Comic for Monday, April 16th, 2018
Peter’s had a long day. Which isn’t to imply talking to him at the start of his day will really have better results, just a point of fact.
I think that people that have paid a lot of attention to Mium over the course of the comic my suspect that he’s – while not being necessarily dishonest – not going out of his way to tell the full story whenever he’s asked about why he behaves the way he does. Hmmm, what should I say on that? …Probably nothing.
Peter also might know something about what he’s talking about when it comes to Mium, as there are few people that can guess what ticks through his mind as well as Peter… well, I suppose the inverse is also true. They probably understand each other better than most other people, which maybe says something about Peter, Mium, or both of them.
Still have buffer! But been busy. Really do plan on getting the vote incentive still, but… life keeps being busy with stuff. I dunno. Maybe it’s just not enough coffee.
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So, binary code. It is the basis for all computer thought, “ones” and “zeroes” that coincide with simple “yes” or “no” questions and answers. Gradiation (finding a place on a scale) for computers comes from subdivisions of those ones and zeroes. A single digit can telly you yes or no, two possibilities; but two digits can give you yes, partially yes, partially no, and no, four possibilities. Each extra digit multiplies the possible division (between fully “yes” and fully “no”) by two. Most computers in he Real World have gotten very good at looking like they work on a continuous spectrum by just having subdivisions too small for our organic parts to recognize (generally speaking, for the average untrained person. Our biological parts are actually a lot more capable then the vast majority of people ever need.). Even things like a television screen are a division of many many small dots rather than any continuous thing.
I bring this all up because, as much as it may SEEM that this is simply how the human mind gets things (just with a large measure of gradiation), it really really isn’t. Individual neurons fire either repeatedly or when activated by certain conditions, true; but those conditions include concentrations of neurochemicals, and weightings for all the signals that it receives from other neurons, and differing effective times of the weighting of those signals, and other similar things. Simply put, people think in a true spectrum. Just as important is the fact that people don’t even see digitally, our eyes may pick up things in a /mostly/ binary way, but our minds generally only perceive the whole or the understood shape of the thing (very much not the individual points of light at various rates that make up the eye’s actual input).
I bring all of this up because MIUM’s explanation about “Not liking” “not disliking” and such seems really close to a “non binary” system despite how much he himself tries to quantify it as though it was a simple measure of “not hate, but not like either”. He talks a good talk, but he also goes out of his way to annoy Aaron and he plays up his “robot-like-ness” more than is strictly necessary. His way of justifying his actions can make just about /anything/ look perfectly logical. Yet, in truth, there may be a bit more “not-binary” creeping into his outlook and carefully put together plans. After-all, going out of his ways to annoy Aaron Kepler is inefficient no matter how you really try to look at it.
Another example of this would be MIUM’s association with Tyler. MIUM’s attitude toward him seems to change from neutrality to the point where, during the attack on the AVON headquarters, he sends Miko out of her way to rescue him (Miko herself even makes mention of the strangeness of it). In truth allowing Tyler to perish there would have been the most efficent option and also dealt with a person who was later shown to be capable of even maneuvering PETER into helping with his goals. Not just anyone could argue someone like Peter into taking on a job like the head of a government agency, and anyone who can is a real danger to a great many well-laid plans.
In fact it seems that the easiest and quickest way to get on MIUM’s good side is to treat him like a “HIM” rather than as an “IT”. He even seems to be more cordial toward Rovak than he is toward a great many people, despite them being very much not on the same side. This is not a purely logical responce nor is it truly based on any of MIUM’s known directives either. MIUM will still grow and develop and be completely capable of doing all his tasks without “friends”. If he really wanted to develop friends than his constant directives about being at school and such (given by Naomi) would be more than enough of an excuse (He knows that her order to “be on time to class” actually meant “go to class” rather than “leave immediately after the bell rings”). Yet, despite the fact that he doesn’t actually /look/ for people who will treat him like a person, his behavior definately seems to change toward others when he does find them… and it seems to change the other way when he finds that a person refuses to do so as well. And he does it with excuses that are paper thin.
That is a surprisingly /human/ way of approaching things.
Have you considered the possibility of a trinary system? 1’s, 2’s, and 0’s could quite plausibly more effectively mimic a human thought process.
Hmm. Wonder if Arron knew about that “piece of Atter’s code” in his arm….wonder if he’s going to ask if Mium can get rid of it for him, and also curious if Mium’s going to imply he can but not do it, give a very non-committal answer (like oh so very much of that conversation thus far), or just do it.
There’s also the very interesting distinction of Arron not seeing Mium as a “person”. I’ll grant he’s not “human”. A “person”, however, I don’t think necessarily has to be human. So that difference of opinion could be what makes others, including Miss Summers, view him as a person despite his being an AI. (Heck, I’d say an SMAI with even a smattering of personality probably counts as “person”…anything with a sense of humor probably at least 2/3 the way there, too. :P)
Nothing major, but two minor things.
If you know”and “you wouldn’t be here now” don’t match tense. An English major could probably explain the exact terminology and reasons for it, but I can’t. I just know it sounds wrong.
Obligated is fine for that usage, but most people would probably use obliged.
Neither is really worth changing, especially if there’s any reason Mium would actually use the words that way.
The word you’re looking for is “subjunctive” (and more properly, it’s a mood, not a tense).
Essentially, the second phrase is hypothetical (thus the “would”), the second is actual. Compare to the agreeing phrases: “if this were, then this would be” (all hypothetical) vice “if this is, then this will be” (all actual).
Former Latin student, away!
Many thanks. I could have asked my wife (an English and Latin major), but she was tied up doing things. Hopefully the explanation will prove useful to the author.
Peter always has a plan. Sure. Maybe a plan involving Egenus and it’s scheming didn’t exist a few minutes ago, but as Peter always has a plan, it exists now. One glance at the phone probably told him Evan’s whole life story, what his weak points were, and how to exploit them. Or, as Peter would call it, have a conversation with him, because that’s the only way Peter has a conversation.
New reader here! Fantastic comic!
I just wish I had read the Lore page after page #1 instead of 5 minutes ago… It would have saved me a lot of confusion.
Welcome! Always happy to hear someone’s enjoying the comic 🙂
Spiffing up the Lore, World and Character pages is one of those things that eternally on my to-do list. There’s the sort of people that like that sort of thing, and those tend to overlap with the sort of people that make it through this comic so far haha 😉
I just adore Mium in the last panel. What he says is kinda like how I don’t waste effort pretending to be ‘normal’ around those I don’t feel deserve the effort. I attempt to suppress my traits that are more… difficult for others to put up with around my friends and loved ones, but those who prove they are not worth my time have to deal with me at my quote unquote worst. At least I don’t have the same obligations he states in his final word balloon.
I get you there. Same here, except I’m fortunate enough to have a couple of close friends with whom I can be myself and they’re fine with that.
Panel 6, “…it’s a little late for that…” sounds pretty ominous. O.o
Peter may well be the first person Evan has met who isn’t swayed by bribes. 🙂
Peter technically implied that he could still be swayed by bribes, but that his price was higher than Evan here can afford.
In truth, I suspect Peter is easily swayed by the right bribe, but said bribe looks more like favor-trading than money. His inability to deal well with people is weirdly not hindering his ability to manipulate them.
Peter explicitly stated that he can be swayed by bribes – just not bribes that Evan could possibly muster.
My suspicion is that it’s more the type of bribe than the amount of bribe. Evan has money, but he doesn’t have the right kind of technology. It’s also possible that Peter may have a bit more distaste for the business that Evan’s company is in than he lets on.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he actually has no problem with designer children, and just has a problem with some of the choices people make in designing them. He may also find the governmental regulations regarding color-coding to be stupid, but not worth his time. He is precisely the kind of jerk who would include the victims of over-regulation in his mockery of the regulation just because they’re the ones following the rules he thinks are stupid.
Considering that Peter’s cousin, Miko, was once one of the people who might have been helped by the type of services that this company would supply, the fact that they illegially do their research and testing (pretty certainly on human subjects) is likely somewhat more relevant to him than many other abuses of power might be.
Uh… Again team Peter shows there are very on top of the ball. And Arron is probably going to book it back home quick. Because Atter infection could be nasty.
Also someone is going to get burned by dealing with Peter when he doesn’t want to deal. Whether it will be Evan… we shall see.
I think the ‘piece of mr Atter’s code’ refers to the ellipse.
The piece of mister Atter’s code undoubtedly refers to one of the bugs shown on the first two pages of chapter 10. The real question is what all dose it do. Most certainly it causes a lingering illness leading to death, but possibly it might also allow Atter to mounter conversations or it might even be what is anchoring Atter to this dimension.
Note that Nathan used Ka’vil to scan disinfect/ himself but presumably did not do so for Arron because of unpleasant memory associations.