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Heavy load lifter (i.e. crushbot)

0 (0%)

Extreme anthropomimetic (i.e. Roko v.2)

9 (20%)

Sorta anthropomimetic but not too much (i.e Roko v.1 or Momo's current chassis)

13 (28.9%)

Something droid-like but made from spare parts (i.e. Jeremy)

1 (2.2%)

Something droid-like and off-the-shelf (i.e. Seven)

1 (2.2%)

Something bizarely exotic (a flying drone or spiderbot)

2 (4.4%)

Ultra high-performance aircraft

12 (26.7%)

Aerospace transport (like Skylon or the Earth-to-Orbit shuttle used to get to the space station)

1 (2.2%)

Back to being a disembodied mainframe

0 (0%)

Other (please specify in comments)

6 (13.3%)

Total Members Voted: 44

[shanejayell]

Hey, Spooky and Melon.

[tomveil]

This isn't the exact spectrogram that Melon and Yay are using, but it's close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqzRnIYVXnY

[Gyrre]

This isn't the exact spectrogram that Melon and Yay are using, but it's close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqzRnIYVXnY

Going by the text at the bottom of the page, that's probably it.

I was guessing it was a WinAmp visualizer thing or something.

[SmilingCat]

This isn't the exact spectrogram that Melon and Yay are using, but it's close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqzRnIYVXnY

Is it weird that I kinda miss that sound?

[awkwardness]

This isn't the exact spectrogram that Melon and Yay are using, but it's close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqzRnIYVXnY

Is it weird that I kinda miss that sound?

No...it's perfectly reasonable too want to remember the past and appreciate how much better we have things nowadays.

Plus we don't kink-shame here 

[awkwardness]

New strip up.  Morse code (both are the same): "Indeed.  It was very quaint."

The spectrograms look kind of like modem handshakes.

Dial-up modem handshakes at that...

Sorry if it sounds snippy, but I've pretty much converted to seeing networking as packages and a true web so it rung "dial-up" to me 

[cybersmurf]

Dial-up internet. makes me kind of nostalgic.
Although IIRC my family was a bit on the late side, adopting internet, and some things sound rather unbelievable.

I think Yay aka Spookybot kinda likes melon's goofiness. Probably because they know Melon is mostly harmless, and her intentions are innocent, but apparently she knows quite a bit of stuff. They probably could tell her how to access an old, (almost?) forgotten nuclear silo and launch a ICBM, but she never would actually do it.

[BenRG]

At some point, Roko has found herself the keeper of a Divine Idiot and an Actual Dark God. It also seems that Yay and Melon work on the same level in lots of ways, one by her divorce from perceptional reality and the other by their basic scorn for lesser creatures' ideas of 'normal'. On the other hand, it is interesting to have AIs who don't even pay lip service to the 'pass as human' tradition.

Am I the only one who is alarmed at the thought that Yay (Spookybot) has been introduced to Jenga? It's a game that is quite easy to play with entire civilisations when you have sufficient communications subversion capability!

Just an additional point: Roko gets more beautiful every time I see her. I suspect that Jeph is setting us up for entirely believing in her sudden romantic entanglement when it comes.

[Sorflakne]

This isn't the exact spectrogram that Melon and Yay are using, but it's close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqzRnIYVXnY

Well that took me back...

[Near Lurker]

You could always dial a fax machine.  (Yes, they still exist... I mean, they're pretty much all virtual now, but it's the same protocol at point of call.)

[BenRG]

Someone on the Subreddit pointed out that there are several orders of magnitude difference in information density between Melon and Yay's handshakes. Basically, Melon said "Hello, how are you?" and Yay responded with the first five pages of their autobiography in a 100-millisecond burst.

[War-Wren]

I went too far back... My first thought was my old ZX Spectrum loading a game from tape... 

[Meander]

Just an additional point: Roko gets more beautiful every time I see her.

Agreed.

[Tai Fanboi]

Ahh nostalgia...  Still say the modem sound was the birth of dubstep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7eDRXrs

[Cattus]

Actually, 10HP/sec is not really a commonly used measure.  Horsepower already is a measure of force per second as in 1 HP = 550 pound feet per second or the power to lift 550 pounds 1 foot in one second.

10 horsepower per second might or might not be much, but I think 10 health points per second is remarkable. Except if you have like 100k.

Oh Crap! - I never thought that the HP could be Health Points.  But that now makes sense.   Oh well.  I am just a nerd engineer and make nerdy mistakes and assumptions.  So, while my comment above may be true - it isn't relevant.

[cesium133]

I also interpreted that as 10 horsepower per second, and found myself wondering why Jeph wouldn't instead use watts per second...

[brasca]

This isn't the exact spectrogram that Melon and Yay are using, but it's close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqzRnIYVXnY

Is it weird that I kinda miss that sound?

Not really.  I like telling kids I used to drive 5 miles to the nearest library to use the internet and it was dial up. 

[Gyrre]

This isn't the exact spectrogram that Melon and Yay are using, but it's close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqzRnIYVXnY

Is it weird that I kinda miss that sound?

No...it's perfectly reasonable too want to remember the past and appreciate how much better we have things nowadays.

Plus we don't kink-shame here 

IDK.... I think I like it better drastically slowed down.

[shanejayell]

New strip up.

I'd... probably play that version, actually. But add in dice rolls too.

[Gyrre]

I forget who I suggested to voice Melon, but in this one my brain selected Jessica Calvello a lá Excel Saga.

EDIT: Apparently it was Holly Conrad, a.k.a. Strix in Dice Camera Action.

[awkwardness]

Dial-up internet. makes me kind of nostalgic.
Although IIRC my family was a bit on the late side, adopting internet, and some things sound rather unbelievable.

I think Yay aka Spookybot kinda likes melon's goofiness. Probably because they know Melon is mostly harmless, and her intentions are innocent, but apparently she knows quite a bit of stuff. They probably could tell her how to access an old, (almost?) forgotten nuclear silo and launch a ICBM, but she never would actually do it.

My family didn't get dial-up until 2000 after I was given an old cast-off computer so I know the feeling.

I think that Yay like her uniqueness as she isn't a normal sentience and her chaos is the exact opposite of them...basically, the old "opposites attract" which explains why Melon and Basilisk get along so well too.

[BenRG]

I long suspected that Jeph was a Bill Watterson fan but actually having Melon and Yay playing a Calvinball version of Jenga proves it!

I kind of love the relationship between Melon and Yay. Melon's bizarro-world version of reality and how it works must be endlessly fascinating to Yay. For a being who probably knows everything, it must like being able to spend time in a whole new world full of fresh ideas and things to experience!

[awkwardness]

This isn't the exact spectrogram that Melon and Yay are using, but it's close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqzRnIYVXnY

Is it weird that I kinda miss that sound?

Not really.  I like telling kids I used to drive 5 miles to the nearest library to use the internet and it was dial up.

Aw...you didn't walk it in the snow?

Don't forget to add that you didn't have Google or Youtube either- their heads will explode from the shock 

[Gyrre]

I long suspected that Jeph was a Bill Watterson fan but actually having Melon and Yay playing a Calvinball version of Jenga proves it!

I kind of love the relationship between Melon and Yay. Melon's bizarro-world version of reality and how it works must be endlessly fascinating to Yay. For a being who probably knows everything, it must like being able to spend time in a whole new world full of fresh ideas and things to experience!

As long as she doesn't choose to forget things like old Coyote. Wouldn't want to risk another Loup coming into existence.

[oddtail]

There's already a game where you play Jenga and one person makes things up as they go along.

It's called "Dread", and it's a horror-themed tabletop RPG with Jenga as the mechanic for death (or otherwise losing your character). It's pretty amazing and I highly recommend it.

I wouldn't play whatever Melon is playing, though. I was never a fan of things being random and arbitrary and making little sense. And I doubt Melon's thought processes make much sense to anyone but Melon or a god-tier AI.

[Thrudd]

He invoked the name of the evil empire.

They have been the death of many a game company through predatory acquisition and attempted large scale Monetization of niche products.
I so miss Avalon Hill and their swath of games covering every genre.
Yet Milton- Bradley, Parker Brothers, et al have had some of their games survive despite Hasbro marketing machinations.
Trivial Pursuit was killed with just so many different flavours and now the same is being milked from Monopoly till that is also a desiccated husk.

Ware the inrush of rabid Hasbro lawyers in 3 2 1

[cesium133]

There is only one version of Trivial Pursuit: Genus Edition. The one from when Jimmy Carter was president.

[Wingy]

I have the AdultTrivia knockoff from the early 1980s.  It's just about as fun as Genus.

[jmsr]

There's already a game where you play Jenga and one person makes things up as they go along.

It's called "Dread", and it's a horror-themed tabletop RPG with Jenga as the mechanic for death (or otherwise losing your character). It's pretty amazing and I highly recommend it.

I wouldn't play whatever Melon is playing, though. I was never a fan of things being random and arbitrary and making little sense. And I doubt Melon's thought processes make much sense to anyone but Melon or a god-tier AI.

I would.  This is basically Calvinball.

[oddtail]

There's already a game where you play Jenga and one person makes things up as they go along.

It's called "Dread", and it's a horror-themed tabletop RPG with Jenga as the mechanic for death (or otherwise losing your character). It's pretty amazing and I highly recommend it.

I wouldn't play whatever Melon is playing, though. I was never a fan of things being random and arbitrary and making little sense. And I doubt Melon's thought processes make much sense to anyone but Melon or a god-tier AI.

I would.  This is basically Calvinball.

To each their own  I never understood why anyone would find the concept of Calvinball appealing.

[BenRG]

It's more of an exercise in creativity than anything else. The only meaningful rule of Calvinball is that the rules change with every play cycle. The challenge is to come up with more bizarre game elements without turning it into a quagmire and never repeat during the entire session. It's sort of like that old party game 'Chinese Whispers' in that sense. Just what will this end up as at the end of the session?

[jwhouk]

On a completely different subject: anyone recognize something in this YT video on Panera Bread? (Skip to 2:59)

[St.Clair]

I note that the three options presented are:
Social
Intellectual
Violence

and Yaaaay has apparently repeatedly chosen the last. 

[brasca]

Strip is up!

I like how Roko’s disassociation is illustrated. 

[Penquin47]

Guys.  Guys.

Roko's body causes her dissociation problems, to the point where she feels like her hand is someone else's.

May is in need of a new body.

Beeps suggested that when she couldn't integrate with her second body, she moved on to a third and felt more comfortable.

What if...?

[Mr Intrepid]

Yay seems genuinely distraught to see Roko in her predicament.   Question is, what action are they willing to play.  Melon, as a kind of savant apparently, might be able to help. 

[Elder Sign]

Wonderful ... I can sense a week of heavy "preachy Spookybot" content a-comin'. 

Somehow, I don't think moving to a third body is going to actually solve Roko's dissociation issues, she'll probably have to learn ways or have developments that help her adjust to this one.  And, from a narrative/dramatic standpoint, that would just be too easy of a fix.

[Smarch]

Okay, but remember that "Horrible Little Goblin" is rapidly becoming May's brand.

Been a while since I've seen these forums -- do people not call that "Dickmouth Stinkface" anymore?

[cesium133]

On the other hand, imagine the hilarity that would ensue if May ended up with Roko's current body, and then Winslow went to the store... 

[Raptorofwar]

I feel like this comic really captures Roko's dissociation better than any of the others. It just hit me how weird it is to suddenly feel like you don't control yourself at all.

[Smarch]

And I kinda like how when Marigold came in instead of typical anime misunderstanding

Surely that was a direct callback to strip 1741.

[St.Clair]

aw crap.

[Carl-E]

Seconded.  It looks like Roko's "discomfort" has turned a corner. 



She's going to need some serious help. 

[BenRG]

Yeee... ouch. I don't know; do dissociative episodes often come with visual hallucinations like that? It looks to me like Roko's entire sensory interpretation system jumped the rails! This is serious enough that I'm starting to think that there are actual system settings issues for her here; it isn't psychological, her algorithm really isn't working at all well with the chassis!

Wonderful ... I can sense a week of heavy "preachy Spookybot" content a-comin'.

Not at all, but they may decide to go into Roko's head to talk to her in a way that isn't in any way filtered by her malfunctioning core/chassis interface. I always thought that Jeph missed the opportunity to do a 'journey of self-discovery' with Bubbles when Emily did this so he may be about to actually attempt it with Roko (and possibly Melon). There will be no instant cures but I think that Yay may be able to persuade their friend to at least approach the problem from a different perspective.

[awkwardness]

Wonderful ... I can sense a week of heavy "preachy Spookybot" content a-comin'. 

Somehow, I don't think moving to a third body is going to actually solve Roko's dissociation issues, she'll probably have to learn ways or have developments that help her adjust to this one.  And, from a narrative/dramatic standpoint, that would just be too easy of a fix.

I don't think Yay will do that...I honestly believe that Yay is concerned and will actually help her through the situation given that they owe Roko for starting them down the path towards being a better entity instead of the preachy pest that they were before

[Scarlet Manuka]

they may decide to go into Roko's head to talk to her

I strongly doubt that. Remember that they've already refused that opportunity quite strongly, partly because they couldn't be friends with someone after such an intimate intrusion. Since their efforts to befriend Roko have actually started paying off, they're even less likely to go down that route now.

I would like to see Lemon getting back into this situation. At the time of Roko's accident, Lemon did tell her "Give it a few days, and if you still don't feel any different, we can discuss further therapeutic options." Nearly 200 comics later (which I guess is at least a few days?), that hasn't been followed up.

[Ariaspinner]

These three remind me of Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry from Sabre Marionette.

[Thrudd]

I feel like this comic really captures Roko's dissociation better than any of the others. It just hit me how weird it is to suddenly feel like you don't control yourself at all.

I don't think it is an inability to control oneself, that is a completely different set of maladies. Parkinson, et al.
I liken it more to looking through a viewfinder and operating a remote manipulator.
With practice or a very good feedback system you can stack blocks and screw on a jar lid but that thing out there is not a part of "YOU" no matter how good the system is.

[Wingy]

On the other hand, imagine the hilarity that would ensue if May ended up with Roko's current body, and then Winslow went to the store... 

I think I called that possibility something like 6 weeks ago...    

If Jeph goes there, the possible hilarity is great, but I'm not sure May will go for Roko's current chassis if there's one available with Faye/Marigold-sized boobs...  Nor am I certain May and Yay will get along to any significant extent.  I think the prediction of a return of Lemon is spot on.

[Welu]

Ooh this hits close. That third panel captures the feeling of brain/body disconnect, at least for how I've experienced it.