Freefall 3: Death Ray Byproducts

[sihnfahl]

"You never want to stuff rotten apples into your brain"

Or a rancid fish.

I thought I'd never get rid of that rancid fish.

[Fyraltari]

Okay, but last sentence is the best argument against transhumanism I have ever heard.

[Lord Raziere]

Okay, but last sentence is the best argument against transhumanism I have ever heard.

Yeah why standardize when you simply make a robot intelligent enough to customize the cybernetics to everyone's brains within less than a second? and yeah uh, McDonalds is not a good way to compare anything.

[Kantaki]

I'm pretty sure that's how the Borg started.
Only worse.
We like being an individuum.

[Fyraltari]

Yeah why standardize when you simply make a robot intelligent enough to customize the cybernetics to everyone's brains within less than a second? and yeah uh, McDonalds is not a good way to compare anything.

I'm genuinely confused by that simile. I got the impression that we, the readers, were meant to see theses characters' position as reasonnable, even if not necessarrily to agree with it. Are we supposed to conclude they're terribly wrong? Or does the author genuinely thinks of McDonald's "efficiency" as something to emulate?

[Rockphed]

McDonalds is successful because going in you know what you are supposed to get, not because they are high quality. The transhumanists here want to have predictable outcomes. I do, however, agree that "McDonalds" is the wrong analogy; what they want is "dental work". Dental work is cheap because dentists do the same procedures all the time.

That said, I am not convinced that we, the readers, are supposed to see these ladies as reasonable. Remember, one of them genetically modified her son to have no hair anywhere on his body. Another changes her professed identity at least once a week. Then there is the whole "lets make work a group mind" thing. If I was to assign a defining attribute to these women it would be "does not think things through all the way before starting them".

[Lord Raziere]

McDonalds is successful because going in you know what you are supposed to get, not because they are high quality. The transhumanists here want to have predictable outcomes. I do, however, agree that "McDonalds" is the wrong analogy; what they want is "dental work". Dental work is cheap because dentists do the same procedures all the time.

That said, I am not convinced that we, the readers, are supposed to see these ladies as reasonable. Remember, one of them genetically modified her son to have no hair anywhere on his body. Another changes her professed identity at least once a week. Then there is the whole "lets make work a group mind" thing. If I was to assign a defining attribute to these women it would be "does not think things through all the way before starting them".

Yes. they seem similar in mindset to Qwerty: eager to do stuff, and ready to jump into something without thinking through the consequences, a bit eccentric and really needs a Dvorak to keep them grounded.

[Gez]

Yes. they seem similar in mindset to Qwerty: eager to do stuff, and ready to jump into something without thinking through the consequences, a bit eccentric and really needs a Dvorak to keep them grounded.

That's apparently the role of Nettie, the blonde.

Tess is a militant transhumanist who wants to modify bodies like we tinker with machines. Al, to use her current identity since we don't know her "real" one, wants to treat the human mind like it's software, switching it (or so she claims) and networking it. Nettie just seems to be a nerd. She doesn't have a professed agenda, causing her friends to call her a traditionalist. But she makes technical-minded observations without much tact and is the one who brings up the problems in the others' plans.

[Rockphed]

Does anyone still think these ladies are supposed to be reasonable? I could write a horror story with that hook almost without needing to think.

[theangelJean]

Getting all the unpleasant bits of life out of the way on your "downtime" doesn't sound particularly fair to whoever is actually controlling the body while these things get done. Sounds like a class system in the making. But then I think about Freefall's AI and their eagerness to serve ... Cleaning bots enjoy their job, would "taking the body to the dentist" bots have a similar point of view?

[Gez]

Does anyone still think these ladies are supposed to be reasonable? I could write a horror story with that hook almost without needing to think.

Even Nettie seems shocked, and she's been their friend for a while so you'd think she'd know about these kinds of ideas...

[Ibrinar]

Non sentient AI should be entirely capable of these tasks in a scifi setting, so a controller sound unnecessary. Though I suppose their more primitive AI abilities might have atrophied since they have hard AI which can do everything. Also I suppose they still have people with relatively mundane jobs.

[PhantomFox]

Taking bets on if Florence is going to bring up her (formerly?) hijack-able brain and all the issues it caused?

[theangelJean]

Nope. NDA. It all happened on EU property, so even if it wasn't covered by the final Direct Ordered NDA it was probably covered by some kind of agreement.

[Fyraltari]

She could bring up how every robot on the system almost got lobotomized.

[PhantomFox]

I gotta admit, that was a pretty good line.

[Rockphed]

I gotta admit, that was a pretty good line.

Despite her mad science origin, Florence is generally pretty leery about crazy schemes. It comes of millennia of humans hunting the aggressive and daring wolves. She had the daring bred right out of her.

[Kantaki]

New comic

I would be careful.
Humans did uplift wolves. But you also turned us into dachshunds and chihuahuas.

Don't worry Florence, humans don't need robots for that.

[Rockphed]

New comic



Don't worry Florence, humans don't need robots for that.

So she was trying to say that some wolves got awesome gifts from humans, some got horrible gifts from humans. Do you want to be one of the humans who robots uplift into a chihuahua?

Alternatively, have I misunderstood you and you are saying that some people turn themselves into chihuahuas without needing robot help?

[Kantaki]

Alternatively, have I misunderstood you and you are saying that some people turn themselves into chihuahuas without needing robot help?

Pretty much, yeah.
I mean, the robots certainly help, but I don't think they'd need to actively do anything.

[halfeye]

So she was trying to say that some wolves got awesome gifts from humans, some got horrible gifts from humans. Do you want to be one of the humans who robots uplift into a chihuahua?

Alternatively, have I misunderstood you and you are saying that some people turn themselves into chihuahuas without needing robot help?

Pretty much, yeah.
I mean, the robots certainly help, but I don't think they'd need to actively do anything.

Dragons, Pegasii, Centaurs and Pegasii-centaurs I can see, Chihuahuas not so much.

[Ibrinar]

I guess being a small animal that can sit on someone's lap and get pats would be attractive to at least some people, and I guess some people actually like Chihuahuas and there might be overlap.

[Kantaki]

Dragons, Pegasii, Centaurs and Pegasii-centaurs I can see, Chihuahuas not so much.

I dunno...
Small, yappy, annoying...
I can think about a few people like that.
Some grow out of it.

But honestly? With the way we're already attached to our various devices*?
Yeah sorry, but actual AI'd have to work to prevent us from becoming the pets of our machine overlords.
They're called "smart" phones because (some of) the users aren't.

*Okay, not everyone or everywhere, but there seems to be a trend.

[Rockphed]

I guess being a small animal that can sit on someone's lap and get pats would be attractive to at least some people, and I guess some people actually like Chihuahuas and there might be overlap.

I wasn't being literal about people becoming chihuahuas. I think the Eloi from The Time Machine are a decent example of bad human development paths.

That said, aren't dachshunds ratters? I think chihuahuas are descended from dogs raised for meat (hence their relative furlessness).

[Kantaki]

I wasn't being literal about people becoming chihuahuas. I think the Eloi from The Time Machine are a decent example of bad human development paths.

That said, aren't dachshunds ratters?

Hunting dogs. They were bred to crawl into the tunnels of game's den and drive it out, I think.
The name literally means badger dog.
That said, they look like a sausage on legs. Short, stubby legs.

[halfeye]

I wasn't being literal about people becoming chihuahuas. I think the Eloi from The Time Machine are a decent example of bad human development paths.

That said, aren't dachshunds ratters? I think chihuahuas are descended from dogs raised for meat (hence their relative furlessness).

Full sized dachshunds were for going into badger setts and attacking the badgers, the minatures however ...

[Kantaki]

New comic

That spa employee is a reasonable fellow.
Totally unrealistic.

[Pax1138]

New comic

Spoiler: Sam and lockers

Show

Using a keychain of prosthetic fingers to bypass a scanner is genius. I'm going to have to remember that next time my group plays Shadowrun or Cyberpunk.

[Kantaki]

New comic

Rude. She walked in on me changing. I'm the one who should be screaming.

I'm pretty sure if I ran into some kind of horror from beyond the stars I'd be the one screaming too.

Also, I'm not sure the middle of the locker room is the right place to change out of your suit, Sam.
So that's another reason to start screaming.

[Anarchic Fox]

Whoa, are we actually going to get a good look at Sam? I thought the "Sam is hideous beyond human comprehension" running joke would have prevented that, and I expected him to end up routed away from the spa in order to sustain that joke.