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Author Topic: so when and whos going to be the first character in a ai/human romance ?  (Read 15179 times)

nightshade

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although its been teased here and there (like the robot cop and Clinton) its not happened yet ...... I think its gonna happen with one of the female robots and a new character eventually I wouldnt mind seeing her and clinton together but hes got the brun thing going

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Welcome, new person!

It may already be happening. Bubbles has feelings for Faye that she can't put a name to, and Faye has put together some things Bubbles has said and actively avoided understanding them. What Faye's doing is consistent with having feelings for Bubbles.

In the past Jeph's been reluctant to write a romance between a synthetic and an organic because he didn't want people getting creepy about physical intimacy. It looks like he's open now to exploring Feels across the plastic/protein gap.

We also know that Momo has fantasized about Sven.

Global Moderator Comment It's a cromulent topic but be careful not to fall into shipping.
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Storel

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Was it Sven or Angus that Momo was fantasizing about? I thought it was Angus, since he used to be roommates with Marigold.
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awgiedawgie

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There have been a number of possible pairings that have been hinted at. Faye/Bubbles always kind of feels like it's on the verge of happening, and Dora and May, among others, have brought it up, but it could turn out to be too outré for either one of them to follow through on. Faye at one point seemed to be quite against the idea, and Bubbles said she thinks any romantic relationship for her is unlikely. Even now, Faye may only be thinking about the possibility because Amanda and Evie were so intently questioning her on the idea. At this point, it's really impossible to say for sure.
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There have been a number of possible pairings that have been hinted at. Faye/Bubbles always kind of feels like it's on the verge of happening, and Dora and May, among others, have brought it up, but it could turn out to be too outré for either one of them to follow through on. Faye at one point seemed to be quite against the idea, and Bubbles said she thinks any romantic relationship for her is unlikely. Even now, Faye may only be thinking about the possibility because Amanda and Evie were so intently questioning her on the idea. At this point, it's really impossible to say for sure.

I disagree that Faye's comment there was her being against the idea of human/AI relationship (or even Faye/Bubbles specifically).  To me, it read more like Faye being against that May being genuinely helpful and sincere ended up in a crass comment about sex.
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awgiedawgie

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You may be right. But it seemed that way to me. I vaguely think I remember something earlier in the comics where she said something that sounded like she wouldn't be into the idea of dating an AI. I'll have to look for it on my next read-through (I'm currently only at #951, so I may just start over, and add that to my list of details to watch for).
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BenRG

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FWIW, during one of her early appearances, Hannelore 'chaperones' Winslow at a party for his fellow AnthroPCs that Pintsize throws in the apartment (Marten, Faye and Dora are at a bar at this point). Hannelore has hangover-induced amnesia about what happened but Pintsize strongly implies that she and he had engaged in some sexual activity as a dare during a game of 'spin the bottle'.

So, not romance, just a stunt-whilst-drunk but it deserves to be out there in this discussion.
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Thrillho

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Define 'romantic.'

If you just mean sexual, I don't believe for a second that Pintsize hasn't mined a rich seam of AI fetishists.

Otherwise, based on the comic's telegraphing, I would be nothing short of amazed if there was an AI/human relationship that wasn't Faye/Bubbles, or at the very least before that arc concludes.
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JoeCovenant

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Am I right in thinking, the only AI/Human ponderings on hook-ups, have come from the AI's POV?

Pintsize, Momo, Bubbles, Roko...?

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awgiedawgie

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Am I right in thinking, the only AI/Human ponderings on hook-ups, have come from the AI's POV?

Pintsize, Momo, Bubbles, Roko...?
Faye’s sister Amanda and her girlfriend Evie (especially Amanda) were trying very hard to get Faye to admit to being romantically attracted to Bubbles — basically trying to force a confession to something that may or may not even be there.

FWIW, during one of her early appearances, Hannelore 'chaperones' Winslow at a party for his fellow AnthroPCs that Pintsize throws in the apartment (Marten, Faye and Dora are at a bar at this point). Hannelore has hangover-induced amnesia about what happened but Pintsize strongly implies that she and he had engaged in some sexual activity as a dare during a game of 'spin the bottle'.

So, not romance, just a stunt-whilst-drunk but it deserves to be out there in this discussion.


As for the Pintsize/Hanners “spin the bottle” moment, I don’t believe for one second that Hanners, no matter how drunk, made out with any of the AnthroPCs at the party. I firmly believe that Pintsize was just being his usual dickhead self. He was playing off her anxieties, and as usual, he doesn’t consider how severe her reaction will be.
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JoeCovenant

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Am I right in thinking, the only AI/Human ponderings on hook-ups, have come from the AI's POV?

Pintsize, Momo, Bubbles, Roko...?
Faye’s sister Amanda and her girlfriend Evie (especially Amanda) were trying very hard to get Faye to admit to being romantically attracted to Bubbles — basically trying to force a confession to something that may or may not even be there.


Yeah... but that isn't any of the characters thinking about their own yearnings robotic.
« Last Edit: 17 Apr 2018, 07:07 by JoeCovenant »
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If I'm remembering an entire archive right, every time romance with an AI has come up, the human character's reaction is more  like "That's not my thing" than like "What a disgusting perversion!". So it's either too unexpected or implausible to draw an emotional reaction, or else an accepted variant of romantic attraction.
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awgiedawgie

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Exactly. It's not that they actually find the idea repulsive, but that it's such a departure from their concept of "normal" that they can't process it. Or like in the case of Amanda and Evie grilling Faye about Bubbles, she simply had never even thought of the relationship as being potentially romantic, so the whole conversation sailed right over her head. I don't recall anyone saying anything truly negative about the idea of a human dating an AI.
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JoeCovenant

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The irony, of course, being that this very forum is FULL of comments...

"BUBBLES is HAWT!!!"

"Ooooo... Melon's ridiculously cute..."

etc etc etc

The cast of QC might be averse to AI/Human... coupling...
It's readership doesn't seem to have the same concerns.
  :parrot:
« Last Edit: 23 Apr 2018, 02:03 by JoeCovenant »
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BenRG

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I've noticed that there is a strong momentum on the forums to treat the synthetics as people but with a different chemical make-up to humans. This is easy for us as we aren't 'in-universe'.

For the adult generation in Questionable Content, who have seen AIs appear, gain civil rights and slowly begin integrating into wider society, it is much more difficult. There is almost certainly a great deal of resistance based on the fact that they have conscious memory of when these beings were treated as sentient appliances with no more civil rights than, say a computer in a motorised humanoid chassis, nothing more. That's a difficult bit of cultural and behavioural programming to override.

FWIW, I've noticed that Sam, who is young enough to possibly have only partial memories of pre-Singularity AIs, has no problem treating Momo as a full peer in every way down to not even blinking an eye about discussing boys and the like with her.
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awgiedawgie

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I can't say I agree. I see quite a lot of acceptance from the QC humans toward AIs. Especially from those who have companion AIs, but even from others. Marten, for example, has never thought of Pintsize as a robot, but just as "a little dude." And he was very distraught when confronted with the possibility that Pintsize may have lost his entire memory. Even Dale - who first encountered May only as an apparition, not even a physical android - treated her like just another person... a very rude, crude, and lewd person, but a person nonetheless. And by treating her with that kind of respect, he gained her respect in return. Which is no small feat when we're talking about May.
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Gyrre

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I've noticed that there is a strong momentum on the forums to treat the synthetics as people but with a different chemical make-up to humans. This is easy for us as we aren't 'in-universe'.

For the adult generation in Questionable Content, who have seen AIs appear, gain civil rights and slowly begin integrating into wider society, it is much more difficult. There is almost certainly a great deal of resistance based on the fact that they have conscious memory of when these beings were treated as sentient appliances with no more civil rights than, say a computer in a motorised humanoid chassis, nothing more. That's a difficult bit of cultural and behavioural programming to override.

FWIW, I've noticed that Sam, who is young enough to possibly have only partial memories of pre-Singularity AIs, has no problem treating Momo as a full peer in every way down to not even blinking an eye about discussing boys and the like with her.
Also, it could be argued that many of our world's societys seem to be pushing for the acceptance of robots/AI. The AIs in QC being highly anthropomorpized (w/o the uncanny valley) would also lend itself to us being more acceptable of them.
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Milayna

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I recall reading somewhere that Jeph hates writing asshole characters, which is why most of the regular cast is flawed but more likeable than not, and the ones who really are assholes like Sven and Hannermom take long bus trips. He's alluded to AI rights not being as peachy as presented, especially through Momo's interest in civil rights for AI and though Bubbles' difficult interactions with randos. All of our protagonists are the good guys because a story with bad guys protagonists would be pretty shitty.

There at least doesn't seem to be any violent social upheaval and this town seems to be largely accepting of AI's, with some rough spots, but we don't really know to what extent that maps to the greater culture, or if the synthetic protagonists DO face daily microaggressions but he can't show every single little thing.
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awgiedawgie

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I recall reading somewhere that Jeph hates writing asshole characters, which is why most of the regular cast is flawed but more likeable than not, and the ones who really are assholes like Sven and Hannermom take long bus trips. He's alluded to AI rights not being as peachy as presented, especially through Momo's interest in civil rights for AI and though Bubbles' difficult interactions with randos. All of our protagonists are the good guys because a story with bad guys protagonists would be pretty shitty.

There at least doesn't seem to be any violent social upheaval and this town seems to be largely accepting of AI's, with some rough spots, but we don't really know to what extent that maps to the greater culture, or if the synthetic protagonists DO face daily microaggressions but he can't show every single little thing.
Jeph has singled out a few negative reactions, which I suspect is supposed to be representative of the larger picture. Such as the first store where May inquired about employment, and the complaints voiced in the AI support group when Winslow subbed for the regular counselor, and the teenagers calling Bubbles a "freak". But Momo has mentioned that on the whole, the humans she knows and has met are very accepting toward AIs.


You have places like The Horrible Revelation, that has introduced "robot beer" to be more inclusive of the AI population in town, and then on the other hand, you have people like Amanda's girlfriend Evie, who didn't stop to think about how offensive she was to Bubbles, although I suspect she is equally oblivious in how she treats humans. It seemed to me that she views everyone - AIs and humans alike, and possibly even Amanda - as sociology experiments, rather than people.
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We can also guess that the regular cast welcomes diversity more than the average in their surroundings.
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Roko/Bread ship when?  :evil:

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This comic definitely has a rye sense of humor
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Milayna

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This comic definitely has a rye sense of humor
Elliot's going to be her Pita Pan and whisk her to her dream land
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We may soon see the ultimate flouring of Jeph's creativity. That kind of humor is much kneaded.
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Milayna

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This is the moment that inspires Roko to becoming a niche video game developer. "You've got a hoagie on your tail, Focaccia! Do a barrel roll!"

(ok, it's late at night, maybe I should stop before there are barley any puns left for everyone else :laugh:)
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awgiedawgie

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This is the moment that inspires Roko to becoming a niche video game developer. "You've got a hoagie on your tail, Focaccia! Do a barrel roll!"

(ok, it's late at night, maybe I should stop before there are barley any puns left for everyone else :laugh: )
Don't want to be accused of having pun at others' expense.
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This comic definitely has a rye sense of humor
Elliot's going to be her Pita Pan and whisk her to her dream land
and thus the Eliot abuse, and possibly more Clin-ton abuse, shall continue.
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dutchrvl

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I recall reading somewhere that Jeph hates writing asshole characters, which is why most of the regular cast is flawed but more likeable than not, and the ones who really are assholes like Sven and Hannermom take long bus trips. He's alluded to AI rights not being as peachy as presented, especially through Momo's interest in civil rights for AI and though Bubbles' difficult interactions with randos. All of our protagonists are the good guys because a story with bad guys protagonists would be pretty shitty.

There at least doesn't seem to be any violent social upheaval and this town seems to be largely accepting of AI's, with some rough spots, but we don't really know to what extent that maps to the greater culture, or if the synthetic protagonists DO face daily microaggressions but he can't show every single little thing.

To me Sven is also part of the 'flawed but not inherently evil and still rather likable' group. He has displayed very assholey behavior, yes, but so have many other main cast members. Plus, his asshole behavior is now quite far in the past and as far as we know he seems to have worked on improving himself.
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Also, people like Sven, while they have nothing to offer those who are looking for more in a relationship, can be very therapeutic for people who are terrified about all the emotional content of relationships and especially sex because, ultimately, sex signifies commitment that they don't feel capable of returning.  People without any kind of ability or inclination to commit aren't threatening that way.

Of course the wheels come off that relationship the instant one of them decides commitment is possible - that's fundamentally a reversal (or 'betrayal' if someone is getting hysterical) of the 'emotionally safe' context around which the relationship formed.  It's just like committed relationships that way.  If you change the terms of a relationship unilaterally, usually the other party walks out or fails to abide by your terms.

Which is more or less what he and Faye did.  I thought Jeph depicted it fairly well - right down to the dropping him like a hot rock when their attitudes toward commitment inevitably diverged.
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Gyrre

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I recall reading somewhere that Jeph hates writing asshole characters, which is why most of the regular cast is flawed but more likeable than not, and the ones who really are assholes like Sven and Hannermom take long bus trips. He's alluded to AI rights not being as peachy as presented, especially through Momo's interest in civil rights for AI and though Bubbles' difficult interactions with randos. All of our protagonists are the good guys because a story with bad guys protagonists would be pretty shitty.

There at least doesn't seem to be any violent social upheaval and this town seems to be largely accepting of AI's, with some rough spots, but we don't really know to what extent that maps to the greater culture, or if the synthetic protagonists DO face daily microaggressions but he can't show every single little thing.

To me Sven is also part of the 'flawed but not inherently evil and still rather likable' group. He has displayed very assholey behavior, yes, but so have many other main cast members. Plus, his asshole behavior is now quite far in the past and as far as we know he seems to have worked on improving himself.

It'd be interesting to check back in on him. Who knows, maybe he and his lawyer got together?
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Storel

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I recall reading somewhere that Jeph hates writing asshole characters, which is why most of the regular cast is flawed but more likeable than not, and the ones who really are assholes like Sven and Hannermom take long bus trips. He's alluded to AI rights not being as peachy as presented, especially through Momo's interest in civil rights for AI and though Bubbles' difficult interactions with randos. All of our protagonists are the good guys because a story with bad guys protagonists would be pretty shitty.

There at least doesn't seem to be any violent social upheaval and this town seems to be largely accepting of AI's, with some rough spots, but we don't really know to what extent that maps to the greater culture, or if the synthetic protagonists DO face daily microaggressions but he can't show every single little thing.

To me Sven is also part of the 'flawed but not inherently evil and still rather likable' group. He has displayed very assholey behavior, yes, but so have many other main cast members. Plus, his asshole behavior is now quite far in the past and as far as we know he seems to have worked on improving himself.

It'd be interesting to check back in on him. Who knows, maybe he and his lawyer got together?

Nah, she's still got high standards!
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Looks like we might get an answer sometime of the summer.
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although its been teased here and there (like the robot cop and Clinton) its not happened yet ...... I think its gonna happen with one of the female robots and a new character eventually I wouldnt mind seeing her and clinton together but hes got the brun thing going

Is there any interesting politics in the fact it wasn't a male robot when it finally happened?

A new human character for the role might have been more interesting than Faye, but we know so much about Faye that we can understand her struggles with the concept.
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although its been teased here and there (like the robot cop and Clinton) its not happened yet ...... I think its gonna happen with one of the female robots and a new character eventually I wouldnt mind seeing her and clinton together but hes got the brun thing going

Is there any interesting politics in the fact it wasn't a male robot when it finally happened?
My guess is that Jeph simply hasn't made very many realistic male-presenting AIs yet. Especially one with some major screen time. IIRC Winslow's new chassis is the only one we've seen so far and that is more of a teen boy rather than a full grown man. Now, I don't necessarily believe that an AI has to be looking like a realistic human for a relation to work, but with romance and intimacy comes cuddling and I'm quite certain that it's easier for a human to put their arms around something at least somewhat humanoid shaped with a soft exterior. Had Winslow (and Hannelore) stayed around there could possibly have been something built around Winslow opening up to the world and finding romance (Sam? Tilly? Amir?) which would also have brought a new light to his companionship with Hannelore.
...
I wrote the above stuff, and then I remembered this: 2157
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Neko_Ali

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I don't think there's anything to be read into it besides the fact that Jeph has more female characters. When it comes down to the min cast, there are only two male AI, Pintsize and Winslow. Pintsize has been perving on everyone since the start, and Winslow is the innocent. On the other side we have Momo, May, Bubbles and maybe Roko. Depends on if she keeps getting comics featuring her. So in the main cast we have to male AI, both of which are not really candidates for cross-species romance, and 3/4 female AI, all of which have fantisized or expressed direct interest in humans. So it's pretty clear that when Jeph explored the idea it was going to be involving one of the female AI.

Also this is not the first time it was cross species romance was mentioned in comic. In one of the robot support group strips one of the robots was talking about an issue with their girlfriend probably wanting to date a human. Implication being the the girlfriend was human and the AI was insecure about it, or the girlfriend was AI and interested in humans. Nobody seemed to think it was unusual though. And there was the Robo-boyfriend Hanner's dad sent her to try out. We may not have seen an AI/Human romance in print yet, but it doesn't seem to be surprising, which implies it happens.
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fayelovesbubbles

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Ugh. Sven is such a POS.

Momo can do a lot better. The way May put him down was fantastic. She's unimpressed. As am I.
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...and Bubbles loves Faye.

awgiedawgie

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Ugh. Sven is such a POS. I

Momo can do a lot better. The way May put him down was fantastic. She's unimpressed. As am I.
He's trying. I'll give him credit for that.
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fayelovesbubbles

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Ugh. Sven is such a POS. I

Momo can do a lot better. The way May put him down was fantastic. She's unimpressed. As am I.
He's trying. I'll give him credit for that.

i was actually really annoyed with Hannelore for telling Dora not to cut Sven out of her life for being toxic. Especially with a mother like hers, you'd think she'd understand that toxic family members need to get the boot.
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...and Bubbles loves Faye.

awgiedawgie

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The difference is that Ms. Chatham assumes no responsibility for her actions. She uses people - even her own daughter - to meet her own ends, and has shown no hint of remorse, or any indication that she will ever change.


Sven has admitted that his actions have been terrible, and he is making an effort to become a better person. And Dora also admitted that the issues between them were as much a problem with herself as they were with him.


Don't get me wrong... Momo can do a lot better, and May was fantastic (she does have her moments). But as long as Sven is trying to become a better person, I'm willing to give him the time to do it.
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Is it cross-species or cross-racial?

I could argue either.

The biological definition of species would make them separate. On the other hand they can feel and love, which makes them human.
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awgiedawgie

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Is it cross-species or cross-racial?

I could argue either.

The biological definition of species would make them separate. On the other hand they can feel and love, which makes them human.
One could also argue neither (just for the sake of argument). Since an AI is technically not organic, one could say that technically one is not a different species or race, since they are not biologically any species or race. It's all semantics. After all, if they are designed to look human and feel human emotions, then the whole "being a robot" thing is just a technicality. And how could you determine what race they are, any more than you can determine what race a human is? The lines between races can get blurred pretty fast.
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BenRG

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FWIW, most theoretical xenobiologists acknowledge that life does not have to be based on hydrocarbon protein biology to be 'alive'. It's just that it would be much harder for us to recognise a silicon-based life-form as anything except a rock unless it moved and greeted us.
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torrrential

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One of the issues that concerns me and may be responsible for some of the confusing issues is that there has clearly been a development in the AI world whereas the main characters seem to be frozen in time.  The "twenty-somethings" that we met when the comic started should now be mid-thirties going on forty.
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awgiedawgie

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Technology has always progressed at blinding speeds, so it's no surprise that the AI world would advance similarly. Only a few years have passed in-universe since the comic began.
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When, in the course of human events,
You can keep your head when all about you
Took the one less traveled by,
It's up to you to cremate those last remains.

JoeCovenant

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One of the issues that concerns me and may be responsible for some of the confusing issues is that there has clearly been a development in the AI world whereas the main characters seem to be frozen in time.  The "twenty-somethings" that we met when the comic started should now be mid-thirties going on forty.

I think that's just a case of "the world" being unfolded before us (the reader) slowly, as the strip itself progressed.
It isn't that AI has progressed faster than the strip, just that it's always been there, we just haven't seen it.
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Covenant
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The Singularity must have been a long time coming and was not visibly showing at the start of the strip.
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Thrudd

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FWIW, most theoretical xenobiologists acknowledge that life does not have to be based on hydrocarbon protein biology to be 'alive'. It's just that it would be much harder for us to recognize a silicon-based life-form as anything except a rock unless it moved and greeted us.
With that kind of logic then looking at carbon in its pure state carbon based life should be either black and crumbly or crystal clear, hard and very brittle. Yeah silly isn't it.
Yeah, extrapolation based on inference based on very little data can get you into all sorts of trouble, or laughed at by fans if you are a self proclaimed science fiction writer [not gonna mention her name]
Silicon life would be using a very different chemistry and most likely a very different environmental zone of temperature and pressure but the real difference would be in the developmental path taken. based on the environment itself and how it relates to the chemistry and the physical challenges presented.
Look at some of the earliest life forms that developed here on earth and you would be freaked out by just how strange and alien they were.
Heck, logistically if a planets evolutionary path was similar to our own they could develop a similar humanoid with similar social structures.
It is an intriguing though experiment.
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A good pun is it's own reword.
There is a difference between spare parts, extra parts and left over parts.

The Venn diagram  for Common Sense and Good Sense has very little, if any, overlap.

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One of the issues that concerns me and may be responsible for some of the confusing issues is that there has clearly been a development in the AI world whereas the main characters seem to be frozen in time.  The "twenty-somethings" that we met when the comic started should now be mid-thirties going on forty.

The humans are the unchanging machines in QC world.
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