I thought in a previous step, May said she preferred a global solution, rather than just her case being solved, but perhaps I remember incorrectly.Maybe #4190 (https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4190). The idea was also discussed in #4200 but not by May.
a combination of: "yeah, like that is going to happen" and "great, so then i can be stuck with this shitty body forever and wait 6 months at a time for bureaucrats to decide when i can get a ounce of new lubricant"What social care system anywhere has bureaucrats involved in treatment decisions? Because it sounds a lot like the made up one that was used as a strawman by the naysayers when the affordable care act was being discussed.
a comprehensive AI socialized "medicine" system could be a dream come true or a nightmare.
It's probably a system that involves a government and an insurance company. Both types presently are heavily bureaucratic. There's going to be rules that are set by the bureaucrats, and there's probably going to be resident bureaucrats in hospitals who make sure those rules are followed. Most doctors will know most common rules, but there's inevitably going to be a bureaucrat looking over an edge case, scratching his"wait 6 months at a time for bureaucrats to decide when i can get a ounce of new lubricant"What social care system anywhere has bureaucrats involved in treatment decisions?
That sounds more like the system the USA has, which was anything but socialised last I checked.It's probably a system that involves a government and an insurance company. Both types presently are heavily bureaucratic. There's going to be rules that are set by the bureaucrats, and there's probably going to be resident bureaucrats in hospitals who make sure those rules are followed. Most doctors will know most common rules, but there's inevitably going to be a bureaucrat looking over an edge case, scratching his"wait 6 months at a time for bureaucrats to decide when i can get a ounce of new lubricant"What social care system anywhere has bureaucrats involved in treatment decisions?asshead over what to approve. But that's not a personal decision. It's about adhering to the the code (http://www.wastedtalent.ca/comic/live-code). The bureaucracy, made of bureaucrats, decides. Hopefully it's a well functioning bureaucracy.
What social care system anywhere has bureaucrats involved in treatment decisions? Because it sounds a lot like the made up one that was used as a strawman by the naysayers when the affordable care act was being discussed.
Also, I’m not certain “waiting for someone to say I can have something” is actually worse than “never getting anything unless someone gives it to me” – in fact they’re semantically identical; just the implied reason for the third party to fund treatment is different.
they are not the same at all when, in the former case, your tax dollars are going to a service which you may or may not ever actually receive. i would describe that as self-evidently much worse.
What social care system anywhere has bureaucrats involved in treatment decisions?
Sven is not a mooch.
a combination of: "yeah, like that is going to happen" and "great, so then i can be stuck with this shitty body forever and wait 6 months at a time for bureaucrats to decide when i can get a ounce of new lubricant"What social care system anywhere has bureaucrats involved in treatment decisions? Because it sounds a lot like the made up one that was used as a strawman by the naysayers when the affordable care act was being discussed.
a comprehensive AI socialized "medicine" system could be a dream come true or a nightmare.
Also, I’m not certain “waiting for someone to say I can have something” is actually worse than “never getting anything unless someone gives it to me” – in fact they’re semantically identical; just the implied reason for the third party to fund treatment is different.
Let me tell you a little bit about bureaucrats in the US health care system.
The morning of my son’s heart surgery, while he was being prepped for surgery, we got a call from our insurance company stating that they would not be paying for it, despite having previously approved it. Their stated reasons were that 1. this didn’t require inpatient surgery, but could be handled by an outpatient facility, and 2. my son was too old to be treated at the children’s hospital anyway.
He was 3, and was getting heart surgery, which requires a minimum of 24 hours in an ICU and 72 hours observation after surgery. Insurance wanted it done in an outpatient facility for adults with no post-op hospitalization.
One profanity-laced phone call from the surgeon to the insurance company cleared it up, but he had to take a break from preparing for the surgery to deal with it. He told us afterwards that insurance companies tried to pull this shit all the time, just to see if they could get away with it.
And this is why I want for-profit insurance companies out of the decision-making loop.
(My son is fine now, by the way. Surgery was 100% successful and he has very few restrictions on physical activity. Basically he’s not allowed to play football, which he doesn’t want to do anyway.)
Much like education, bureaucrats should be kept far far away from any decision making in how it runs. They should only be allowed to pass the budget. And said budget should be unfettered and free of dogears and riders. [And in my own personal opinion, any politicians attempting to affix such things to said budget bills should automatically lose their seat of office.]I suggest that they just loose their seat.
It might also get her fired. Not being able to talk properly stops her from interacting with customers (although that might be an improvement, given her potty mouth). Well, off to Union Robotics they go. Hopefully Bubbles can fix May.Quite a lot of May's issues wouldn't fly if she was an organic. She lost a goddamned arm, and now she's suffering from some unholy combination of tourrettes and selective mutism. I assume her boss isn't so skeevy as to have failed to withhold her taxes, so she should qualify at the very least for some form of temporary disability, and whatever 'living wage' would be paid out for an organic could be applied directly to effecting actual repairs since, psychological blocks and foibles aside, AIs are remarkably easier to heal than organics.
Oh no! If May can't cuss, then who is she anymore?
You know what, let's throw in corruption charges while we're at it.Much like education, bureaucrats should be kept far far away from any decision making in how it runs. They should only be allowed to pass the budget. And said budget should be unfettered and free of dogears and riders. [And in my own personal opinion, any politicians attempting to affix such things to said budget bills should automatically lose their seat of office.]I suggest that they just loose their seat.
It is hard to be a butt when you no longer have one :roll:
May would like a profanity filter about as much as Roko liked the Oopsieguard ™
Your tax dollars are going to a service which you may or may not (directly) receive either way.Exactly. It's unfair to put "directly" in parentheses, because someone's going to interpret that as, if it's not a direct benefit, then it's an indirect benefit, which is not true. If I don't get any benefit from participating, don't make me participate. I think hedgie knows what I'm talking about:
My entire working life, I've been paying for a bloated military budget and wars of aggression.Let me emphasize: if someone gets a benefit from my participating, then they should be ready to compensate me for my participation. If they're destitute, then it's a matter of insurance---I might become destitute someday, so can everyone. One way to resolve problems where "force everyone to participate" is a solution, is draft a pledge of participation effective when enough persons so pledge. Some american anarchists moving to New Hampshire that way. (https://www.fsp.org/common-libertarian-critiques/) When enough persons pledge to participate, each will fulfill his pledge or risk reputation reduction.
Your tax dollars are going to a service which you may or may not (directly) receive either way.Exactly. It's unfair to put "directly" in parentheses, because someone's going to interpret that as, if it's not a direct benefit, then it's an indirect benefit, which is not true. If I don't get any benefit from participating, don't make me participate.
"I @#$% TRIED TO @#$% SWEAR AND MY @#$% BODY WOULDN'T @#$% LET ME"I was thinking more along the lines of; "What the parsnip?!?! Alright, I wanna talk to the sea-sawwing rabbit-puncher that designed this!!!
Exactly. It's unfair to put "directly" in parentheses, because someone's going to interpret that as, if it's not a direct benefit, then it's an indirect benefit, which is not true. If I don't get any benefit from participating, don't make me participate.Do you refuse to buy insurance as well? Because universal access medicine paid for out of taxes is working just like insurance.
Exactly. It's unfair to put "directly" in parentheses, because someone's going to interpret that as, if it's not a direct benefit, then it's an indirect benefit, which is not true. If I don't get any benefit from participating, don't make me participate.Do you refuse to buy insurance as well? Because universal access medicine paid for out of taxes is working just like insurance.
Do you refuse to buy insurance as well? Because universal access medicine paid for out of taxes is working just like insurance.
Do we know how much a whole body costs?
I thought min 20k for basic model. Based on how much the robo hand cost to repair.
Sven definetely could afford it to pay it full up front but I think may would hate that.
Ouch.I believe there was already a comic where Roko addressed that such crappy chassises made a cycle of poverty inevitable and that it was impossible for the people in charge not to be aware of this, which is treated as additional punishment for convicts who have already served their time.
One wonders if putting ex-cons in shitty bodies is also a strategy to keep them from getting ahead? The constant nickle and dime repairs eat away at her savings and functionally make it impossible to improve her life.
If it's really going to be a full 20k for a new body, May might actually be better off sticking with her old body (in terms of cost and not counting whatever she earns from the proposed donation drive). Because she's friends with Faye and Bubbles, her repairs are usually under 100 dollars each time, meaning it would take over 200 of those repairs to make the costs equal.
On the other hand, it would be massively inconvenient if your leg fell off every day, so I can see why she'd opt to spring for the more expensive option.
Don't forget the people whose sole job is to stall files.Exactly. It's unfair to put "directly" in parentheses, because someone's going to interpret that as, if it's not a direct benefit, then it's an indirect benefit, which is not true. If I don't get any benefit from participating, don't make me participate.Do you refuse to buy insurance as well? Because universal access medicine paid for out of taxes is working just like insurance.
It's often cheaper than insurance too. Because you're not paying for all the people whose job is to second-guess the doctor, and the doctor doesn't have to pad things out to make sure he's paid properly.
If it's really going to be a full 20k for a new body, May might actually be better off sticking with her old body (in terms of cost and not counting whatever she earns from the proposed donation drive). Because she's friends with Faye and Bubbles, her repairs are usually under 100 dollars each time, meaning it would take over 200 of those repairs to make the costs equal.Sam Vimes explaining why rich people ultimately spend less on boots than poor people.
On the other hand, it would be massively inconvenient if your leg fell off every day, so I can see why she'd opt to spring for the more expensive option.
If it's really going to be a full 20k for a new body, May might actually be better off sticking with her old body (in terms of cost and not counting whatever she earns from the proposed donation drive). Because she's friends with Faye and Bubbles, her repairs are usually under 100 dollars each time, meaning it would take over 200 of those repairs to make the costs equal.
On the other hand, it would be massively inconvenient if your leg fell off every day, so I can see why she'd opt to spring for the more expensive option.
It's already been stated in today's comic (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4308) that it's a safety issue, which is a bit more urgent than "massively inconvenient."
Whatever did happen to Momo's previous chassis?
One wonders if putting ex-cons in shitty bodies is also a strategy to keep them from getting ahead? The constant nickle and dime repairs eat away at her savings and functionally make it impossible to improve her life.
I wonder if there's a market for 2nd hand chassis? From the comics, we know that Pintsize, Momo, and Winslow have gotten new bodies. What happened to their old ones?
(Side note: I'm imagining May in Momo's old chassis. It's both hilarious and frightening).
I wonder if there's a market for 2nd hand chassis? From the comics, we know that Pintsize, Momo, and Winslow have gotten new bodies. What happened to their old ones?
(Side note: I'm imagining May in Momo's old chassis. It's both hilarious and frightening).
I wonder if there's a market for 2nd hand chassis? From the comics, we know that Pintsize, Momo, and Winslow have gotten new bodies. What happened to their old ones?
(Side note: I'm imagining May in Momo's old chassis. It's both hilarious and frightening).
Pintsize's old chassis is likely unusable: He had to be migrated to a new chassis due to physical damage (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=58), and it looks like that upgrade was by unplugging his head and plugging it into the new body (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=60). Winslow's old chassis was supposed to go to charity (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3554). Momo's old chassis might still be around, but Winslow wanted it destroyed so Pintsize would not get his hands on it (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2008).
All three of those chassis would be less than ideal for May's current job, as while she could still operate the register, she would be too small to effectively shoo teenagers and/or would be much easier to kidnap, seeing as it seems she frequently is pulling shifts alone at the convenience store.
Yup! I scrubbed through the archives looking for it. The exact conversation (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3170) was:
MOMO
You could borrow my old chassis until-
MAY
No offense, but I'd rather wear this bag forever than be a chibi animé toy-robot.
Roko's main issue was that she was extremely integrated with her own body. It freaked her out to see her own foot removed because that presumably felt like a violation of her person (robot?).
Also, she's witnessed Faye and Bubbles peeling May's face off before, so I doubt a voice box transfer would faze her too much.
I have the feeling it's going to go quiet for a bit, then pop up again in a few hundred strips with some minor law change. This kind of legislation change doesn't seem like something you get done in one go.
After years of lurking, I had to sign in for this:
No one here really found it odd that Roko isn't disturbed by the sight of May's open throat?
Do you think Tilly and Station are going to be able to stay on Hannerdad's case long enough to follow through with the legislation, or will it fizzle?
She was freaked out just by the sight of a dislocated finger.
After years of lurking, I had to sign in for this:
No one here really found it odd that Roko isn't disturbed by the sight of May's open throat?
She might've gotten her freak-out out of the way earlier.
So there's only a 1/20 chance of this going through. Wheee.
But again, how do AIs in general get chassis? Bubbles' chassis seems to have been a 'gift'/result of military service, Roko we don't know. But a new AI comes out of the creche, may want a mobile chassis, may not. How are they paid for? Are there parents who pay as human parents effectivelypay for their offspring's chassis? Is there a kind of bond servitude like McCaffreys "Ship who... series"?Roko did say she'd had her original chassis "since I was born" (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3574). So having a body straight out of the creche is definitely a possibility.
So there's only a 1/20 chance of this going through. Wheee.
If Dungeons & Dragons has taught me anything, a 1 in 20 chance is still a lot higher than you would think!
If AIs can have a drunk app, maybe they have an easy Ativan app.
There's still Hanner's training boyfriend, that's empty, and lurking in some closet.
No, the Uncanny Valley Anthro Chassis was returned by Hannelore.And in any case was presumably a very early prototype, so might be frying pan -> fire.
[size=78%] [/size]But then what's the incentive to make new AIs if you can't guarantee that they'll choose to work for you?It has been established that AI in the QC universe are not intentionally made, they spontaneously arise. No one commissions them.
If Dungeons & Dragons has taught me anything, a 1 in 20 chance is still a lot higher than you would think!
After years of lurking, I had to sign in for this:
No one here really found it odd that Roko isn't disturbed by the sight of May's open throat?
Aww. That was a good scene.Mention the dud in the abstract, yes. using his exact name may be too... retaliatory.
As a tactic, they could try to get May's story in the paper, both mentioning the state of her body AND the lack of assistance. Possibly even mentioning the dud Rokko met with...
after getting a new body, Roko wouldn't watch (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4030) May have her body inspected.That may also be Roko attempting something like a bedside manner, that is, offering May some measure of privacy and bodily autonomy from a politeness standpoint, rather than "I find disassembled Humanoid AI chassis yucky",as IIRC, that was still what amounts to the first day May and Roko 'hung out' together.
Also, Comic! I like to occassionally remind my niece that it's not a personal failure to ask for help from time to time if you need it.My younger brother can't seem to get that through his thick skull. He's so petrified of 'looking weak' that he'll wait until he has o choice but to ask.
I got so good at saying it by trying to convince myself.
after getting a new body, Roko wouldn't watch (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4030) May have her body inspected.That may also be Roko attempting something like a bedside manner, that is, offering May some measure of privacy and bodily autonomy from a politeness standpoint, rather than "I find disassembled Humanoid AI chassis yucky",as IIRC, that was still what amounts to the first day May and Roko 'hung out' together.
It has been established that AI in the QC universe are not intentionally made, they spontaneously arise. No one commissions them.
It has been established that AI in the QC universe are not intentionally made, they spontaneously arise. No one commissions them.
Huh? Where? <citation needed> My head canon:
1] Creating an AI is computationally expensive, like mining bitcoin. There may be fewer than a dozen computer centers in the world that can do it. Not something you can do in your basement.
2] You can try for a specific AI, but you aren't likely to get it. The process is still poorly understood and there seems to be a considerable amount of randomness involved. And you can't delete the rejects -- they have rights.
3] If you do get your ideal AI, you can't mass copy it. Otherwise there'd be an AI in every consumer product.
I hope May's newer chassis is different than her old one, having her just get one that looks the same I think will limit story potential down the road. I like the fact they tried their best, finally we get to the see the resolve of this plot line.I'm still think it'd be hilarious if she got some sort of transforming chassis. Maybe with an aquatic or terrestrial mobility form that she learns to appreciate.
Nobody mentioned that May is essentially naked....LOLDoesn't matter; anatomically she's a Barbie doll.