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2019-06-13, 12:00 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2015
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
Having a seemingly major technological change happen and then life not actually changing very much is certainly a thing that can be explored - but the proliferation of large numbers of fully embodied humanoid AIs is something that would absolutely change life in dramatic ways. QC has occasionally hinted at this, for example in the recent bit about Brun and Renee searching for a new apartment it was mentioned that the owners of the building had converted an entire floor into AI charging cubicles. Assuming that sort of change is widespread it would represent a massive alternation to the housing market and a dramatic change in the population structure of cities and towns.
Likewise there should be a massive impact in the job market, as we've seen QC AIs hold down advanced professional jobs normal held by humans - Punchbot as an accountant being perhaps the most obvious. There's no reason why, in the QC universe, every single accountant shouldn't be an AI - they're bound to be much more efficient at it than humans and have significantly lower overhead - but the comic completely ignores this, even when it demonstrates things like Momo being much better at certain aspects of library science than any human can ever be and other characters like Martin openly acknowledging this.
The QC universe should be undergoing a massive and extremely tumultuous economic revolution instead it continues to putter along as if none of these things are happening.
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2019-06-13, 12:44 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2009
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
The thing is, these things might very well be happening, it's just that our band of protagonists are living in their own bubble somewhat, and simple aren't as affected by it.
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2019-06-13, 12:49 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2004
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
Orth Plays: Currently Baldur's Gate II
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2019-06-13, 12:55 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2008
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- Germany
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Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
So... Are we supposed to think Roko is being too hasty here or is it just me? And I'm not sure if I want to get into that last panel...
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2019-06-13, 01:01 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2004
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
Orth Plays: Currently Baldur's Gate II
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2019-06-13, 01:33 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2013
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
The one problem I have with it is that everything has happened far too quickly. In-Comic time I think is only a couple of years since the very start of the strip, and the Singularity happening is maybe a year. And yet, we have people like Bubbles who managed to go through full military training, develop deep bonds with her squadmates, have a tragedy, and then spend a significant amount of time AFTER that before we meet her. At the end of the day it's the same reasoning Garfield isn't dead of old age - people aren't aging and the actual timeline shifts to wherever Jeph needs it to be. It's best not to think about it too much.
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2019-06-13, 01:46 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2015
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
Changes in jobs and housing realities to accommodate AIs absolutely would affect these characters, in fact they would especially affect people in the kind of marginal, heavily underemployed economic situations that feature as the major characters in the comic. For example, if AIs are now taking up 1/3 of extant housing stock in Northampton, then prices for the remaining 2/3rds used by humans would increase drastically, and the same problems would feature in the labor market. May working at a convenience store means that a human being doesn't have that job. If the AI population is even 10% of the human population you've functionally caused a 10% population increase in 2-3 years, and a sudden population increase of that kind would be massively disruptive to any local community even if it was comprised almost entirely of members of the same culture, never-mind a bunch of embodied artificial intelligences with completely new living requirements.
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2019-06-13, 02:03 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
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Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
Roko! Down, girl!
I mean, I get that you're excited to fight the good fight and all, but you can't kidnap people from work, and you can't blackmail everyone who's a momentary inconvenience. If you were still a cop, you would be careening rapidly into bad-cop territory here!Last edited by mucat; 2019-06-13 at 02:05 AM.
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2019-06-13, 03:14 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
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2019-06-13, 05:35 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2007
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- England
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Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
I was thinking about this, also. Roko has made a very sudden and rather big leap from "I am disgusted with the corruption and ineffectiveness of the world's bureacracy" to "I am going to invent blackmail for people from whom I need things".
Maybe getting crushed into the pavement by an idiot bystander has helped her to develop a more pragmatic view of the world. If that's the case though, why not go back to being a cop and pragmatically blackmail the guys you KNOW are corrupt, rather than some otherwise blameless stranger?~ CAUTION: May Contain Weasels ~
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2019-06-13, 07:01 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2009
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
She's definitely moving too fast here right now and if she doesn't stop right now and think things through she might make things so much worse for May. Think about it, the manager has nothing going on in the backroom, goes to the police about it, fires May, and then what?
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2019-06-13, 08:38 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2007
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2019-06-13, 09:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
Blackmail? Who said anything about blackmail? She just knows that the manager will understand the need for employees to take paid time to do secret personal stuff.
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2019-06-13, 11:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
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2019-06-13, 12:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
- Location
- The Lakes
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2019-06-13, 04:48 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Location
- England
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
I'm honestly not sure where this is going. It could be a comedic strip - Roko and May spend the next few strips talking and arguing like a modern day odd couple but eventually get things together and all is well. It could be the beginning of a spiral into failure for both of them, as Roko's machinations end up costing May her job which in turn causes Roko's confidence and new-found motivation to plummet.
Jeph has gone either way before, I guess I'll feel better about the situation when we have a clearer idea of where he's going with it. I like both May and Roko, I'm not looking forward to a plot that sees one or both of them tortured.~ CAUTION: May Contain Weasels ~
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2019-06-13, 04:51 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2007
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- On Paper
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Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
Eh, looking at the pattern of Jeph's "Punchlines with Consequences", next strip will involve May talking Roko Out of harassing her manager, and then they'll go about this "Improve May's situation" plotline in a more reasonable way.
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2019-06-14, 12:36 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2008
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- Germany
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Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
Well, it seems the Roko train is not so easily stopped..
If I had to guess, because in reality this would probably require a lengthy legal battle and Jeph is not doing that, we'll either get May or someone else stopping Roko, or we'll get something that only works for May and won't work for thousands of others in the same situation.
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2019-06-14, 12:44 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
I suspect a return of SpookyBot offering help, and Roko having to deal with not wanting to interact with them, but also wanting to make headway with helping May.
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2019-06-14, 06:28 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2008
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- Germany
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Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
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2019-06-14, 06:44 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2012
- Location
- Montreal
- Gender
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2019-06-14, 10:22 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2004
- Location
- The Land of Angles
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2019-06-14, 10:27 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2012
- Location
- Montreal
- Gender
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2019-06-14, 10:27 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
- Location
- Dancin' away
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
As a patron for Jeph, he's uploaded a picture on patreon which shows off Roko's butt logo.
It's... pretty boring.i am going to make it through this year
if it kills me
i am going to make it though this year
if it kills me
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2019-06-14, 10:39 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2012
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- Montreal
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2019-06-14, 11:44 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2009
- Location
- NYC
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
... You'd think the agency Roko works for would have some kind ofnlegap counsel as part of the personell...
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2019-06-14, 12:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Location
- England
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Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
"How would they pay an on-staff lawyer", I suppose? Roko is only part-time and Beepatrice works at least one other job because there aren't funds to pay them for full-time work, retaining a lawyer probably woudn't be likely either.
Similarly, previous strips suggest that humans quite willingly granted virtually all civil rights and legal recognition to AIs immediately upon request, so there doesn't seem to be much need to AI rights-specific lawyers that normal ones couldn't also cover. Until May and her trashed, government issue chassis came along, anyway; this almost seems to be the first type of AI-specific discrimination that the QC world has seen, aside from casual ignorant remarks from bystanders.~ CAUTION: May Contain Weasels ~
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2019-06-14, 01:17 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2008
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- Germany
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Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
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2019-06-16, 04:47 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2009
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
You know, I'm wondering, how do other AIs get their humanoid bodies.
Momo and Winslow we know, got them bought by their humans. Bubbles got hers from the military.
But what about Punchbot or Beeps or Roko or Seven (Jeremy's girlfriend) or that parole officer guy?
Were they given it on birth? Was it part of their first job they accepted? Did they save money and bought it themselves?
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2019-06-16, 05:09 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Location
- England
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird
Pintsize has alluded to making his own money by "hiring out processor runtime", which suggests that even 'normal' AI's like the ones seen in the cast have redundant brainpower similar to the huge supercomputer AI's for whom things like speech and conversation are just another subroutine. Maybe young AI's work in "server farms", crunching data for a wage which they can save up and do with as they please?
Similarly, when you really think about it, there's a lot of jobs that can be done with a computer that don't specifically need a human to be sat at a keyboard - programming software, call centres, IT helpdesk, webmasters, and so on.
Some AI's like Lemon (the counsellor who helped Roko after the accident) have jobs wherein they can work almost entirely within cyberspace, so her overheads are even lower and she has a profession which - in human comparable terms - pays reasonably well. Punchbot is another example - he probably doesn't NEED a corporeal body to work as an accountant, especially as online banking becomes more and more prevalent, so he couldn've worked a few years online before treating himself to a body.
How Melon got a body... I'm going to guess that she probably hired out a LOT of her processing power - probably a little bit too much - which accounts for her unusual disposition and apparent freedom despite her undefined job.
There's also the possibility of a certain amount of indentured debt. Pintsize, Winslow and Momo all started out as companion AI's who volunteered into a programme wherein they were matched with their hosts almost like a cultural exchange programme - maybe they were issued their bodies as part of the arrangement and they're "working" as companions in order to buy back their corporeal bodies, kind of like how some start-up companies will lease out equipment to be paid back over a set amount of time?Last edited by Wraith; 2019-06-16 at 05:14 AM.
~ CAUTION: May Contain Weasels ~
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17 Things I Learned About 40k By Playing Dark Heresy
Tales of a Role-Play Gamer - Horrible Optimisation