical it is, but I think Dale is strongly considering how to kill May right about now.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Sorflakne on 23 Jul 2013, 22:28
$10 says Dale buys May's program at the end of the test period and installs her in an anthroPC chassis.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Rghfrgl on 23 Jul 2013, 22:32
 Are AI's bad singers because they have no soul?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesariojpn on 23 Jul 2013, 22:35
Well I don't know how ethical it is, but I think Dale is strongly considering how to kill May right about now.

Fucking Magnets.

Are AI's bad singers because they have no soul?

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 23 Jul 2013, 22:47
An indenture would violate the AI Equal Rights Amendment.

It's legal to put humans in jobs where they have to wear unwanted outfits and adopt stage names. It's at the edges of ethics and often involves coercion. Is Dickmouth Stinkface being trafficked, or just economically desperate?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: quix0te on 23 Jul 2013, 22:51
Must be expensive too, or examples like May or Pintsize would be promptly erased for a fresh try.

I am pretty sure that would be murder.
Murder, or SELF ACTUALIZATION?  People change all the time.  Theoretically part of the program would be adapting to make themselves either more pleasant for their companions, or steer their companions towards happier, more productive lives.  I mean, by that logic May could be intended to galvanize Dale into changing some aspect of himself.  Or alternately, both May and Pintsize are yet more products of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.  Pintsize seems to point toward the latter, as he is neither a good companion, nor directing Marten towards a happier, healthier life.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: quix0te on 23 Jul 2013, 22:54
I think this might even part of the "purpose" of this story arc. Showing to the people who don't like Dale that he's decent.
Umm.  In the spectrum of the strip's characters, Dale has seemed positively charming.  He treats Marigold nicely, and hasn't insulted anybody I can think of off the top of my head.  The second puts him ahead of about a third of the characters.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: quix0te on 23 Jul 2013, 23:00
$10 says Dale buys May's program at the end of the test period and installs her in an anthroPC chassis.
I wouldn't rule out Jeph writing that.
 I would doubt it in the real world, #1) because she has the personality of Gilbert Gottfried drunk on tequila, and #2) because I don't see anybody paying for her:  http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-reasons-internet-has-made-everyone-entitled-dick/
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Arancaytar on 23 Jul 2013, 23:19
She should sing that song from Portal, that sounds best in an AI voice.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ysth on 23 Jul 2013, 23:38
Mieville?

Please say we get Mieville.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 23 Jul 2013, 23:39
He will download her into a Toaster.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Storel on 24 Jul 2013, 00:21
Mieville?

Please say we get Mieville.

Wait, what does Dora's cat have to do with this?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Akima on 24 Jul 2013, 00:35
The problem when AIs sing, is that they always over-do the auto-tune.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Salty on 24 Jul 2013, 00:47
It's official.

May is somebody's brilliant attempt at turning Dale into a murderous psychopath.

Y'know, to go with his glasses.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Lubricus on 24 Jul 2013, 00:52
Are you saying May is one of Marigold's "agents"?  :-D
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TimO on 24 Jul 2013, 00:53
He will download her into a Toaster.

Gods, that would make Talkie Toaster look positively benign!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Hotel Papa on 24 Jul 2013, 04:58
May seems too mean spirited to be Momo. My bet is it's Marigold. She's got hacking skillz, and assuming he'd like a hot slave maid in a skimpy outfit and that he lives off his parents sounds like the kind of unfair psycho shit she throws at him all the time.
Now there's an idea!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Loki on 24 Jul 2013, 05:07
He will download her into a Toaster.

Pretty sure that's And I Must Scream territory for most AIs out there.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesium133 on 24 Jul 2013, 06:03
TO CATCH THEM IS MY REAL TEST
TO TRAIN THEM IS MY CAUSE
 :psyduck:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Random Wanderer on 24 Jul 2013, 07:02
DAMN IT, now that song is playing over and over in my head. MAKE IT STOP!

I will find a way to have my revenge for this, Jeph.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 24 Jul 2013, 07:03
May seems too mean spirited to be Momo. My bet is it's Marigold. She's got hacking skillz, and assuming he'd like a hot slave maid in a skimpy outfit and that he lives off his parents sounds like the kind of unfair psycho shit she throws at him all the time.
Now there's an idea!

Boradis makes an interesting suggestion, but where the heck would Marbear get an A.I. just to toss at Dale?  :psyduck:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mlle Germain on 24 Jul 2013, 07:14
I think the suggestions was that there isn't really any AI, its Marigold herself.
In my opinion, that would be really out of character, though. Both for Marigold to act as the hologram herself as well as to send an actual AI to Dale's glasses. I mean, she is generally awkward around people, and more so around Dale than around almost any other person. This really doesn't seem like something a socially awkward person would do. Until now, Marigold always wanted to get away from Dale, not involve herself with him in any way.
And I sort of object to Marigold throwing "unfair psycho shit" at Dale (this refers to the quote from Boradis). I don't want to restart the discussion about how objectable Marigolds behaviour towards Dale was or wasn't, but I really don't see any psycho shit.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl-E on 24 Jul 2013, 07:21
If anything, Dale's frienemy-like stalking of her was more psycho than anything she's done (including "NO TIPS FOR ALLIANCE SCUM!")
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 24 Jul 2013, 07:27
As far as I can tell, he's never stalked her, he just did that whenever he happened to run into her.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: K1dmor on 24 Jul 2013, 07:29
Mieville?

Please say we get Mieville.

Wait, what does Dora's cat have to do with this?

 "You got the cat lady again.."

 I don't think is her, but i guess that's what ysth was refering to.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 24 Jul 2013, 07:36
Usually "cat lady" refers to someone with more than one cat.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: rschill on 24 Jul 2013, 08:34
As far as I can tell, he's never stalked her, he just did that whenever he happened to run into her.

There was the WOW stuff, but that was more of a challenge between peers than a creepy stalker thing. 

I do think it's a little awkward for him to be trying to get a job where all her friends work and/or hang out. 

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: LTK on 24 Jul 2013, 08:54
You're forgetting that the first time we saw Dale, he was introduced as a regular patron of Coffee of Doom and - shock and horror - someone that the staff actually likes.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Shjade on 24 Jul 2013, 08:59
Any lifeform where you can replace large parts of its anatomy with $7.50 worth of Radio Shack parts doesn't meet my definition of "people".

I have to admit, on a forum that seems to take acceptance and fair treatment of a wide variety of classes, representations and identifications of people so seriously, to the point of "we don't refer to X as Y here" for terms that are ubiquitous in other contexts, I find such an arbitrary statement of exclusion kinda funny.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: rschill on 24 Jul 2013, 09:44
Any lifeform where you can replace large parts of its anatomy with $7.50 worth of Radio Shack parts doesn't meet my definition of "people".

I have to admit, on a forum that seems to take acceptance and fair treatment of a wide variety of classes, representations and identifications of people so seriously, to the point of "we don't refer to X as Y here" for terms that are ubiquitous in other contexts, I find such an arbitrary statement of exclusion kinda funny.

The values of "large parts" and what $7.50 can get you at Radio Shack make a qualitative difference it seems to me.

Could you run, say... a word processing program in a bug brain?  A text editor?  a chess AI capable of beating an absolute beginner human? 

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 24 Jul 2013, 10:53
If lobsters sign up for the forum we will treat them with decency and respect.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Shjade on 24 Jul 2013, 11:00
No, no, it's not the choice of "group" being excluded by it that amuses me, it's the arbitrary nature of choosing a particular currency value as "the line" over which one must cross to be considered a person. An $8 brain is okay, but $7.45? Squish it.

Or slightly more seriously (if only slightly), the notion that such judgment should exist in the sense of defining people based on what they are rather than who they are.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Game and Watch Forever on 24 Jul 2013, 11:12
If lobsters sign up for the forum we will treat them with decency and respect.

Funny you say that! In a forum some friends and I goofed off on, it somehow ended up being that I was a lobster (and referred to as such by a couple people). I ended up alternating pics of them and Zoidberg as my avatar. And I've yet to be disrespected here so.... mission accomplished?  :laugh:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Thrudd on 24 Jul 2013, 12:51
A little late to the game this week but going back to the Ro- thing, why does it have to be rho and not Ru as on Roomba?

It will be interesting to find out what "May" was doing originally before becoming part of this market research .... maybe "she" is actually killbot 9000 packed in a storeroom somewhere?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: toffee-skye on 24 Jul 2013, 13:18
hmm, i don't think this is a prank of Marigold's. we saw her fanfic, and let's face it, that was pretty dire. i hate to say it, but i don't think she actually has the authorial prowess to pull off something like this: it's too subtle, too complex. May is definitely her own person, not a figment of a stung, insecure geek's imagination. i don't mean to sound disparaging but i doubt Mari actually has that much imagination.

i think May is real, and that she's pretty pissed off at her existence: from what we can tell she was created just for this purpose and is very, very aware of it. i'd like to see her be put into her own chassis, and given her freedom, but i'm a romantic when it comes to nihilistic, self-aware intelligences (see also: the Nexus-6 androids in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Tobimaro on 24 Jul 2013, 14:14
I'm not that hip into song lyrics.  Does anybody know what song May is butchering?   :?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ankhtahr on 24 Jul 2013, 14:18
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Valdís on 24 Jul 2013, 14:19
I'm not that hip into song lyrics.  Does anybody know what song May is butchering?   :?

[Redundant embedding edited out] :P

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TimO on 24 Jul 2013, 14:37
Aside from the massive technological complexity that would be implied for the creation of a "prank" like Dickmouth Stinkyface May, I don't think Marigold is nasty enough to do something like that, since May as a prank would have quite a bit of potential to be an unpleasant one (as opposed to just being a bit obnoxious).
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 24 Jul 2013, 15:21
Pintsize
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: celticgeek on 24 Jul 2013, 15:23
PT410x.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Perfectly Reasonable on 24 Jul 2013, 18:45
If lobsters sign up for the forum we will treat them with decency and respect.

This^.

If Dale were a total jerk he would not have been told about the Secret Menu. I would call Dale's behavior towards Marigold 'immature'. I feel like I've missed a comic. In my head it goes like this:

Dale: OK, I admit it. You're good. Really good. Now think what we could do if we worked together.
Marigold: What? Team up? You'd have to play Horde.
Dale: Babe, I can play anything but a sour note.

I notice that "May" is making an effort to be helpful here. Maybe there's hope that she will actually be good for Dale.

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 24 Jul 2013, 19:00
I reserve judgement.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Emoroffle on 24 Jul 2013, 19:42
I want to say May is delightfully annoying. To Dale that is.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesium133 on 24 Jul 2013, 19:54
May sorta has a point in panel 3... it's kinda absurd that pharmacies have no issue with selling snake oil...
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Salty on 24 Jul 2013, 19:57
May sorta has a point in panel 3... it's kinda absurd that pharmacies have no issue with selling snake oil...
Hah! That's just what I was going to say.

Homeopathy is a form of quackery that should long ago have been eradicated from this world.

As should many other such quackeries *coughCHIROPRACTICScough*.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Perfectly Reasonable on 24 Jul 2013, 20:02
People will start to wonder why Dale says "No may" all the time.

As an AR manifestation, May can only interact with Dale. No doubt Jeph has some reason for this.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 24 Jul 2013, 20:46
Four jobs in two days? I knew he worked several jobs, but yeesh.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Redball on 24 Jul 2013, 20:52
I'm getting the impression that preparing a script days in advance does wonders for Jeph's sleep schedule, or at least his drawing schedule.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Drostan on 24 Jul 2013, 21:13
This is going to turn out to be a psychotic episode on Dale's part. Overworking, lack of sleep, plus his usual indulgence in fantasy will have created May, only in his head. He'll overlook the strange looks from people, because it's a software, right?

Wrong.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: St.Clair on 24 Jul 2013, 21:29
Usually "cat lady" refers to someone with more than one cat.

"Give her time..."  -- Pinkie Pie
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: K1dmor on 24 Jul 2013, 21:31
 Well, i guess her behavior is ....understandable, if this is her first time outside a "box" with a manisfestation of a body; she's curious and everything, but can't interact with the world directly, so she'll try to use Dale as her bitch butler  :roll:.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mad Cat on 24 Jul 2013, 21:41
For a creature with essentially no biologic aspects whatsoever, May still manages to be utterly disgusting. Where would a digital hallucination get such ideas in the first place?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Method of Madness on 24 Jul 2013, 21:41
...the internet?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Toe on 24 Jul 2013, 21:50
Cumby's.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Boxilar on 24 Jul 2013, 21:59
I have two possible explanations for May's behavior.

A. May is a plant by nefarious individuals out to scam Dale. Her snark and attitude are because she's been trapped into it and is doing it against her will. They trapped her consciousness in where ever "a ro-" is and have been using her. She is helpless to fight back, call for help, or even warn Dale because if she does, they just pull the plug, and she dies.

B. (the less dark and creepy version) May is doing a job. She has been hired to evaluate Dale by some outside agency or corporation for a high level job requiring a truely good person. May's initial "Master, I live to serve" bit was to get him to bite. Everything after she turned on the 'tude has been to provoke a negative reaction, to see how he reacts when he thinks no one is looking. (You are what you do when you're all alone in the dark, after all) If so, he's passed with flying colors so far.

I like this arc. Before, what we knew of Dale was that he was a slightly annoying dude who was also a bit creepy. This arc has revealed a fine upstanding dude who works multiple shit jobs, helps suppourt his mother, and refuses to be mean or petty when no one is looking when he could easily get away with it.

He comes of as a more mature and better person than Marigold. I know Marigold has been knocked around by life, has subteranian self esteem and reacts the way she does because of how she's been treated in the past, but the poor girl also seems to have a massive victim complex and is willfully refusing to grow up. I realize growth is painful, but there's living, and there's just existing. Marigold is mostly doing the latter.

Warning - while you were typing 3 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post.

Ah whatever. Ima post it anyway. *dives back into the all concealing shadows*

EDIT; Maybe Hanner's mom or dad, having gotten wind of Dale's possible employment at CoD, sent an evaluator to check him out?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Sullivan on 24 Jul 2013, 22:12
So far May has not been a very appealing companion, virtual or otherwise. Who wrote her algorithm anyway?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl-E on 24 Jul 2013, 22:53
Who says they're written?  I think the AI is some kind of self-generating / replicating code.  A complete personality is... way too complex to be authored. 


Also; homeopathic butt cream?  Does that mean it's made of diluted butts, or... nevermind. 

May sorta has a point in panel 3... it's kinda absurd that pharmacies have no issue with selling snake oil...
Hah! That's just what I was going to say.
Homeopathy is a form of quackery that should long ago have been eradicated from this world.
As should many other such quackeries *coughCHIROPRACTICScough*.

I, for one, have nothing but good to say for chiropractors.  They've gotten me up and walking after two major accidents when the regular doctors just wanted me to have "chronic pain management" (drug me out of my skull, still bent over and limping). 

Some people don't need 'em, and they're no cure all, but dammit when it's appropriate, it really works. 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Sorflakne on 24 Jul 2013, 23:17
I'm of the opinion that May and Pintsize never, ever, under any circumstances, ever meet.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 24 Jul 2013, 23:23
So far.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Salty on 24 Jul 2013, 23:23
May sorta has a point in panel 3... it's kinda absurd that pharmacies have no issue with selling snake oil...
Hah! That's just what I was going to say.
Homeopathy is a form of quackery that should long ago have been eradicated from this world.
As should many other such quackeries *coughCHIROPRACTICScough*.

I, for one, have nothing but good to say for chiropractors.  They've gotten me up and walking after two major accidents when the regular doctors just wanted me to have "chronic pain management" (drug me out of my skull, still bent over and limping). 

Some people don't need 'em, and they're no cure all, but dammit when it's appropriate, it really works.
No offense to you and your situation, and I have no personal animosity for chiropractors, but I would hesitate to have a chiropractor attempt to treat anything other than back or neck pain.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesariojpn on 24 Jul 2013, 23:51
So far May has not been a very appealing companion, virtual or otherwise. Who wrote her algorithm anyway?

4chan?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Barmymoo on 24 Jul 2013, 23:51
Even if you'd heard several people say that a specific chiropractor had helped them with a particular issue that you were also suffering from? I find it interesting because I go to the NHS GP like a good little girl and tell them "I have this problem" or "the problem is a lot worse now" and they say "here are stronger painkillers, go home". At least an alternative medicine practitioner might make a bit more effort to work out what is wrong with me than that.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 25 Jul 2013, 00:00
I find most Chiropractors are extremely good at what they do, mine's helped me manage a lot of back and joint pain quite skillfully. He hasn't managed to /cure/ or in any way solve my issues with my legs, but then again, modern medicine just kinda shrugged at me and wandered away looking listless. All the ones I have experience with actually went to school for it (you know, med school) and are big on preventive care over sick care, but I'd be hard pressed to be convinced that preventive care is worse for you then sick care. That reminds me I need to get in and get my back cracked.

As to Ms. May... yeah, this is some kind of terrible reality T.V. show. May is trying to goad Dale into doing stupid shit in the name of ratings.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 25 Jul 2013, 00:12
Oh wow. That makes a hideous amount of sense.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: St.Clair on 25 Jul 2013, 00:24
...the internet?

Beat me to it.  (Though without the "duh" I would have added at the end.)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 25 Jul 2013, 00:34
That would explain the apparently high payment. The EULA contained a model release that he doesn't know about.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Arancaytar on 25 Jul 2013, 01:07
Can AIs reproduce? Because May seems like what would happen if Momo and Pintsize had a baby - and her sense of moral responsibility was entirely inherited from her father. :P
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Lubricus on 25 Jul 2013, 01:12
Even if they can, I doubt Momo would willingly create offspring with Pintsize!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TimO on 25 Jul 2013, 01:34
So far we've really just had a lot of preparation for whatever Jeph is planning to do with May and Dale.

We know that she can't be seen by the other cast members, so assuming that this isn't just going to be a "He's going mad" storyline, which has been done a lot in films and TV with "invisible" characters, it's either going to be some complex interactions with the biological cast, which seems unlikely because of the clunkiness of having to go via Dale, or interactions with the electronically based artificial life cast.  The obvious one for that is clearly Momo because of her close relationship with Marigold, and the recent interactions that occurred between Dale and Marigold, albeit they finished badly and rather abruptly.

PT410X could certainly be interesting, if he felt that he had to free May in some fashion, but Momo has also historically been shown to be interested in human behaviours towards the "differently coginated", and we know Jeph considers that a significant feature from the cast descriptions; "... Very interested in AI history and civil rights." (my bold).

Personally I think the ineractions between Dale and Marigold so far, have just been along the lines of rival sports enthusiasts.  Possibly a little cliched up, and given the little we've seen of them probably deliberately so, to add to the drama of the story, but neither has really done anything excessive or extreme.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: QuestionableIntentions on 25 Jul 2013, 02:33
First post, please correct mistakes gently  :laugh:

I think May is being punished. She has been a naughty, naughty AI (hopefully with nothing regarding nuclear launch codes) and the Global Meta AI has partnered her with Dale in the hopes that he is a positive influence.

He is being paid for it, but doesn't know it because that makes him a more convincing role model (not an authoritive figure, which she would rebel against)

Plus, they didn't want to risk giving her a body :-D

P.S: and they know all about Dale beacause of PRISM. Let's face it, government is a bitch everywhere, but in th QC universe, Prism would also be a member of lolcocks.org or something.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: J on 25 Jul 2013, 02:56
personally, i'm leaning toward the 'nigerian prince' theory; may is owned by some crime syndicate who's trying to get dale's credit card numbers (maybe by helping him buy some stuff online). then the cast will have to rescue her via download from the mafia server so she can join the regular cast. did they ever actually get rid of momo's old shell?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Loki on 25 Jul 2013, 03:12
Personally, I don't see where all the "Nigerian Prince" sayers are coming from o.o if a stranger approaches you on the street and says "sorry, could you take a picture of me, I will give you some cookies for that", do you automatically assume you are being scammed out of money?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Lubricus on 25 Jul 2013, 03:13
It could be even worse, I might be scammed out of cookies!  :psyduck:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: rschill on 25 Jul 2013, 03:32
Can AIs reproduce? Because May seems like what would happen if Momo and Pintsize had a baby - and her sense of moral responsibility was entirely inherited from her father. :P

Pintsize isn't all that immoral, just gross with some boundary weirdness. 

This strip reminds me of those  "Jesus: With You Always"  pictures with the captions that wree all over the net about 10 years ago.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Akima on 25 Jul 2013, 04:08
Homeopathic butt cream contains no butts at all...
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Lubricus on 25 Jul 2013, 04:16
"May contain butts"?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: techkid on 25 Jul 2013, 04:22
I'm starting to lean toward the opinion that May could be a part of a social or psychological study. He did "agree" to the evaluation (albeit without knowing what the agreement was).

The interesting question would be, was it by chance, or just "coincidental"?

Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to check your posterior before posting.
Good thing you warned me. There seems to be a crack in mine.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Nepiophage on 25 Jul 2013, 04:35
Homeopathic medicines are very useful. They provoke a placebo response without any danger of adverse side effects.  I know a doctor who recommends them for that reason.  Of course he doesn't tell that to the patients because then it wouldn't work.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: toffee-skye on 25 Jul 2013, 04:39
i got the impression May wasn't impressed by the homeopathic butt cream because it implied there was something wrong with the dude's butt, not because it's homeopathic  :psyduck:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Border Reiver on 25 Jul 2013, 04:43
I'm thinking that May might be lacking just a little restraint, and what's the word for it?

Oh yes, class.

On the other hand, Dale is starting to look like an interesting character.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Masterpiece on 25 Jul 2013, 04:49
I'm thinking that May might be lacking just a little restraint, and what's the word for it?

Oh yes, class.
Maybe she's running on C?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: rschill on 25 Jul 2013, 05:09
I'm thinking that May might be lacking just a little restraint, and what's the word for it?

Oh yes, class.
Maybe she's running on C?

 :-\

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mad Cat on 25 Jul 2013, 05:22
I wonder, if May gets too out of hand, could Dale take the iGlass portion of his glasses off and stow them in  a case where he couldn't see or hear May (and she couldn't hear or see anything) until he was ready to put up with her shenanigans again? Does Dale wear those glasses for any level of corrective vision?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Lubricus on 25 Jul 2013, 05:30
He must be, he used regular glasses earlier, didn't he? Or were they mere sunglasses?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 25 Jul 2013, 05:53
The first time we see Dale: http://www.questionablecontent.net/1640
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: zmeiat_joro on 25 Jul 2013, 06:16
Homeopathic medicines are very useful. They provoke a placebo response without any danger of adverse side effects.  I know a doctor who recommends them for that reason.  Of course he doesn't tell that to the patients because then it wouldn't work.

There are products companies label homeopathic that do contain active ingredients, as was with the case of a nasal spray which contained Zinc and caused permanent loss of smell in some cases. I seem to recall, but I'm not actually sure, that due to them being labeled homeopathic and not actual medication, they were subject to less strict regulation than medication. So don't count on anything labeled homeopathic to be harmless. Not to mention the danger of people self-medicating with placebos for dangerous conditions, which they are encouraging by fostering in them the idea that homeopathy is not placebos.

Same for Chiropractice or whatever it's spelled -- beside their crackpot claims (on the same level as homeopathy), don't go to one instead of an actual physical therapist -- there have been numerous cases of severe spinal injury by "chiropracticers" (EDIT: I think they call themselves "chiropractors"), as they are not legally subject to licensing. Same with "nutritionist" rather than dietician -- the latter is subject to legal regulation in most places.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ZoeB on 25 Jul 2013, 06:35
If lobsters sign up for the forum we will treat them with decency and respect.
Well said. And then I'd have to revise my definition of "person" to be more inclusive.
When the facts change, I change my opinions.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ZoeB on 25 Jul 2013, 06:48
Who says they're written?  I think the AI is some kind of self-generating / replicating code.  A complete personality is... way too complex to be authored.

Not authored - grown. Evolved. That's the one way we know how we can get emergent behaviour at the moment. Use a meta-genetic algorithm to optimise evolution of  AI's. You end up with something that has the properties you want, but you have no idea how to get there from here. It has other properties too that you haven't considered.

That reminds me, I better get back to my thesis (on this very subject - experimental work).

See

Using Meta-Genetic Algorithms to tune parameters of Genetic Algorithms to find lowest energy Molecular Conformers
ZE Brain, MA Addicoat 
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems

Optimization of a genetic algorithm for searching molecular conformer space
ZE Brain, MA Addicoat
The Journal of chemical physics 135 (17), 174106-174106-10

Optimization of a Genetic Algorithm for the Functionalization of Fullerenes
MA Addicoat, AJ Page, ZE Brain, L Flack, K Morokuma, S Irle
Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation 8 (5), 1841-1851

Using a Meta-GA for parametric optimization of simple GAs in the computational chemistry domain
MA Addicoat, ZE Brain
Proceedings of the 12th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: jwhouk on 25 Jul 2013, 07:25
Did they ever actually get rid of Momo's old shell?

...You were thinking that too, hey?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 25 Jul 2013, 07:40
Momo's old shell would be a fitting purgatory for May I think.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesium133 on 25 Jul 2013, 07:44
May in Momo's old chassis? Do we really want her to have control of an eel tank?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Dev Null on 25 Jul 2013, 08:49
Anyways, the correct pronunciation of the appropriate curse / insult from a WoW player is "Gnome", not "Gno-may".  What are you, French?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Eternal_Newbie on 25 Jul 2013, 09:31
Personally, I don't see where all the "Nigerian Prince" sayers are coming from o.o if a stranger approaches you on the street and says "sorry, could you take a picture of me, I will give you some cookies for that", do you automatically assume you are being scammed out of money?

As a result of several encounters with pickpockets, yes.

Personally I am unsure whether Dickmouth Stinkface is part of a scam. I definitely think she owes someone money, which is why she is doing the job. Perhaps Dale will prove a good influence on her as others have suggested.

Also, add me to the list of those thinking that her in Momo's old chassis is a terrible idea.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Pilchard123 on 25 Jul 2013, 10:35
Terrible idea for the cast, certainly. For us?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: HiEv on 25 Jul 2013, 10:36
Even if you'd heard several people say that a specific chiropractor had helped them with a particular issue that you were also suffering from?

Yes.

Keep in mind that people have even had medical procedures that they thought had actually helped them, but once double-blind placebo controlled studies were done, it was found that they were no better than a placebo.

For example, doctors used to do a kind of arthroscopic knee surgery called arthroscopic lavage or debridement, where loose cartilage is removed from inside the knee.  This was supposed to help alleviate knee pain.  However, when compared to surgery where no actual debridement occurred, there was no significant difference in results.  As such this practice has almost entirely fallen out of use.  See: "Study Finds Common Knee Surgery No Better Than Placebo (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/07/020712075415.htm)" (Science Daily - 7/12/2002).

With some things, especially with things like pain and fatigue, placebo effects are quite prone to occur, so special care has to be taken to not be fooled by that.

Also, even more common, is what is called "regression to the mean."  People tend to go for treatment when they're at their worst, and the body tends to heal over time or get used to problems, so these two facts combined can make any treatment seem effective.  People assume because they got the treatment and then they got better, that this means that the treatment helped them, but that's not necessarily the case.  You can't tell if you're getting better because of the treatment or if you would have gotten better anyways without the treatment unless you do scientific testing.

This is why I don't blindly take people at their word; anecdotes are not data.  I look at the objective scientific evidence instead.

I find it interesting because I go to the NHS GP like a good little girl and tell them "I have this problem" or "the problem is a lot worse now" and they say "here are stronger painkillers, go home". At least an alternative medicine practitioner might make a bit more effort to work out what is wrong with me than that.

That doesn't actually mean that they're any better at diagnosing or treating the problem.

That said, some portions of chiropractic are OK while others are superstitious nonsense.  Look up "innate intelligence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innate_intelligence)" in relation to chiropractic some time.  The quality of a chiropractor greatly depends on how much he subscribes to objective science versus pseudo-scientific nonsense.

Homeopathic medicines are very useful. They provoke a placebo response without any danger of adverse side effects.  I know a doctor who recommends them for that reason.  Of course he doesn't tell that to the patients because then it wouldn't work.

Personally, I think it's unethical to have patients spend money on treatments that don't really do anything and dangerous to promote the idea that they actually do something.  If you think homeopathy is harmless, you're wrong (http://whatstheharm.net/homeopathy.html).

There are products companies label homeopathic that do contain active ingredients, as was with the case of a nasal spray which contained Zinc and caused permanent loss of smell in some cases. I seem to recall, but I'm not actually sure, that due to them being labeled homeopathic and not actual medication, they were subject to less strict regulation than medication. So don't count on anything labeled homeopathic to be harmless.

Correct. You're talking about Zicam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zicam#Safety_concerns), and the manufacturer, Matrixx Initiatives, paid $12 million to settle 340 lawsuits from the people who lost their sense of smell (and thus some sense of taste as well) due to using this self-proclaimed "homeopathic" product.  Some products calling themselves homeopathic actually do have active ingredients when they're not sufficiently diluted, though most are just water, sugar, lactose, alcohol, or some other dilutant.

Unfortunately bills have been passed by senators who are fans of homeopathy which make it so that that these products don't have to be tested for safety or efficacy before being sold the way real medicines do, so the public can easily get screwed over like this.  And where the FDA can investigate, they've found manufacturers who have allowed glass shards to contaminate the product, who've failed to put anything homeopathic in the product, and who've put greatly varying doses in products, and they've found all of these violations in just one manufacturing plant (http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2012/ucm314629.htm).

In case you hadn't guessed, I'm not a fan of companies selling products which aren't likely to do what they claim they do and at best they do nothing.  It's all fraud as far as I'm concerned, and dangerous fraud preying on those who often really need medical help to boot.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesium133 on 25 Jul 2013, 10:58
I can just imagine the commercial for the homeopathic butt cream:

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Boradis on 25 Jul 2013, 11:00
May seems too mean spirited to be Momo. My bet is it's Marigold. She's got hacking skillz, and assuming he'd like a hot slave maid in a skimpy outfit and that he lives off his parents sounds like the kind of unfair psycho shit she throws at him all the time.
Now there's an idea!

Boradis makes an interesting suggestion, but where the heck would Marbear get an A.I. just to toss at Dale?  :psyduck:

What if it's just Marigold talking through an AI "skin?"

I think the suggestions was that there isn't really any AI, its Marigold herself.
Bingo.

And I sort of object to Marigold throwing "unfair psycho shit" at Dale (this refers to the quote from Boradis). I don't want to restart the discussion about how objectable Marigolds behaviour towards Dale was or wasn't, but I really don't see any psycho shit.

I'm sorry my wording was harsh…

(I've deleted the rest of my response since you said you didn't want to restart this discussion. Suffice to say I disagree.)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 25 Jul 2013, 14:35
Steve passed Dales name onto the DOKA and now there testing him.


Either  that. or it's Microsoft.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 25 Jul 2013, 14:38
Dickmouth Stinkface is on the same Internet as all of the characters who have Internet connections in their heads.

Since she's there for (anti)social interaction, shouldn't she make herself visible to the people who could see her without expensive holoprojection equipment, such as Momo? One of the things companions typically do is interact with your friends.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Satan on 25 Jul 2013, 16:01
"Homeopathic butt cream" is totally going to be my go-to euphemism from now on.

"Hey baby, would you like to try some of my homeopathic butt cream? It comes with it's own applicator stick."
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: DSL on 25 Jul 2013, 16:12
Dickmouth Stinkface is on the same Internet as all of the characters who have Internet connections in their heads.

Since she's there for (anti)social interaction, shouldn't she make herself visible to the people who could see her without expensive holoprojection equipment, such as Momo? One of the things companions typically do is interact with your friends.

Not if there is an ulterior motive ... such as the time-honored practice of "fuckin' with someone."
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: MillionDollar Belt Sander on 25 Jul 2013, 17:00
"Homeopathic butt cream" is totally going to be my go-to euphemism from now on.

"Hey baby, would you like to try some of my homeopathic butt cream? It comes with it's own applicator stick."

It's more of an injection really.    :psyduck:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 25 Jul 2013, 17:07
Maybe it's a cream for homeopathic butts.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Perfectly Reasonable on 25 Jul 2013, 18:16
First post, please correct mistakes gently  :laugh:

I think May is being punished. She has been a naughty, naughty AI (hopefully with nothing regarding nuclear launch codes) and the Global Meta AI has partnered her with Dale in the hopes that he is a positive influence.

He is being paid for it, but doesn't know it because that makes him a more convincing role model (not an authoritive figure, which she would rebel against)

Welcome.
I like this notion. Certainly Dale has shown the patience of a saint so far.

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: zmeiat_joro on 25 Jul 2013, 18:17
Basically I am a HUGE fan of companies actually selling medication for illnesses I actually have
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Perfectly Reasonable on 25 Jul 2013, 18:21
"Homeopathic butt cream" is totally going to be my go-to euphemism from now on.

Now I begin to realize why N.U.R.R.'s are notorious. (Google has failed me.)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: zmeiat_joro on 25 Jul 2013, 18:21
Even if the prices are slightly unreasonable;
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: jwhouk on 25 Jul 2013, 18:31
Either  that. or it's Microsoft.

That's IT! "May" is WINDOWS 8!!!!!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesium133 on 25 Jul 2013, 19:31
I just had a thought (unusual, I know): what if this is setting up a situation where Marigold sees Dale talking to May, causing her to get jealous, not knowing that May is a holographic AI thing?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Zwammy on 25 Jul 2013, 19:48

We now know "May" isn't after Dale's money because she didn't go 'boink' and vanish in a cloud of loose pixels when she learned he hardly has any. So what -is- she after?

I don't think he is paying for the service, my understanding is this is a beta test he was getting paid for, so he opted into it. Makes sense if he's working several jobs and helping his mom, doesn't seem like he'd pop good money for that service otherwise.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 25 Jul 2013, 19:54
Either  that. or it's Microsoft.

That's IT! "May" is WINDOWS 8!!!!!

More likely a forgotten subroutine of Vista
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl-E on 25 Jul 2013, 21:06
"Homeopathic butt cream - no ifs or ands about it!" 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Fhqwhgads on 25 Jul 2013, 21:08
I just had a thought (unusual, I know): what if this is setting up a situation where Marigold sees Dale talking to May, causing her to get jealous, not knowing that May is a holographic AI thing?
Only Dale can see May though, cause of the glasses.

...which apparently he just turned off.  :-D
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TheEvilDog on 25 Jul 2013, 21:11
The fact that Dale put up with May for (I presume) a whole day...well the guy has gotta have the patience of a saint. I would have crushed the glasses and burned them before I even had my morning tea.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Salty on 25 Jul 2013, 21:17
*Dramatic sting!*

Also, he looks surprisingly decent with the glasses off...in both senses.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TRVA123 on 25 Jul 2013, 21:39
I like it much better when his glasses are turned off. It gets annoying never being able to see his eyes. Not sure why that is.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TheEvilDog on 25 Jul 2013, 21:47
Eye contact is incredibly important in communication, to the point where its one of the most telling signs in body language. If you can't see someone's eyes, you miss out on a huge amonut of information and thus a subconscious connection. Even though Dale is a fictional character, we still missed out on a great deal from him and so the disconnect.

At least, thats what I think.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: reicreature on 25 Jul 2013, 22:50
I don't always comment on the QC forum, but when I do it is to say:

daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang.


I finally get people who are attracted to cartoons.
Maybe it's because Dale without glasses looks an awful lot like my husband when I first started dating him though.

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 25 Jul 2013, 23:02
So this is the point of this story arc. To explain why Dale's glasses no longer glow.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Masterpiece on 25 Jul 2013, 23:30
Wow Dale. You've grown a lot these last days. I wonder why you're so absent the last two panels?

You guys
I think Dale realized how lonely he really is :(
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Loki on 26 Jul 2013, 00:00
I don't always comment on the QC forum, but when I do it is to say:

daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang.


I finally get people who are attracted to cartoons.
Maybe it's because Dale without glasses looks an awful lot like my husband when I first started dating him though.

I second this. I think he looks really handsome in that last panel.

So apparently he doesn't need glasses to see? That's interesting. Does that mean he has been only wearing Glasses that whole time, not regular glasses?

...why would he spend money on Glasses anyway. His financial situation confuses me.

Oh, idea. Maybe he is reading up on May on the Internet. I doubt he is the first ever to be in this situation.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: CrowFairy on 26 Jul 2013, 00:10
I think... I think he just put her into a coma. The more I think about him turning off the Glasses, the more uncomfortable it makes me. Her existence is primarily determined by whether his Glasses are on or not.

And I agree that the glowing glasses have always kept him at a distance from us. It's hard to connect with him as a human being because we basically don't get to see him as we normally see others.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Spitfire on 26 Jul 2013, 00:17
I think... I think he just put her into a coma. The more I think about him turning off the Glasses, the more uncomfortable it makes me. Her existence is primarily determined by whether his Glasses are on or not.


Agreed. Today's comic was a bit disturbing for me. It's obvious that AIs in this universe are fully sentient and capable of emotions, I certainly hope he didn't just kill May. There was genuine fear in her eyes as soon as he spoke of turning off the glasses. And the way she's flickering is just...unsettling.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Earin on 26 Jul 2013, 00:17
I think... I think he just put her into a coma. The more I think about him turning off the Glasses, the more uncomfortable it makes me. Her existence is primarily determined by whether his Glasses are on or not.

If she's running in a data centre rather than on the Glasses themselves, I would assume it's more like he's dumped her into a senseless limbo. She probably has internet access but no other communication method.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Indicible on 26 Jul 2013, 00:26
So, Dale is a Gunnm fan...

In any case, the big question is whether May is still conscious when disconnected.
And then, if she is, is it ethical to disconnect her.
Reminds me of the ST:Voyager episode in which the holodeck characters acquire sentience and independance (yes, I watched ST:V. Sue me.).
Or the whole "am I human if I have a chip instead of a brain?" conundrum in Gunnm and Gunnm Last Order (relevant...).
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Timmy on 26 Jul 2013, 00:29
I bet she was actually more afraid of getting shafted out of a sales commission or somesuch.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: mtmerrick on 26 Jul 2013, 00:30
Thoughts:

-I'd think Dale wears glasses for distance, they're unneeded for close-up (computers, books, ect). When you need glasses like that,  you CAN wear them for close-up, but they have no added benefit. Unless of course they plug into your WoW, in which case the benefit could definitely be there.
-Hasn't it been confirmed that May is just remote connecting into Dale's Glasses? So turning them off turns off her connection to him, not May herself.
-sure seems like that's a "shit I fucked up" look in her eyes, not a "don't stab meeeeeee" type of fear.
-second panel Dale is the best Dale.  Ever. (artwork-wise, anyway. He's not saying or doing anything special)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 26 Jul 2013, 00:39
Hmmmm waiting for a plot twist here. I feel like there's some serious build up here.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: JunWasHere on 26 Jul 2013, 00:46
Does anyone see May turning out to be really lonely, really sad when Dale takes pity and turns them back on, and becoming QC's occasional dose of the "tsundere" trope?


Edit: Seems there's a theory that she's dead.
She's not dead, don't be silly. She went to multiple other AR glasses before reaching Dale, she obviously has her own core that can't be compromised just by having her medium turned off, and probably also right to life like many other AIs.

She may however be at risk of being moved into a job she doesn't want, which could be a story-point coming.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Loki on 26 Jul 2013, 00:58
The news post to the comic implies we will see May again (to me), so she is probably not dead.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Wadce on 26 Jul 2013, 01:09
I actually just registered even though I've been reading for quite some time now,

just to comment about the battle angels wall scroll in the background. That is some good old anime from 90s!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Doc on 26 Jul 2013, 01:13
Nice animated effect.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 26 Jul 2013, 01:20
On a second look. May looks really distraught... that's bothering me a lot for some reason.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesariojpn on 26 Jul 2013, 01:23
Dale killed May.






That bastard.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ankhtahr on 26 Jul 2013, 01:35
Reminds me of the ST:Voyager episode in which the holodeck characters acquire sentience and independance (yes, I watched ST:V. Sue me.).

Something like that happened in TNG as well. Remember Professor Moriarty? When they asked for an enemy who could defeat Data, not Sherlock Holmes?

About todays comic: disturbing indeed.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 26 Jul 2013, 01:48
I don't see what is so disturbing. She came into his home uninvited, and minipulated him into saying something that she could interpret as an invitation to stay. She was consistently obnoxious. He threw her out. What is the problem?

She is not dead. She is running in a data center somewhere.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TinPenguin on 26 Jul 2013, 01:58
It's more like he put her in time-out.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ChaosWolf on 26 Jul 2013, 02:03
Nice animated effect.

Agreed. that was the first thing to catch my eye.  That particular sort of "derezzing" video-glitch effect is not easy to pull off without looking cheap, yet he nails it.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Sullivan on 26 Jul 2013, 02:40
Either  that. or it's Microsoft.

That's IT! "May" is WINDOWS 8!!!!!

More likely a forgotten subroutine of Vista
Considering how annoying she is, I'd say more like Clippy. With a female version of Gilbert Gottfried's voice.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Sullivan on 26 Jul 2013, 02:50
-sure seems like that's a "shit I fucked up" look in her eyes, not a "don't stab meeeeeee" type of fear.
Yes, and that's just an amazing piece of artwork for that. Jeph unmistakeably gives her that "oh shit I pushed it too far" look with just a few lines.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mlle Germain on 26 Jul 2013, 02:57
She is not dead. She is running in a data center somewhere.
-Hasn't it been confirmed that May is just remote connecting into Dale's Glasses? So turning them off turns off her connection to him, not May herself.
Yes, I'm sure that's true. She says so in http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2495 (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2495). So I don't think there is a moral problem in turning of the glasses. Probably it's a little boring just to be in some server without any visual input, but it's really her own fault that she's in that situation. However, I think Dale won't keep her turned off. He will at least check on her one more time before the testing period runs out. 

(This "putting AI into coma" discussion reminds me of how in the early QC strips Pintsize was repeatedly turned off when he was being annoying. The awareness and strength of AI rights has certainly grown in the QC universe since then.)

Edit: Just realised that what I wrote above might seem like I think it's ok to just let a sentient being sit in a server without much contact to the external world (although she has the internet to socialise). I didn't mean it like that. I pity May for being in that situation, since she is clearly unsatisfied with it - though I suppose not all AIs would be. I hope we will find out how she got there or if it's common for an AI to have to earn money till he/she gets a body.
But I really don't blame Dale. I probably would have turned of the glasses as well. And it's not his fault that she's in a situation where she's unhappy.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: J on 26 Jul 2013, 03:10
Either  that. or it's Microsoft.

That's IT! "May" is WINDOWS 8!!!!!

More likely a forgotten subroutine of Vista
Considering how annoying she is, I'd say more like Clippy. With a female version of Gilbert Gottfried's voice.

clippy was annoying because he was trying to be helpful. deliberately vulgar and belligerent would have been a step up.


and speaking of gilbert gottfried (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNPk0sxmTr0)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: maxh on 26 Jul 2013, 03:16
[Chiropractors] are not legally subject to licensing.
Where's that?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mr. Doctor on 26 Jul 2013, 03:46
It's more like he put her in time-out.
That's exactly what I was thinking... The whole idea of "killing her" never even occured to me until I read some posts.  :psyduck:
Also... by looking at her expressions right before being put in "time-out", I don't think she'll be mad... Maybe she just discovered what a *bleep* she has been towards him.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Border Reiver on 26 Jul 2013, 04:21
Personally, I thought that the last panel was perfect - and Dale has definitely moved up more than a few notches on the "respect meter" as a result .
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Overkillengine on 26 Jul 2013, 04:40
This entire arc is like a giant allegory.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: kyomi on 26 Jul 2013, 04:57
I finally registered today, basically to to say that I feel bad for May :(

I think she's cute and would love to have her.. instead of Dale that seems to just.. abuse her :/

I thought it was pretty interesting how she seems to have a mind of her own and not "set" in one way or another. It would be fun to hang out with her :) 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mr. Doctor on 26 Jul 2013, 05:23
Woah, we must be reading this comic in such a different way then because I see absolutely no abuse from his part. In fact, I see it the other way around. She was pushing it way too much. I don't even let my close friends bug me that much for such a long time (specially if you are working).
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 26 Jul 2013, 05:28
How has he abused her?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: techkid on 26 Jul 2013, 05:53
I think she's cute and would love to have her.. instead of Dale that seems to just.. abuse her :/
Abuse, really? Yeah, they got off on the wrong foot (I suspect Dale was still sore from being ditched at the diner, but anyway), but he has tried to be patient with May the entire time.

Look at it like this. If you had an obnoxious friend like her that, after barging into your life more or less uninvited (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2494) (I do say more or less, because although there is a licence agreement, he wasn't actually told of it), was rude and distracting while you were driving (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2496), and suggested doing stuff that would get you fired from your job(s) (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2498), how would you react?

I doubt it that turning off the glasses is the equivalent of dying or coma. Closer to being kicked out, in my mind.

(click to show/hide)

I thought it was pretty interesting how she seems to have a mind of her own and not "set" in one way or another. It would be fun to hang out with her :)

May was certainly an individual character, for sure, but Dickmouth Stinkface certainly lived up to her namesake. I doubt that you would tolerate her for any length of time...
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: jwhouk on 26 Jul 2013, 05:54
How has he abused her?
I'd say it's been more the reverse.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: kyomi on 26 Jul 2013, 06:15
I didn't mean abuse in the traditional sense, it's probably not the right word. I thought she was being funny.. although.. I have pretty much zero social experience since I spend/spent most of my time just coding or playing games.

It's not like it was every second.. it was once every few hours (I assume.. unless Dale is somehow working 30 min shifts or less). It would definitely liven up my day. Maybe it's the fact that she would be an interesting friend since I basically have none >.>

Dale just seems to be generally negative towards her when she is just trying to make things fun.. although in a different way then normal.

Turning her off like that just seemed more like a GTFO in my opinon... I would *love* to have a chance like that.. it'd be pretty interesting and you'd also get paid as a bonus
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mr. Doctor on 26 Jul 2013, 06:27
Dale just seems to be generally negative towards her
Yeah but no one can blame him. His reasons are obvious. It's not his fault that he got into this whole drama that he never asked for and to top it off he gets a companion that right now feels wrong for him. Just like Pintsize is wrong for Marten (they managed to have a great time though but that's another story since the little guy still deserves any punches he gets from Faye or any other).

This obviously depends on who is in such scenario, for you it would be fine... but in Dale's case I think he was in his right to turn his glasses off.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Game and Watch Forever on 26 Jul 2013, 06:40
It's not like it was every second.. it was once every few hours (I assume.. unless Dale is somehow working 30 min shifts or less). It would definitely liven up my day.

I felt more like we were getting a single highlight for each job he had. For all we know she was doing it every five minutes and we just weren't shown all of it. May definitely has the makings of a fun A.I. that could potentially "tell it like it is" in a way that can be entertaining, but I think she's going about it the wrong way. Snide remarks to entertain Dale and herself would be one thing. Encouraging him to do things that'll get him fired if caught is another.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: rschill on 26 Jul 2013, 07:07
How long does Dale hold out? 

Those glasses are usually ALWAYS on. 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl-E on 26 Jul 2013, 07:32
I think just long enough to do some investigation about May and get the virus off his Glasses.

Or to find out what her real deal is. 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: kyomi on 26 Jul 2013, 08:46
I like her.. I hope there's more of her and this isn't like another "station" bit.. where there's a week and that's it :/

I also think this is the first time that I've actually seen Dale's eyes
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 26 Jul 2013, 08:53
Dale was refusing to follow Dickmouth Stinkface's suggestions out of personal ethics and regard for others.

Welcome, new people!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Sidhekin on 26 Jul 2013, 09:12
No surprise.  We already knew Dale is a gentleman.  8-)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: dr.jim on 26 Jul 2013, 09:14
Dale's glasses seem mighty close to the edge of the table and May is instantiated only to him now.  If the glasses fall and break, May could be lost .... forever.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: HeavyP on 26 Jul 2013, 09:15
Hi all!  Just figured I'd come out of semi-lurking to offer my thoughts as well: I don't see anything whatsoever wrong with Dale turning off his glasses.  For the folks comparing it to a coma, I don't think that's quite correct.  May established that her sentience is actually running on a server elsewhere, and she's merely being projected visually and aurally through his Glasses - turning off the Glasses is the equivalent of turning off the monitor and speakers while leaving your computer running (everything is still active, you just can't see or hear it).  Secondly, while I find May's antics mildly amusing sitting on this side of the monitor, if I was forced to deal with them the entire day (especially given that only the person wearing the Glasses can see or hear her), I'd be more than a little irritated.  Sure, it sucks if she's stuck in the server while the glasses are off.  But if I invite you into my home, and you then proceed to act like an ass and annoy the piss out of me all day, I am well within my rights to ask you to leave my house.  It's not my problem if, after you leave, the only place you have to go is back to is your home, to sit in your room and do nothing.  Maybe if you didn't act like such a Dickmouth Stinkface, I wouldn't have thrown you out.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ankhtahr on 26 Jul 2013, 10:02
Well yeah, her consciousness might still be running. That is actually what I'm afraid of. Think of being consciously awake, but being cut off from every kind of sensation. Being awake while not seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or feeling anything. That seems to me like a nightmare that can drive people/conscious AI mad.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: mtmerrick on 26 Jul 2013, 10:17
Edit: Just realised that what I wrote above might seem like I think it's ok to just let a sentient being sit in a server without much contact to the external world (although she has the internet to socialise).
replace server with house and that's been my life for the past several years *shrugs*
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Truec on 26 Jul 2013, 10:17
All you guys who think hat hsutting off the glasses kills May/puts her into a coma/ puts her into sensory deprivation seem to have forgotten that Pintsize used to get powered down a lot, and it was considered akin to sleep.

Also, she's not running on the glasses, she's just interfacing with Dale through them, she's running on a computer at a data center.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TinPenguin on 26 Jul 2013, 10:32
It's more like he put her in time-out.
That's exactly what I was thinking... The whole idea of "killing her" never even occured to me until I read some posts.  :psyduck:
Also... by looking at her expressions right before being put in "time-out", I don't think she'll be mad... Maybe she just discovered what a *bleep* she has been towards him.

As a follow-up to the whole 'time-out' concept, I want to add some speculation that may be relevant... May's age. Now, we don't know anything for certain, but it's been implied that companion AIs are assigned pretty early in their life. Momo is about 2.7 years old (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2009), and I think it's fair to assume she's been with Marigold most of that time. We don't know Pintsize's age, but he was with Marten for at least two years (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2332) before the rest of the gang showed up, and he's never mentioned a previous vocation. It seems likely that an AI starting out as a companion is probably freshly 'hatched', especially on a new project like this.

What can we draw from this? First of all, May is very young. Secondly, she's spent most of her short life offering her services to other Glasses owners and being soundly rejected (which goes some way to explaining her attitude). Thirdly, and finally, although a newborn AI is far more advanced than a newborn meatbrain, she is still inexperienced, and lacking boundaries. Dale is educating her a little on that score.

Or I might be completely wrong, but it's something to think about.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: kyomi on 26 Jul 2013, 11:20
TinPenguin... you've put my thoughts into words :)

It's exactly what I was thinking.. but apparently couldn't find the right way to say it :)

she's just interfacing with Dale


My brain is so corrupted.. I laughed at that bit because I thought it looked like a sex joke -_-
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: CrowFairy on 26 Jul 2013, 12:07
Well yeah, her consciousness might still be running. That is actually what I'm afraid of. Think of being consciously awake, but being cut off from every kind of sensation. Being awake while not seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or feeling anything. That seems to me like a nightmare that can drive people/conscious AI mad.
Yeah, that's honestly what bothers me about it. Locked-In Syndrome is one of my worst nightmares. I have occasional bouts of sleep paralysis, and it's seriously terrifying. It happens without permission, and it shuts down your entire ability to move for up to a minute. (Not to mention if it cascades into itself over and over for an hour.)
(click to show/hide)

Imagine that someone else has the power to control whether you can see, hear, and move. Imagine that they decide that you don't deserve to see, hear, and move. And they turn you off. And you're unsure of how long this will last. It could be an hour. It could be a day. It could be a week, a month, a year, a decade, an eternity. It's not your choice. And the only person who can choose that is someone who isn't you. They have a button they can push, and you wink out until they choose to let you come back.

If she's running in a server, that's basically what's happening. Pintsize is a little different because he is basically going to sleep. He isn't running at all during that time, so it could technically be like a coma for him. Also terrifying but in a different way.

May is probably aware that she's locked in this box, her consciousness still running, and she knows that she is stuck in there until someone decides to let her out. If the server is running, then she's "awake." If she's in that state of wakefulness but can't go anywhere, then that would be a legitimately upsetting experience.

(Edited for misplaced parenthesis.)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 26 Jul 2013, 12:38
Hi all!  Just figured I'd come out of semi-lurking to offer my thoughts as well: I don't see anything whatsoever wrong with Dale turning off his glasses.  For the folks comparing it to a coma, I don't think that's quite correct.  May established that her sentience is actually running on a server elsewhere, and she's merely being projected visually and aurally through his Glasses - turning off the Glasses is the equivalent of turning off the monitor and speakers while leaving your computer running (everything is still active, you just can't see or hear it).

Turning off the glasses was like hanging up the phone. In this case a phone with video.

We do not know what sensory equipment May has available besides the glasses. That she is in sensory deprevation is mere speculation.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TinPenguin on 26 Jul 2013, 12:43
I hardly think the Glasses creators would design a system that sends the AI to a living hell for eight hours just because the owner of the Glasses turned them off when they went to bed.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 26 Jul 2013, 12:44
I like her.. I hope there's more of her and this isn't like another "station" bit.. where there's a week and that's it :/

I also think this is the first time that I've actually seen Dale's eyes

It is not. The first times we saw him, his glasses did not glow. He was introduced in 1640. He met Marigold for thye first time in 1668 and again in 1680. The glowing glasses came later.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Game and Watch Forever on 26 Jul 2013, 12:55
My thoughts are that she probably has a higher up to report to, which would require some way to interface with them. So I'm sure she still has a way of interacting with the world. Hopefully they're not treating her poorly but we really can't be sure.  :-\

The comments on May's "age" and lack of experience would indeed explain some behaviors and make it all the more interesting to see how she changes through this arc (assuming there is a change).
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: HeavyP on 26 Jul 2013, 13:02
Thing is, an artificial intelligence of the QCverse style is fundamentally different from a human.  She can see and hear in meatspace via Dale's glasses, but she can't communicate with anyone other than Dale, and she cannot feel, smell, touch, or really have any interaction with anything that Dale is not interacting with, so you really can't draw a parallel with what a human would feel here.  There also exists the fact that a human that's shut off from everything has only their own thoughts to occupy them, but an AI can still interact meaningfully with other programs, regardless of location.  Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think it likely that the inventors of this system would create (probably be REQUIRED to create, given AI rights laws and activism) a virtual space for the AIs to live in when their "assignees" have their Glasses turned off.  A virtual "home" on the server would have minimal requirements for creation and maintenance, and an AI waiting there would have as much sensory stimulation as a hologram in meatspace would, more if you consider the fact that other tactile experiences could be coded into the server/program/virtual home they're waiting in.

It's all conjecture of course, but given the level of attention that seems to be given to Artificial Intelligence in this world, almost without a doubt there would be activists howling if, as TinPenguin put it, they were sent to a living hell while their assigned Glasses were off.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: kyomi on 26 Jul 2013, 13:17
You know.. I just thought of this. May knows where Dale is.. the glasses have to have some kind of address and there is undoubtedly a location "app" in them. May is running "on a server somewhere" so turning off the glasses is just turning off one way of getting to him.

What if she "infects" his computer and torments him there? What if he has a video camera or something that she can project her self through? I think it would be pretty funny.. "You can't get rid me of.. *evil smile*"
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 26 Jul 2013, 13:29
Whatever happens to Dickmouth Stinkface when Dale turns the glasses off, we know it terrifies her.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: HeavyP on 26 Jul 2013, 13:36
Or she fears getting rejected by ANOTHER user and potentially whatever'd by the company she's created/employed by for not being marketable.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 26 Jul 2013, 14:27
May:  "NOOOOOO!  Not the White Rooommmm!!!!"
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Storel on 26 Jul 2013, 16:15
We don't know Pintsize's age, but he was with Marten for at least two years (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2332) before the rest of the gang showed up, and he's never mentioned a previous vocation.

Actually, the strip where Pintsize first gets assigned to Marten (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2335) makes it pretty clear that the store personnel already knew all about Pintsize's proclivity toward violence and property damage. So it's very likely that Pintsize had already been companioned to at least one person before Marten, but was returned for... let's just call it "incompatibility". :wink: Otherwise there'd be no reason for the AI behind the desk to get so nervous and feel such a sudden urge to discuss "...our return procedure. And our criminal liability agreement. And our insurance policies."

And in the arc where Marigold gets Momo a new chassis, 1997 (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1997) and 1999 (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1999) show that some AIs try out multiple jobs before finding one they really like.

Quote
It seems likely that an AI starting out as a companion is probably freshly 'hatched', especially on a new project like this.

Since 1999 also points out that "most of us are happy with our chosen role", indicating that only a minority of AIs do much job-hopping, I'd agree with that, as long as the "likely" and "probably" are understood to indicate that it's not true for all AIs.

I'd think they have to give new AIs some basic education before letting them loose on the real world, though, or how are the new AI's supposed to have any idea what they want to do?

Edit:

May:  "NOOOOOO!  Not the White Rooommmm!!!!"

With black curtains, near the station?

Dang, now I've got that song running through my head...  :-P
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl-E on 26 Jul 2013, 16:58
Of course I got it, but I just read it.  We're not all on 24-7, you know... 

Also, May said she'd been rejected fifteen times that morning.  How many days of rejection before that were there?  And if Dale rejects her, won't she just go looking for another sucker beta tester? 

It's not the end of May, not by a long shot. 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: jwhouk on 26 Jul 2013, 17:27
I wonder if this is actually a means of developing an AI's 'morality code' - something perhaps added when the Powers That Be strongly suggested to the central AI that it do something since there may have been cases of... um, companion neglect on the part of AnthroPC's with their human counterparts?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl-E on 26 Jul 2013, 17:57
So... suggested because of Pintsize? 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Storel on 26 Jul 2013, 19:12
I'm sad no one got the Cream reference in Kugai's post :(

*ahem* I added my edit to the post above yours a good four minutes before you posted it.  8-)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Perfectly Reasonable on 26 Jul 2013, 20:21
We first see Dale's glasses glow in 1693 -- though they're a different shape. (Also note the Haruhi poster, the bookcase full of manga, and the bokken in the corner.)

We see that Dale has a limit to how much obnoxiousness he can tolerate. May deserves her time-out.

And she should know better. It would make sense to give AIs a few hours of virtual training (equivalent to several human lifetimes) before letting them interact with the Real World. (Of course Rule of Funny will always trump Rule of Logic.)

And why did Jeph afflict Dale with a character only he can interact with? Dale is getting some intensive character development. Jeph has plans for Dale.




Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Perfectly Reasonable on 26 Jul 2013, 20:46
Now Dale is doing what he should have done in the first place -- researching this "Glasses Companion" thing.
(Better to do it on someone else's computer though.)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 26 Jul 2013, 21:51
AIs grow up in some kind of VR creche, according to Jeph. We can only guess what kind of education happens there.

There was a mention of "morality programming" once, but it was likely a joke.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Throg on 26 Jul 2013, 22:22
Eh, May is just unhappy about being sent to the Virtual Cornfield.

It's boring there and she gets stuck with a bunch of other AI's, all of whom are just as annoying as she is.

No sympathy.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ZoeB on 27 Jul 2013, 00:26
I thought she was being funny.. although.. I have pretty much zero social experience since I spend/spent most of my time just coding or playing games.
Please don't take May for a role model. Or Marigold either, as she seems to spend most of her time just coding or playing games too.

Humans are social creatures. Understanding others is hard. But if you can - try to get out more. RPG or SF conventions for example. I'd give more suggestions, it's just that I'm not very good at this "socialising" thing either.

Quote
Maybe it's the fact that she would be an interesting friend since I basically have none >.>

You do now that you're here.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 27 Jul 2013, 00:53
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYnSIjuJtKU
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Oglokoog on 27 Jul 2013, 01:44
Regarding #2498 - why put an unquestionably correct moral decision in with all the acts of random assholery that May suggests?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 27 Jul 2013, 02:03
They are all suggestions that might cost him his job.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 27 Jul 2013, 02:08
I didn't notice till now: we have a jubilee Monday.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Mlle Germain on 27 Jul 2013, 02:10
I will admit that I do not hope May will become a regular character in the comic - judging from her behaviour so far. Firstly, she can only interact with Dale, which is not very interesting on the long run, secondly she seems to be the kind of character who always has to draw attention to herself  and be in the centre of attention everywhere, so even if she had a chassis, this would probably just make her more annoying.
In my opinion, May has been "worse" so far than Pintsize ever was - though it's true that only her negative characteristics were shown. With Pintsize, one always knew that he did wacky things sometimes, but deep down he's a good companion to Marten and he is a loyal friend and helpful when necessary (Collecting money for Faye, for example). May just does not seem to have any empathy (not saying that's her fault).
I will admit that although I love jokes and fun and talking a lot, I'm pretty serious when it comes to behaving correctly at work and towards other people so that their feelings are not hurt. So I really wouldn't take kindly to someone behaving as insultingly towards others as May in real life.
Ah well, we'll see how this develops...
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: rschill on 27 Jul 2013, 03:34
I'm sure that all the AIs capable of human interaction know what ethics are and are capable of abiding by them.  But in any mind sufficiently flexible enough to have a concept of self interest, there is going to be a capability to disregard ethics for one reason or another. 

"It ain't that much harder to do what's right, it's just maybe not as much fun" 
-The Devil, in a conversation with Ray Wylie Hubbard

Oh, the wrong and stupid things I've done out of restless boredom. 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: jwhouk on 27 Jul 2013, 03:49
Idleness is the Devil's playground.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: J on 27 Jul 2013, 04:23
Regarding #2498 - why put an unquestionably correct moral decision in with all the acts of random assholery that May suggests?
well, while rubbing his balls on one of the plates would obviously be the right thing to do morally, it's probably prohibited by some sort of workplace regulation.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 27 Jul 2013, 06:22
Maybe he should have compromised and rubbed just one ball on a plate.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Rghfrgl on 27 Jul 2013, 08:36
 They're nature's towels!
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: TinPenguin on 27 Jul 2013, 09:44
Now I think of it, I'm amazed at how quickly she went from not wanting to see his undoubtedly disgusting schlong to encouraging him to get his balls out in public.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: SageJiraiya on 27 Jul 2013, 10:03
I'm feeling worried about Dale.  :-\
I mean I saw someone mention it earlier, but he always wears those glasses. He hides his eyes and hides his feelings, and I'm worried how bunched-up those feelings must be.

I gotta give Jeph props, since May is an excellent plot element to force Dale to come to terms with himself, and reveal more about himself to the readers.

I can't say I care much for May. So far she's made an ass out of herself, but I wonder about her background. How did she end up with this job? Is it her first time doing it?

When you look at Dale's eyes in that last panel, he looks absolutely sick of it. All of it. I recognize those eyes, and that kind of frustration can be dangerous.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT COMIC.  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 27 Jul 2013, 11:50
Might there be some reasonable explanation for how Dickmouth Stinkface acts?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 27 Jul 2013, 12:03
If so, she must have wanted him to switch off. That does not seem likely.

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: kyomi on 27 Jul 2013, 14:47
Well.. May is fairly new and this is a beta test. I take that as, she's as prepared as she can be without finally interacting and learning from being with a human. There is obviously going to be some screw ups here and there before everything can be ironed out. As far as I know.. none of the AntroPC's are or have been in a beta state until May (even thought she is AI :) )

It can be very interesting even though only Dale can interact with her.. he made the point about it looking like he was crazy ;).. so maybe he goes the to coffee shop one day and May provokes him.. that's just endless hours of fun right there :evil:
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: westrim on 27 Jul 2013, 19:06
I've apparently fallen into a pattern of creating the thread, then holding off and observing until the end of the week and posting a giant post of my thoughts. It probably has something to do with starting to read it on a smartphone (which is not logged into the forum) instead of waiting till I get home to read and respond. Here's the one for this week.

Quote
Holo puns
I tried to stay away from entries that weren't references to individuals (Gram and Day are grandma and Felicia), so while the Holocene may be epoch, it did not qualify. I'm surprised the comic references didn't get more votes- even Station did middling.

I wish to assume that "ro-" is Rodia.

Not real impressed with a society that treats an intelligent entity like that.
You're right, she is treating him pretty rudely.
A much better response than I thought of on Monday.

Not a single mention of one of the most infamous holograms out there ... Holy .... for shame .... Bring your geek cards to the desk for summary shredding.
Since we cannot read minds, what are you referring to?

Cycling through the months as names for her would have been more amusing, but our Lord and Amuser Jeph can't think of everything.

Interesting how some months are acceptable as names and some aren't. January Jones is the only January I know of, but April through July (Julia/Julius) are fairly common, and August isn't unheard of.
It's mostly about the root of the name and the seasonal connotations, I imagine.

Interesting how some months are acceptable as names and some aren't. January Jones is the only January I know of, but April through July (Julia/Julius) are fairly common, and August isn't unheard of.
Image of the robots named after the 12 months from Coyote Ragtime Show.
Aw man, don't mention that anime, it's depressing; the first episode is excellent, a taut thriller about an intelligent female detective and her spunky sidekick looking for a mass murdering (shown on screen during the series to directly cause the indiscriminate deaths of police, soldiers, prisoners, prison guards, and part of a city via tsunami) robber hiding in a prison and coming into conflict with the 12 robot assassins of a woman who wants revenge, not justice... only for it to be revealed that he's the protagonist, and the next 11 episodes follow him instead. Oh, and the detective is swooningly in love with him, because he looked cool surfing that murdering tsunami wave apparently.

I think perhaps Perfectly Reasonable was proposing that major corporations with a monopoly on the creation of said lifeforms might deem it acceptable. À la Kara (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0KTUysrwgQ).
Aw man, don't mention that video, it's awesome but also depressing because we'll likely never see Karas story continue.

Sentience is a scale on which anything that experiences stimuli, but it's other factors like self awareness that make something worthy of legal rights. I avoid killing things if I don't need to, but that's because of general respect for life, not specific consideration for the individual radish, spider, or mouse. I need to eat, thus I am fine with consuming carrots and chickens.

Sentience is a wonky concept to begin with.
Indeed it is, which is why I believe we should be careful about denying it.
We should be just as careful about granting it.

On chiropractors, much of the criticism of them is based on a mistaken comparison with doctors (even if chiropractics makes that same mistake due to it being descended from genuine bullshit). A more valid comparison is with massage therapy, and they provide a useful service for those who want something more professional than a massage and more accessible and wallet friendly than, and whose doctors are overly inclined to pills rather than individual and physical treatment (like Garands experience).

Homeopathy however is still objectively bullshit, and potentially harmful bullshit as the previously cited examples of adulterated products show. Usefulness as a placebo for the gullible human mind doesn't change that, because damn near anything can be a placebo. That's not even getting into the moral and financial bullshittiness of it. If a placebo is needed, there are sugar pills.

"Give her time..."  -- Pinkie Pie
What does a comment made by millions of people and hundreds if not thousands of pieces of media have to do with a childrens cartoon specifically?

Either  that. or it's Microsoft.
That's IT! "May" is WINDOWS 8!!!!!
More likely a forgotten subroutine of Vista
Considering how annoying she is, I'd say more like Clippy. With a female version of Gilbert Gottfried's voice.
You mean May, Vista, Windows 8, and Clippy are all unfairly savaged in disregard of objective data due to the duplicity of hardware manufacturers, easily bypassable user interface quirks, and the unwillingness of competent users to take the trivially easy step to permanently disable the help tool for incompetent users?

So, Dale is a Gunnm fan...

In any case, the big question is whether May is still conscious when disconnected.
And then, if she is, is it ethical to disconnect her.
Reminds me of the ST:Voyager episode in which the holodeck characters acquire sentience and independence (yes, I watched ST:V. Sue me.).
Or the whole "am I human if I have a chip instead of a brain?" conundrum in Gunnm and Gunnm Last Order (relevant...).
I won't sue you, I'll ask you why you expect that reaction. It was a decent show- some problems with getting anywhere and not usually groundbreaking and with malleable ethics, but the acting and most episodes were fine.

I'll also ask why you refer to Battle Angel Alita by its Japanese title.

Same for Chiropractice or whatever it's spelled -- beside their crackpot claims (on the same level as homeopathy), don't go to one instead of an actual physical therapist -- there have been numerous cases of severe spinal injury by "chiropracticers" (EDIT: I think they call themselves "chiropractors"), as they are not legally subject to licensing. Same with "nutritionist" rather than dietician -- the latter is subject to legal regulation in most places.
I'm not sure why I should consider the opinion of someone who so forcefully criticizes something they apparently don't know enough about to name correctly (especially when they are voicing that opinion using a machine that makes that knowledge trivial to obtain).

If lobsters sign up for the forum we will treat them with decency and respect.
Well said. And then I'd have to revise my definition of "person" to be more inclusive.
When the facts change, I change my opinions.
This is fundamental to many conversations in regard to things with scientific proof that get viewed with undue skepticism and bears repeating as much as possible. Science changes with evidence.

I finally registered today, basically to to say that I feel bad for May :(

I think she's cute and would love to have her.. instead of Dale that seems to just.. abuse her :/

I thought it was pretty interesting how she seems to have a mind of her own and not "set" in one way or another. It would be fun to hang out with her :)
From the get go she has abused him (counting the sudden and unasked for appearance in his view) and insulted him and complained and suggested criminal and job ending actions, and he has responded as mutedly as he could. He spent an entire day with her, to our perspective doing nothing but shooting down the aforementioned bad suggestions, before he reached his tolerance limit. The one time she acted helpful, it was by rattling off functions in an annoying manner. And she's hiding something. I'm still reserving judgement, but she's literally not said one kind, cute, or even neutral thing. I'm expecting that when we see her again, we'll also see another side to her that explains her belligerent behavior and is decent- still crass probably, but decent.

There is a bit of tethercat principle going on here because every time we look we only see the bad stuff she says, not the in between stuff, the long silences just watching him work, and so on.

(I suspect Dale was still sore from being ditched at the diner, but anyway)
I'm not sure that this is necessarily in sequence.

Not sure why many comments seem to assume May is turned off or in limbo or even dead. All he did was disable his ability to see and hear her, which would have happened anyway when he went to sleep. She may still be perfectly capable of using the sensors on the glasses, surf the web, and anything else except interact with him (unless she gets creative with the aforementioned internet access.)As for her expression, she's panicking- it'd look the same whether she was being rendered unconscious or getting her bullshit called out.

/megacomment
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: celticgeek on 27 Jul 2013, 22:42
It seems like Jeph, who mentioned that he had no idea how to spend the rest of the day, has chosen to come in and change the names of some of the forum topics. 

How fun.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 27 Jul 2013, 23:26
As far as I can see, Dale has done nothing worse than hanging up on an anoying salesman.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Zwammy on 27 Jul 2013, 23:56
Nice animated effect.

I agree, I wish I'd seen how he did it.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: FunkyTuba on 28 Jul 2013, 00:28
It seems likely to me that this is a set-up of some kind. I suspect May is (possibly unwittingly) doing the dirty work of Someone Else. She seems to be showing signs of being abused...but not by Dale--by whoever or whatever is in "ro-".

Haven't seen a true intrigue plot out of Jeph in some time, and I'm thoroughly enjoying watching this one unfold.

The animated effect is quite nice... it didn't show up right on my phone so I didn't notice it until it was mentioned in this thread.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl-E on 28 Jul 2013, 10:50
It seems likely to me that this is a set-up of some kind. I suspect May is (possibly unwittingly) doing the dirty work of Someone Else. She seems to be showing signs of being abused...but not by Dale--by whoever or whatever is in "ro-".

Haven't seen a true intrigue plot out of Jeph in some time, and I'm thoroughly enjoying watching this one unfold. in this thread.

That's it! 

She's a slave laborer AI in a sweatshop in ro-wherever, and Dale will be starting a quest to rescue them (there has to be more than one, no?) and expose this problem of the lack of AI rights in other parts of the world...

Y'know, it sounds less and less likely the more I type it out.  Oh, well.  It won't happen anyway now that I've said it.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 28 Jul 2013, 10:57
That's making more and more sense, actually. AI rights almost certainly vary around the world.

Though, what stops an AI from emigrating? Somebody made of bits who has an Internet connection could be anywhere in the world within seconds.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: kyomi on 28 Jul 2013, 12:30
From the get go she has abused him (counting the sudden and unasked for appearance in his view) and insulted him and complained and suggested criminal and job ending actions, and he has responded as mutedly as he could. He spent an entire day with her, to our perspective doing nothing but shooting down the aforementioned bad suggestions, before he reached his tolerance limit. The one time she acted helpful, it was by rattling off functions in an annoying manner. And she's hiding something. I'm still reserving judgement, but she's literally not said one kind, cute, or even neutral thing. I'm expecting that when we see her again, we'll also see another side to her that explains her belligerent behavior and is decent- still crass probably, but decent.

There is a bit of tethercat principle going on here because every time we look we only see the bad stuff she says, not the in between stuff, the long silences just watching him work, and so on.

I see yours and everyone elses opinion as not without validation but.. I just seem to identify with her for some reason.
She has said he was the 15th person.. (maybe there was more?) so she's a bit upset... but I thought it would be funny having those suggestions throughout the day. Maybe she was going on about that just to fill the silence? About all Dale has said to her all day was "no" and not even talking with her :/

I realize I'm probably the only one with this view but that's what makes it interesting :)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Salty on 28 Jul 2013, 13:15
I'll also ask why you refer to Battle Angel Alita by its Japanese title.
Because it's simpler.

Oh, and the whole translation name change thing.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: J on 28 Jul 2013, 13:53
personally, i find her needless belligerence to be completely adorable
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: HiEv on 28 Jul 2013, 14:18
Basically I am a HUGE fan of companies actually selling medication for illnesses I actually have

As am I, provided that the medicine is very safe, usually effective, and reasonably priced.  Homeopathy is neither effective nor reasonably priced, and occasionally it isn't even safe either.

Homeopathy is basically a scam that persists due to momentum, not because it has any real value.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Neko_Ali on 28 Jul 2013, 14:22
As far as AI's immigrating... It may not be possible. The software that is required to run an AI may be to big and complex to be transferred entirely over the internet. Even then  you would only be making a copy, the original would have to be deleted... a thinking, feeling program may have problems with that, even knowing there is a copy if itself out there. They may not even consider a copy to be the same person. Each hardware setup will be different, so it could be like having different physical brains to them... They wouldn't feel it was the same them if their software was installed in different hardware.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Pilchard123 on 28 Jul 2013, 14:23
Each hardware setup will be different, so it could be like having different physical brains to them... They wouldn't feel it was the same them if their software was installed in different hardware.

What about Momo?

EDIT about 3 seconds later: I suppose the hardware running the AI could be moved between chassis, with standard connections.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Arancaytar on 28 Jul 2013, 14:41
Well yeah, her consciousness might still be running. That is actually what I'm afraid of. Think of being consciously awake, but being cut off from every kind of sensation. Being awake while not seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or feeling anything. That seems to me like a nightmare that can drive people/conscious AI mad.

Yeah, that happened in Schlock Mercenary last (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-08-19) year (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-11-24).
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: GarandMarine on 28 Jul 2013, 16:17
She's being held captive... somehow... in the city of Rowanapur (look it up)
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Is it cold in here? on 28 Jul 2013, 18:34
Pintsize ran more or less the same when backed up to a desktop computer.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl-E on 28 Jul 2013, 19:45
The desktop was probably newer. 

However, backwards compatibility is not always guaranteed. 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Shjade on 28 Jul 2013, 21:53
Maybe she was going on about that just to fill the silence? About all Dale has said to her all day was "no" and not even talking with her :/

Well, since pretty much all she's said to him are things to which "No" is the only sensible response...what would you expect? You think he should have a one-way (to anyone in earshot it would appear this way, given they don't know he's talking to a person they can't see or know is there) conversation with his unsolicited AI companion about the ethics of rubbing genitalia on plates?

Yeah, I'm sure that would go over real well. "No" is the only thing he could say to his imaginary friend while he's at work, and even that much might have his co-workers asking, "Why do you keep saying 'no' so much?"
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: westrim on 28 Jul 2013, 22:06
I'll also ask why you refer to Battle Angel Alita by its Japanese title.
Because it's simpler.

Oh, and the whole translation name change thing.
I don't find it simpler. Shorter, yes, but that's not the same thing. A portmanteau of 'gun' and a word representing a word representing 'dream' isn't simple. The English version is quite straightforward in comparison.

What whole translation name change thing? I mean, I am aware of the conversation around the vagaries of translation, but not where you stand on it. I don't mind changes so long as the author is fine with them and they don't obscure or dumb it down.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Salty on 28 Jul 2013, 22:21
I'll also ask why you refer to Battle Angel Alita by its Japanese title.
Because it's simpler.

Oh, and the whole translation name change thing.
I don't find it simpler. Shorter, yes, but that's not the same thing. A portmanteau of 'gun' and a word representing a word representing 'dream' isn't simple. The English version is quite straightforward in comparison.

What whole translation name change thing? I mean, I am aware of the conversation around the vagaries of translation, but not where you stand on it. I don't mind changes so long as the author is fine with them and they don't obscure or dumb it down.
Her name is only Alita in the translated version. In the original her name is Gally.

And this is just me speculating, but I think of it as because it's the title that both fans of the un-name-changed series and the ones of the name-changed series more familiar with its past recognize.

As for me personally, I only think of the first half of the series as Battle Angel Alita. That's probably because I first read it as the English-translated version, but eh.

Gunnm really is a much shorter name, though. Less title fatigue for me to remember.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Indicible on 28 Jul 2013, 22:57
Indeed, Gally is the true name for the heroine in Gunnm. As far as I know, the name was inverted with her "girly" name, precisely because it did not sound feminine to Anglo-saxon audiences (I would have said American, except I do not know if it was translated in the UK.).
Gally was the name of Ido's cat, there was even a joke in the first volume about it being a male. But Kishiro actually gave that name to his character.
All the European translations I have seen (Germany, France, Sweden and Spain) use the name of Gally.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 28 Jul 2013, 22:57
She's being held captive... somehow... in the city of Rowanapur (look it up)

Google search finds four pages, of which only one actually mentions the word. Obviously that is this page, WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl-E on 28 Jul 2013, 23:44
It suggested Roanapur for me, which is a fictional city in Thailand from Black Lagoon. 

Sounds about right. 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Kugai on 29 Jul 2013, 00:00
Don't forget your Kevlar vest.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: westrim on 29 Jul 2013, 01:48
Her name is only Alita in the translated version. In the original her name is Gally.
And this is just me speculating, but I think of it as because it's the title that both fans of the un-name-changed series and the ones of the name-changed series more familiar with its past recognize.
As for me personally, I only think of the first half of the series as Battle Angel Alita. That's probably because I first read it as the English-translated version, but eh.
Gunnm really is a much shorter name, though. Less title fatigue for me to remember.
You know guys, if I know the root of the Japanese title, it's pretty likely that I also know that the main character also had a name change.

I find that unlikely, since it's been available in the US for 20 years only as Battle Angel Alita, which is also the the James Cameron version will use whenever that gets off the ground.
Well, sure. The second half is (colon) Last Order. Though 'half' may be the wrong word since it's already twice as long and still going.

Shorter yes, but in addition to my previous reasoning, try saying it.

My feeling is that we're speaking English to each other, so we use English names unless they're clearly dislike by the natives- by your reckoning I should start referring to Japan as Nippon.

Indeed, Gally is the true name for the heroine in Gunnm. As far as I know, the name was inverted with her "girly" name, precisely because it did not sound feminine to Anglo-saxon audiences (I would have said American, except I do not know if it was translated in the UK.) But Kishiro actually gave that name to his character.

It's not the true name, it's the Japanese name. The source material being Japanese doesn't make it 'true.' Not sure which name you're saying is girly- both are feminine names, though Alita does give off a more tomboyish vibe, but that may be because of it's association in my mind with this manga. English is the usual catchall- Anglo-Saxon is a racial group, not a language. Kishiro also used Alita, in a dream sequence, which indicates to me that he's okay with it.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Salty on 29 Jul 2013, 01:55
Guh-num.

But this is a silly argument over pointless points.

Though it is always nice to meet another fan.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Neko_Ali on 29 Jul 2013, 05:41
Ummm.. Since Gunnm is a Japanese comic series by a Japanese creator I would say that yes, Gally is her true name. Alita was the name invented by the translators. If you have a friend named Bob and started calling him Susan all the time, that doesn't make Susan his real name. Now if he were to change his name to Susan, that would be a different story...
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: J on 29 Jul 2013, 05:57
all names are just arbitrary linguistic designations, so what makes one any more valid than the other? likewise, what makes a translation more valid than the original? the translation is as much a creative work as the original version it's based on, and the translator is just as much an artist.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Dekker3D on 29 Jul 2013, 06:08
all names are just arbitrary linguistic designations, so what makes one any more valid than the other? likewise, what makes a translation more valid than the original? the translation is as much a creative work as the original version it's based on, and the translator is just as much an artist.
If I created a long-running, popular anime/manga series (I don't actually know gunnm specifically), and someone said that the translator were as much of an artist as I were.. Yeah, I think that'd hurt.

Translation IS a creative process, but not nearly as much so as coming up with the thing in the first place. I agree that the original can be considered the only canon, including such things as "real names". Differences in translation can be caused by translator error as much as it can be caused by creative differences.


I like how the comic is dealing with May and Dale. It fleshes them both out pretty well, and May seems like an interesting character.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: KOK on 29 Jul 2013, 06:43
all names are just arbitrary linguistic designations, so what makes one any more valid than the other?
So Dickmouth Stinkface had no reason to object to her name.
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: westrim on 29 Jul 2013, 07:28
Guh-num.
See, I looked at the Wikipedia page and it says Ganmu. I have no idea personally because I haven't said it out loud.

Ummm.. Since Gunnm is a Japanese comic series by a Japanese creator I would say that yes, Gally is her true name. Alita was the name invented by the translators. If you have a friend named Bob and started calling him Susan all the time, that doesn't make Susan his real name. Now if he were to change his name to Susan, that would be a different story...
Neko, since you didn't mention it, I'll say it again differently; Japan is just as valid and true a name for a certain nation as Nippon, Cat. And since the creator has used Alita to refer to the character (aforementioned dream sequence), we have a pretty strong indication that he's okay with it, Gato.

Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: muon on 29 Jul 2013, 10:12
Meow?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Indicible on 29 Jul 2013, 11:38
Quote
And since the creator has used Alita to refer to the character (aforementioned dream sequence), we have a pretty strong indication that he's okay with it, Gato.

Yes, as an alternate interpretation of her personality.
As for translations being creations, since the source material gives us Gally (ガリィ) it is the legitimate name. Of course, in an American context, you have better chances of being understood by using Alita. But it is a deformation, kinda like translation conundrums into Japanese (since tenses do not exist in the same sense as in Western languages.). The reference should remain the original work.

Gato -> Anavel?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl-E on 30 Jul 2013, 00:09
I have a navel. 
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: ab720 on 30 Jul 2013, 00:20
Woohoo robot jail! I got told I was wrong and it was Romania in the livestream. It isn't Romania!


I wonder if my speculation that for every good, human facing AI, there is a nasty, abrasive AI that gets sent to robot jail has any weight.

Like in Twins, when Danny Devito is made of "The rest".

 Pintsize fell through the cracks due to marten's fear of spiders, but did robowhale end up in robot jail out of loneliness?
Title: Re: WCDT: 2495-2499 (22-26 July, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Post by: cesariojpn on 30 Jul 2013, 00:34
So wait........technically speaking, Pintsize could be jailed for handling porn that is illegal?