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The secret to the unique taste of CoD's coffee is very possibly spider droppings and dead bugs

Momo actually considers May her friend

Faye likes to imagine Bubbles in different get-ups

No-one knows what Marten, Hannelore and Faye's landlord looks like; it could be JUICY!

Steve may be the most normal character in the strip

Marigold discusses her sex life with Hannelore in quite disturbing detail

Claire has the sort of mind that Pintsize fears

Sven and Hannelore may be the most healthy and normal friendships that the other has ever had

[jheartney]

I wouldn't call the radiation risks "pitiful." Radiation isn't all the same, and the cosmic rays astronauts would be exposed to are potentially quite dangerous.

Not terribly surprised the idea of launching nuclear reactors from the Earth is a touchy subject, what with the known tendency of chemical rockets to blow up (yes, still happens). You also need to provide for a landing in nearly airless conditions (so parachutes won't be enough by themselves) and enough fuel/propulsion capability to escape the Martian gravity well so you can return home. All so you can get a few meat-bags there for a few weeks to do a tiny fraction of the science that much cheaper unmanned probes can accomplish, given that the probes can stay for years and don't need a return trip.

[chaospersonified]

Oof. Shish. I think we're getting major world-building here, and possibly an explanation for near-future crankiness on Bubbles' behalf. She's hurt. Friggin' jerk-ass teens.

[Carl-E]

Callbacks.  Aside from the leaning redhead (no, it's not Harriet/ST), there's the AI toaster...

"I make toast fun!" 

It takes a particularly stupid brand of bigot to taunt a military grade armored AI.  We know Bubbles wouldn't do anything, but unless there's a well known directive a la Asimov's laws, it would be a risky act. 

Especially for a pubescent meatbag. 

[Penquin47]

Pubescent meatbags are immortal.  Don't you remember that from being one?  Nothing bad ever happens to them!

I feel so bad for Bubbles.  Just as she was gaining some confidence in her ability to be liked...

[BenRG]

If it makes you feel any better, Bubbles, human bigotry is species-agnostic. There are assholes out there who take even the smallest difference from them, in appearance or behavior, as an existential threat to them. Mostly, they prefer to just harass with talk and social exclusion because that carries fewer personal risks from retaliation. Occasionally, though, things can get a bit... hectic, especially if the bigot has a talent for demagoguery and political ambitions.

Ultimately, though, it isn't because you are a synthetic. It's because you don't look and act so similar to them that you could serve as a mirror. You'd be surprised by how threatening some people find that.

Just remember that your friends have accepted you unconditionally. Let that remind you that to assume all humans are bad, just because they are human is bigotry in its own right - Just as irrational and driven solely by fear.

[Is it cold in here?]

Yet it is sadly rational for her to have difficulty trusting.

[Tova]

The bottom panel perfectly captures Bubbles' feeling of isolation. Really well done.

[Akima]

Just the other day someone legitimately said if there was ONE microbe on Mars, or Venus, we should not settle there, because apparently we have no right to interfere, or some silly bull like that.

It's hard for me to imagine anyone who would halt our species just on the offhand chance of another species existed.

Well, the existence of other, less powerful members of our own species has certainly never halted the expansion of the more powerful, and we've treated fellow humans who get in our way much as we would no doubt treat hypothetical microbes on Mars. I'm quite certain that in the not-so-distant past, for example, anyone expressing concern for Native Americans or Australians, or suggesting they were entitled to the quiet enjoyment of their homelands, would have been regarded with the same derision applied today to people considering the ethics of encountering extra-terrestrial life-forms. If, one day, we encounter a species more powerful than our own, let us hope we receive mercy rather than justice.

If it makes you feel any better, Bubbles, human bigotry is species-agnostic.

Well... Many people kill (or pay others to kill), and eat non-human animals. Cannibalism is, by contrast, quite rare. While it is certainly true that people are immensely creative in finding ways to be arseholes to one another, they treat members of other species even worse.

And yes, the last panel is perfect.

[osaka]

This is incredibly tasteless from my side and I apologise in advance from what I'm about to say but.

Isn't it like THE one situation to drop the Navy Seals copypasta?

[hedgie]

The main problem with Seals is that they're terrified of Canadians.

[Doc]

I don't think a giant walking toaster would be a good idea.

You need to put several whole breads in them in stead of just two slices to fill them up, you will have to run after them if they walk away.
Just too much activity when all you want is to have a peaceful cosy breakfast.

[Skewbrow]

The main problem with Seals is that they're terrified of Canadians.

Of all Canadians or the Arctic Native ones (Inuits) in particular?

[BenRG]

@Doc,

Yeah, because "... a giant walking toaster..." has worked out so well for humans in the past in the fictional multiverse, hasn't it?



"All this has happened before and will happen again..."

All in all "they take our jobs" suddenly seems such a welcome alternative.

[MrNumbers]

This is reminding me of perhaps the most heartwarming scene in the otherwise dark and morbid John Darnielle novel Wolf in White Van.

The protagonist, whose view we experience the story from, has been the victim of a horrible... something and required complete facial reconstruction. His tongue is mostly missing and his face is described as looking like a truck tire held to a blowtorch and allowed to melt into a fleshy trackmark.

And he's hanging out around a little strip of shops and he sees some teenagers staring at his face. And he feels good about it, because everybody does, but they try to be polite about it, they try to avoid it, and he can feel the weight of their pity and judgement. And here are some dumb kids who aren't afraid to look him in the eye and just go;

"Woah. You're a freak."

And he fucking owns it and smiles and just goes; "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"Dude, that is so cool. Can we see?"

and they talk and hang out and drink beers. They offer him a cigarette and talk about what his face looks like, one upping each other with terrible, morbid jokes and he feels so free because these idiots are being friendly in their cruelty. They're not trying to look away, they're taking him for what he is and being open about it, rather than acting like he should be ashamed of it. And it takes something that you would think would crush a man who'd already had to deal with so much, and just lets him feel normal for the first time in decades by openly allowing him feel like the freak everyone refuses to acknowledge he is.

And then you have these chucklefucks who throw fucking prejudice into an already volatile mix, and now I want to tell their parents what they did.

[ZoeB]

I hate to think what the situation of AIs is in North Carolina.

[Zebediah]

In North Carolina? The state legislature passed a law voiding AI rights on the grounds that the AI Rights Amendment of the US Constitution doesn't actually apply to AIs. 

(Sorry, just not really pleased with my former home right now.)

[Method of Madness]

(no, it's not Harriet/ST)

She's not? Was she given another name in an earlier comic?

[ZoeB]

...and removing the rights of veterans - also blacks, jews etc - to sue for discrimination under state or even city law. Rights granted in 1980 as the toothless law from the 70s was found to be useless, as there was no means of enforcement. Not just removing them, but making it actually illegal for cities and counties to grant them in lieu of State protections.

Back to the good old days of 1979, when "those people" knew their place. And we're reminded of it daily by not just teenage assholes, but legislators too.

Given Bubbles' physical capacity for mayhem, restrained only by the fact that she's not morally bankrupt, I can easily imagine a scare campaign being all too successful at stampeding a panicking mob. In Houston too, for that matter. "Focus on Humanity" using copied mugshots from probationers' offices to argue that AIs are really Skynet just waiting the opportunity to slaughter our children in their beds.

This comic is a bit more subtle - and acceptable - than Claire' crie de coeur - but that may just be because none of the readers would disagree with the contention that the teenagers are just being assholes, and hurting someone vulnerable who doesn't deserve it. There's no need for the mods to state that this forum is a "safe space" for AIs.

[MrWoodchip]

These guys are... I can't think of a word with the right intensity, so just think of the most severe insult you can.

For real, fuckin' dbags.

[Tanman]

Well... that wasn't funny at all 

[ZoeB]

I know Bubbles isn't into hugs... but I wonder if she'd like to try the aroma of a nice, blended Fortnum & Mason Earl Grey, with just a tiny drop of pear juice?

I'd like to help put her in a happier place, and to demonstrate that we care. OK, she's an AI, and a completely fictional character in a comic, but such matters are trivial in comparison with other matters. Far easier to do it for her  than for members of the NC legislature, but to graduate from the advanced class, you have to be kind to them too. While making sure they don't backstab you, and limiting the damage they can do.

i'm not sure I'm ready for the advanced class yet. That I'm willing to even entertain the thought is more than I thought I could do.

I really hope Jeph will take Bubbles out of the place she's in with that last panel. It's a place few can remain in for long without lasting damage, and she's so vulnerable now, she could do with some help.

Darn, Jeph's good, isn't he? Just lines, solid colours and then displayed as pixels on a screen, yet emotionally involving. That's talent.

[Method of Madness]

I hope she doesn't take this as evidence that CW is right.

[comicalArchitect]

I hope she doesn't take this as evidence that CW is right.

That WOULD seem to be the direction this is going. Of course, one of QC's running themes is people actually acting way more mature than the sitcom tropes would suggest, so maybe Bubbles won't start secluding herself again.

[BenRG]

I think it will be more of a case of a frustration that she can't nail down humanity into a single cohesive most probable response. After all, she's met new friends who have given her only acceptance; she's met... Emily; she's met people who hate her for no other reason than being a Synthetic. I suspect that she's going to vent to Faye at some length about how no two humans respond to her in entirely the same way and this makes her feel uncomfortable and unsettled.

I think that she wants some kind of assurance that she knows how people will react to her when that simply isn't possible and that fact may frighten her.

I've said this before but I really do think that talking to Claire and Dora may prove to be eye-opening about living with being different or, more importantly, the perception that others may view you as different and what it can do to you if you let that fear dominate you.

[osaka]

i'm not sure I'm ready for the advanced class yet. That I'm willing to even entertain the thought is more than I thought I could do.

Your consideration of the advanced class sounds a lot like a third doctorate to me, so allow me to slow clap.

And while BenRG might be close, I don't think that she's frustrated, or at least not only frustrated. It's a scary world after all, even if you're an 8 ft tall anti-tank combat AI.

[swapna]

I like this comic - Bubbles, is in her core a very introverted person. She doesn't like the attention she's getting, and people looking at her makes her feel uncomfortable. Even those who might not hate her for who she is (red-haired sweet-tits and the person who tells the synthophobe^{(is there a word for this is this a thing if it is not I hope I made this word up)} to shut up) still can't help but stare at her. No wonder she took so long to adjust to Faye's unique but utterly honest kind of affection.

[Is it cold in here?]

I wonder what Bubbles was doing before she joined the armed services.

[Rghfrgl]

This comic is a bit more subtle - and acceptable - than Claire' crie de coeur -

Imagine if instead of her speech, or leading up to it, we had her in this situation instead. The strip would be really powerful.

Or it could be Dora and Tai in this situation(Though being a womens college town you'd probably need to change teens to bitter old people who don't like what their town turned into or something).

What if instead of May, Dale walked into someplace with a now hiring sign up and got told they weren't hiring?

There's nothing really wrong with robots as a surrogate for discrimination, but when they are it's 'just a story', because robot discrimination isn't actually a real thing.

(click to show/hide)

Except robodog. Stop kicking the poor thing.

[Radium_Coyote]

Bubbles' physical body is a product of necessity: in a world where all the tools are built for human use, the most versatile AI is wears an android body.  While there's something to be said for single-purpose tools, neither myself nor Alton Brown cleave to such things.  I would guess, on this basis, that she actually has an extremely varied set of skills.

Psychologically she's a pretty recognizable mess.  It doesn't look like she feels she can reach out to anybody.

[Is it cold in here?]

This is Jeph stretching himself. Historically he's mostly avoided heavy drama. If he adds to his repertoire many new possibilities will open up.

BTW anti-robot racists already exist, lining up in anticipation of the day they will have robots to hate. They've shown up here in fact.

>acceptable

Zoe, to your eyes, did Claire's speech look wrong? 'Cause I've been in a conversation very much like that one, where I was the Pintsize and Akima was the Claire.

[FunkyTuba]

Yes, as painful as this is for Bubbles, I'm eager to see where Jeph goes with this trip into the dark. I hope she doesn't run into Corpse Witch next.

[Kugai]

And fuck you too you reject from a bad Blade Runner remake teen.

[Radium_Coyote]

Yes, as painful as this is for Bubbles, I'm eager to see where Jeph goes with this trip into the dark. I hope she doesn't run into Corpse Witch next.

I was going to mention this, but hoped I had thought better of it.  Corpsewitch has laid the ground for what is essentially a racist battle, one that will at least partly play out in Bubbles' circle of acquaintances.

And I've not observed Jeph to bail on a difficult storyline, or I probably wouldn't still be reading after all this time.  This is interesting.

[danuis]

I wouldn't call the radiation risks "pitiful." Radiation isn't all the same, and the cosmic rays astronauts would be exposed to are potentially quite dangerous.

Not terribly surprised the idea of launching nuclear reactors from the Earth is a touchy subject, what with the known tendency of chemical rockets to blow up (yes, still happens). You also need to provide for a landing in nearly airless conditions (so parachutes won't be enough by themselves) and enough fuel/propulsion capability to escape the Martian gravity well so you can return home. All so you can get a few meat-bags there for a few weeks to do a tiny fraction of the science that much cheaper unmanned probes can accomplish, given that the probes can stay for years and don't need a return trip.

Again - cosmic rays - thats why you have stormcellars. Big dosage coming along? Everyone into the shielded closet until it's over. Literally one of the first things I said. These are not new or unheard of problems, and mission plans since Von Braun's Mars Project have integrated it into account and evolved with the science.

The probes can't do jack. Most probes die on the ground after a few years, are slow, are incredibly held back in their capacity, and, oh, aren't humans doing anything. Let's say there are fossils on mars, yea? Where are they going to be? Under meters of dirt, even on the seabed, since the atmosphere has been moving around that dirt and covering the fossils for millions, billions of years. No probe can ever dig through that, and we shouldn't keep waiting and hoping that one day we'll make an uberrobot to do what we can do, instead of bringing along bots that, if we placed them on earth in a archeological dig, would serve as coffee tables at best. In the realms of the other sciences, a human on Mars presents massive leaps in transport technology, life habituation, health, and pride; things the probes and landers and rovers barely, if ever, push, much less achieve.
 
As for the exploding - If a rocket explodes carrying a nuclear reactor or a nuclear thruster, all which happens is that the solid block of radioactive material falls into the ocean, adding barely anymore radiation than the dozen or so rusting nuclear submarines such as the Thresher. If the rocket blows, to boot. There's quite a few ten-thousand odd launches so far, and the Soviets have already launched a nuclear reactor up there, and it would not surprise me in the slightest if the USAF has or is about to; and the vast majority of launches are successful - especially when we don't rush the engineers to finish their rocket, but give them the time and funding they need and listen to their input - consider the N1 versus the Saturn V, for example. Reasonable chances for me.

[ZoeB]

Zoe, to your eyes, did Claire's speech look wrong? 'Cause I've been in a conversation very much like that one, where I was the Pintsize and Akima was the Claire.

Wrong? No, uncomfortably right. Reality is often unpolished like that.

Did anyone else notice how Bubbles was being stared at as she happily walked down the street?

I've not had that. My face may not be my fortune, but at 5'6" I don't stand out. I've been walking with other women over 6' though, some of whom have been really affected by testosterone. They look visibly different from the norm.  So I've experienced that feeling. Same in some parts of Thailand, where Falang don't usually go, but there it was accompanied by good-natured curiosity at the funny big-nose. It doesn't *have* to be accompanied by fear. The old "See the stranger, Fear the stranger, Hate the stranger, Kill the stranger" bit is optional.

[Method of Madness]

Harriet doesn't seem to be outright staring (unlike those jerk-ass teens), but I definitely don't think Bubbles was particularly happy even before she heard them. She's not yet been made angry, but she already looks sad.

[hedgie]

Of all Canadians or the Arctic Native ones (Inuits) in particular?

Probably all of them.

[jheartney]

Again - cosmic rays - thats why you have stormcellars. Big dosage coming along? Everyone into the shielded closet until it's over. Literally one of the first things I said. These are not new or unheard of problems, and mission plans since Von Braun's Mars Project have integrated it into account and evolved with the science.

Cosmic rays are constant, and come from every direction. Unless you plan to live in your "stormcellar," it's not an answer to them.

The probes can't do jack. Most probes die on the ground after a few years, are slow, are incredibly held back in their capacity, and, oh, aren't humans doing anything. Let's say there are fossils on mars, yea? Where are they going to be? Under meters of dirt, even on the seabed, since the atmosphere has been moving around that dirt and covering the fossils for millions, billions of years. No probe can ever dig through that, and we shouldn't keep waiting and hoping that one day we'll make an uberrobot to do what we can do, instead of bringing along bots that, if we placed them on earth in a archeological dig, would serve as coffee tables at best. In the realms of the other sciences, a human on Mars presents massive leaps in transport technology, life habituation, health, and pride; things the probes and landers and rovers barely, if ever, push, much less achieve.

Now you're just being ridiculous. Everything we know about the solar system beyond the Moon is thanks to probes. Humans haven't ventured past near-Earth orbit for decades, yet we've had huge advances in knowledge about all the planets. Just last year we got the first good look at Pluto, and the data was spectacular. We've had probes parked around Saturn sending back amazing data and images of the Saturn system. On Mars, we've had landers doing every sort of science, and they've been at it for years, exploring in much more depth than humans would be able to unless they stayed in place for years, which they won't be doing.

Your example of digging for fossils on Mars is pretty far-fetched, and it's not at all likely that a mission that's there for a few weeks would do much of that anyway. As for your list, I have no idea what most of that is even supposed to mean in a Martian context ("health and pride"). Your assertions aside, probes do real science for a fraction of the cost of sending people for a short-term visit.

As for the exploding - If a rocket explodes carrying a nuclear reactor or a nuclear thruster, all which happens is that the solid block of radioactive material falls into the ocean, adding barely anymore radiation than the dozen or so rusting nuclear submarines such as the Thresher. If the rocket blows, to boot. There's quite a few ten-thousand odd launches so far, and the Soviets have already launched a nuclear reactor up there, and it would not surprise me in the slightest if the USAF has or is about to; and the vast majority of launches are successful - especially when we don't rush the engineers to finish their rocket, but give them the time and funding they need and listen to their input - consider the N1 versus the Saturn V, for example. Reasonable chances for me.

Easy for you to say the chances are reasonable, given you don't live downwind. Wonder how solid a block of radioactive material it'll be if it's on a giant bomb that explodes (which is what a rocket is) and scatters everything for miles.

Anyway, this is all very off topic, and I wouldn't blame the mods for telling us to take it elsewhere. I'll just note that Bubbles, sans armor, would probably make a terrific astronaut.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Losing Yelling Bird doesn't mean we can't see Harriet anymore.

Toasters? Some humaniform AIs are, um, socially challenged:
There is a reason they keep Charlotte back by the toasters.

[Is it cold in here?]

The principal investigator for the Mars rovers said a human could match a day's worth of rover work in 30 to 45 seconds.

[Penquin47]

Main advantages humans have over rovers: intelligence and judgment.  You can "program" a human with a lot more tasks at once than a rover, because if a human runs into an unforeseen development, they have training and judgment to decide how to proceed, rather than having to call home, wait while the scientists on Earth figure out what to do based on limited data, and receive new instructions.

Example: one of the Venus landers was supposed to extend a probe to test the compressability of the Venusian surface.  Due to bad luck, it ended up measuring the compressability of the lens cap of its camera.  For a human, this is a five-second fix - kick the lens cap out of the way or move the probe five centimeters thataway.  For the lander, this was unsolvable.

[mustang6172]

The principal investigator for the Mars rovers said a human could match a day's worth of rover work in 30 to 45 seconds.

A day's worth, or a sol's worth?

[mr.jacob]

It's interesting that this is how Jeph draws punk-ass kids, since so many of his other characters are into alt looks

tho the one with the dyed hair is the most sensible one, so maybe that point is moot

[bhtooefr]

Fucking Corpse Witch...

[Near Lurker]

The rant says Linkin Park, but I've got to be honest, I'm hearing a certain Disney song.

[neurocase]

Corpse Witch should change her name. Swap the W for a B.

[hedgie]

The rant says Linkin Park, but I've got to be honest, I'm hearing a certain Disney song.

At least it's not that one song with samples of Daleks[1]

[1]I'm aware that they're less robot than cyborg, but last time I checked there really weren't any for Skynet or Cylons.

[Tova]

The rant says Linkin Park, but I've got to be honest, I'm hearing a certain Disney song.

Everybody Wants to be a Cat?

[haikupoet]

The principal investigator for the Mars rovers said a human could match a day's worth of rover work in 30 to 45 seconds.

Perhaps. But it's a moot point if you can't keep that human investigator alive for the trip.

[Is it cold in here?]

There was room for discussion before this but Corpse Witch is now definitely a bad person.

Bad person, manipulative, in charge of combat-modified AIs outside of legal monitoring. If someone were to prepare an anti-human uprising that would be the way to start.