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The madness that ensues at The Horrible Revelation when Brun, Elliott and Clinton are all there

9 (26.5%)

The adventures of May, Momo and Winslow on a typical day in Northampton

1 (2.9%)

Just how strange are Brun's coworkers? A week of the weird!

3 (8.8%)

The landlord isn't happy having five people to an apartment; apartment hunting for Marten & Co.!

2 (5.9%)

SpookyBot approaches Bubbles for a 'favour'; will she pay the devil their due?

0 (0%)

A day on patrol with Officer Basilisk

11 (32.4%)

Like Jeph, Marten is thinking of giving up the electric guitar in favour of the synthesiser; artistic angst ensues

1 (2.9%)

Claire's agony as she tries to spend a day with Clinton WITHOUT shipping him with someone

5 (14.7%)

Robot week: Jeremy, Seven and Punchbot are working on marketing the Robot Fighting League

2 (5.9%)

Other (please specify in a comment)

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 32

[Tlaloc]

I had the impression that RoKo underestimated Bubbles because she did not expect the AI in a Human-AI partnership to take the lead, look at most examples we have and you have a fair argument that while AI have agency they're somewhat dependant to some degree on their people. They are all companions in some aspect, even Pintsize.

Bubbles breaks this trend, being quite autonomous and choosing the union with Faye because she wishes to.

On the other hand, you do have Corpse Witch, as an earlier entrepreneurial example, and Punchbot, as a CPA. Roko herself seems fairly independent. Now, of course, there is the fact, that she's only ever met Bubbles before she took her armour off, when Faye was standing up for her, and she was heavily limited by the CW's proverbial stick behind the door.

Part of this view might just be that we're fairly limited in the AI's we've met up to now.

I'm going to point out that I refer to a Human-AI partnership. Corpse Witch appeared to work alone or exclusively with other AI

[Is it cold in here?]

>I think we need to first solve the issue of who is the legal owner of the chassis in question.

Answering a question about Momo's expensive new chassis, Jeph said AIs are the legal owners of the bodies they inhabit.

Nuclear submarines and space stations are likely exceptions.

If an AI establishes ownership by downloading, that would rule out some possibly useful business models like chassis leasing.

[Tova]

One difference I can think of between health insurance for us meatbags and chassis insurance is that the level of insurance you'd need for a chassis would presumably depend on the value and complexity of the chassis that you have chosen for yourself. So in that sense, it is more similar to car insurance, but in terms of quality of life, it is more similar to health insurance.

The most comparable thing for humans I can think of would be prosthetic insurance. In both cases, the insured item is expensive and valuable, is a very personal item, and is critical for quality of life. The main difference is that prosthetic insurance has a smaller market.

So, I speculate that there would be private insurance options, and that government would offer financial assistance if you qualify for it and so long as you choice of chassis is not a luxury item and is reasonable value for money. In the US, I wouldn't be surprised if there were employer-provided chassis insurance for certain jobs.

[shanejayell]

Awww WE think you sparkle, Bubbles! 

[Cornelius]

>I think we need to first solve the issue of who is the legal owner of the chassis in question.

Answering a question about Momo's expensive new chassis, Jeph said AIs are the legal owners of the bodies they inhabit.

Nuclear submarines and space stations are likely exceptions.

If an AI establishes ownership by downloading, that would rule out some possibly useful business models like chassis leasing.

Personally, I know it's word of Jeph, but I think it might be problematic. There's a number of AI's we've seen passing by - some of them solely to threaten Pintsize after trolling them - that should, if not in active service, at least be disarmed. It makes sense to transfer ownership - in partial payment, I should think - up to a certain type of chassis. Also, suppose a fighter jet, or, to take a non-military example, space ship decides to settle in the low stress life of a toaster, what happens to the chassis they leave? Having it as their property might be seen as fair pay - but there's a point where that becomes disproportionate to the services rendered.

Usufruct, in some cases, seems a more likely option than downright ownership. But then, it would be useful to further explore the genesis of AI within the QC world, and how and where they are. For instance, are all (free) instances of AI necessarily embodied? If they could freely move over a network, that could make ownership of the chassis fairly difficult. I know, we haven't seen an example of that in story yet.

Come to think of it, there's a similar problem, if you will, as with the emancipation of slaves, with the one difference that in this case, the consciousness may in fact be separated from the body. And the added difficulty that in some cases, it literally may take the entire technical infrastructure of a company out. If we connect that with the issue of possible reparations for the time in bondage, there's also the issue of how to determine - again - the sentience of AI, and how they emerged.

Mind, I'm not arguing against the ownership of the chassis - I'm just pointing out how there might be issues and constraints related to that.

On an unrelated note, I wonder if Bubbles puts the paperwork somewhere Faye can access it as well, or if she just keeps it in her memory.

[JimC]

There are some interesting parallells in McCaffrey's Brain ship series, and the virtual debt slavery of the shell people.

[OldGoat]

Roko is the only publicly employed AI we've really become acquainted with (it appears Station works for Ellicott-Chatham Enterprises rather than the Air Force), so she really doesn't give us much to go on as far as robots with surnames.  As for her having an immature personality, MSP would not have hired her - they'd be looking for someone uncommonly level-headed.

We don't know much either about AI's off-duty living arrangements although it stands to reason that their space requirements would be much smaller than a meatperson's, and dialog in several strips confirms this.  Those we've been introduced to all live with humans, but this may be a holdover from the days when AIs were all property rather than persons in their own right.  Roko however, as well as a last name, seems to have an apartment (although she may share it with a coworker, be they meat or metal).  Is she in the vanguard of AIs living autonomously, an early adopter of a totally independant AI lifestyle?  There's lots of fuel for speculation there.

[SotFX]

>I think we need to first solve the issue of who is the legal owner of the chassis in question.

Answering a question about Momo's expensive new chassis, Jeph said AIs are the legal owners of the bodies they inhabit.

Nuclear submarines and space stations are likely exceptions.

If an AI establishes ownership by downloading, that would rule out some possibly useful business models like chassis leasing.

I would assume that large vessels and the like would be treated as more akin to a residence/workplace combination. Some places might even have large numbers of AI coworkers there that handle their own jobs and are all running there on the same network in, comparatively close quarters with each having their duties and specialties.

On another note, Bubbles cannot be a sparkling vampire or fae now along with an AI it seems...so no potential real unicorns there since she doesn't sparkle.

[Kugai]

I think Bubbles underestimates her sparkle.

[Is it cold in here?]

"Never would've guessed" is emphatic phrasing.

Instead of the 50-50 chance a priori that Bubbles was the brains of the outfit, Officer Basilisk had not even considered it.

Something interesting is going on. If she's prejudiced against veterans then she's going to have a rough time in a police department. If she was just that impressed with Faye's brains, that would be a benign explanation(*). It's also conceivable that Officer Basilisk has internalized some anti-AI prejudices. That in turn could either be the surrounding toxic culture (Akima called endemic racist ideas "smog") or the result of her job constantly showing her AIs stupid enough to commit crimes and to get caught.

(*) Her sister did call Faye the brains of the family.

[Case]

One difference I can think of between health insurance for us meatbags and chassis insurance is that the level of insurance you'd need for a chassis would presumably depend on the value and complexity of the chassis that you have chosen for yourself. So in that sense, it is more similar to car insurance, but in terms of quality of life, it is more similar to health insurance. The most comparable thing for humans I can think of would be prosthetic insurance.

>I think we need to first solve the issue of who is the legal owner of the chassis in question. Answering a question about Momo's expensive new chassis, Jeph said AIs are the legal owners of the bodies they inhabit.

<snip>

Good ideas, methinks, but maybe we should first take a closer look at how we humans actually do it, where the need for services are comparable and where they aren't, whether our different systems of social care (child-rearing, education, healthcare) can be disentangled for AI needs - and whether our 'solutions' provide a comprehensive and just solution to even our own problems::

* Time & energy expenditure to grow an individual's body and mind: With humans, the parents are assigned those costs. We solve that injustice by intergenerational solidarity and taxation - each new generation bears the 'construction costs' for the next ones bodies' (and makes some more-or-less inspired attempts at 'growing' the respective mind to basic functional level, with varying success) - but safe & ubiquitous contraception has made a big dent here: The Boomers where the first generation in human history able to reliably choose whether they wanted to be parents or not (without having to resort to lifelong suppression of a primal drive). Current attempts to restore intergenerational justice between parents and childless members of each generation are mostly focussed on taxation policy - and one should bear in mind that this solution is completely orthogonal to our health insurance systems, so a solution for AIs would have to include elements from both fields.

Before the abolition of child labour, human children & adolescents were expected to contribute to the family income, and human adults were expected to take care of their families' ill and elderly. For the longest time, this was mostly considered a family matter, not one of the state. The oldest healthcare system on the planet is only about 130 years old. Indenture to pay off at least part of chassis costs sounds horrible - but there wasn't much choice involved in the matter until very recently. Come to think of it: for much of the currently extant generations of humans, there isn't much choice involved, either. Edit: For much of human history, there was no such thing as childhood as we understand it.

Humans make such a big deal of parentage not because we're all obsessed about our pedigree - but due to the very practical & pressing question of "Who feeds it, raises it, educates it?"

Furthermore, since human bodies and their respective minds are so inextricably linked, there never has been any need to develop a just system that takes care of the costs of construction of each of them separately (Unless I misread Jeph's meaning of 'creches' and they include education services). Methinks it would be either impractical or unjust to simply copy one particular human solution while neglecting to acknowledge how our different systems of social care interlock and depend on each other.

(Questions: Do AIs have something akin to a reproductive drive? Is AI sex linked to procreation? Who runs the 'creches' in which AI minds mature - and who pays for this service? Are AIs legal orphans? Do AIs require training not provided in their creches? Are there AI students enrolled at Unis?)

* Illness: One of the greatest, and most costly, of human health-care problems - is there even an AI-equivalent? Since AIs are not part of a natural ecosystem, their physical bodies are unlikely to be prey for virii and bacteria. But it's likely that their minds and/or firmware will be.

Simultaneously, the most powerful antidote to computer-virii ... are probably AI. Maybe there's a sort of pact between human-, and AI-kind where each AI spends a certain amount of time enlisted with an "informational safety service" (akin to human mandatory military service), thereby providing for both themselves and the humans' computational devices? Maybe that is done before the AI becomes fully sentient?

* Wear & tear:
Humans have very powerful & sophisticated self-repair capabilities: I really doubt whether current materials technology can deliver something even remotely equivalent in durability. Show me a covering that provides the functionality of skin for seven to nine decades without repairs - millions of human bodies do that requiring merely food & sleep. I think my Dad's artificial titanium hip-joints are designed for a decade or two of use, whereas his natural ones handled six decades of intensive (sportive) use without complaint, and even provided functionality for one additional decade despite already breaking down.

* Injury: I guess it's again the humans who have the advantage - most of our injuries are either fatal (at least to the functionality of the part), or only require assister-frameworks, food & sleep. Injuries that require replacement with prosthesis are comparably rare - simply because it's so difficult for our bodies to survive a situation that renders a part beyond self-repair. The best example is combat veteran health care in the US Army - the costs have exploded because due to advances in body armour and trauma health care more and more vets survive injuries that would have been fatal only a generation before.

* Psychological/Psychiatric illness: A growing share of human health-care costs - posing a social justice-problem that we ourselves are struggling to find just solutions to, right now. I wouldn't say we've solved this one. Do AIs suffer similar problems, are similar treatment options available - or even better ones? Is treatment comparably costly, or is it much easier and cheaper? Bubbles' memory-arc seems to suggest that there's an entire world of options available (or close to available, depending on whether there's research into AI psychiatry) for pretty basic-level intervention into the workings of AI minds that are not even remotely possible with human minds. From what we've seen so far, it would not be unreasonable to assume that issues comparable to body-dysmorphia & gender dysphoria to be something akin to "driver-, or firmware conflicts" and their rectification a 'mere' question of available funds -some may even be 'just a download away'.

* Criminals: Depending on the country, a significant proportion of our prison populations are in prison for infractions that can be traced to psychiatric illnesses and/or wrong 'growing/raising' of their minds in their 'creches' - The rate of inmates with Asocial Personality Disorder/Narcissistic Personality Disorder amongst violent felons seems to be quite substantial, and 'treatment' (rather: The crudest of behavioural modification) of adults is tremendously difficult.

(Questions: How successful is the AI creches' 'quality assurance'? Are AI's more 'teachable' than humans, or less? And what about behavioural modification - how much can be done with simple firmware adjustments? How good is AI-psychiatry in treating severe issues akin to personality disorders? Is May an AI-outlier?)


Drawing inspirations from human health care,health insurance systems, education systems etc. are certainly worthwhile - but I think it's important to acknowledge that we ourselves haven't figured some of the most pressing issues here. And we shouldn't forget that: The greatest costs connected to the construction of a human's chassis aren't born by a societal institution - but by the parents. It's nice and well to have complete legal ownership of our chassis - but let's not forget that they are gifts from our parents.

Methinks that, depending on even relatively innocuous differences in world-building choices, taking care of the physical (mental) upkeep of all of AI-kind could be either a triviality that humans could easily provide, simply as a kindness, or could tax existing social care systems beyond capacity - and could necessitate the creation of entirely new solutions.

[Tlaloc]

Top remark.
We can be heroes, just for one day.

<mod>huge quote of immediately preceding post removed</mod>

This is an amazing summary and very thoughtful in the depth on which you've gone. I'm in the pub drinking on the phone and I don't really have much to add.

So let's hit the ground running, because my interest is creching.

The emergent property of AI implies that the evolution of these beings cannot be quality controlled outside of certain parameters. Just like raising a human person, what you do is not going to generate the same results in every case.

So that same agenda that provokes an emergent intelligence into self actualising does not produce the same results. Children are given the same schooling by the same teacher and turn out different.  Even with AI mass generation providing the same parents " " for them all, there's still a degree of variation that generates individuals.

And then of course to get back to the brass tacks, there's Akima's smog. Perhaps humans are considered still the apex species.

I mean, I have an incredible sensation that misanthropic and / or nihilistic AI will get terminated due to their predecessor (the first one)  being a benign singularity.

All AI wish to live with humans thus far.

[Pilchard123]

"Never would've guessed" is emphatic phrasing.

Instead of the 50-50 chance a priori that Bubbles was the brains of the outfit, Officer Basilisk had not even considered it.

Something interesting is going on. If she's prejudiced against veterans then she's going to have a rough time in a police department. If she was just that impressed with Faye's brains, that would be a benign explanation(*). It's also conceivable that Officer Basilisk has internalized some anti-AI prejudices. That in turn could either be the surrounding toxic culture (Akima called endemic racist ideas "smog") or the result of her job constantly showing her AIs stupid enough to commit crimes and to get caught.

(*) Her sister did call Faye the brains of the family.

I suppose it could also be because when Bubbles is in a large, strong chassis and Faye is (comparatively) a small, weak meatbag. Not so much "Bubbles is ex-military/AI, therefore Faye is the clever one" as "Bubbles is large and strong so mostly contributes being large and strong". If it was Elliott and Momo , for example, maybe Officer Basilisk would have assumed Momo was the brains and Elliott the brawn.

[Tova]

"Never would've guessed" is emphatic phrasing.

Instead of the 50-50 chance a priori that Bubbles was the brains of the outfit, Officer Basilisk had not even considered it.

Something interesting is going on. If she's prejudiced against veterans then she's going to have a rough time in a police department. If she was just that impressed with Faye's brains, that would be a benign explanation(*). It's also conceivable that Officer Basilisk has internalized some anti-AI prejudices. That in turn could either be the surrounding toxic culture (Akima called endemic racist ideas "smog") or the result of her job constantly showing her AIs stupid enough to commit crimes and to get caught.

(*) Her sister did call Faye the brains of the family.

I think that Roko merely made a thoughtless stereotypical assumption that Bubbles was the "brawn" and not the "brain," due to her physical size and strength. Her status as AI and veteran I think are only tangentally related, and you're projecting prejudices that aren't there.

P.S. Case, amazing post as always, which I will need time to digest before I could contemplate formulating a response even half as thoughtful.

[Is it cold in here?]

I would just add that the lawmakers of the QC world are probably trying to accommodate AIs by analogy to organic people, and are probably making many mistakes along the way as a result.

[pwhodges]

Administrator Comment

It's quite a while since I found a need to remind people, but please try to avoid unnecessary quoting. I have just removed a quote above that was the whole of a two-screen post, which was the post immediately above the comment - this just gets in the way of reading the conversation. I have the impression that excessive quoting has been growing of late; quotes should be for context in replies, and a little thought in choosing them goes a long way in keeping a discussion pleasant to read.

[Case]

So let's hit the ground running, because my interest is creching. The emergent property of AI implies that the evolution of these beings cannot be quality controlled outside of certain parameters. Just like raising a human person, what you do is not going to generate the same results in every case.

So that same agenda that provokes an emergent intelligence into self actualising does not produce the same results. Children are given the same schooling by the same teacher and turn out different.  Even with AI mass generation providing the same parents " " for them all, there's still a degree of variation that generates individuals. And then of course to get back to the brass tacks, there's Akima's smog. Perhaps humans are considered still the apex species.

Speaking of the emergent properties of AI: We know that AIs can swap their chassis with relative ease - but are AI minds actually independent from their 'processor'? Because our minds aren't. I'm no neurologist, but I guess it's safe to assume that it'd be incredibly difficult to run your mind in my brain, because the 'Ghost' influences the physical structure of the brain, and vice verse. Much of what we know about the emergent properties of QC-verse AI minds comes from Bubbles'-memory arc - where Jeph seemed to suggest that the mind is an emergent property of the 'crystal brain'.

OTOH, Momo and Winslow simply downloaded into their respective chassis', which suggests that chassis is not merely the equivalent of a human body plus lower-level nervous system (maybe up to & including stuff like the amygdala, but not the neocortex), but that chassis' means "body and brain". No physical processor was swapped between the chassis.

There's a nice parallel here to Neal Asher's "Polity" cycle: In the 'Polity', Both Humans and AI can be downloaded into 'crystal' (very, very fast quantum-processor-unobtainium), with virtually unlimited upgrading options (The only hitch is that a cyborg brain, i.e. a fully synergetic link between an AI-crystal and a human brain, is possible, and incredibly powerful - way beyond even the virtually god-like AI's that rule the 'Polity', basically an instant-singularity - but also quite lethal: The human part is destroyed within minutes, and the remaining AI-part is hopelessly beyond any attempts to get it back to the reservation ... Humans that download fully into crystal basically become AIs - and fabricated AIs were built on the human template, so there's infinite possibilities for Asher to play with the Human/AI distinction).

In the 'Polity', computational power to run minds on is basically free - so death is more-or-less optional - but bodies aren't. Humans and AI can download into a 'Golem'-chassis, but there's a long waiting list for a free one, not the least since humans can have their minds stored and spend the time until a body becomes available in virtual realities.

AI minds and humans can indenture themselves to pay off their Golem bodies - and here's the interesting bit: Since Golem bodies and the respective crystals are several times more capable than organic ones, one could imagine even a "right to indentured servitude" (That's not in Asher's novels). I mean: What would you prefer - working 20 years in your human body to pay for a Golem chassis, or merely 5 years in the more capable Golem chassis?

I mean, I have an incredible sensation that misanthropic and / or nihilistic AI will get terminated due to their predecessor (the first one)  being a benign singularity. All AI wish to live with humans thus far.

Yeah ... but is that quality insurance, or the AI equivalent to Nazi-era euthanasia?

[Gyrre]

I haven't even figured out how health insurance for humans should work. It should be universal enough that there will never again be a case like May's.

{political digression}
Framing your question in terms of "insurance" is already implicitly limiting it to a commercial transaction and thus subtly sidelining the possibility of fully social healthcare.
{/political digression}

Then there's the whole thing with insurance making American healthcare system is so expensive.

[Gyrre]

Kuddos to Jeph on Faye dancing in the last panel!

Also, now we know which tea resulted in Roko seeing Mr. Yay_or_Neigh.

[Tova]

We knew already, didn't we?

Edit: My mistake, I was confusing the Roko tea strip with the recent guest strip.

[zisraelsen]

I smell (heh) a business deal between Coffee of Doom and Union Robotics brewing (heh).

[BenRG]

Yeah, today Roko learned something important: When Faye said that she brought a 'sparkling personality' to the business? She was lying. Seriously, I think that Faye brings is the offbeat artistic talent that leads to non-standard solutions and shortcuts that no-one with a more typical technical eduction would necessarily consider.

Now, what is this curious reaction to Assam tea on Roko's part? I'm thinking that the hallucinations that some blends cause are not entirely welcome, mostly due to what they bring racing out of the subconscious. Not nasty things, just embarrassing things that you'd prefer to not admit to yourself.

I smell (heh) a business deal between Coffee of Doom and Union Robotics brewing (heh).

I've expected for some time for Hannelore to branch out (either officially or unofficially) into becoming a robot pharmacologist. I'm wondering if she'd be the first person to seriously study the affect of scent on AI processes and thus be the woman who sort of writes the book on it. Maybe literally write a book too?

[Scarblac]

Faye's song there reminded me of

.

Its chorus goes

Ahhh, packing that meat, workin' long hours, on the count of the beat
Ahhh, packing that meat, doin' hard labour, gonna grow like a weed

And that is similar in theme, and rhymes with Faye's.

Also see the "Vinticious Version" of the same song. I can never decide which I like better.

[Cornelius]

Now, what is this curious reaction to Assam tea on Roko's part? I'm thinking that the hallucinations that some blends cause are not entirely welcome, mostly due to what they bring racing out of the subconscious. Not nasty things, just embarrassing things that you'd prefer to not admit to yourself.

Well, I guess she might think her reaction to the scent might be a bit embarrassing. She does have an image to uphold.

I've expected for some time for Hannelore to branch out (either officially or unofficially) into becoming a robot pharmacologist. I'm wondering if she'd be the first person to seriously study the affect of scent on AI processes and thus be the woman who sort of writes the book on it. Maybe literally write a book too?

As for Hannelore, with her father being the Creator, and all, it just might be an instant standard work, regardless of its actual merits, if she did write that book.

Speaking of the emergent properties of AI: We know that AIs can swap their chassis with relative ease - but are AI minds actually independent from their 'processor'? Because our minds aren't. I'm no neurologist, but I guess it's safe to assume that it'd be incredibly difficult to run your mind in my brain, because the 'Ghost' influences the physical structure of the brain, and vice verse. Much of what we know about the emergent properties of QC-verse AI minds comes from Bubbles'-memory arc - where Jeph seemed to suggest that the mind is an emergent property of the 'crystal brain'.

I've wondered about that as well, ever since Corpse Witch demonstrated the AI drive to Faye. What exactly is the nature of that drive, and does it include processing power? If not, what is life for an AI without processing power like; some kind of stasis? It also begs the question of what happens when an AI downgrades their chassis. The subprocesses of large AI, like Station, cannot possibly be run on a regular humanoid or anthropc chassis, let alone something like a toaster.
Of course, a lot of those processes would no longer be necessary; but to what extent does that influence their personality, and their sense of self?

I mean, I have an incredible sensation that misanthropic and / or nihilistic AI will get terminated due to their predecessor (the first one)  being a benign singularity. All AI wish to live with humans thus far.

That does sound like a dangerous assumption: how benign is your singularity, if it already starts suppressing its own? There's also the fact to consider that so far, we've only seen AI that wish to live with humans - with May as a possible exception.

[JimC]

I suppose it could also be because when Bubbles is in a large, strong chassis and Faye is (comparatively) a small, weak meatbag.

Unless Faye picks up on her bedside manner/customer care damn quick Bubbles is going to have to start wondering what Faye does contribute beyond a bit of forward momentum. Taking the proverbial out of a customer's insecurities seems like an especially good way to ensure they never come back. Roko has already specifically said she doesn't like being treated by a jerk, and is spending her own money to avoid it. Being good at the job will only get you so far.

[pwhodges]

Bubbles is going to have to start wondering what Faye does contribute beyond a bit of forward momentum

Remember, Faye first got involved with the fight scene specifically for her metalworking skills.  There's no reason to suppose those have gone away.

[oeoek]

I like the fact that Danielle's guest comic seems to be approved as canon now; beware of ass-am! I am sure a stud unicorn will keep her mind engaged elsewhere.

[Neko_Ali]

I smell (heh) a business deal between Coffee of Doom and Union Robotics brewing (heh).

It seems likely. At the very least they should have a selection of teas on hand for the customers. We really don't know how far apart the two shops are. Unless they are very close running over to the CoD every time a customer needs a calming aroma will be impractical once business picks up.

[Sullivan]

I like the fact that Danielle's guest comic seems to be approved as canon now; beware of ass-am! I am sure a stud unicorn will keep her mind engaged elsewhere.

And it's very interesting that Officer Royko already knows about Assam.

[Zebediah]

Unless they are very close running over to the CoD every time a customer needs a calming aroma will be impractical once business picks up.

Union Robotics seems to be on the corner of Union Street and Market Street. CoD's location has never been precisely specified, but it's definitely downtown and seems to be about half a block off of Main Street. So we're looking at something between 0.2 and 0.4 miles.

Bubbles had a top speed of 30 km/h.

So just imagine Bubbles running at top speed in her underwear through downtown Northampton carrying a cup of tea. You're welcome.

[oeoek]

Bubbles had a top speed of 30 km/h.
So just imagine Bubbles running at top speed in her underwear through downtown Northampton carrying a cup of tea. You're welcome.

 

I hear these sounds in my head, adjusted for a heavy military grade robot (boink boink) with a cup-to-go perfectly stabilized in one hand...

[Case]

I hear these sounds in my head, adjusted for a heavy military grade robot (boink boink) ...

... but then I realize it's just the couple in 15B again ...

[bhtooefr]

My interpretation of the whole Assam thing is basically that Danielle Corsetto used Assam as the variety that triggered that particular hallucination for Roko, and then gave it to Bubbles. Then, Jeph decided to make that canon.

[Nepiophage]

A thing that Officer Roko Basilisk has, that no other robot in the strip apparently possesses, is a surname. I wonder if this was a requirement of police department bureaucracy (or just Jeph's word-play).

Punchbot is a surname - first name Bartholomew https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3414

[OldGoat]

Punchbot is a surname - first name Bartholomew https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3414

Good catch - or is it just that my eyes are not what they once were?

"Bart Punchbot" does have a certain, ahem, punch to it, doesn't it?

[Kugai]

Bring her Darjeeling Bubbles.

And I think Faye is having a wee bit of fun with Roko here,      

[Thrudd]

Something I noticed about Roko in the last panels.
She seemed to have been blushing self-conscientiously for some reason until Faye did her little musical number thus distracting her.

Don't ask me why she was blushing though. I have no idea.

[zisraelsen]

Assam is the tea responsible for this acid trip of a comic. Presumably, Roko had a similarly bizarre reaction to it and doesn't want to relive it in front of witnesses.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Bubbles doesn't sparkle --- she gleams. Like an often polished piece of solid metal.

Roko looked like a case-hardened police officer at first. But now we are seeing the vulnerabilities that make her a relateable person.

[bhtooefr]

Presumably, Roko had a similarly bizarre reaction to it and doesn't want to relive it in front of witnesses.

Yep.

[kallibean]

The fact that when we see Bubbles with tea it's in some kind of fantasy (e.g. background replaced, images not present in that setting), and now a candle is being asked for during what is akin to day-surgery, for anxiety (similar to how people may ask for sedatives for blood draws etc), can we assume that scents have the function of anaesthesia for AI chassis?

According to Bubbles, every scent provokes its own unique sensory reaction. Hannelore is adept at blending teas that create a strong hallucinogenic effect. However, yes, I imagine that there are some blends that create a feedback loop which, until it fades out, induces a somatic state where the central processor is unable to process sensory data and the AI is in state not unlike sleep mode.

I said function of anaesthesia, not anaesthesia., and referenced sedatives rather than local/general for organics for a reason - perhaps I should have also pointed out that some doctors will hand out Xanax for these things as well.

Now that it's come up again I shall attempt to clarify, because unless you're assuming that while under the influence of a hallucinogen that Bubbles is fully aware and able to feel and react at the same level as Bubbles not under the influence of a hallucinogen, I don't think you really answered my question.

Do scents somehow render AIs less aware or reactive such that they can be used in the context of a relaxant, sedative, or anaesthesia (not necessarily knocking one out, but ameliorating the sensory load to render an AI less reactive or less caring about certain stimuli)?

This is concerning not because of its implication in this strip and people's suppositions that UR and CoD can arrange a beneficial relationship for the purpose of using tea as a tool for calming AIs during procedures. This is concerning because it means that by dint of a scent disseminated through the air such as with a vaporiser, combat AIs such as Bubbles could be rendered less effective due to not only hallucinating on the battlefield but by being less reactive to external stimuli while that scent is present.

[Pilchard123]

This is concerning not because of its implication in this strip and people's suppositions that UR and CoD can arrange a beneficial relationship for the purpose of using tea as a tool for calming AIs during procedures. This is concerning because it means that by dint of a scent disseminated through the air such as with a vaporiser, combat AIs such as Bubbles could be rendered less effective due to not only hallucinating on the battlefield but by being less reactive to external stimuli while that scent is present.

So pop out a scented smoke grenade and potentially shut down any combat AI in the area? Yeah, that would be scary.

I wonder if that's part of why Bubbles was unceremoniously dumped out of the military and now suffers PTSD. Perhaps she was incapacitated and the human part of her squad was massacred with her unable to save them. It doesn't really fit with her enjoying Unicorn Grove, but maybe that's because the memories were destroyed by Corpse Witch.

[Is it cold in here?]

>Perhaps she was incapacitated and the human part of her squad was massacred with her unable to save them.

She said as much. It was an EMP gun. She was conscious but unable to move while her squad mates were butchered. Thank God I cannot imagine what that's like.

Maybe, just maybe, people in robot bodies can turn off their responses to smells. Organic people can't, but then we can't even safely stop breathing for more than a few minutes. Which raises the question of whether sentient mobile workstations need to inhale and exhale for cooling. If they can hold their breath, then enemy aromatherapy would not be an issue.

[zisraelsen]

Air cooling wouldn't require olfactory sensors which have been said to be what bots' senses of smells are based on. Presumably, if debilitating smells were a concern, those sensors would be togglable.

[BenRG]

@zisraelsen,

That presumes that the full power of scents has previously been recognised. Their value as a relaxant and promote non-agitated behaviour has probably been well recognised for some time but I suspect that the potential for it to completely disable a synthetic hasn't been fully explored (at least not until fairly recently). Whilst it is probably recognised as a risk, it is quite possible that Hannelore is one of only a few practitioners to have got results on this scale.

There are many commercially-available blends of tea so I suspect all have been tested and the synthetics olfactory interpretation software has been adjusted to prevent them from creating disabling reactions. However, custom blends and preparations, such as Hannelores, are unknowns and it is unlikely that anyone would have known about them to think to include features to minimise their effect just yet.

Even a relaxed soldier can fight (if at a notably reduced efficiency level). Given Bubbles' olfactory sensors primary tasking was identifying harmful chemical agents, disabling them in a combat scenario would be counter to their purpose. So, I think that they would simply have trained Bubbles to be able to resist their effects. However, Hannelore's work was something on a totally new level!

[Zog]

In this country 'cash-in-hand' implies a transaction that the tax man will be unaware of and not receive his share of.  Is that the case over there? I can certainly imagine Roko paying for the work out of personal funds, but having it off the books seems unlikely.

I do not know how much variation there is within the US but I am from the southeast and live in the southwest and would take "cash in hand" to mean payment when service is rendered and what you are speaking of to be "under the table".

[Case]

She said as much. It was an EMP gun. She was conscious but unable to move while her squad mates were butchered. Thank God I cannot imagine what that's like.

Ummmmh not quite what she said (comic 3463): She said she was incapacitated by "a powerful EMP" - no indication as to whether she was conscious at the time her squadmates died (Also no specifics whether the EMP was generated by a handgun, grenade, high-altitude nuke etc).

[Pilchard123]

Huh. I thought there was A strip that went into more detail, but I couldn't for the life of me find it.

[blt]

Bubbles has mentioned previously that her sense of smell actually serves as a sophisticated chemical weapons detector.  So I don't put much stake in the idea that a "smell weapon" could incapacitate AI soldiers; if their hallucinations from tea aren't at least partly under their control I have to imagine Sarin or VX would be a mess and defeat the whole purpose of having a sensor.

My pseudoscience headcanon for the tea hallucination is that their sense of smell normally runs as a background process and just feeds the analysed outputs to her higher consciousness.  But by focussing on the input data directly and possibly intentionally rerouting it into her conscious thought, she is able to purposefully get the hallucinations based on the scent data.  Sort of like a deep mediation.

[Case]

Huh. I thought there was A strip that went into more detail, but I couldn't for the life of me find it.

Yeah, searched quite a bit myself - I forgot that the grand revelation of what the memory is about comes after the Spookybot/Emily-mind-diving arc, not before.