Freefall

I guessed that it would be a real instance. Sam was just so specific about it.

I can imagine the author's train of thought when he read about this story. "Hmm, that sounds like something Sam would have done. I'll put this into the comic."

Eyeh... people have argued that scams in general are a "stupidity tax", or to lure in the greedy, but they also often snare the vulnerable in our society. Older people, for example, are less likely to know that a particular form of technology is bunk, so they'll invest their savings, believing that it will grow so that they can give that money to their descendants. An oppressed minority might feel pressured to buy in to gain acceptance in society (or may lack the cultural knowledge that would otherwise clue them in).

And, of course, even for the greedy business owners, that's often company profits and employee pensions that are at risk when the Ponzi scheme is revealed.

Overall, cryptocurrency is as "real" as any country's money, i.e. right up until the point when they decide not to pay off on it.

Crypto holds a special place of hatred in my heart, though, since no matter what people claim that it is intended to do, in reality it is marketed as a way to evade regulation and keep the grubby hands of government off of people's sacred money, and anyone who falls for that is not someone I have any empathy for.

Yes, it sweeps up the gullible and vulnerable, but it also sweeps up a lot of people whom I feel are excellent candidates for future Darwin Awards.

Edit: I'm not saying that crypto scammers shouldn't be punished. They should. I'm saying that the difference between a crypto advocate and a crypto scammer is largely academic, and they should be allowed to play with their pretend money all they want as long as honest people aren't hurt.

Edited by Fighteer on Feb 24th 2020 at 12:56:02 PM

To be honest, in the scams the whole blockchain thing doesn't mean anything ^note and often isn't even implemented on the technical level, it's just all fake. It is all the same schemes that were done without them, they're just putting on a new trendy coat.

Edited by Adannor on Feb 24th 2020 at 9:02:06 PM

It's in the marketing. "Our Super Sekrit Munny can't be manipulated and stolen by the Ebil Gubmint!" Who do they think that's designed to attract? Blockchain is an interesting technology with many potential applications, but I guarantee you that crypto isn't sold to most people on the tech, at least not primarily.

Edited by Fighteer on Feb 24th 2020 at 2:21:54 PM

I don't agree that blockchain has "many potential applications". It's interesting on the technical level, but outside of cryptocurrencies (which have major issues of their own) it's a solution in search of a problem.

Stealing from the richer thieves◊

I can respect Sam's train of thought here.

Sadly, those trails are deliberately designed to be hard to follow. Even other accountants find them challenging.

How do you think you become known as a legendary thief? By going after the most challenging targets!

Establishing a good criminal reputation◊. Kind of makes we wonder if there is something to uncover at the station.

Oooh. Intrigue! Plot!

I don't know if we actually have it troped yet, but there's a reason that there's a saying that goes "it takes a thief to catch a thief." Sam may have been setting himself up for this the whole time.

Boxed Crook is close although it's more "forcibly recruit the criminal to oppose the criminals".

Yeah, Boxed Crook doesn't fit. And while The Atoner does mention "using old skills for helping out," it definitely doesn't count because Sam isn't atoning or apologizing at all - if anything, it seems just like an extension of his old philosophy, just on a grander scale. Pragmatic Villainy, of a smaller scale, definitely applies, but I think that might just be an accompanying trope.

Ignoring the fact that Sam considers himself a scavenger, the best analogy for this is predator/prey.

In this analogy, "prey" are people who work honestly and earn a fair wage. "Predators" don't earn money, they exploit the prey. Sam wants to be a second-order predator, exploiting the other predators.

Typical fare for "heroic" thieves; Sam's philosophy appears to borrow some ideas from The Stainless Steel Rat while his goals align more to the extravagant and infamy, like Lupin III.

The effect of light speed on knock-knock jokes◊

After poking around, I found that we do have it troped. It is, appropriately, Recruiting the Criminal. And yes, Sam is already cited on the page.

I can only imagine just how much it would drive my kid nuts to have a 15-second delay at her attempts at jokes.

I don't think that's how it'll work out◊.

In order to cover the delay, everybody would have to start replying at the same time as the previous message is being played. If everybody actually listens first and replies afterwards, you're still getting 15s plus message length of silence on either end.

And tbh, I think just accepting the pauses would be for the best. You'd get some mad chaos out of trying to hold a regular conversation with simultaneous information streams.

Edited by Adannor on Mar 3rd 2020 at 9:25:35 PM

Solution: stick to text messaging. We are somehow more conditioned to accept delays in that than in voice conversations.

Yeah, constant texting is how I would've been handling the situation.

There may be some regulations about radiowaves or laserbeam locks in space that could prevent it from being constant but texting rules anyway.

Of course, this happens without light speed delays◊.

Burst mode◊

I smiled harder with every panel. Love it.

One dirty secret of parenting - dads tell dad jokes in part because it gets the kid to slow down and take a breath when they give out an exasperated "DAAAAAAAD!"