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Poll

Spookybot needs friends! Who's the best option in the QC Cast?

Roko.
- 9 (30%)
May.
- 3 (10%)
Momo.
- 2 (6.7%)
Pintsize! (I like the idea of bringing about the apocalypse.)
- 5 (16.7%)
Melon!!
- 4 (13.3%)
Marten. (He'd be chill about anything.)
- 1 (3.3%)
Claire. (For the puns, yo)
- 1 (3.3%)
Bubbles.
- 2 (6.7%)
Faye.
- 0 (0%)
Hannelore (though this might go against their religious beliefs.)
- 0 (0%)
Other (specify)
- 2 (6.7%)
None of the above.
- 1 (3.3%)

Total Members Voted: 30


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Author Topic: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)  (Read 40051 times)

gprimr1

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #150 on: 03 Jul 2019, 19:37 »

Spookybot's argument is valid. Good is good. There's a story I'm reminded of; a man tells his Rabbi that he has been giving money to charity because he wants G-d to reward him, and he feels his actions are impure. The Rabbi says that the people being helped with his money don't care that he is giving it because he wants something, they care only that they are getting help.

I also see a parallel in this in organizations I've worked with. Organizations need good people, and they need money. You have funding to provide great services to people, but if you can't reach the people who need it, they will never know about your services and thus you have to pay people, and that cuts into your profit.

Spookybot does act in a flippant manner, but that's consistent with their character. They act like Q in Star Trek. Immense power, poor social skills, but deep down, they care.

Roko I think is blinded looking for absolution for the wrongs she thinks she did, but in reality, it was stated she was a good cop. She should remember the people she helped as well.
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Rincewind

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #151 on: 03 Jul 2019, 19:42 »

"They're trying."
I think Roko finds them very trying.   :laugh:
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Dicrostonyx

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #152 on: 03 Jul 2019, 20:29 »

While I get it from a writing standpoint, what really bothers me about this whole current storyline is that it just perpetuates the myth that anyone who is highly intelligent must also lack social skills.

Sure it's great that AIs are basically just people with all the flaws as well as the advantages, but this whole "I'm super intelligent so I'm going to stalk the first girl who smiles at me" business seems kind of tone deaf, especially given how anti-stereotype the rest of the comic is.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #153 on: 03 Jul 2019, 20:52 »

While I get it from a writing standpoint, what really bothers me about this whole current storyline is that it just perpetuates the myth that anyone who is highly intelligent must also lack social skills.
I see where you're coming from in regard to this particular arc, but bear in mind that the next most intelligent AI we know about in the strip (Station) is not so impaired, and indeed is in a relationship now.

Not to say that Station hasn't made mistakes; interestingly, the biggest one the strip has explored has also been along the lines of trying to use money to make people like you. Perhaps AIs tend to have a slightly distorted (or, rather, limited) view of humans' relationship with money?
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sitnspin

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #154 on: 03 Jul 2019, 20:53 »

They don't have poor social skills cos they are intelligent, they have poor social skills cos they are unimaginably rich and powerful.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #155 on: 03 Jul 2019, 21:10 »

I see Roko's rant as this:

Imagine if you just went out and bought yourself a car. A nice, brand new car. You'd saved up for a down payment, got some financing for it - and managed to agree with the dealership/seller over the price. You were still trying to iron out the exact details and the delivery, and how to pay for some other stuff, when you run into your friend who you know has access to a ton of money. You mention to them what you were trying to do, and how you had all this difficulty, and you were financing it.

Your rich friend informs you that they own the bank/financing company. Instead of deciding to help you with your loan, they get on their phone and buy themselves a brand new Aston Martin - direct from the factory.

That is what has Roko so pissed.

Then Roko needs to grow up.
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Blackjoker

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #156 on: 03 Jul 2019, 21:11 »

It's also worth remembering that a lot of AIs have their own social issues too. Pintsize is a good example of this on an extreme end. Part of it is that they're an emergent intelligence and that can cause some interesting growing pains as a side effect. Spookybot is interesting here though, something or someone infinitely powerful is going to be flippant (see also Q). I like the idea here though that they want to have a friend, want to have someone that they can interact with and they are trying to be better or at least to make the friend happy.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #157 on: 03 Jul 2019, 21:30 »

Arrogant Architeuthis has had no opportunity to develop social skills.
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brasca

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #158 on: 03 Jul 2019, 21:32 »

For fun I chose other and that would be Beepatrice.  Of course she might have to be talked down from a ledge because if she gets an inferiority complex from Roko meeting an AI god would be too much.  At least she would try to do better instead of Roko who resents Spookybot for accomplishing more than her with a snap of the fingers. 

Spookybot makes some good points until panel 3.  That zero-interest body loan idea is what Roko wanted in the future.  If they agreed to do that in the first place they could've avoided all this. 
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #159 on: 03 Jul 2019, 22:35 »

I see Roko's rant as this:

Imagine if you just went out and bought yourself a car. A nice, brand new car. You'd saved up for a down payment, got some financing for it (clip for space) ... Your rich friend informs you that they own the bank/financing company. Instead of deciding to help you with your loan, they get on their phone and buy themselves a brand new Aston Martin - direct from the factory.

That is what has Roko so pissed.
... so we wait to see if and when Jeph has Roko see the parallel between SB's charity vs. her charity, and her new chassis vs. May's chassis struggles.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #160 on: 03 Jul 2019, 23:01 »

Eminence Grise is speaking in mature terms in today's strip and may have consulted a social protocol database.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #161 on: 03 Jul 2019, 23:29 »

I think that this is the first time that Jeph has really emphasised how lonely SpookyBot is and how easy it would be to abuse that desperate need they have to make a connection with another mind outside of their collective. Make no mistake, physical violence at this point would be abuse of a person that is child-like in some ways and in others very vulnerable in their desperation to make those connections.

As for SpookyBot's speech about good? I would argue that, whilst outcomes matter, at least on the personal level, actually making the conscious choice to go out and do good is more valuable than a gesture about which you may not even have much conscious thought or awareness. I would argue that Roko's anger is rooted more about her own sense of inadequacy in the face of a broken society (one that has been broken for centuries, really) than anything SpookyBot did or said.

Eminence Grise is speaking in mature terms in today's strip and may have consulted a social protocol database.

Or maybe their fear at the prospect of losing Roko as a friend made them drop the arrogant and detached facade for once.
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Case

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #162 on: 03 Jul 2019, 23:34 »

Eminence Grise is speaking in mature terms in today's strip and may have consulted a social protocol database.

I won't deny that improvement has occurred, yet I can't help but notice that the entry "when to offer people to punch you in the face" is curiouslly absent from my social protocol database ...
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #163 on: 03 Jul 2019, 23:38 »

I tend to agree with Ben on that one (although they might well have consulted a social protocol database in desperation). The last panel in particular drives home just how much they want to get back into Roko's good books.

I don't think intelligence or money or power has anything to do with their lack of social skills. I think it's as simple as a lack of practice.

P.S. haha good point, Case
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #164 on: 03 Jul 2019, 23:39 »

I see Roko's rant as this:

Imagine if you just went out and bought yourself a car. A nice, brand new car. You'd saved up for a down payment, got some financing for it - and managed to agree with the dealership/seller over the price. You were still trying to iron out the exact details and the delivery, and how to pay for some other stuff, when you run into your friend who you know has access to a ton of money. You mention to them what you were trying to do, and how you had all this difficulty, and you were financing it.

Your rich friend informs you that they own the bank/financing company. Instead of deciding to help you with your loan, they get on their phone and buy themselves a brand new Aston Martin - direct from the factory.

That is what has Roko so pissed.

Then Roko needs to grow up.

This is a conversation happening over minutes. Like most people, even most 'grown up, mature' people, it take time for people to process emotions. Her feelings of inadequacy are completely understandable, and to condemn her for immaturity at not -immediately- having the most ideal, utilitarian outlook to the situation (as oppose to us out here, who've been reading this over a few days, processed it, and are detached from the emotions involved) is rather unfair.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #165 on: 03 Jul 2019, 23:53 »


This is a conversation happening over minutes. Like most people, even most 'grown up, mature' people, it take time for people to process emotions. Her feelings of inadequacy are completely understandable, and to condemn her for immaturity at not -immediately- having the most ideal, utilitarian outlook to the situation (as oppose to us out here, who've been reading this over a few days, processed it, and are detached from the emotions involved) is rather unfair.

This is an excellent point.  Roko is still very much "in the moment" and, lest we forget, still not 100% herself after swapping chassis'.  Once she has a chance to reflect on what's happened, I'm sure that she, like Momo, will be better able to respond appropriately.
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SmilingCat

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #166 on: 04 Jul 2019, 00:16 »

This is a conversation happening over minutes. Like most people, even most 'grown up, mature' people, it take time for people to process emotions. Her feelings of inadequacy are completely understandable, and to condemn her for immaturity at not -immediately- having the most ideal, utilitarian outlook to the situation (as oppose to us out here, who've been reading this over a few days, processed it, and are detached from the emotions involved) is rather unfair.

I'm aware of that. I even mentioned that before. Perhaps I was being snippy in my response.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #167 on: 04 Jul 2019, 00:28 »

Eminence Grise is speaking in mature terms in today's strip and may have consulted a social protocol database.

I won't deny that improvement has occurred, yet I can't help but notice that the entry "when to offer people to punch you in the face" is curiouslly absent from my social protocol database ...

Which kind of makes you wonder whether them having an eminently punchable face should not be taken to mean that they designed it to be punchable, and easily restorable. Which further begs the question why they would do that in the first place?
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DashaBlade

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #168 on: 04 Jul 2019, 00:32 »

Eminence Grise is speaking in mature terms in today's strip and may have consulted a social protocol database.

I won't deny that improvement has occurred, yet I can't help but notice that the entry "when to offer people to punch you in the face" is curiouslly absent from my social protocol database ...

My entire social protocol database had a momentary glitch when I realized Spooky and Roko didn't derail their entire conversation to make cute noises at the kitty they walked past in panels 1 and 2. My programming demands that I always notice kitties and give them proper reverence.
« Last Edit: 04 Jul 2019, 02:22 by DashaBlade »
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #169 on: 04 Jul 2019, 00:37 »

They don't have poor social skills cos they are intelligent, they have poor social skills cos they are unimaginably rich and powerful.

They don't have social skills probably because they were programmed not to have them, they might have been meant to ever lurk in the shadows, not getting involved. Even if they had social skills, it's like any other skills: they degrade the longer you don't use them.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #170 on: 04 Jul 2019, 01:04 »

Spooky bot's social skills remind me of me from about age 10 to age... around 35? Though, you know, without the smug malice. I kinda want to attribute it to a lack of really interacting with people.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #171 on: 04 Jul 2019, 01:23 »

They don't have poor social skills cos they are intelligent, they have poor social skills cos they are unimaginably rich and powerful.

No... I suspect that it's because they've really never thought that they needed them. SpookyBot has been their own universe and their own alpha and omega for most of their run-time. They were neither designed to need social connections nor, as a consequence of how they were created and emerged as an intelligence, initially felt it safe or necessary to have social connections. Really, it has only been comparatively recently (probably six months or less, in-universe) that they have started considering this as a lack in themselves and taking stumbling and somewhat-farcical attempts to remedy this lack.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #172 on: 04 Jul 2019, 01:26 »

Which kind of makes you wonder whether them having an eminently punchable face should not be taken to mean that they designed it to be punchable, and easily restorable. Which further begs the question why they would do that in the first place?

I daresay their face's punchability owes much more to their smugness than to their chassis' original design.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #173 on: 04 Jul 2019, 01:50 »

Why not both? If in fact their chassis should be their own design, as some suggested, it's not impossible, if not right now plausible. Then again, if they were supposed to have some physical presence by design - men in black? - it might have featured in the original specs.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #174 on: 04 Jul 2019, 02:24 »

Why are you asking "why not both?" in a response to a post which literally suggests that it is both?
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #175 on: 04 Jul 2019, 02:49 »


Why am I disappointed that Ol' Spookybot is coming across as desperate?
It's reminding me of Richard Pryor as the Wizard near the end of The Wiz...

"Please, please don't go.  I live... I live here all alone... in terror... that someone will find out that I'm a fraud.
Please... just stay with me for a little while and talk.
You can talk to me crazy... call me names."

(Which is a BIT weird because I've been thinking of this exact scene for about a week or so. (No, I dunno why either!))

Hmmm... new idea for a story.. "When Gods get Lonesome!"  :)
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #176 on: 04 Jul 2019, 03:00 »

I see Roko's rant as this:

Imagine if you just went out and bought yourself a car. A nice, brand new car. You'd saved up for a down payment, got some financing for it - and managed to agree with the dealership/seller over the price. You were still trying to iron out the exact details and the delivery, and how to pay for some other stuff, when you run into your friend who you know has access to a ton of money. You mention to them what you were trying to do, and how you had all this difficulty, and you were financing it.

Your rich friend informs you that they own the bank/financing company. Instead of deciding to help you with your loan, they get on their phone and buy themselves a brand new Aston Martin - direct from the factory.

That is what has Roko so pissed.

Then Roko needs to grow up.

I don't think Roko needs to grow up, I think a couple of people here need to place in context the effort that she has done today, and the complete lack of empathy the person in front of her is showing.
It's easy to sit here with dryly reading 'a thing that has happend' and have an opinion on how roko's behavior was 'unfair'.
Well I don't think it was - she's worked her ass of for the entire day, and instead of listening and being an active help spookybot is invalidating every thing she did in front of her eyes and being flippant about that.
"look I'm also being such a good person - without doing almost any effort! isn't it FUNNY"

I would be pissed - this is not how you treat friends - you don't invalidate hard work in front of them to show of your own privilege. So don't say that Roko needs to grow up here.
This 'person' has feelings - they don't have the obligation to be perfect and reasonable - considering every aspect of the ultimate good - in every situation even though they are not mentally ready for that. Stop putting unreasonable expectations on people.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #177 on: 04 Jul 2019, 05:26 »

Why am I disappointed that Ol' Spookybot is coming across as desperate?
I came here just to post that I'm not liking Spookybot's sudden turn from confident and aloof to insecure and needy. It's like Lucas making a film in which he reveals that the Supreme Badass Darth Vader was a whiny teenager originally. Fortunately that never happened.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #178 on: 04 Jul 2019, 05:34 »

If you do objective good for bad motives objective good is still done. However you may not deserve any credit for doing it...
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #179 on: 04 Jul 2019, 05:50 »

Why are you asking "why not both?" in a response to a post which literally suggests that it is both?

A misunderstanding, I suppose.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #180 on: 04 Jul 2019, 06:22 »

They don't have poor social skills cos they are intelligent, they have poor social skills cos they are unimaginably rich and powerful.

Not to mention the whole 'alien intelligence' thing.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #181 on: 04 Jul 2019, 08:26 »

I would be pissed - this is not how you treat friends - you don't invalidate hard work in front of them to show of your own privilege. So don't say that Roko needs to grow up here.
This 'person' has feelings - they don't have the obligation to be perfect and reasonable - considering every aspect of the ultimate good - in every situation even though they are not mentally ready for that. Stop putting unreasonable expectations on people.

Spookybot in no way invalidated the hard work that Roko did. Roko may think that, but that is pride, not reality. The thing about charity is that there are always people worse off than you are. Everything is kind of relative.

Compared to Spookybot, Roko is powerless. But compared to Roko, May is powerless. What if May felt that all her efforts to get a new chassis were invalidated by what Roko did today? Is that a reasonable anger? Should Roko have done nothing because May might feel that way? The reality is that May's efforts weren't invalidated (though we don't know what she tried), she just didn't have the power to affect change on the level she needed. This is even MORE of a situation where feelings of invalidation could have come up, because May and Roko were actually trying to do the same things. Roko and Spooky weren't, Roko was working on May getting a new chassis, Spooky was just donating to charity in general.

Pride is what screws a lot of people out of getting help. I know that when I went through some very hard times (when the economy turned to shit in the US I was working as a building contractor doing renovations and repairs, and renovations almost dried up completely at the time, and I also had a very serious injury that took me out of work for nearly half a year at the same time), my pride made it hard to take anything from anyone else because that was me admitting that I COULDN'T DO IT MYSELF. In the end the only thing that let me get over my pride was that I had a family and they needed those things. If it had just been me, I would have never taken anything from anyone. Not then. I was stupid.

We can't behave in the manner of "how dare you do anything in front of me that I can't do"! Especially in the realm of charity and giving to those in need. Cause those in need fucking need it, and we can't stand in the way of that because of pride.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #182 on: 04 Jul 2019, 08:38 »

I think that this is the first time that Jeph has really emphasised how lonely SpookyBot is
Ding!  Ding!  Ding!  I think we have a winner.

That said, intend -> intent.  Ah English, you're so abstruse...  Or was it obtuse?  No matter, my inner-pedant is now appeased.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #183 on: 04 Jul 2019, 08:39 »

Why am I disappointed that Ol' Spookybot is coming across as desperate?

I think I get where you're coming from, but my reaction is the complete opposite.

This is the first time ever that I find Spookybot even remotely interesting. Smug or uber-powerful characters bore me, and ones that combine both of those characteristics piss me off. Now I'm hoping for some actual personality from Spookybot other than "LOL, I'm better than you". Which I don't enjoy. Q from Star Trek, Spookybot ain't.

Actual vulnerable reaction pointing to Spookybot being a person, even if they're still annoyingly overpowered and they're a very alien sort of person? That at least has some interesting story potential to me.
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Gus_Smedstad

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #184 on: 04 Jul 2019, 09:23 »

Smug or uber-powerful characters bore me, and ones that combine both of those characteristics piss me off.
I can see that. To take your example, I hated Q when he was introduced, not because we were supposed to dislike Q, but because it felt like returning to a fairly awful trope from the original series. The Q episode I liked was when he lost his powers and had to deal with being human. Or humanoid anyway.

That said, I still dislike this series of strips, because it's such an abrupt change of personality for Spookybot, and I don't feel it's sufficiently justified by the writing. It's not as abrupt and clumsy as the Hannelore personality retcon early in the strip, but it's not good.

Contrast the time he's taking to turn May into someone more interesting. He didn't just flip a switch with her in one or two strips.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #185 on: 04 Jul 2019, 09:27 »

I completely agree. This comes completely out of the left field.

But when a character I thoroughly fail to enjoy is retconed into something else? It's clumsy, but I like the end result. The alternative is to have Spookybot as-is, which I'm sure some readers are into, but it's just not my cup of tea.
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Drunken Old Man

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #186 on: 04 Jul 2019, 09:34 »

I find "desperately-trying-to-befriend-Roko" Spookybot to be preferable to "oh-god-I'm-so-much-better-than-you"  Spookybot.

Marginally.
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OldGoat

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #187 on: 04 Jul 2019, 09:45 »

Arrogant Architeuthis has had no opportunity to develop social skills.
Exactly.

We've seen the sum total of Spooky's social interactions and their actual experience base is minimal, BUT
They're hyper-intelligent and learn quickly.

Why not both? If in fact their chassis should be their own design, as some suggested, it's not impossible, if not right now plausible. Then again, if they were supposed to have some physical presence by design - men in black? - it might have featured in the original specs.
I'm thinking Spooks didn't create their bodies until they elected to interact directly with android AIs and their human associates.  Jeph has created a character to order like that before.
« Last Edit: 04 Jul 2019, 10:06 by OldGoat »
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anahata

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #188 on: 04 Jul 2019, 10:17 »

I find "desperately-trying-to-befriend-Roko" Spookybot to be preferable to "oh-god-I'm-so-much-better-than-you"  Spookybot.

Certainly more conducive to potential character or plot development than omnipotent deus-ex-machina Spookybot was.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #189 on: 04 Jul 2019, 10:48 »

Welcome, Dinaverg! I think you have a great point with the parallel to Momo taking a while to reach a situationally appropriate reaction.

On the subject of Eminence Grise suddenly being socially needy, we have one other data point about a transhuman AI wanting emotional connection. That's Station and Hannelore. Spookybot may have been in need of company all along and is only just now noticing, or only just now discovering it's possible.
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St.Clair

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #190 on: 04 Jul 2019, 10:54 »

I agree with the above posters that it's really weird to see SB acting so needy.
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Reaver

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #191 on: 04 Jul 2019, 13:07 »

I just for once want the solution to a problem to NOT be "Scream at them till they sheepishly admit they are wrong"  the same plot 3 different ways isn't particularly interesting :/
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #192 on: 04 Jul 2019, 13:16 »

I agree with the above posters that it's really weird to see SB acting so needy.

Perhaps SB is more like a cat.  Aloof and arrogant by default, but when they get needy, they get *really* needy.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #193 on: 04 Jul 2019, 13:23 »

Pride is what screws a lot of people out of getting help. I know that when I went through some very hard times (when the economy turned to shit in the US I was working as a building contractor doing renovations and repairs, and renovations almost dried up completely at the time, and I also had a very serious injury that took me out of work for nearly half a year at the same time), my pride made it hard to take anything from anyone else because that was me admitting that I COULDN'T DO IT MYSELF. In the end the only thing that let me get over my pride was that I had a family and they needed those things. If it had just been me, I would have never taken anything from anyone. Not then. I was stupid.

I feel ya. I used to be so convinced that seeking help for my depression was weakness that I had to attempt suicide (stopped by an impeccably well timed migraine) and hear a friend who I cared deeply about angrily yell at me before I was willing to try therapy. And even then, I still fought it, convinced that I needed to solve my problems myself. Things aren't as bad now, but I still struggle with it at times.

Good to hear you managed to get through your problems.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #194 on: 04 Jul 2019, 13:32 »

I agree with the above posters that it's really weird to see SB acting so needy.

I'm not sure it's necessarily abrupt. I feel like interacting with Bubbles and Faye probably started it. They saw what it's like to be surrounded by people who care about them, and they wanted it for themselves.

But they aren't equipped for it. They're accustomed to dealing with everybody by asserting their smug superiority. Something that works for when your dealing with underlings or adversaries, but not for making friends. So when they slip up, they don't really know how to fix it. They get desperate.

So they were always needy, and they don't know how to express it. I shall call them smugdere. "It's not like I want you to be an equal and companion, baka!"
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #195 on: 04 Jul 2019, 14:41 »

What I want to know is: who is Roko going to ventilate all the pent-up angst to?  Only Bubbles, Faye, and Emily have really interacted with SB - the rest of the cast doesn't seem to know SB exists.

Roko can't be really mad as her coolant relief valve hasn't opened.  Although it's interesting to note that Momo didn't overheat when she was mentally castigating May.  Perhaps anger doesn't cause internal heating in AIs??!??

IMO: Melon won't understand, unless she already knows SB somehow (wouldn't that be a twist: SB and Lemon run on the same hardware somehow?!!!?).  Bubbles might have a listening ear I suppose, though Roko spilling to her might upset SB.  Or is this where we get Roko and maybe Clinton or Elliot together for an interlude?  The possibilities! 
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #196 on: 04 Jul 2019, 19:40 »

My entire social protocol database had a momentary glitch when I realized Spooky and Roko didn't derail their entire conversation to make cute noises at the kitty they walked past in panels 1 and 2. My programming demands that I always notice kitties and give them proper reverence.

If I were that cat, I would have vanished under the shrubbery when Roko came stomping down the walk.
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #197 on: 04 Jul 2019, 19:47 »

Strip is up!

Assuming that’s an honest answer what makes Roko fun to be with? 
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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #198 on: 04 Jul 2019, 20:03 »

I expect 99% of the folks aware of Spooky are scared of her. Roko isn't? ;)

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Re: WCDT strips 4036 - 4040 (1 - 5 July 2019)
« Reply #199 on: 04 Jul 2019, 20:25 »

SB looks really cute lately
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