Freefall

The robot eyes in this comic have been consistently able to blink and wink, despite this not making a whole lot of sense.

Although Helix had to resort to using a spray bottle to simulate crying tears.

Time to check the logs◊

I'm not certain if the joke is that Clippy thinks that data transfer rates will be infinite in the afterlife, that data transfer tends to be slow in our world (many of the jokes hinging on things not really natural to the Freefall universe), or that Kormada did something more nefarious like convincing Clippy that server rates were ludicrously low, so he could only communicate via voice (to prevent Clippy from accidentally uploading the plan in his updates).

I think the joke is that because he thinks they're both ghosts now, then he could wi-fi interface with Ishiguro directly and tell him everything very very quickly.

It also gives a sidelong look into Clippy's thoughts on the afterlife - he's assuming that humans in the afterlife will be upgraded to cyborgs, perhaps on the assumption that robots will also get appropriate upgrades towards the meat side of the equation. Interesting.

Also, I know Ishiguro has to go through these steps to ensure that Clippy surrenders what he needs to surrender and not hurt himself. Still, I'm hoping he gets to the part where he finds out just what Kornada told Clippy about Ishiguro's "demise."

What I find even more compelling about this scene is how Ishiguro is talking to Clippy like a person, not just ordering him to do things like a malfunctioning machine. It speaks well of the future integration of Bowman AI robots into society.

It's a good-faith gesture. And makes me wonder if Ishiguro's "rational self-interest" thing is better read as a front that he uses to defend altruistic impulses in the boardroom.

Come to think of it, has Freefall addressed the issue of whether robots "think faster" than humans? I only recall Questionable Content had a brief discussion about it at one point. (Although depending on one's view on AI, this may or may not be a pressing question, since computers right now can do certain types of computations faster than a human brain, but not necessarily other types.)

I'd have to do some digging... I think that it's been suggested that robots think faster than people in this series, but I think it's more inference than outright confirmation.

Schlock Mercenary regularly demonstrates that ship-class A.I.s outpace humans significantly in thinking speed.

With two very memorable recent storylines, the first when Tag realized that there wasn't time to ask permission, and so he begged forgiveness, took action, then more or less committed suicide, and more recently where an AI is dismayed that Tagon is going to do a heroic sacrifice and has 3.61 seconds to act. It communicates with Petey about it and they come to a decision after a long conversation, leaving them 3.6 seconds to discuss other business.

2866

That was faster than expected.

Logic!

The third panel is kind of cute where Clippy is either unsure as to which way to orient his mouth, or he's attempting raised eyebrows.

I'm thinking the next obstacle might be trying to convince Clippy that he shouldn't destroy himself for all of the mistakes he made under the mistaken assumption that Mr. Ishiguro was dead.

I mean, is that sound logic? On the face of it, it sounds like it. But is there any evidence to show that it's sound, that the sudden death of a CFO would affect stock prices significantly?

The question is largely academic, because Ishiguro doesn't need to convince an economics department to publish a white paper; he's just trying to convince Clippy, and it matters more what Clippy believes to be true, not what's actually true. And it helps that Ishiguro knows Clippy and thus knows what are the most likely arguments to work to convince him.

That said, lucky for him that EU stocks went up that day. If they had taken a dip, what would have been his next avenue to convince him?

Deaths in business leadership usually result in stock prices falling, even briefly. An uptick would be strange.

Tragic microgravity toothpaste squeezing◊ incident. Well, that makes sense.

Also, a vision of the Afterlife◊. With thigh gap.

Unless the guy who died was hated by shareholders or something.

And conspicuously human mammaries. And no other attempt to make Florence look like anything other than a human with a furry head and tail. #shame

edited 23rd Sep '16 6:17:44 AM by Fighteer

Kind of of like the joke about The CEO and the three envelopes.

I'm with Fighteer on that fanart. The less said, the better.

Oh, and for the comic itself... I kinda want to know just what kind of accident would happen with toothpaste in microgravity. Though I suspect Kornada wasn't exactly trying to make something convincing and glossed the details.

My first thought is the same issue we have today, flying bits of solid and liquid waiting to be aspirated. Hmm... what does it look like to get sick in space?

edited 23rd Sep '16 5:31:05 PM by FuzzyBoots

Well, liquids form into globules in zero gravity, so I imagine you'd get lots of barf-brown bubbles floating around...

Clippy too innocent◊