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What will Ardent's answer reveal?

Exactly what he said, a friend hacked the transporter console and he woke up on Earth.
It was actually someone no one ever heard of that promised this and Alice was wrong about the Praeses.
The Praeses are playing dumb and Laridia is just there to convince them they had nothing to do with Ardent going to Earth.
There's actually a rogue element among the Praeses in cahoots with a mysterious 3rd party.
Nothing.  Spookybot will wake up suddenly and realize this was all just a nightmare.

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Author Topic: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?  (Read 255411 times)

retrosteve

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #350 on: 12 Jul 2017, 16:39 »

I don't *know* that Jeph and Randall know each other, but they have linked to each other for pretty much forever, and if I were Jeph and had the option to run some sci-fi shit by XCKD I sure would.

Two comics in a row that seem particularly relevant. I really do think Randall is at a minimum watching with us, and possibly colored the world's physics back when Jeph was working on the concept.

https://xkcd.com/1862/

Well, if you're bringing that up, I should mention that Jeph definitely knows Charlie Stross. (Here he is talking to Marten http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2394 ) and the Blink definitely bears some Stross influence (see Iron Sunrise). There is also some simulated world in space stuff going on in Stross (Accelerando). So there's an influence for sure.
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Kugai

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #351 on: 12 Jul 2017, 16:40 »

I do hope Gavia is able to heal Sedna properly, I have a feeling we're going to need her.

It's going to be interesting to see how close to the truth Alice gets.
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Neko_Ali

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #352 on: 12 Jul 2017, 17:03 »

I am beginning to think that the arrival of the Praeses or specifically Cupressaceae to Earth was the Blink. They arrived with an endless war over resources and territory going on, the population far outstripping the capability of the planet to provide. They absorbed the majority of life on the planet, forming internal worlds within themselves with the consciousness of the people, letting them think they live, grow old, reproduce and die but really just recycling the same minds, giving them the post scarcity utopia the people wanted, and subtly influencing them, reprogramming them to not be so greedy and self destructive. Alice says nobody knows what happened. One day they were at war, the next day there were space colonies and the war and most of the old world technology was gone. Presumably Cupressaceae didn't absorb or whatever the immortals, those that were left. Maybe it didn't see them as human.

The world has been on the road to recovery, while humanity is molded within the worlds the Praeses creates... To eventually be released back on the surface? Perhaps Ardent being sent to Earth was part of stage 2 of the plan, that Cupressaceae is unaware of. Or another yet known party is trying to force their way out of the inner worlds, Matrix style.
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LKR1009

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #353 on: 12 Jul 2017, 18:37 »

Maybe Alice's village is like the Doomsday Seed Vault for Homo sapiens.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #354 on: 12 Jul 2017, 18:43 »

So why not tell Mr. Pate "This way to the transwarp starships" and drop him into a simulation where he and his townspeople colonize the galaxy, without telling him it's a simulation?
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cesium133

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #355 on: 12 Jul 2017, 18:44 »

Maybe Alice's village is like the Doomsday Seed Vault for Homo sapiens.
In which case, sending a horny blue teenager to poison the well with his genes makes sense...
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retrosteve

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #356 on: 12 Jul 2017, 18:47 »

I am beginning to think that the arrival of the Praeses or specifically Cupressaceae to Earth was the Blink. They arrived with an endless war over resources and territory going on, the population far outstripping the capability of the planet to provide. They absorbed the majority of life on the planet, forming internal worlds within themselves with the consciousness of the people, letting them think they live, grow old, reproduce and die...


I can buy simulation worlds, but I have a much harder time buying living people being "absorbed" into a simulation. To do that, without the original person continuing to live on Earth, you kinda have to record and kill them.
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TheEvilDog

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #357 on: 12 Jul 2017, 18:54 »

Or somehow record the information in their brains and transfer that into the simulation. Possibly even using that to seed the creation of another consciousness. Maybe not quite cloning them, more like copy and pasting the information and working from that.

Of course, that way you have the ability to put copies of that same consciousness into different scenarios and monitor how they react and develop. After all, how would a consciousness deal with being in a post-Scarcity scenario compared to a nuclear holocaust compared to a viral outbreak compared to an ideal utopia? Disturbingly enough, that would make for a very good control, comparing the base consciousness to the variant scenarios.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #358 on: 12 Jul 2017, 19:37 »

I am beginning to think that the arrival of the Praeses or specifically Cupressaceae to Earth was the Blink. They arrived with an endless war over resources and territory going on, the population far outstripping the capability of the planet to provide. They absorbed the majority of life on the planet, forming internal worlds within themselves with the consciousness of the people, letting them think they live, grow old, reproduce and die...


I can buy simulation worlds, but I have a much harder time buying living people being "absorbed" into a simulation. To do that, without the original person continuing to live on Earth, you kinda have to record and kill them.

That is rather my implication, yes. Essentially the space tree ate 4/5 the population of the Earth or whatever and created a Matrix-style false universe for the memory-echos to live out lives within.
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DSL

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #359 on: 12 Jul 2017, 19:43 »

Makes me think of a rather intriguing boat Arthur C. Clarke just missed with "The City and the Stars." What if the memory banks of Diaspar weren't just databanks from which to populate the city, but were in fact the "real" city? Clarke gets tantalizingly close to this by having the embodied Diasparians play at interactive, immersive VR.
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brasca

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #360 on: 12 Jul 2017, 22:19 »

I do hope Gavia is able to heal Sedna properly, I have a feeling we're going to need her.


I hope she didn't accidentally seal up Sedna's arm before it could grow back.  Then again they are capable of some impossible things so she could still grow it back, but it might be a painful and messy process. 
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #361 on: 12 Jul 2017, 22:58 »

So why not tell Mr. Pate "This way to the transwarp starships" and drop him into a simulation where he and his townspeople colonize the galaxy, without telling him it's a simulation?

Killing him might arguably be more ethical.
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mikmaxs

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #362 on: 13 Jul 2017, 00:04 »

So...
Here's a question. (And no, it's not a pedantic joke question about windmills.)

What's at stake here right now?
Like... Yes, we're going to learn the answers to the various mysteries of the story, probably, but... At the moment, the characters are pretty much safe, Alice seem sane and not like she's going off the rails, Church is dealt with. If there's another antagonist in the story, or some other conflict that has yet to show up, it only has nine or ten comics to actually show up, be explained, and then be resolved.
Right now, the only conflict comes from the fact that something weird happened with the Praeses. It's basically the same exact same question that was asked alll the way back when we first met Gavia: http://www.alicegrove.com/page/184

There's no apparent reason to be worried, because there's no reason to think that the characters are at any sort of risk now. Back when we first learned what the main question of the story was going to be, I kind of assumed that it was going to build to something. It was the inciting incident, after all: Why did they get sent down?
The implied conflict is that there's some nefarious or otherwise dangerous reason. The Praeses want to harm the people of earth, or there's some other dangerous thing that's causing trouble that the Praeses are trying to solve.
Then we learned about Ardent's nanotech, which begins to make good on that implied threat, and then they went off on a quest to talk to the Praeses because there was a threat of war, and then Pate stepped in with Church and the threat level of everything cranked up to 11, but the characters kept doing the exact same thing they had been planning on doing, just with a gun pointed at them now.
As far as I can tell, Church and Pate were mostly just a device to crank up the tension and allow for some exposition. And it worked! But now that they're gone... We're back to doing pretty much exactly what the story said we were going to do, the conflict has deescelated to where it was back when the comic was 29 pages old. There's still an implied threat, but it hasn't grown at all - It's just a vague 'Huh, there's something bad going on here'.


Since Alice and Church and Sedna's backstories have been crammed in the past 15 panels or so, I kind of ASSUME that it's going to play a part into whatever the finale is. But we have no tangible link between the two yet, so anything that does get included will be shoved into the last 5% of the story.

I guess at this point it's a 'Wait and see how Jeph resolves everything', but... Eh. It seems like he wrote himself into a corner and just wants the story to be over now.
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A Duck

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #363 on: 13 Jul 2017, 00:17 »

I am now 100% convinced that Alice Grove is just the beginning of Jeph's sci-fi universe.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #364 on: 13 Jul 2017, 01:57 »

Hey mikmaxs, I think that the word you are searching for in that post is denouement.

denouement
deɪˈnuːmɒ̃/
noun
noun: denouement; plural noun: denouements; noun: dénouement; plural noun: dénouements

    the final part of a play, film, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.
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JimC

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #365 on: 13 Jul 2017, 02:52 »

I am now 100% convinced that Alice Grove is just the beginning of Jeph's sci-fi universe.
QC is also a sci-fi universe. Stated not to be the same one, but more famous science fiction writers have succumbed to the temptation to weld entirely different universes into a single whole at a later date with varying degrees of consistency.

Its clearly a thing that both some writers and some fans are tempted to. I must confess I don't altogether understand the need myself. While there's something cute about the way Asimov welded his robot universe onto his Foundation universe, I'm not really sure it was the right thing to do as regards internal logic. I more admire the wonderful get-out-of-gaol free that pterry constructed when he had his past history shattered into pieces and glued together wherever the bits fitted, enabling him to permit inconsistencies if they better served the story.
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LKR1009

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #366 on: 13 Jul 2017, 03:36 »

I wish Jeph would add on some sort of Patreon stretch goal that would get us 100 more strips of A.G. if met.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #367 on: 13 Jul 2017, 09:43 »

Quote
QC is also a sci-fi universe. Stated not to be the same one, but more famous science fiction writers have succumbed to the temptation to weld entirely different universes into a single whole at a later date with varying degrees of consistency.
Considering there's more than 5,000 years at minimum between QC (assuming it's just a '20 minutes into the future' of our world) and AG, the two could be joined with little to no issue.
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mikmaxs

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #368 on: 13 Jul 2017, 09:53 »

Hey mikmaxs, I think that the word you are searching for in that post is denouement.

denouement
deɪˈnuːmɒ̃/
noun
noun: denouement; plural noun: denouements; noun: dénouement; plural noun: dénouements

    the final part of a play, film, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.
Well, okay, but... Does the word matter?

It doesn't change the fact that the only antagonist of the story thus far (Pate, backed up by Church) has had literally nothing to do with the actual conflict or inciting incedent. The real storyline has done nothing to raise the stakes or escalate the tension.

We're getting explanations and a wrap-up to the main storyline, but the main storyline hasn't really existed for most recent third of the story. We've got a narrative arc that escalates well in the first act and then is completely flat for the remainder of the story because the B-plot completely overwhelmed everything that was going on.
There are zero stakes in answering the mystery at this point, because the promise of escalating danger was never made good on.
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LKR1009

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #369 on: 13 Jul 2017, 10:02 »

New comic's up!
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retrosteve

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #370 on: 13 Jul 2017, 10:07 »

New comic's up!

And Alice's theory is really similar to my Stross-influenced ( http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2394 ) idea. The AI's caused The Blink to stop the war. In my version, the one remaining AI left the planet simultaneously and settled down nearby (probably the moon) to watch. In Alice's theory, ALL of them caused the Blink and left the planet. And sent Ardent to say "thanks for all the fish". 

The Stross book I'm thinking of, either way, is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_Sky

W000 do I get to say "called it"?
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cesium133

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #371 on: 13 Jul 2017, 10:19 »

The same moon that the Night Walker lasered?
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derech

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #372 on: 13 Jul 2017, 10:20 »

Alice just said she was the one who destroyed most everything.   Killed most everyone.   

But it appears there isn't any gathering of people or directly interacting with the planet that has been going on with the Praeses though.   Alice seemed to only think a lot of different things about what's up here, not from the interaction of them with anyone on planet.  Or any recent trips to space, whenever it was in the last thousands of years the seedlings showed up and found life.     Yes, Alice didn't seem to be all that much monitoring anywhere else, but in their travels albeit limited, it didn't seem there was any interaction on Earth by the Praeses  either.   She only had  guesses about what the Praeses are and what they want mostly.   Which what they want appears mostly nothing, after all they seem to have had to create a special interface specifically for this apparently very unusual or even unheard of event of visitors.  Visitors including two discontinuities, inhabitants of there embodied and transferred out of the inner realities.  These inner realities  are what the Praeses appear to usually only deal with.    The point of whoever started all this could only have been to get them out and talking.     Or whoever did this might have not at all had the Praeses in mind at all, the Praeses being Alice's supposed contact for finding out what and why,  but perhaps turning out to not be the source of anything related.  Which it could still be something else in the inner reality has also embodied themselves somehow.  Or at the least, a way to find out who is after learning it's not the Praeses.

If it's telling the truth, which its demeanor and knowledge suggest is likely largely so, Laridia gave an answer as to what the Praeses have been doing, and it's seemingly nothing direct.   When the traveling seedlings find worlds with life on them they root and start inner realities.   They extrapolate on the life they find, not harvest it or something.  That where they are in the inner reality, it's a more utopian version of what the planet might have become, not some attempt to make things on the planet that way.   They don't appear to tell those such as Gavia and Ardent about the source planet, they're just within another reality that appears to not normally be a physical one.


Depending on how quantum they are, Church might not be permanently out.  At least it's pretty apparent Sedna isn't, and Alice has certainly made a pretty quick recovery once she decided to shove some entropy away (etc).    For Pate and his apparent death/murder/execution, it might have been required in the scheme of things if Church isn't permanently out.     From our viewpoint it might not seem to be all that fair or just or legal, but that isn't here or now, and Alice isn't us.

If there was some sort of large-scale system of justice any longer in the post-Blink future, as there doesn't seem to be, who would be in charge?  What would they be in charge of?    Very possibly that would be Alice and to hear her say it, it's of everyone .   We have seen her show she's not arbitrarily disposed to just killing things for no reason, even when she had at least a partially potential reason.   On a more mundane level, while it might not in today's circumstances be possible to easily convict Pate of the murder of Ellie or the attempted murder of Senda, there has been coercion, battery, kidnapping, and more to the point,  essentially telling Church to at the least kill Alice if not everyone.   We're talking to Praeses, we don't need any of you any longer.    If you were a being like Alice, any of those things might have well established Pate as far too dangerous to live, or simply as a problem that must be removed.   It wouldn't though seem baseline humans in current times would be qualified to determine how legal or moral the behavior of an Alice is in a post-Blink world.  Or given what she said she is, if what beings like Alice do even fit into such concepts to begin with.   


Immortality, that might be horrid (especially given what we know about the chances of it and our mindset regarding its practical applicability) but on the other hand if you were immortal because you couldn't be damaged mostly and were quanta powered, you'd have some potentially limitless data storage and capacity for keeping yourself entertained.   If such things were possible for a more normal person, think of somebody from say 2500 BC.   All your friends and loved ones would end, and that would likely really suck at first until it just became a thing that happens that you'd have to deal with.   But you'd get to see and live 4500 years of history firsthand, which although similar in events happening (or they'd become similar to you) would be different in ways depending on how you thought of it over time.  Inventions, changes in culture and society and technology, political and governmental and social systems changing and modifying over time.   You could do all the things Connors did on Feb 2 and a whole lot more over thousands of years once you got used to things.  Yet still, as far as anyone knows, nothing like that has ever happened and isn't ever going to happen.  So there's no way to ask anyone or  know how you'd feel if you were.  We can only guess based upon our current limited mindset and where such things aren't possible.
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TheEvilDog

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #373 on: 13 Jul 2017, 10:21 »

I'm more inclined to think that this might be more Arthur C Clarke, specifically Childhood's End. As in an outside influence wants Humanity to step out of the shadows, seemingly for its own purposes. Ardent even looks slightly demonic.

The question now becomes - is this about reparations for the War? Or a subtle way to destroy humanity once and for all, after all, look at the demands laid upon Ardent when his ability became apparent?
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #374 on: 13 Jul 2017, 10:26 »

The question now becomes - is this about reparations for the War? Or a subtle way to destroy humanity once and for all, after all, look at the demands laid upon Ardent when his ability became apparent?

In the end, the Great War was all about the direction that the evolution of human society and technology took. That struggle is not over, even if The Blink forced an armistice of sorts. Pate proves that humans still have the determination to seek power, wealth and further horizons; it's an instinctive need that can't be easily quelled. I suspect that Ardent is a part of an attempt to get things moving forwards in a constructive way. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if Ardent's powers don't work on weapons.
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TheEvilDog

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #375 on: 13 Jul 2017, 10:29 »

The question now becomes - is this about reparations for the War? Or a subtle way to destroy humanity once and for all, after all, look at the demands laid upon Ardent when his ability became apparent?

In the end, the Great War was all about the direction that the evolution of human society and technology took. That struggle is not over, even if The Blink forced an armistice of sorts. Pate proves that humans still have the determination to seek power, wealth and further horizons; it's an instinctive need that can't be easily quelled. I suspect that Ardent is a part of an attempt to get things moving forwards in a constructive way. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if Ardent's powers don't work on weapons.

Ardent's power wouldn't have to work on weapons to make it dangerous. Suppose he uses his power to improve the solar panels of a village, granting that village a surplus of power, allowing the village to be more productive. Another village might become jealous of that fact and might attack them for that power.

Technology and knowledge that is given before it is earned is always dangerous. Always.
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retrosteve

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #376 on: 13 Jul 2017, 10:30 »

The same moon that the Night Walker lasered?

I prefer to think of it as "signaled". I didn't see the Moon blow up or anything.
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retrosteve

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #378 on: 13 Jul 2017, 10:44 »

That looks like more than just a signal...

It's about the minimum size to be definitely SEEN if whoever's receiving the signal isn't actually ON the moon.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #379 on: 13 Jul 2017, 11:18 »

Reparations seems like an interesting choice of words.  From what I concluded a few strips ago Alice was responsible for most of the deaths so why would the AIs want to do humanity any favors.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #380 on: 13 Jul 2017, 11:20 »

Perhaps Alice is an AI? If so, it would be telling that her description of the deaths in the war put the AIs before the humans.
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retrosteve

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #381 on: 13 Jul 2017, 11:22 »

Reparations seems like an interesting choice of words.  From what I concluded a few strips ago Alice was responsible for most of the deaths so why would the AIs want to do humanity any favors.

Alice THINKS she was responsible for most of the deaths. She's also a bit down on herself. I'm betting she had a notable part in whatever the disaster was, but I doubt it was entirely her.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #382 on: 13 Jul 2017, 11:54 »

For example, I wouldn't be surprised if Ardent's powers don't work on weapons.

It worked on the Valkerie - whether weapon systems remained intact (or were improved) never got a chance for exposition, though.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #383 on: 13 Jul 2017, 12:27 »


I guess at this point it's a 'Wait and see how Jeph resolves everything', but... Eh. It seems like he wrote himself into a corner and just wants the story to be over now.

Frankly, I am also getting more and more the impression that Jeph discovered that he inserted too many logical inconsistencies and unresolved issues in the story to properly resolve narratively (at least not within the timeframe that he is willing to still invest in AG), and therefore decided to get it over with rapidly by having each comic basically offering tons of exposition.

Although I enjoyed the story as a whole a lot and commend Jeph for the risks taken and continued development as an artist, I am currently not convinced that this experiment can be called completely successful (yes, I know an experiment with a negative outcome can still be successful).
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retrosteve

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #384 on: 13 Jul 2017, 12:46 »


Frankly, I am also getting more and more the impression that Jeph discovered that he inserted too many logical inconsistencies and unresolved issues in the story to properly resolve narratively (at least not within the timeframe that he is willing to still invest in AG), and therefore decided to get it over with rapidly by having each comic basically offering tons of exposition.


I offer in support of this theory -- check out the variety of backgrounds Jeph normally draws for each new AG episode ( http://www.alicegrove.com/archive ) and then the backgrounds since May.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #385 on: 13 Jul 2017, 13:06 »

Which, I might add, is fine by me. I would rather see him keep up the quality of QC and start a new project he's excited about then continue to spend time and energy on a comic that he is not terribly excited about anymore and therefore is unlikely to maintain quality anyway.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #386 on: 13 Jul 2017, 13:32 »

That looks like more than just a signal...

It's possible the Nightwalker was an alarm. Perhaps there were a number of them, each in a different area. If someone with nanotech arrives back on the planet, the nearest walker finds them, follows them,  and sucks all the nanos out, which gives it the power to signal---whoever. The AI's presumably, and in a way impossible to mistake. THOOM! The signal having been given, wonder if something's on the way to appear and wind up the last few strips.

EDIT: Think of it as akin to the monolith buried in the Moon in 2001. When mankind was advanced enough to find it and dig it up, the first sunlight on its surface triggered an incredibly powerful signal to let the aliens know "won't be long now!"
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #387 on: 13 Jul 2017, 13:36 »

That looks like more than just a signal...

It's about the minimum size to be definitely SEEN if whoever's receiving the signal isn't actually ON the moon.

Or felt if it was on the dark side. Or inside.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #388 on: 13 Jul 2017, 14:21 »

Also wondering about Gavia's loon symbolism and the shape the Nightwalker took as it THOOMEd.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #389 on: 13 Jul 2017, 15:10 »

I don't *know* that Jeph and Randall know each other, but they have linked to each other for pretty much forever, and if I were Jeph and had the option to run some sci-fi shit by XCKD I sure would.

Two comics in a row that seem particularly relevant. I really do think Randall is at a minimum watching with us, and possibly colored the world's physics back when Jeph was working on the concept.

https://xkcd.com/1862/

Well, if you're bringing that up, I should mention that Jeph definitely knows Charlie Stross. (Here he is talking to Marten http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2394 ) and the Blink definitely bears some Stross influence (see Iron Sunrise). There is also some simulated world in space stuff going on in Stross (Accelerando). So there's an influence for sure.

I don't want to jump ahead of any further replies now, but I know Jeph knows Charlie, and Charlie has since then changed his views.

EDIT: on the singularity, I mean; he wrote a book with Cory called "The Rapture of the Nerds".
« Last Edit: 13 Jul 2017, 15:35 by zmeiat_joro »
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #390 on: 13 Jul 2017, 15:54 »

Considering it has now been confirmed that the praeses are alien and seem to not have been directly involved with the war itself, I wonder if somehow the AI are behind the current story and wether they have set things in motion to somehow 'free' the original inhabitants of earth from the inner realities of the praeses?

I dunno anymore, frankly there are too many aspects to the whole story that don't really make sense to me, and those don't include the whole Maxwell demon thing.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #391 on: 13 Jul 2017, 16:12 »

I don't *know* that Jeph and Randall know each other, but they have linked to each other for pretty much forever, and if I were Jeph and had the option to run some sci-fi shit by XCKD I sure would.

Two comics in a row that seem particularly relevant. I really do think Randall is at a minimum watching with us, and possibly colored the world's physics back when Jeph was working on the concept.

https://xkcd.com/1862/

Well, if you're bringing that up, I should mention that Jeph definitely knows Charlie Stross. (Here he is talking to Marten http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2394 ) and the Blink definitely bears some Stross influence (see Iron Sunrise). There is also some simulated world in space stuff going on in Stross (Accelerando). So there's an influence for sure.

I don't want to jump ahead of any further replies now, but I know Jeph knows Charlie, and Charlie has since then changed his views.

EDIT: on the singularity, I mean; he wrote a book with Cory called "The Rapture of the Nerds".

True. I knew Charlie had changed view on the possibility of quantum entanglement communications since Singularity Sky due to the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-communication_theorem but I wasn't aware he had also changed view on the Singularity. But it still looks like there was  a Blink. The only ways I can think of to edit reality on that scale involve either a "weakly godlike" entity (i.e. The  Singularity) or that the whole Alice Earth was already a simulation.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #392 on: 13 Jul 2017, 16:23 »

...or that the whole Alice Earth was already a simulation.

Given the description of the Blink sure sounds like the way I feel looking at a new and unfamiliar user interface upon restart after an update. 

(Yeah, Windows 10 is doing it again on my other computer.  Instead of looking forward to new and/or improved functionality my gut response is, "What did the sonofabitches break this time?"  One of these days I'm gonna be pissed off enough to move everything to Linux.)
« Last Edit: 13 Jul 2017, 21:13 by OldGoat »
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #393 on: 13 Jul 2017, 16:32 »

EDIT: on the singularity, I mean; he wrote a book with Cory called "The Rapture of the Nerds".

Love that one! Each of them is quite capable of tickling my funny bone, but together ...
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #394 on: 13 Jul 2017, 17:33 »

That still leaves the question over The Nightwalkers actions to  speculate over.

Alice May be  closer to the  truth than she realises.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #395 on: 13 Jul 2017, 18:12 »

For example, I wouldn't be surprised if Ardent's powers don't work on weapons.

It worked on the Valkerie - whether weapon systems remained intact (or were improved) never got a chance for exposition, though.

We don't know what happened to the weapons, but it didn't seem to have any so maybe Ardent can upgrade and repurpose it for peaceful uses.
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #396 on: 13 Jul 2017, 19:47 »

Technology and knowledge that is given before it is earned is always dangerous. Always.

As a wise man once said: "He learned almost too late that man is a feeling creature... and because of it, the greatest in the universe. He learned too late for himself that men have to find their own way, to make their own mistakes. There can't be any gift of perfection from outside ourselves. And when men seek such perfection... they find only death... fire... loss... disillusionment... the end of everything that's gone forward. Men have always sought an end to the toil and misery, but it can't be given, it has to be achieved. There is hope, but it has to come from inside, from Man himself."

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #397 on: 13 Jul 2017, 21:18 »

Childhood's End, or The City and the Stars. Diaspar was set to equilibrium, not stasis, and was post-scarcity (Krell-level technology). A very clever, deeply hidden hack was installed to open it up to the universe later.

If there's someone out there who cares about humanity, will they arrange a war crimes trial for Alice?
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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #398 on: 13 Jul 2017, 21:49 »

Although how can an outside influence deem itself right to judge Alice for war crimes?

We've spent the last century debating what classes as a war crime and that was just among ourselves. How many thousands of years ahead of us can the world of Alice Grove be? A world where advanced AI and transhumanism were part and parcel of the norm, I might add. How far had weapons gone and how primitive must our technology be in comparison? We fear the spread of anthrax and botulism and the deployment of nuclear weapons, but can that can compared to nanoclouds which generate lasers to blast at the moon? Or the demonic super soldiers themselves?

We judge each other for the weapons that were created to maim and destroy in blood wars based on old grudges, but can that compare to the cold pragmatism that comes in the face of near extinction? We can say war crimes from the safety of our homes, but what about the ones on the line, where every decision no doubt meant life and death? Should we judge them for doing what we made them do?

Alice and the others are merely weapons. The ones we should be judging have been dead for millennia.
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Case

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Re: Alice Grove MCDLT - THE END...?
« Reply #399 on: 14 Jul 2017, 02:03 »

Deus Ex Ardent?

Deus Ex, Ardent?
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