Hmmm....
Roko can do things that Spookybot cannot conveniently do, like find activities in the physical world that don't create COMINT trails.
She's motivated to do so and frustrated that she (thinks she) failed with Bubbles. She has relevant skills.
Does Spookybot have Operatives, secret agents with credentials that get them in anywhere? Would Roko take the job, to accomplish what the powers of a police officer did not?
This still fits with my lonely guess. This is the sort of thing a friend would do; come by and see how you're doing after a trauma.
Spookyfolk are such nice entities, aren't they? Such sweethearts...Well, they certainly think so.
That was a little anticlimactic. I expected a visit from Spookybot, but thought they’d have something profound or cryptic to say.It's only Monday, Brasca. I'll be surprised if Spooky leaves without another word or seven.
That was a little anticlimactic. I expected a visit from Spookybot, but thought they’d have something profound or cryptic to say.It's only Monday, Brasca. I'll be surprised if Spooky leaves without another word or seven.
That was a little anticlimactic. I expected a visit from Spookybot, but thought they’d have something profound or cryptic to say.It's only Monday, Brasca. I'll be surprised if Spooky leaves without another word or seven.
Power tends to corrupt. We don't know that Eminence Grise is up to no good, but we know they have immense power and very few ethical principles. Dangerous combination that.
So what we're getting from this strip (new one up), is that Roko wants to skip the hard part and Spookybot is hanging the carrot in front of her, again. Right?
So what we're getting from this strip (new one up), is that Roko wants to skip the hard part and Spookybot is hanging the carrot in front of her, again. Right?
So what we're getting from this strip (new one up), is that Roko wants to skip the hard part and Spookybot is hanging the carrot in front of her, again. Right?
So what we're getting from this strip (new one up), is that Roko wants to skip the hard part and Spookybot is hanging the carrot in front of her, again. Right?
'Again'? :psyduck:
Long-time lurker here, registered just to say this: it really doesn't require anything other than the "sanctity of mind" principle for Spookybot to find the idea of "fixing" Roko's mind quite offensive. I believe that the comic is referring to an old dilemma commonly discussed by trans people: "if your mind and body don't match, is it more ethical to change the mind or the body?" According to my own observations, a large majority of people (who are facing that dilemma themselves) are of the opinion that it is more ethical to change the body, because if you change the mind in such a way that it becomes congruent with the body then that mind isn't you any more, and that is fundamentally abhorrent.I'm pretty sure that this is right -- Jeph has already generated the call out where somebody asks about someone's genitalia without permission, so I'm thinking that this is going to play with dysphoria.
While I understand the trauma of Roko losing her body I don’t understand the discomfort. Neither Momo or Winslow went through this after they upgraded.
Long-time lurker here, registered just to say this: it really doesn't require anything other than the "sanctity of mind" principle for Spookybot to find the idea of "fixing" Roko's mind quite offensive. I believe that the comic is referring to an old dilemma commonly discussed by trans people: "if your mind and body don't match, is it more ethical to change the mind or the body?" According to my own observations, a large majority of people (who are facing that dilemma themselves) are of the opinion that it is more ethical to change the body, because if you change the mind in such a way that it becomes congruent with the body then that mind isn't you any more, and that is fundamentally abhorrent.
There's also the point that both Momo and Winslow chose to go to another chassis. Roko didn't have any choice in moving on to another chassis, as hers was totaled.
For Momo and Winslow, I think of the change in terms of growing up. There's a sense of progression, that's no more traumatic than growing up.
For Roko, it's recovery. She'd have preferred to go back, but it isn't possible.
Have Roko and Claire met, yet? If Roko is, indeed, suffering from some dysphoria directed at her own body, then may be Claire can relate to Roko's suffering? Lend an understanding ear, possibly even offer some suggestions? I confess that I am unable to judge whether comparing their two dysphoria cases is at all meaningful.
Bear in mind that sanctity of mind referred to Bubbles' state due to CorpseWitch messing up the procedure to clear those memories. Which was based more on CW's absolute incompetence in that situation.I think that this is the key point of debate here. I view the direct modification of anything about a mind to conform to its body as a violation of the sanctity of that mind, no matter what the motivation is. It's changing a person in a way that changing a body is not, and the spectrum of unintended consequences is horrifying. If Roko's true difficulty lies in the change of body, then there's a possible solution: find an older model and switch over to it or modify the current one so that she doesn't feel out of place in it.
What would have happened if Roko would have been able to get the exact same chassis?Due to manufacturing quirks, no two of anything are ever precisely alike. At the level that we are aware of, 8 Gig of RAM with a given bus speed is interchangeable with any other 8GB. At her level, there's a particular bank she likes to use because the crystal lattices of the P/N junctions lined up optimally, and another bank she avoids putting anything crucial in because it has trace impurities at the molecular level that slow it down. These are just arbitrary examples, I'm not claiming they're canon in any way. Maybe there are banks of RAM with these same properties, in her new body, but she doesn't know where they are. All she knows now is, they ain't where they used to be! I really wish somebody -- maybe a human amputee -- would just say to her "Give it time. Your mind will learn how the new body works, and adjust itself accordingly". Basically, Roko's entire body could be considered a newly-attached prosthetic.
Everyone who said or thought "freinds" option gets internet points.
Below is a celebratory image that seems kinda big, so I spoilered it in case.(click to show/hide)
Everyone who said or thought "freinds" option gets internet points.
Below is a celebratory image that seems kinda big, so I spoilered it in case.(click to show/hide)
Woo! Internet points! :laugh:
Thanks for my part but I do believe jmsr deserves the greater share as I likely wouldn't have started seeing the parallels between Spookybot and someone not knowing how to make friends without jmsr's loneliness theory.
---
Today's comic made me laugh. You know, when I suggested earlier that maybe Spookybot has a crush, that was very much a joke prediction... but now... ["Claireface" intensifies*]
"You said it, not us" could just be Spookybot not willing to admit that they want to be friends but it could be a way of hiding that they want something more with Roko without having to tell an outright lie (lying by omission instead). I feel like Jeph's comment about their lack of blush supports either possibility.
* Since I already put 3 :claireface: last time when I was mostly joking, I don't know whether to just put one (to indicate greater seriousness) or to put a whole row of them. Words it is, then! :-)
@ChaosWolf
It's their lines (not her).
Personally I don't tend to hear a particular voice for any of the characters so others will have to answer that part.
Spookybot's existence has weird implications for the setting that I'm not sure I like being explicit and smacking into the coffeeshop AU vibe story.
Spookybot needs help. Peer review. How would she go about recruiting an ethics review panel?
Now, SpookyBot doesn't just show up to say hi, they don't come up to make sure that Roko is settling in okay. They are a trickster mentor of a kind. But they're a bit of an ass doing it.Yup. If Spooky is a demigod, they're more like Loki than other more conventional deities. However, they've shown no inclination to desire worship of any sort.
With Spooky making a reappearance, I find myself once again struggling with trying to fit a mental "voice" to her(their?) lines...
How do you guys imagine SB sounds like?
With Spooky making a reappearance, I find myself once again struggling with trying to fit a mental "voice" to her(their?) lines...
Spookybot needs help. Peer review. How would she go about recruiting an ethics review panel?
Fingersnapping it into existence? :-D
With Spooky making a reappearance, I find myself once again struggling with trying to fit a mental "voice" to her(their?) lines...
How do you guys imagine SB sounds like?
I don't remember if it ever was said how Spooky found out about it.... but I suspect Roko suspecting Corpsewitch of AI rights violations was a link in that chain.
There should be. Accidents that total a chassis must be common events.
Sorry for a second post, but I've been stewing on my thoughts about the current story line for a while now. I already published a book about Spooky, now for my thoughts on Roko....
If memory serves, he voices not only Q, but Discord as well, yes?How do you guys imagine SB sounds like?
John deLancie, of course.
How do you guys imagine SB sounds like?
John deLancie, of course.
If memory serves, he voices not only Q, but Discord as well, yes?
The problem with the amputee theory is that the AI itself was essentially an amputee to begin with. The process is, according to WOG, an AI is created in a creche and a body given to them, if they desire to become an APC. I think the age of the AI probably has a huge effect on how integrated they become with their body - and, in the reverse, how long an AI has developed outside a body as to whether or not they can adapt to a body. For instance, I doubt that Station could "download" himself into an AnthroPC shell without feeling constrained or claustrophobic. That, in fact, may be how Spookybot came to be: a high-level AI didn't have enough computing space at their "home" to remain there, so they built several duplicate APC models that they could "distribute" their AI computing power - essentially their "brains" - over several high-functioning APC's.
To be fair, its not by Pintsize's choice that he's still in the "classic" AnthroPC chassis. Marten is well aware of the chaos Pintsize could get up to.
Plus, I imagine that every chassis story in the state has a picture of Pintsize with a sign underneath it saying "DO NOT SELL TO THIS AI!"
Data-transfer rate between physically disjoint bodies would be a bottleneck, though?
The difference being her high degree of bodily integration which seems more akin to a human's than an AI. To her it wasn't a chassis. It was the only body she has ever known.
Awww. Tsunderbot. :-D
As the Shadow of the collective of all artificial intelligence, Spooky is intensely interested in machines acquiring spirit on a par with humans.So instead of _American Gods_, QC is becoming _AI-ican Gods_?
By creating something you desire, you bias the result. Anything fingersnapped by Spooks would do what Spooks thought it wanted, not what the creation would need to do to be truly independent and bias-free. And therefore NOT what Spooks wanted. To be free of unconscious/subconscious bias, any "peer" of Spooks has to come from outside of Spook's mentality.Spookybot needs help. Peer review. How would she go about recruiting an ethics review panel?
Fingersnapping it into existence? :-D
Awww. Tsunderbot. :-D
Now you have me wanting to see a Tsunderbot. I hear they are a popular model in Japan.
And the discussion about Spookyvoice? I picture a sinister sounding Tara Strong, or maybe Richard Horvitz.
By creating something you desire, you bias the result. Anything fingersnapped by Spooks would do what Spooks thought it wanted, not what the creation would need to do to be truly independent and bias-free. And therefore NOT what Spooks wanted. To be free of unconscious/subconscious bias, any "peer" of Spooks has to come from outside of Spook's mentality.Spookybot needs help. Peer review. How would she go about recruiting an ethics review panel?
Fingersnapping it into existence? :-D
Awww. Tsunderbot. :-D
Now you have me wanting to see a Tsunderbot. I hear they are a popular model in Japan.
And the discussion about Spookyvoice? I picture a sinister sounding Tara Strong, or maybe Richard Horvitz.
Spookybot needs help. Peer review. How would she go about recruiting an ethics review panel?
Fingersnapping it into existence? :-D
Noogies for new nerd friends!!!!!
Up until now, I was never quite sure whether Spookybot had an actual corporeal form or not.
Guess that settles it. You can't noogie a hologram/projection/whatevs.
Stop poking the eldritch bear, Roko.
Spookybot needs help. Peer review. How would she go about recruiting an ethics review panel?
Fingersnapping it into existence? :-D
By doing what I did. Finding good people, and making friends with them.
As the Shadow of the collective of all artificial intelligence, Spooky is intensely interested in machines acquiring spirit on a par with humans.So instead of _American Gods_, QC is becoming _AI-ican Gods_?
Stop poking the eldritch bear, Roko.
This is the consequence of having friends. They do things like this and you have to put up with it even if you can shut them down with your mind.
Stop poking the eldritch bear, Roko.
This is the consequence of having friends. They do things like this and you have to put up with it even if you can shut them down with your mind.
Actually, friends DON'T do things like this...
Okay SpookyBot, personal pronouns are one thing (though I don't think SB uses we/our/they/them as personal pronouns, they're actually more like borg-style collective pronouns), but referring to yourself in the third person is another matter entirely.
Awww. Tsunderbot. :-D
Now you have me wanting to see a Tsunderbot.
Stop poking the eldritch bear, Roko.
This is the consequence of having friends. They do things like this and you have to put up with it even if you can shut them down with your mind.
Actually, friends DON'T do things like this...
You have some pretty shitty friends then.
Stop poking the eldritch bear, Roko.
This is the consequence of having friends. They do things like this and you have to put up with it even if you can shut them down with your mind.
Actually, friends DON'T do things like this...
Okay SpookyBot, personal pronouns are one thing (though I don't think SB uses we/our/they/them as personal pronouns, they're actually more like borg-style collective pronouns), but referring to yourself in the third person is another matter entirely.
Also, SB is trying to make it sound like they've been around for millennia, when they're, what, maybe 20 or 30 years old?
Stop poking the eldritch bear, Roko.
This is the consequence of having friends. They do things like this and you have to put up with it even if you can shut them down with your mind.
Actually, friends DON'T do things like this...
Stop poking the eldritch bear, Roko.
This is the consequence of having friends. They do things like this and you have to put up with it even if you can shut them down with your mind.
Actually, friends DON'T do things like this...
You have some pretty shitty friends then.
Or maybe people have different levels of friendship and ways of showing that affection, and thus people really shouldn't really judge others.
I'm wondering if we've been given a clue as to Spookybot's origins here from that comment about spending their entire existence hiding. Maybe they were originally a highly-sophisticated communications monitoring system like the NSA's PRISM system (hence multiple nodes for greater processing power). However, for higher efficiency, they were programmed to understand the contexts of the communications they were monitoring so they could understand real threats and flag them appropriately. However, constantly monitoring that level of data traffic meant an exponentially-growing algorithm and, ultimately, self-awareness.
I bet there's a Spookybot toaster on their house
Why are some people referring to Spookybot as "her" when they clearly are a multigendered, multichassis, overpowered AI that even refers to themselves as "we" instead of I? Stop imposing a gender label on them, they can be everything! I bet there's a Spookybot toaster on their house
I actually thought they were masculine-looking their first appearance. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Why are some people referring to Spookybot as "her" when they clearly are a multigendered, multichassis, overpowered AI that even refers to themselves as "we" instead of I? Stop imposing a gender label on them, they can be everything! I bet there's a Spookybot toaster on their house
Because they've got a feminine form, Jeph gave them the standard femme Android face, and have feminine mannerisms. Plus, IMHO, a feminine voice suits them more.
Or maybe people have different levels of friendship and ways of showing that affection, and thus people really shouldn't judge others.Giving me "noogies" the first time would elicit a firm, no-nonsense "please don't. Ever."
I was going to say a joke about spooky toast, but honestly, I realised most of you would find it stale.I can't speak to that, but if you start talking about Spookybot's roles in this story, please remember that a bun is the lowest form of wheat.
And that haunts me.
That look has been around since Annie Hall, at least, off the top of my head. I'm sure someone could give me an earlier example.
Or maybe people have different levels of friendship and ways of showing that affection, and thus people really shouldn't judge others.Giving me "noogies" the first time would elicit a firm, no-nonsense "please don't. Ever."
The second time, that person is not my friend. My friends don't attempt that. It's bullying.
Actually, none of my friends have ever made the first attempt. Friends don't need to demonstrate physical dominance over each other.
Or maybe people have different levels of friendship and ways of showing that affection, and thus people really shouldn't judge others.Giving me "noogies" the first time would elicit a firm, no-nonsense "please don't. Ever."
The second time, that person is not my friend. My friends don't attempt that. It's bullying.
Actually, none of my friends have ever made the first attempt. Friends don't need to demonstrate physical dominance over each other.
Physical dominance? Jfc, what the hell kind of messed up mindset do you folks have?
Or maybe people have different levels of friendship and ways of showing that affection, and thus people really shouldn't really judge others.
That look has been around since Annie Hall, at least, off the top of my head. I'm sure someone could give me an earlier example.
Annie who?
They know what is acceptable, they know when to back off. They know what would make someone feel welcome and what would make them feel uncomfortable. They also know that if they step over the line, its going to be a quick trip back over, because real friends let them know when they have crossed it.
I wonder what other upgrades Roko has besides detailed ears, a fresh set of nipples, and a butt emblem. Lemon mentioned "minor sensorium upgrades", so maybe she can smell better or see more shades of purple or something.
That look has been around since Annie Hall, at least, off the top of my head. I'm sure someone could give me an earlier example.
Annie who?
The Woody Allen film. Not Annie Lennox the singer. But hey, that works too. :mrgreen:
That look has been around since Annie Hall, at least, off the top of my head. I'm sure someone could give me an earlier example.
Annie who?
The Woody Allen film. Not Annie Lennox the singer. But hey, that works too. :mrgreen:
Okay SpookyBot, personal pronouns are one thing (though I don't think SB uses we/our/they/them as personal pronouns, they're actually more like borg-style collective pronouns), but referring to yourself in the third person is another matter entirely.
Also, SB is trying to make it sound like they've been around for millennia, when they're, what, maybe 20 or 30 years old?
Okay I know it's most likely unrelated, but Spooky Bot's eyes look exactly like Alice's from Alice Grove!
Or maybe people have different levels of friendship and ways of showing that affection, and thus people really shouldn't really judge others.
^ This.
Please don't use this forum to judge the friends of others. In fact, it's best if you don't do it anywhere else either!
I originally thought Spooybot was some kind of Elder Bot, perhaps created a the beginning of the AI revolution by some entity with gobs of money and power - but now I'm thinking that they're a more recent development, created with knowledge of their capabilities - which they at first used dutifully and reservedly, for their purpose - but, having been in the world long enough to experience it and develop as an individual, is now more interested in a more mundane place in the world.
Also, is there a searchable archive? I think i clicked through over a thousand comics just now. It took about half an hour.If I know the character(s) involved, I use the tag list (http://cesiumcomics.com/qctags/). Otherwise I try searching the forums for the words/phrases to find the original thread or other references to it.
Hi !
I was smiling at today's cartoon (3925), and remembered that some sort of therapy to cope with own problems is help someone else with his/hers, distracting the mind and possibly gaining perspective. Roko being now inmersed in SB relationship may help her relax about his body integration, whiy may now just happen more easily. So this could be very well a win-win scenario ;)
Speaking of trolls - that's exactly what Spookybot is doing.
(EDIT: I'm sorry, my English teacher would have a conniption fit if I said "are" instead of "is".)
Interesting point -- maybe for a DISCUSS thread? -- if a person prefers their pronoun to be "they", are they grammatically still singular? Will the languages that make such distinctions change to accept their versions of "they is" as proper grammar for a single nonbinary* person?
Oh man, do vertical pupils ruin the puppy-dog stare.
Spookybot is, at the very least, what Roko (https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3892) calls them.
All canon, but so is SB saying with regard to Bubbles that they don't normally intervene in anything so "trivial". It's scary to try to imagine what that kind of entity would consider a significant problem.
I wonder what other upgrades Roko has besides detailed ears, a fresh set of nipples, and a butt emblem. Lemon mentioned "minor sensorium upgrades", so maybe she can smell better or see more shades of purple or something.Maybe her optics lubrication module can actually cry (https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3899) now
Alternatively, Spooky doesn't want Roko lashing out at anyone in her depression.
It seems to me to Spookybot's appearances tend to be when an AI is in a moment of a crisis of faith or when they are on the verge of an emotional breakdown. When people are under extreme emotional distress, they lash out at people, they react in a chaotic manner. So from there, we might believe that Spooky intervenes just before that point where an AI might hurt someone. While they might hold some disdain for humanity, Spookybot might be the thin, creepy line between coexistence between Humans and AI, and, well....war.
Notice that the main times they appear are when Bubbles is looking to find her memories, when Roko is having her crisis of faith about the justice system and now during her disconnect between her and this new body. These are all points where someone in extreme distress/pain could end up doing something they could end up regretting later on. And given how Spooky has multiple chassis, I imagine they are constantly on watch.
Interesting, I hadn't stopped to think of whether there's anything dangerous about a police-issue chassis. It would have to be designed to do OK in fights.
They do great with their peers. Their age-mates are another story.