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A blank white room with no other data input and no companions.

A room that's 10% grey with only a T.V. with a picture of a beach and place the same slow muzzak on loop.

The above option except it loops every episode of Barney and Friends.

An endless stream of legal code in the driest, dullest possible wording.

An empty black room.

Three A.I. together in an empty featureless room 'Hell is other people' style.

None of the above (describe your answer if you want to)

[Gyrre]

Will May eventually talk about her experience in robot jail? Will Marigold apologize for asking?

[hedgie]

Thanks, btw, Gyrre for having a poll and thread up before it goes live on Patreon.  Even if I don't use it, I like the chance to engage in speculation ahead of time.

[BenRG]

My answer to the poll:

None of the above
Robot jail is a featureless beige box (because you can't go wrong with beige) with subjective dimensions of about 24 x 24 x 10 feet. It has one wall that turns transparent 2 hours out of 24 to enable interaction with a randomly-selected other prisoner.

The only other feature is a large wall-mounted TV screen that is the interface with a 'dumb' virtual therapist that can either help the prisoner work their way to a realisation of guilt and a desire for rehabilitation or can provide basic rehabilitative skills training like arts and crafts, zen meditation and social/conversational skills. The warden, vetted visitors and legal counsel can also communicate with the prisoner through that screen. When not being used for a specific function, the screen shows a slowly-cycling image from a very large image gallery of scenes calculated by AI experts to be 'mentally stimulating but relaxing' whilst playing music that is calculated to be the same. For some reason all these tunes sound like the work of Annunzio Paolo Mantovani.

Prisoners who show regular cooperation and good behaviour or respond well to the virtual therapy sessions get the option to add small features like plants, wall art and even simple furniture to their cells. However, these can be removed by the sysadmin if the prisoner becomes aggressive or uncooperative. Other punitive measures include reducing the size of the virtual space and forced behavioural therapy sessions run on a continual loop. In the most extreme cases (usually limited to extremely violent and/or homicidal behavioural anomalies), the entire virtual space can be used to create positive and negative associative responses to certain personal behaviours.

Each prisoner's drive is actually running in a closed-off virtual machine with a very narrow and heavily-firewalled I/O port into the main system, which can network each VM to other VMs or the main link out to the Internet for communications outside the institution.

[hedgie]

It would explain quite a bit if May's prison shrink was m-x doctor.

[Mr_Rose]

So, what you’re saying is that robot jail is a pay-to-win home improvement game, only you can’t actually pay to skip the tedious bits? Or stop playing.

[cybersmurf]

Maybe it's a simulation of the offence. But like in May's case actually being uploaded into what appears to be a fighter jet, but unable to move.

[Zebediah]

She’s in a dogfight with F-16s but she’s flying a Brewster Buffalo.

[hedgie]

Your mind is even more of a twisted hellscape than that bandicoot's, and I mean that as a compliment.

[TheEvilDog]

No, worse.

May was forced to be one of those kiddie rides that you see outside supermarkets.
As a plane.
And every day she remained tether to the ground, as drunken idiots tried to sit their fat asses on her, requiring the fire brigade to extract them.
She got to be a plane. It was just every hell imaginable for her.

[shanejayell]

I expect Robot Jail to be something completely inconcievable by human beings, a AI jail built by AIs. Also, the 'sentences' are probably immense considering AI processing speeds. A minute in Jail to US might be centuries for them...

[Case]

I expect Robot Jail to be something completely inconcievable by human beings, a AI jail built by AIs. Also, the 'sentences' are probably immense considering AI processing speeds. A minute in Jail to US might be centuries for them...

I believe Momo explained that the standard anthropomorphic AIs we mostly see are about equal to humans in mental capacity - most of their computing power is used to maintain their personality.

IIRC, that dialog was specifically about perception of time - the question was whether AI have to slow themselves down when they interact with humans, and Momo denied that, saying that they are similar to the average human both in time perception and mental faculties.

AI like Eminence grise or Station may be of a different order.

[Carl-E]

New comic! 


Roku's sniffing warm water with a packet of active yeast sprinkled in it and a little sugar. 




Smells like baking bread...

 

[pallanox]

Gassy bread. Lol

[brasca]

Well that's smart antagonizing a cop, May, especially one that's trying to be empathetic.

 

[Dawiyd]

3831 is ironic to me, because Dale is ducking. Is this a subtle recognition of his skin color, or just kind of how Dale is anyway? Not a big deal to me, but somehow the first thing that came to mind.

In other news, Barney and Friends is my personal hell.

[Is it cold in here?]

Welcome, new person!

Could be, but not necessarily. I can imagine, say, Marten doing the same.

[Dawiyd]

Thanks for the Welcome! Totally, I could see Marten doing the same as well. BTW, this was just a random thought, and no complaint as I love QC, and love Dale as a Character.

[QuestionableIntentions]

"Yeah! Fuck all those people who feel apprehensive about someone who did something bad enough to have been in jail! How dare they not read your mind and see how good a person you are now! Especially witu you constant crass and abrasive behaviour!"

[sitnspin]

Considering that the vast majority of people who are in jail are there for non-violent drug charges, yes, fuck those judgemental pricks.

[brasca]

That would apply to human convicts, but it’s unknown if AIs go to jail for similar offenses.  May, however, embezzled money and not for sympathetic reasons like paying someone’s medical bills.  She did it to buy a chassis with flight capability.  And after all that her attitude is so off putting that I really have little sympathy for her.

[OldGoat]

The timing of that exchange,

Roko to May:  "I thought you were in danger."

May to Dale:  "She's dumb and bad at her job."

means Roko is real close to breaking through to May who is knocking over verbal trashcans to block Rock's path in case she gives chase.  She's scared shitless (well, maybe not actually shitless since that's robot default) of showing how touched she was by that concern and having to admit that Roko is a decent person.  We may see a May meltdown, and some peer therapy from Mellon won't surprise me.

Meanwhile, poor Roko still needs to meet some guy who'll take a baguette to her.

[Cornelius]

That would apply to human convicts, but it’s unknown if AIs go to jail for similar offenses.  May, however, embezzled money and not for sympathetic reasons like paying someone’s medical bills.  She did it to buy a chassis with flight capability.  And after all that her attitude is so off putting that I really have little sympathy for her.

Not just flight capabilities either. She wanted to be a fighter jet. Someone with her impulse control, and a full weapon system spells disaster. Remember Pintsize's laser?
Aside from which, it could not have been the end of her career. Jets require fuel. Was she planning on being a mercenary?
The cast has made efforts to get past her abrasive behaviour, but I wouldn't count on anyone else particularly making the effort. There's also the fact that Momo and Marigold have to live with her.
What I mean to say is, most people will, at first sight, see a particularly rude sales clerk, rather than a convict. True, that doesn't change the issue of employment. Or the fact that this prejudice works against many people who don't deserve it.

[Is it cold in here?]

Roko is being more thoughtful than usual. What to make of it?

[Nycticoraci]

Considering that the vast majority of people who are in jail are there for non-violent drug charges, yes, fuck those judgemental pricks.

Maybe in America.

In Australia (where I'm from), the largest percentage of inmates are there for "Acts intended to cause injury" at 23% of the total pop. Illicit drug offences is back at 15%.

In Europe the percentages vary country to country, but appears to marginally be "drug offences" majority (not necessarily non-violent), at 18.7%, with theft coming in just behind at 16.2% (homicide at 12.8%).

In any case, definitely not the "vast" majority. America just has unusual judiciary priorities.

[sitnspin]

The story takes place in the US, so that's what is relevant for May's circumstances.

[BenRG]

I've been thinking about this strip and I find myself wondering if Roko is having one of those moments that lots of people in public service-oriented jobs have: "Am I really doing any good here? Do I really have what it takes? Even if I do, is the system itself going to let me make a positive difference?" So, really, by saying that she's 'dumb and bad at her job', all May did is express a fear that Roko herself seems to be experiencing.

This is me but I'm wondering if May's own issues about her past is simply the introduction that Jeph wanted to introduce Roko's own crisis of self-confidence and maybe identity.

Roko is being more thoughtful than usual. What to make of it?

I suspect that this has been something playing in her head for a while. It's just that she's had enough tea so that it's broken down her usual ability to repress her dissatisfaction with her life, personal and professional alike.

[cybersmurf]

The timing of that exchange,

Roko to May:  "I thought you were in danger."

May to Dale:  "She's dumb and bad at her job."

means Roko is real close to breaking through to May who is knocking over verbal trashcans to block Rock's path in case she gives chase.  She's scared shitless (well, maybe not actually shitless since that's robot default) of showing how touched she was by that concern and having to admit that Roko is a decent person.  We may see a May meltdown, and some peer therapy from Mellon won't surprise me.

Meanwhile, poor Roko still needs to meet some guy who'll take a baguette to her.

I beg to differ. Personally, I think you're reading too much into this.

The way I see it, Roko is thinking about her service, and how much she can actually do, and at that moment she felt sympathetic for May.
Depending on her findings Roko may either quit the service or develop a... zeal.


 

3831 is ironic to me, because Dale is ducking. Is this a subtle recognition of his skin color, or just kind of how Dale is anyway? Not a big deal to me, but somehow the first thing that came to mind.

In other news, Barney and Friends is my personal hell.

No, this is flat out "taking cover before shit hits the fan".
May has issues with the justice system, and kinda gets protective over Faye for one of Roko's mistakes.

[Tova]

May's impulse control issues are on display again today. Good thing Roko is in a reflective mood.

I admire Dale more and more for his ability to see the good person underneath her behaviour.

[Annemoon]

My answer to the poll:

None of the above
Robot jail is a featureless beige box (because you can't go wrong with beige) with subjective dimensions of about 24 x 24 x 10 feet. It has one wall that turns transparent 2 hours out of 24 to enable interaction with a randomly-selected other prisoner.

The only other feature is a large wall-mounted TV screen that is the interface with a 'dumb' virtual therapist that can either help the prisoner work their way to a realisation of guilt and a desire for rehabilitation or can provide basic rehabilitative skills training like arts and crafts, zen meditation and social/conversational skills. The warden, vetted visitors and legal counsel can also communicate with the prisoner through that screen. When not being used for a specific function, the screen shows a slowly-cycling image from a very large image gallery of scenes calculated by AI experts to be 'mentally stimulating but relaxing' whilst playing music that is calculated to be the same. For some reason all these tunes sound like the work of Annunzio Paolo Mantovani.

Prisoners who show regular cooperation and good behaviour or respond well to the virtual therapy sessions get the option to add small features like plants, wall art and even simple furniture to their cells. However, these can be removed by the sysadmin if the prisoner becomes aggressive or uncooperative. Other punitive measures include reducing the size of the virtual space and forced behavioural therapy sessions run on a continual loop. In the most extreme cases (usually limited to extremely violent and/or homicidal behavioural anomalies), the entire virtual space can be used to create positive and negative associative responses to certain personal behaviours.

Each prisoner's drive is actually running in a closed-off virtual machine with a very narrow and heavily-firewalled I/O port into the main system, which can network each VM to other VMs or the main link out to the Internet for communications outside the institution.

Yes! Finally something I can get behind!
All the previous suggestions just sound like torture to me. While that - in general - is not really what people do in jails.
There are forms of isolation, but actual torture is not generally put into the jailing system.
There's always the incentive to let people rehabilitate. (At least here in Europe.)
So a suggestion with a form of isolation, in some moderation, with counseling etc would sound more plausible to me.
I can totally see how a bad counselor + May would spell disaster though.
Probably the idea behind it would be humane, the actual implementation would still make it quite bad for her.
(loneliness, a counselors that's not quite *that* friendly and helpful, especially in combination with May's personality..)

[jwhouk]

Considering that the vast majority of people who are in jail are there for non-violent drug charges, yes, fuck those judgemental pricks.

I'd agree if it wasn't for the fact that one of the primary tasks of police officers is to decide whether or not someone is breaking the law...

[Case]

Considering that the vast majority of people who are in jail are there for non-violent drug charges, yes, fuck those judgemental pricks.

I'd agree if it wasn't for the fact that one of the primary tasks of police officers is to decide whether or not someone is breaking the law...

I see your point, but ... let's just say that hereabouts, I'm not scared of talking to a police officer (Hell, I damn' near dated one), something that several of your compatriots on this forum have reported being, to the point they'd think twice about calling on one in an emergency - something that still floors me. Not that I'd put my hand in the fire for every German Cop, or that every German feels that way - I've known activists who felt rather apprehensive about them - but on average, there's a lot less horror stories about Krautian LEOs around. Never had a problem with Dutch or Belgian cops, either.

TL;DR - Yes, it is one of their primary tasks. As an American taxpayer, are you happy with the way the US police forces, as a collective, discharge their duties?

[Zebediah]

Speaking as someone who lives in Northampton: the Northampton PD has a pretty good reputation. The Massachusetts state police, somewhat less so.

Local police vary from town to town. When I lived in Arlington MA a few years ago, the Arlington PD had a stellar reputation, while next door in Somerville the police were notoriously corrupt.

[SordidEuphemism]

I've been re-watching Foster's Home lately, and I realized today that my mental voice for Dale is Wilt.
I could easily imagine Dale saying "On the list of things that are not OK, that was pretty not OK!"

[OldGoat]

I've been thinking about this strip and I find myself wondering if Roko is having one of those moments that lots of people in public service-oriented jobs have: "Am I really doing any good here? Do I really have what it takes? Even if I do, is the system itself going to let me make a positive difference?" So, really, by saying that she's 'dumb and bad at her job', all May did is express a fear that Roko herself seems to be experiencing.

This is me but I'm wondering if May's own issues about her past is simply the introduction that Jeph wanted to introduce Roko's own crisis of self-confidence and maybe identity.

Roko is being more thoughtful than usual. What to make of it?

I suspect that this has been something playing in her head for a while. It's just that she's had enough tea so that it's broken down her usual ability to repress her dissatisfaction with her life, personal and professional alike.

Exactly.  Roko never stops thinking, but now she's verbalizing it for anyone present to hear.

I beg to differ. Personally, I think you're reading too much into this.

The way I see it, Roko is thinking about her service, and how much she can actually do, and at that moment she felt sympathetic for May.
Depending on her findings Roko may either quit the service or develop a... zeal.

What, that Roko the Cop can be a decent person and remain a state cop?

I don't see Jeph going with either of your proposed story lines.  He's exploring the conflict android AIs experience between their mechanical bodies and their more and more obviously human minds.  Second only to Bubbles, Roko's character is his principle vehicle for that exploration.  (He may take Winslow there eventually, too, but that hasn't happened yet.  He's still in the "Gee whiz this is cool!" stage with his new android body.) 

Jeph doesn't invest much time in his antagonistic characters, and they're few and far between.  The only ones I can think of that he's developed at all are Beatrice Chatham and Jesper Pate* (I don't even include Church because he was just Pate's tool).  Further, as a literary device she's too useful for representing government authority in the strip.  He's not going to change Roko into a full-time abusive asshole nor send her off to a convent.  Where they bake bread.


* For relative new-comers, Pate and his goon Church are the Baddies from Jeph's finalized Alice Grove strip.

[TheEvilDog]

I've been re-watching Foster's Home lately, and I realized today that my mental voice for Dale is Wilt.
I could easily imagine Dale saying "On the list of things that are not OK, that was pretty not OK!"

Aaaaaaaaand I will never unhear that.

[Neko_Ali]

TL;DR - Yes, it is one of their primary tasks. As an American taxpayer, are you happy with the way the US police forces, as a collective, discharge their duties?

As a hole, no absolutely not. Sure there are good people on the force and good departments. But I have never had an interaction with the police that left me feeling positive, and most of them left me dissatisfied if I had to call them for some reason, or upset and afraid if I got stopped. And that is before I moved to the South and transitioned. Now I'm straight up scared of the police and being arrested.

From experience and mostly from listening to people's stories this concept of police serving and protecting the public is a lie. They serve their own interests and keep the peace. But too often they do so with entirely too much force, and are more interested in a quick solution than an accurate one. And that's before taking into account racial profiling and corruption that exists on all levels, and outright bullies with a badge who just get off knowing they can use their authority to harass, arrest or kill with little to no repercussion. And if you are in one of the groups that's routinely targeted by the police for harassment then it's entirely a roll of the dice how any interaction with the police is going to go. But the odds are not in your favor.

Like so many public agencies, I think the police are necessary. But I think it has become riddled with corruption, those tripping on power and greed to the point where it needs to be gutted and the bad apples thrown out. Maybe after that something can be built that does what it's supposed to do.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

She’s in a dogfight with F-16s but she’s flying a Brewster Buffalo.

May gets the F-16. No missiles. Every time she lines up a shot, the Brewster flips aside as she goes roaring past.

(edits)
Roko's hair and Bubbles' chair look similar but do not use the same colors.
(had to check)

[Zebediah]

Comic’s up.

And I am totally not getting how Jeph’s joke about Canadian Tire Money is relevant to this comic.

[Is it cold in here?]

It's what they would use for "bonus parole points" there, if I got the joke.

Is Roko being fair to herself? Would Corpse Witch have ever been taken down if Roko hadn't applied pressure and started events in motion, not that she was in charge of them but still? I called her "Clouseau" at the time, but fact is you can't blame yourself if witnesses are mind-controlled and superiors are bribed.

[keithcurtis]

The first rule of Robot Jail...

[brasca]

It's what they would use for "bonus parole points" there, if I got the joke.

Is Roko being fair to herself? Would Corpse Witch have ever been taken down if Roko hadn't applied pressure and started events in motion, not that she was in charge of them but still? I called her "Clouseau" at the time, but fact is you can't blame yourself if witnesses are mind-controlled and superiors are bribed.

Well Roko did play a roll in a chain of events that lead to Corpse Witch's downfall.  If she hadn't tried to make a bust that night it's possible Corpse Witch wouldn't have threatened May with things worse than Robot Jail if she talked to the police.  This lead to Faye punching her which lead to her termination which motivated Bubbles to break free which lead to a discussion that Spooky bot overhead and the rest is history. 

Personally, I think Roko would be better off talking to Bubbles since she once worked in a serve and protect capacity and might still if her team hadn't been killed.  I feel worse for Bubbles because when she was discharged she had no one turn to which is why she was easy pickings for Corpse Witch.  May on the other hand embezzled money to buy a fighter drone chassis. 

[Tova]

Speaking of bonus points - bonus points to the person with the archive-fu to find the previous occasion when the strip featured an extreme close-up of a pair of hands (holding a coffee cup?) during an emotional revelation. I will dub thee Archive-fu Master.

[BenRG]

I do think that Roko is being unnecessarily hard on herself. Corpse Witch was quite the professional when it came to covering her tracks and protecting herself from the consequences of her misdeeds. I don't think that anyone could reasonably have expected Roko to have stumbled across those hidden truths, no matter how good her investigative skills.

However, I don't really think that this is about her performance at all. As I posted yesterday, I really think that this is about the fact that Roko doesn't feel that she's making a difference. If she was making a difference, she could more easily handle the stress, the looks of hate from punks and the disturbingly tribal and macho internal culture of the police service. As it stands, I think that she's really having problems remembering why she signed up in the first place.

Oh, May! It's so sad that your self-image is so fragile that you have to pretend not to feel empathy for anyone!

[hakko504]

Speaking of bonus points - bonus points to the person with the archive-fu to find the previous occasion when the strip featured an extreme close-up of a pair of hands (holding a coffee cup?) during an emotional revelation. I will dub thee Archive-fu Master.

https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3376

[Tova]

hakko504, I dub thee Archive-fu Master hakko504. You now stand alongside fellow esteemed forumites Mister Archive-fu Madness and Science Fairy cesium133.

[Mr. Doctor]

Speaking of bonus points - bonus points to the person with the archive-fu to find the previous occasion when the strip featured an extreme close-up of a pair of hands (holding a coffee cup?) during an emotional revelation. I will dub thee Archive-fu Master.

Aw man I missed the opportunity. But I actually thought of a different, earlier, strip!
Can I be master 4?

[Tova]

YES
But I think I shall dub thee Mr. Doctor, Archive-fu Master. Because the other way around is a bit of a mouthful.

[shanejayell]

One wonders if Corpse Witch herself will ever turn up again. Jail isn't FOREVER, one assumes.

[Zebediah]

In CW’s case, though, she’s potentially looking at  decades, depending on how many charges they decide to bring against her. Given that Spookybot ordered her to make a full confession or else, the prosecutor is probably having a field day.

Although I still want an arc where she escapes and Roko teams up with Spookybot to bring her back in.

[Cornelius]

Given her sense of self preservation, I don't think CW will voluntarily come anywhere in the vicinity of Bubbles, even if she gets out. Or else might still apply.