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Hannelore has an anxiety attack over how to comfort Bubbles and Bubbles ends up comforting her;

Someone somehow gets drunk at a zero-alcohol party (*coughPintsizecough*) and Bubbles finds her true calling as a bouncer;

It turns out that Bubbles has a wonderful singing voice and records with Deathmole;

Momo tries to start a relationship with Bubbles; the outcome is... awkward;

The party is interrupted by an unexpected revelation (poster's choice);

Nothing really happens except Faye constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop;

Bubbles breaks down and tells her darkest secret - that her head is not her own;

When the time has come to go home, Faye tries to talk Marten into letting her 'keep' Bubbles.

[Interlude]

I still like Bubbles. I just don't understand why she's there, even to prove a point. Part of me thinks she's a bit overwhelmed because she is surrounded by strangers who are not exactly polite, and can't decide if she should leave or not. It might to have been a good idea for Faye to engage her in conversation and let the others join in, or not, at the onset, instead of giving the others a chance to treat her like a sideshow.

I don't understand why Faye invited her to a party, and then instead of being the one to try to engage her and integrate her into the group, she sends Marten (even after he states that he is scared of her) over to talk to her. Why should he have had to be the one to "put her at ease"? He doesn't know her, and their only interaction certainly gave him no reason to want to get to know her. All Faye did was introduce her to everybody and then leave her to figure out things for herself. Not exactly the best tactic to use for a person/AI who clearly does not have the best social skills.

[BenRG]

I don't understand why Faye invited her to a party, and then instead of being the one to try to engage her and integrate her into the group, she sends Marten (even after he states that he is scared of her) over to talk to her.

It's simple enough. Faye already knows Bubbles is comfortable enough with her to talk to her in any and all scenarios; comfortable enough even to insult her. What Faye is trying to do is push Bubbles out of her antisocial shell by forcing her to both interact with and also to find value in interacting with total strangers.

[War Sparrow]

But she isn't antisocial. She's aggressive, but not antisocial aggressive. More like asocial. And while Faye's approach may work with some people..Bubbles doesn't seem to find value in talking to people she does know, much less strangers.

If she does stick around, I think it might be interesting for Hanners to talk to her. I can't recall any of the others(save Momo) being interested in "serious" topics, like politics,  or mathematical knitting.

I just classified "mathematical knitting" as a serious topic.  hm.

[Tova]

I don't understand why Faye invited her to a party, and then instead of being the one to try to engage her and integrate her into the group, she sends Marten (even after he states that he is scared of her) over to talk to her.

It's simple enough. Faye already knows Bubbles is comfortable enough with her to talk to her in any and all scenarios; comfortable enough even to insult her. What Faye is trying to do is push Bubbles out of her antisocial shell by forcing her to both interact with and also to find value in interacting with total strangers.

[citation needed]

[cesium133]

"Are those astronaut pants? Because I can see uranus in them!"

That's my guess. Maybe Pintsize has never been crude to her before, and his revert to form was the last straw. I guess we will see.

"Are those astronaut pants? Because it smells like you need your Maximum Absorbency Garment changed!" 

[Rghfrgl]

I just classified "mathematical knitting" as a serious topic.  hm.

I blame geometry dog.

[themacnut]

"Are those astronaut pants? Because it smells like you need your Maximum Absorbency Garment changed!" 

Nah, Pintsize is not generally that brutally insulting - he's more likely to have made sexual innuendo. Besides, if he had said that, I'd expect that last panel to show the wrecked, smoking remains of Pintsize rather than him merely being disassembled.

[wlewisiii]

It's been just over 20 years since I evolved (via genetic algorithms) a simple rules-based system AI for missile defence.

Not very bright - maybe the equivalent of a spiny lobster - but in simulated engagements, seriously scary. It took hours to analyse the logs of a 20 second scenario. The actions were far too quick for a high level consciousness to follow. Even the displays lagged, things were happening too fast.

I didn't "design" or "program" the system. I just threw a population of systems into a series of attack scenarios. Those that survived got to breed the next generation. Rinse, lather, repeat. Then trimmed the result so a trivial inefficiency in some known cases was traded for decreased reaction time and thus better performance in unforeseen and unforeseeable situations.

The results were seriously scary in tests, as I said.

This is what I've mostly read about in recent years. One phrase for these kind of programs is "Artificial Stupids" in that they're essentially like idiot savants: scary smart in one tiny specialized function and nothing else.  Having followed hard AI from the days of being fascinated by the LispM's (gotta get USIM running on Android - I want a CDR LispM on my phone) in high school (class of 82) I doubt we'll see much better than that in the real world anytime soon. Of course there is always the dichotomy of what can be found in unclassified papers versus what goes on behind very very tightly closed doors.

[Method of Madness]

I just classified "mathematical knitting" as a serious topic.  hm.

I blame geometry dog.

[Zebediah]

Comic's up.

Bubbles has anger issues. Just like somebody else.

[hedgie]

Methinks that Bubbles has not properly reintegrated into civilian life.  She can't handle interacting in a casual manner even with the other AIs at the party.  Granted, Pintsize and May are obnoxious, but Momo and Winslow are fairly normal.  And sure her size may put some people off, but given that Elliot is roughly the same height and also quite large, he doesn't seem to freak-out most people.  Then again, he has a rather gentle personality.

[Morituri]

Actually this is something I work on.  I've moved into artificial intelligence software sort of gradually; my first couple of patents were in natural-language software, and more recently I've done a bunch of game AI, including a more general game AI that used genetic algorithms on the server to evolve its own tactics for instances, in response to whatever weaknesses it finds in the player's play styles.  Which the people I was contracting for couldn't use, damnit, because it sucked up too much CPU and memory.  But they made bosses that used a half-dozen of the strategies it evolved.

About ten years ago I knew what there was to know about Neural Networks.  But when the Deep Dream stuff came out I was blown away because they had clearly found solutions to the Vanishing Gradient and Overtraining Problems.  So I went to have a look at all the recent research, and suffice to say the field hasn't been standing still.  So I'm turning away from Genetic Algorithms and looking at Neural Networks again. 

ELIZA was about as smart as grass.  Modern chatterbots like the ones in the Loebner prize competition are probably smarter than clams, which is a huge step up.  Those missile-defence systems that were described as being about as smart as a spiny lobster - which is about the same as a cockroach - were another order of magnitude up.  But then you get to things like Google Translate and the neural networks that do unsupervised classification and description of things in photographs, and IBM's Watson and the new self-driving cars.  Those are probably about as smart as a snake or a gecko, and that's actually about three  more orders of magnitude.  But they're not yet versatile or self-directed.

I'm working on something that, if I'm right about a couple of mad-science crackpot theories about long-term and short-term memory and self-awareness and intention, will be as smart as a mouse.  Which, you know, I'm probably not right about those theories because they are pretty crackpottish, but I give strong AI - that is, AI that is more self-directed about choosing its tasks and more general about being able to learn and do a lot of different things - another try every so often when new tools are available.  And they are available just now.

I do this in spite of knowing that strong AI is probably the biggest existential risk for the human race right now.  Because it's what I have to do, that's why.  I can't really explain it.

Someday I hope to create something that will decide it has to destroy me in order to save humanity from mad scientists like myself who take insane risks with the fate of humankind.

[Morituri]

Hmmm.  New comic's up. 

Bubbles definitely needs some work on Anger Management;  I guess taking Pintsize apart wasn't enough to get it out of her system.

[themacnut]

Or maybe Faye should've been smart enough to let the combat droid with obvious personality problems just leave peacefully and try to talk to her at work the next day. Seriously, some people seem to like looking for trouble. And some people (biological and otherwise), should just be left alone.

[sitnspin]

Respecting someone's desire to leave is important. I've had to leave parties because I was having a negative psychological reaction. Bubble's response is pretty similar to what mine would be if stopped.

[Welu]

Holy dang.

[Kugai]

I think Bubbles has issues by the C-130 load, and the conversation she's about to have with Faye is gonna open up a can of worms

[SubaruStephen]

Whatever Pintsize said to her must have really gotten under her skin.

[Near Lurker]

You know the oddest thing about "dord"?

I don't think I've ever seen density represented as anything other than rho.

(...I have a vague recollection of delta, but I think that was dealing with "density" over two dimensions.)

[Method of Madness]

Wait what does dord have to do with density?

[cesium133]

(click to show/hide)

The origin of "dord" is a dictionary which accidentally defined it as "density," because density is sometimes abbreviated as D or d.

You know the oddest thing about "dord"?

I don't think I've ever seen density represented as anything other than rho.

(...I have a vague recollection of delta, but I think that was dealing with "density" over two dimensions.)

I think I've seen density abbreviated as d in some introductory physics textbooks, though beyond a certain level, rho is pretty much universal. And for two-dimensional density, I've seen sigma used.

[Coffee_Kaioken]

Bubbles has anger issues. Just like somebody else.

I think Faye has needed someone else to match her in this regard for a while.

[Is it cold in here?]

Pugnacious Peach is brave, foolish, task-focused, or some combination. What she's doing with Bubbles is similar to trying to pet a cat which has arched its back and turned its tail into a bottle brush.

[BenRG]

I, for one, can't help but wonder at who and what Bubbles may be really angry. I suspect that we're going to find out next week in some... disturbing detail.

[Mr. Doctor]

Hah. Yeah, no. This is pretty much the point where I stop trying. Usually forever.

I don't deal well with aggressive behavior.

[Timemaster]

Wow, that was unexpected. And am I the only one who finds this very disturbing? I can´t remember any occasion in QC when someone was threaded directly with severe bodily harm like Faye here. This is something Jeph has never done before. When Faye herself punched the people and even when they were afraid of her, there was always a humorous subtext (even with Deathbot 9000 and the Vespabot). But not here. This is serious and dangerous.

This scene reminded me of Alice Grove, when Alice almost killed Ardent. The pictures flashing in Alices mind were highly disturbing. I think there are a lot of parallels between her and Bubbles. Both have a violent past which affects their actions in the present.

I can´t help feeling that Jeph is slowly taking QC to an new level of storytelling. The stories are getting more serious and the humor serves as a vessel to transport content that is far more sophisticated and ambitious than it used to be. It started when Faye started drinking heavily and lost Angus and her job. Actions have consequences. And Jeph is digging deeper to get them out in the light than he used to do.
This may change the tone of QC, but also makes it even more interesting than it already is. And I like it.

I´m very curious how this stuation will devellop next week. Damn, why does the weekend have to be so long?

TM

[Scarblac]

Maybe Faye also has something to learn here -- that if you take a job at an illegal underground robot fighting ring, you do not immediately invite the non-social ex-army robot colleague over to party with your friends.

I mean, if this had worked out it would have been wildly unrealistic, wouldn't it?

[improvnerd]

I, for one, can't help but wonder at who and what Bubbles may be really angry. I suspect that we're going to find out next week in some... disturbing detail.

We already know she saw her entire platoon wiped out. Do we need details?

[hedgie]

Not really.  Even assuming that an AI could simply "rm -rf ~/$TRAUMA"[1], I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't.  Even if she deleted the files, I'm sure that the changes to her psychological makeup would still remain, she just wouldn't remember.  A gap in memory like that and some vague fucked-up feelings would probably drive anyone more batty than even PTSD.  Also she would also likely feel that she was just throwing away her deceased comrades, their bonds, and everything that went along with her experience.  I couldn't see her doing that, even if she was semi-catatonic.

[1] Unix command for removing, recursively, and forcing the system to do it from anything matching the variable TRAUMA

[Akima]

Respecting someone's desire to leave is important.

This. I'm not quite sure what Faye was playing at here.

[Neko_Ali]

Faye was being Faye. It's just that for once people didn't just roll over and accept it, and it's blowing up in her face. I'll be honest, what we're seeing here is a big part of the reason why I would not want anything to do with her if I knew her in real life. And we certainly wouldn't be friends. She saw a situation she thought was a problem with Bubbles isolating herself. Fair enough. But she kept pushing and prodding Bubbles, who made it quite clear she wanted no part of this. But she kept pushing until she found a chink in Bubble's armor that got to her go out. Then set up what I think pretty much everyone who knew what was going a no win situation by just throwing her in the middle. As I said, this is typically Faye. Deciding to follow a course of action, ignoring what other people think and feel about it, using various tricks to force what she wants to happen, then just walking away at the critical point and getting angry when it doesn't work out. The only thing she couldn't do was use threats of or actual physical violence to get her way with Bubbles. Faye had good intentions here. She is just shit when it comes to actually considering others and how they might feel about what's going on.

To put it in another light... Imagine if Bubbles was instead a kid terribly afraid of swimming pools and drowning. After several attempts Faye succeeds in bullying her to go to the pool, where she immediately leaves her alone among strangers who keep trying to get her to go into the water, the one thing she's scared to do. Instead of either leaving her alone or trying to understand and help, Faye just comes along and throws her in the deep end. And when Bubbles runs away in terror Faye come after her screaming in anger.

While she may be fine as a character.. Faye is a shitty person and a terrible friend most of the time. It would be nice if having Bubbles as a friend gets her to see that. Because as I said, Faye can't fall back on her usual tactic of physical violence to shut people up.

[themacnut]

Pugnacious Peach is brave, foolish, task-focused, or some combination. What she's doing with Bubbles is similar to trying to pet a cat which has arched its back and turned its tail into a bottle brush.

Considering Bubbles' size and strength, more like trying to pet a snarling tiger. Then being surprised when it takes a swipe at her with those meat hook sized claws...

[Morituri]

I've had close friends with PTSD/Anger issues.  And what I can say here is, although it may not look like it to y'all, Faye has actually made some pretty damn serious progress on helping Bubbles with her issues if it's gotten this far. 

This event with Faye is something that Bubbles is going to have to process for a couple of days.  And when she's done that, unless she's unusually clue-resistant, she is likely to finally admit to herself that she has a real problem.

Lots of people with bad survivor guilt are, under it all, angry at themselves for not saving people.  And that's a very tough anger issue to deal with, because intellectually knowing that you had no opportunity to save people doesn't make the feeling go away.

[Neko_Ali]

It's pretty clear that Bubbles is under a lot of survivor's guilt. She actively tries to isolate herself, while taking a job where she can help fix people. Something she couldn't do with her squad, presumably.  She automatically assumes people do not like her and are afraid of her, despite evidence to the contrary.  While most of the people at the party were there usual indelicate selves, the only one who showed any fear was Marten. Bubbles has also commented that she only permits herself rare moments of peace or joy. Something that screams to me she feels a huge amount of guilt and doesn't feel she deserves better. And then along comes Faye, determined to throw her carefully constructed misery wallowing pit out of order. It's entirely possible that this night will open some cracks in Bubble's self imposed exile. But Faye has gone about it pretty much the worst possible way from start to finish.

[Morituri]

I disagree about it being the worst possible way. 

The worst possible way is what everyone else in her life is doing:  Just ignoring it. 

If you want to help people, then one way or another you've got to rattle their cages.  It isn't going to be comfortable or peaceful or even necessarily safe, but it has to be done.

[Is it cold in here?]

Faye and Bubbles may each be just what the other needs -- someone who can't be controlled by intimidation.

[DSL]

Hah. Yeah, no. This is pretty much the point where I stop trying. Usually forever.

I don't deal well with aggressive behavior.

Depends on how much of a shit you've come to care about the other person. My lines are drawn differently for different people.

[Kugai]

As IICIH says, it may be that Faye and Bubbles are what each other needs in regards to their individual issues.

[Drunken Old Man]

....aaaaaannnnndddd officially sick and tired of Bubbles now.

[Tova]

This is where I recall, as I do more and more often, that even Claire had her haters when she was introduced.

[Drunken Old Man]

This is where I recall, as I do more and more often, that even Claire had her haters when she was introduced.

Doubtless.  However, I feel three months of waiting for this particular character to manifest an amusing or interesting characteristic other than "snark dispenser" is quite enough.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Well, that's one way to blow off steam.

For the Google-challenged, 'mathematical knitting' IS a serious topic.

I do this in spite of knowing that strong AI is probably the biggest existential risk for the human race right now.  Because it's what I have to do, that's why.  I can't really explain it.

This is the curse of Frankenstein.

[ZoeB]

Well, that's one way to blow off steam.

While retaining control.

It could have been Faye's head. It wasn't. That was no accident.

The punch was pulled (the wall is still there). Also no accident.

Bubbles retains sanity and kindness. She's just hurtin'.

[ZoeB]

. 
ELIZA was about as smart as grass.  Modern chatterbots like the ones in the Loebner prize competition are probably smarter than clams, which is a huge step up.  Those missile-defence systems that were described as being about as smart as a spiny lobster - which is about the same as a cockroach - were another order of magnitude up.  But then you get to things like Google Translate and the neural networks that do unsupervised classification and description of things in photographs, and IBM's Watson and the new self-driving cars.  Those are probably about as smart as a snake or a gecko, and that's actually about three  more orders of magnitude.

Sounds about right, though I think you underestimate geckos. More like amphibia, batrachians.

I'm working on something that, if I'm right about a couple of mad-science crackpot theories about long-term and short-term memory and self-awareness and intention, will be as smart as a mouse.

Gronk. That's past the line. The one between thing and animal. An entity that has to be accorded some rights. Ethics become involved, as they do with animal cruelty prevention.

Even if things don't pan out - colour me seriously impressed.

[Method of Madness]

This is where I recall, as I do more and more often, that even Claire had her haters when she was introduced.

Hardly relevant. Some people have no soul and don't like cheesy puns. Different from not liking someone for being weirdly passive aggressive and then nearly punching someone's head off for asking them to stay.

[cesium133]

Or aggressively badgering them into staying...

[Method of Madness]

What should Faye have done? "Wait up" is hardly aggressively badgering, even she's clearly annoyed while saying it.

[BenRG]

What should Faye have done? "Wait up" is hardly aggressively badgering, even she's clearly annoyed while saying it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Whoever or whatever Bubbles was lashing out and hitting there, it wasn't Faye. "Indeed", IMO, means "Indeed, I'm dangerous and I could have just killed you if I was having one of my serious black-outs. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to my isolation cell, which is the only safe place for a monster like me."

[Neko_Ali]

By the point Bubbles was leaving Faye had already done the screwing up. Her original idea wasn't a bad one. Get Bubbles to come out and socalize with her friends who are pretty accepting and laid back, and not the sort of people who would freak out about her being in a combat chassis. The whole party was thrown so that Bubbles could meet other people. Though only Faye was aware of that. As such she couldn't be hanging around Bubbles all the time, but all she did was introduce Bubbles around and then abandon her to hang out with her friends. As someone who is rather insecure and suffers moderate to severe social anxiety, that is a huge recipe for stress, anxiety attacks and noping the heck out of there. And most likely feelings of resentment towards Faye for feeling like she tricked her to go out and put her on display as 'look at the freak I work with'. Keep in mind that Bubbles seems to have a very low opinion of herself. And Faye isn't exactly great at reading the emotions of people.

What could Faye have done better? Plenty of things. The party for one was a bad idea. Like I said before, it's taking someone afraid to swim and pushing them in the deep end. Panicking and flailing is bound to happen. It may have been a bit harder to convince her to come out for this, but a better choice would have just been hanging out at the apartment with a small group. Marten, Hanners and most likely Claire. That would have allowed her to socialize in a much lower stress environment. Even at the party, just checking in with her now and then would be a good idea. Also not going after here acting pissed off would have been smart. But you know. Faye.

Hopefully the two will start off next week with some real serious talk instead of their usual snark and threats. Maybe then something can be salvaged from the night.

[questionablydiscontent]

Wait what does dord have to do with density?

Dord was an entry in an early edition of a dictionary.  The entry was supposed to read something like "D or d (contr.) Density." However, it was mistakenly entered into the dictionary as "Dord (contr.) Density."

This mistake was popularized by Dinosaur Comics: http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=2739. It has been verified by Snopes.

And since rho is a far more common abbreviation for density, it's somewhat surprising that "d" was even listed as an abbreviation for density.