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Medinoc from France (Before Recorded History)
#276: Sep 27th 2010 at 12:46:21 AM

^Well, there's the Wildlife Wrestling Fund...

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
GoggleFox rrrrrrrrr from Acadia, yo. Since: Jul, 2009
rrrrrrrrr
#277: Sep 27th 2010 at 6:41:24 AM

On the topic of there being only one Bowman's Wolf on the entire planet, didn't Winston search for that species at one point and get a result of two?

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#278: Sep 27th 2010 at 6:49:27 AM

That rings a bell, but I'm not going on an Archive Trawl through nearly 2,000 comics to find out. I don't have time today. waii

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
GoggleFox rrrrrrrrr from Acadia, yo. Since: Jul, 2009
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#279: Sep 27th 2010 at 6:56:54 AM

Got it.

But as the previous strip was referring to how the AI couldn't search for Bowman's Wolves specifically on the charter, perhaps the other genetically engineered sapient is actually Winston.

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.
LarryD Incognito Since: Jan, 2001
Incognito
#280: Sep 27th 2010 at 7:00:45 AM

Note that the search AI didn't say that there were two Bowman Wolves, but two genetically engineered sapients on Jean.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. — George S. Patton
GoggleFox rrrrrrrrr from Acadia, yo. Since: Jul, 2009
rrrrrrrrr
#281: Sep 27th 2010 at 7:01:25 AM

You ... You didn't actually read all of my post, did you.

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#282: Sep 27th 2010 at 7:11:04 AM

I'm doubting highly that Winston is the other AI being discussed. There's absolutely no hint of it. No, this Foreshadowing is likely directed at a character we have yet to meet, or a Chekhov's Gunman waiting in the wings.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
GoggleFox rrrrrrrrr from Acadia, yo. Since: Jul, 2009
rrrrrrrrr
#283: Sep 27th 2010 at 7:12:26 AM

Hard to tell. I guess it depends on how the search defined "Genetically Engineered Sapient." Winston is a spacer, after all — and "sapient" doesn't necessarily mean AI.

However, if spacers aren't a product of Ecosystems Unlimited, then we're definitely dealing with an unknown Bowman's Wolf (there are no other genetically engineered non-human sapients in this universe, that we know of).

edited 27th Sep '10 7:19:10 AM by GoggleFox

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.
TGGeko Since: Dec, 1969
#284: Sep 27th 2010 at 7:43:34 AM

Winston is a genetically engineered sapient. He has "spacer genes" no hair, better adapted to life in space, etc. And he is sapient, he is able to make self determined actions. He's just not an AI.

Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#285: Sep 27th 2010 at 8:40:34 AM

More likely the other one is Sam.

tricksterson Never Trust from Behind you with an icepick Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
Never Trust
#286: Sep 27th 2010 at 9:33:37 AM

Sam isn't genetically engineered, he's an alien.

Trump delenda est
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#287: Sep 27th 2010 at 11:20:54 AM

^ Those aren't mutually exclusive, although the likelihood of Sam having been genetically modified by humans is pretty small.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
GoggleFox rrrrrrrrr from Acadia, yo. Since: Jul, 2009
rrrrrrrrr
#288: Sep 27th 2010 at 12:00:15 PM

Sam isn't a product of Ecosystems Unlimited. Therefore he wouldn't be listed on their roster. I'm fairly sure you can count him out.

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.
tricksterson Never Trust from Behind you with an icepick Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
Never Trust
#289: Sep 29th 2010 at 8:27:28 AM

^^Word of God is that Sam's people are about 19th Century level of tech. Note a mention in a much earlier strip of a Noodle Incident involving a zeppelin (which is why Sam was hiding in the human spaceship when it took off IIRC.

Trump delenda est
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#290: Oct 6th 2010 at 7:53:13 AM

Well, we already knew that a budding spirituality was one consequence of the Bowman AIs. Good thing or bad... the question just keeps hammering us.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
TGGeko Since: Dec, 1969
#291: Oct 13th 2010 at 7:25:36 AM

It's probably more due to the fact that they live around humans. If you lived in a culture where everyone believed something beyond this life, you would get curious yourself. And since belief is possible for any sapient and social creature, religion isn't impossible.

However, that line of thinking contradicts the Robots previous hesitations of relying on backup copies, which is what he is essentially using.

Brickman Since: Jan, 2001
#292: Oct 13th 2010 at 10:17:58 AM

Not every robot has the same beliefs, about backup copies or otherwise. It's not like they're all the same person.

GoggleFox rrrrrrrrr from Acadia, yo. Since: Jul, 2009
rrrrrrrrr
#293: Oct 27th 2010 at 9:15:57 AM

Today's Freefall provides a bit of eyebrow-raising pain.

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#294: Oct 27th 2010 at 9:49:12 AM

Hey, in hundreds of years, who knows what history will make of the people of our times? Especially with a planetary colonization gap making Earth history less relevant.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Brickman Since: Jan, 2001
#295: Oct 27th 2010 at 2:25:30 PM

Wow, that's a writer with some guts. Some hilarious guts.

Nohbody "In distress", my ass. from Somewhere in Dixie Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
"In distress", my ass.
#296: Oct 27th 2010 at 3:44:51 PM

Personally, I'm not bothered that he used Hitler that way.

What does just bugs me me a little, though, is that it has the scent of filler, or is otherwise primarily for the purpose of delaying things. Or, alternately, authorial soapboxing, something Mark's not exactly unknown for.

It's only "a little", though, at the moment. If the next strip is a "wham" one or there's something else to justify it, I can live with spacing things out.

edited 27th Oct '10 3:46:55 PM by Nohbody

All your safe space are belong to Trump
Brickman Since: Jan, 2001
#297: Oct 27th 2010 at 5:11:32 PM

Naw, this is just gonna be a slow, slice-of-life arc. It won't be the first. The fact that we're getting any new insights into robot culture at all means we're coming out ahead of where I'd expect.

edit: Slow in plot advancement, not slow in taking six months. Hopefully.

edited 27th Oct '10 5:12:05 PM by Brickman

GoggleFox rrrrrrrrr from Acadia, yo. Since: Jul, 2009
rrrrrrrrr
#298: Oct 28th 2010 at 8:12:11 AM

I had a long discussion with a friend of mine about this comic, and found that I'm not quite sure where the writer's going with the bigger plot... but I doubt it's quite where I'd want it. I like this comic and have followed it for many, many years, but I sincerely hope the end result of the plot doesn't involve a world where ten ton construction robots are afforded the same rights and laws as a 70KG humanoid chassis robot or an actual human.

For that matter, the comic's shown repeatedly that, as things stand, the robots are not acting efficiently as robots. They're acting as people who happen to be in robotic bodies, weren't raised as anything but their work, and have started considering something more. They're no longer robots but a kind of sentient being — and we don't need sentient AIs like these deciding where to lay explosives along the contours of continents. It's inefficient and dangerous.

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#299: Oct 28th 2010 at 8:36:13 AM

[up] I've had very similar thoughts. The comic is doing a truly excellent job of presenting a real moral dilemma. If the robots are indeed becoming "people" rather than automatons, then should humans have the right to control them like slaves? But that is indeed not a feature of their original design, and they are by fact and law property, wholly under the control of their owners. Ecosystems Unlimited, in its bumbling, ignorant, Fantastic Racism way, actually has a point about the dangers, which we ourselves have seen.

However, human beings have been individuals for a long time and we manage to function reasonably well as a society. There's nothing inherently preventing robots-as-people from doing their jobs; it's just a matter of their society having evolved for a mere handful of years as opposed to the millenia that humans have had to work with. Given enough time and proper supervision, they might indeed work out a culture that's beneficial to both sides.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
MattII Since: Sep, 2009
#300: Oct 28th 2010 at 8:48:45 AM

Just a question, if Florence can get a hold of the routine before it's put out, could she rewrite it, or write a virus or something to neutralise it?


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