Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Faye is outsnarked by May (Cue Faye wielding The Stopsign of Doom)

Marten is attracted to May (Weirder things have happened)

Cosette trips with a full Caraffe into May - Sparks ensue

Dora hires May and replaces everyone else with her

Dale opens a Popcorn Consession in CoD

Spathe Ham with Waffles and Spathe Eggs

Purple Monkey Dishwasher

Hanners and May start the Robot Wars

Hanners and May become friends (Oh God, Oh God)

Whatever Jeph does, it'll be unexpected

[Method of Madness]

Yeah, but he's not in the actual comic itself.

[Orkboy]

I did not see this coming, but it totally makes sense.

[mustang6172]

One way or another, this arc will end with May getting arrested for parole violation.

[Tova]

If the daughter of the "God of AI" is happily working in a coffee shop, then this might change May's perspective on her own job.

[hedgie]

Nah, Hanners is at least allowed to insert strange objects into the orifices of rude customers, even if she'd never do such a thing.  May is probably a bit more restricted in her behaviour, and I'm sure she'd rather be a killbot rather than follow the polite rules of society.

[Mad Cat]

It appears that, much llike Walky of Willis's spinoff comic Dumbing of Age, May does not do "appropriate".

[Storel]

May: Let me be your bodyguard, and you can be my long lost pal. I can call you Betty, and Betty when you call me, you can call me Al... [pennywhistle solo]

[Aziraphale]

May: Let me be your bodyguard, and you can be my long lost pal. I can call you Betty, and Betty when you call me, you can call me Al... [pennywhistle solo]

Don't know about bodyguard, but I could see the two of them as friends. Hanners tends to be pretty accepting while also not taking any crap from anybody. If May can't get along with her, that'd say a lot.

[Loki]

Okay, who saw this protective behavior coming? *leaves hand firmly down*

Makes me go awwww.

[katsmeat]

QC is set in a different universe (I suppose all fiction technically is)  but I'm now fairly convinced the only significant points of divergence between it and ours are that  the QC verse has Beatrice Chatham and John Ellicott Chatham, and that they met.

[Kugai]

At least she doesn't want to be her Transporter.

[QuestionableIntentions]

Wouldn't that mean that Winslow got mad braggin rights? Being the AnthroPC of the "AI God's" daughter? And Pintsize too, by association?

[NilsO]

May is experiencing an epiphany with deep religious significance for her. She has just met her God's daughter. Just imagine, you meet Jesus at your local coffee shop? (OK, some baristas may look like Jesus, but they probably are not Him.)

Time to talk about AI religion (btw, is "AI" an acceptable common term for robots/androids/AnthroPCs/AIs?). I would assume there are several religious denominations within the AI community. May's denomination seems to revere John Ellicott-Chatham (Hannerdad) as their God, as he was the inventor of true AI. Clinton (although Human, mostly, sort of) may belong to the same denomination. On the other hand, Pintsize, Momo, and Winslow seem not to regard Hanners as anything more than a friend; so I guess they may belong to another denomination where Hannerdad might be respected for his achievements, but he is definitely not their God.

I remember Emily and Momo were talking about robot religion (archive-fu at work) - ah, here. Momo quote:

There is room for belief in a greater power, and some of us do choose to believe in such a force.

So, what happens now? Hanners appears ready to summon a killer droid, unless the situation defuses. If Hanners decides May is not a threat, she may relax, but she definitely does not want to be revered as God's daughter. I guess May will relax after a while, and hopefully become Hanners' friend rather than an acolyte.

[NilsO]

AI trivia: See Jeph's comments in this strip. I guess AIs, when created, come in a range of powers and abilities (possibly a Gaussian distribution). Less powerful AIs are probably not victims of discrimination, they just choose simpler careers (like becoming toasters). The "average" AI may choose to become an AnthroPC or Idoru model, and become human companions. More powerful AIs may run weapons systems or power plants. The most powerful AI in existence appears to be Station, he is revered by the other AIs both for his intellect and his daily interaction with Hannerdad.

Pintsize was sad because Marten did not take him along when he visited the Space Station. He would have liked to talk to Station (about butts, of course). But if Marten had tried to take him along, I guess Pintsize would have been effectively detained (and possibly annihilated for security reasons) by Station security.

[T]

Perhaps the Pintsize who likes to talk about butts and weird porn is a masquerade.

He demonstrated better reasoning before.

[Somebody]

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1975

[jwhouk]

Meh. We still have three years to go.

[bhtooefr]

For that matter, we don't know that May actually does worship John Ellicott-Chatham.

I'm getting the impression that AIs respect him, but some would likely consider him a "mere" ancestor, whereas others worship him as a god. If that's the case, I suspect that that may actually be a huge debate in the AI community - whether JE-C is a god or not. Essentially, the schism in the AI community wouldn't be between who the actual god is, with atheism being on the side, it'd be between atheistic and theistic viewpoints of JE-C.

And, in that case, someone like May could easily casually refer to him as "the god of AI" in a context like the one presented in #2760 (one where AIs could make pilgrimages to Coffee of Doom) without actually believing in JE-C as a god. Basically, if there is a god, a majority of AIs would agree that it's JE-C.

[snubnose]

I'm pretty confused as to why any AI is supposed to view the inventor of AIs as "god".

Obviously he's just another ordinary human.

I mean of course he's above average intelligent and all, and of course AIs would be gratious and stuff, but they wouldnt view him as anything else but another human being.

Nobody considers other people a deity unless that person actually gave the impression of being able to break the laws of reality, like physics, medicine, and beyond (like the ability to raise dead people).

[Somnus Eternus]

All I know is that if this is about to turn into another "Hannelore and her parent(s)" arc, I'd be super happy with that.  Those are always interesting.

[GarandMarine]

I think it's probably more May being her usual "expressive" self. Now I have no doubt that, if it was Hannersdad's team, or the man himself, personally, that triggered the singularity and effectively created the AI as a species there might be an AI or two with religious inclination towards him, but I expect it's more of an interest in akin to meeting one's estranged parent. This person who is so fundamental to your existence, who you would not exist without, who wouldn't want to meet them? Probably without the feelings of abandonment human children in similar situations feel mind you.

[Is it cold in here?]

Ahh, the point I was about to make, thank you.

Ancestor worship is a thing among many carbon-based people. QC AIs seem to have a lot in common with us emotionally.

[judemorrigan]

Somehow, I don't think May is as keen on this connection as Clinton was.

.... you were saying?

Still, if May's right about how big of a thing it would be if it got out that Hanners was working at the coffee house, props to Clinton for being showing more discretion than one might have expected.  Presumably the clue by four that was applied after he snapped the picture helped.

[Border Reiver]

Wouldn't that mean that Winslow got mad braggin rights? Being the AnthroPC of the "AI God's" daughter? And Pintsize too, by association?

One would think that, given Pintsize's normal proclivities that Hanner's job would have already have found it's way to an AI faith site, or be on a webcam

[T]

Probably most people are not aware of Hanners existence. I mean, how many people know how many kids bill gates had without googling? What would be your reaction if you met Bill Gates son delivering a Pizza?

Probably most people don't even think about if John Ellicott-Chatham have a dauhter or son, the ones who think about it probably assume she or he would work with him in the station or in some high rank in a big business. The idea of the Daughter of the most powerful couple in the world working in a small coffee shop should be absurd to most people and dismissed quickly.

[jwhouk]

On a completely separate note: I won't be able to make next week's WCDT, due to the high likelihood that I won't have net access this weekend (I work, and am highly likely to be forced to work extra shifts due to others on vacation/holiday).

[ischaemia]

In the third panel, am I assuming too much when I read/perceived the color of May's irises as a processing element of some kind? I realise it miiiight just be a minute error in coloring, but if not, a pretty interesting mechanic in which to convey an idea of what goes on in AI brains. (I thought back, briefly, to the .gif strip where Momo is continually changing appearance, but can't recall if her irises change there).

Also, similarly to bhtooefr's insights, I don't think the fact that May used the term "god" necessarily implies worship of any kind. For one, it might be significant that it's not capitalised (many religious factions would instead use "[capital-G-]God") and instead just a blanket term for someone widely regarded as the progenitor of something. I might be coloring this with my own perceptions and experiences, however.

The idea itself seems a bit daunting, thinking of Coffee of Doom as a location for some quasi-Hajj for AI and mechanized types. It's not as if Hanners is the progenitor herself, though, so I don't see how that's marketable, I guess. Then again, there's people like Clinton (who maybe wanted to keep good things to  himself??? who knows).

[Zebediah]

Welcome, new person!

I'm pretty sure the thing with May's eyes is just a coloration error. I wouldn't read too much into it.

And having grown up Catholic, I can testify that in some real-world religions anything even remotely connected to anyone or anything holy is potential fodder for a shrine of some kind. So it isn't at all farfetched for CoD to become a pilgrimage site (the Creator's daughter sanctified it with her presence!)

[Mad Cat]

Time to talk about AI religion (btw, is "AI" an acceptable common term for robots/androids/AnthroPCs/AIs?).

Would those adherents be called… AI-theists?

[Method of Madness]

[Schwungrad]

For that matter, we don't know that May actually does worship John Ellicott-Chatham.

May's statement could mean any of the following:
- She has religious feelings towards Hannerdad and considers him God. Not in the "almighty" sense but in the "creator" sense.
- She has no religious feelings herself, but knows other AIs have.
- Hannerdad is an eminent figure and worshipped throughout Androidity, but the "god" moniker is only figurative, like some rock stars might be called "guitar gods".

Has anyone already pointed out possible parallels to the religion of the Robots of Gunnerkrigg Court? They, too, revere an engineer as "Angel".

[Aziraphale]

Still, if May's right about how big of a thing it would be if it got out that Hanners was working at the coffee house, props to Clinton for being showing more discretion than one might have expected.  Presumably the clue by four that was applied after he snapped the picture helped.

We've already seen how protective Clinton is toward Claire. It's not too much of a stretch that he could be similarly protective of Hanners, or at least cognizant enough of the potential for problems if her presence there were widely known that he keeps his yap shut about it.

[Storel]

Still, if May's right about how big of a thing it would be if it got out that Hanners was working at the coffee house, props to Clinton for being showing more discretion than one might have expected.  Presumably the clue by four that was applied after he snapped the picture helped.

We've already seen how protective Clinton is toward Claire. It's not too much of a stretch that he could be similarly protective of Hanners, or at least cognizant enough of the potential for problems if her presence there were widely known that he keeps his yap shut about it.

Um, the first thing he did upon meeting Hanners was to snap a photo that he was going to post on some web forum to be the envy of his geeky friends. Perhaps the clue-by-four promptly administered by the CoD gang made a significant change in his attitude, but I doubt it was such a huge epiphany that he'd refrain from bragging to his geek friends anyway... just that he wouldn't post any pictures.

[TheEvilDog]

I might be in the minority in regards to this, but May is creeping me out a little bit. Even Clinton didn't creep me out.... (He did make me want to stuff him into a small cupboard and lock the door forever, but that's another matter....)

And yeah, it might be because May might literally not have that mental filter, but for all the joking, I can't help but feel that this story arc might take a darker turn before it finishes.

I certainly hope I'm wrong.

[Omio]

Time to talk about AI religion (btw, is "AI" an acceptable common term for robots/androids/AnthroPCs/AIs?).

Would those adherents be called… AI-theists?

Not sure whether that's a pun or a serious term.

[Detachable Felix]

On this forum, standard rule is 'always assume it's a pun'

[Method of Madness]

And never assume it's serious.

[Omio]

On this forum, standard rule is 'always assume it's a pun'

Warning: A "That's the joke" meme will be all too appropriate a response.

The reason why I'm all mixed up is mainly because a theist is someone with a belief in some higher entity, where an atheist believes there is no such a thing. If someone places AIs as a higher entity, then the term makes sense, but if you assume it a pun for 'atheist', it doesn't make much sense, as I can see AIs valuing religion to some degree (particularly, enough to respect its presence, and likely think it intended to "retreat from a bunch of grim reminders").

Thus, my post.

Also, taking a couple of fun posts seriously can be fun in itself. =P

[Method of Madness]

It kind of works, if AI believe that the highest entity is an AI, then they wouldn't believe in any higher power than the most powerful AI, making them indeed AItheists and atheists.

[Kugai]

What now?


Faye is outsnarked by May (Cue Faye wielding The Stopsign of Doom) .......... 6 (14%)
Marten is attracted to May (Weirder things have happened) .......... 4 (9.3%)
Cosette trips with a full Caraffe into May - Sparks ensue .......... 2 (4.7%)
Dora hires May and replaces everyone else with her .......... 3 (7%)
Dale opens a Popcorn Consession in CoD .......... 0 (0%)
Spathe Ham with Waffles and Spathe Eggs .......... 0 (0%)
Purple Monkey Dishwasher .......... 0 (0%)
Hanners and May start the Robot Wars .......... 1 (2.3%)
Hanners and May become friends (Oh God, Oh God) .......... 20 (46.5%)
Whatever Jeph does, it'll be unexpected .......... 7 (16.3%)