Comic for Friday, May 3rd, 2019
So… there’s actually not much to update here. I sort of thought today would be the day I’d announce I was leaving my day-job, but that’s not going to happen, for the better or the worse. In the end they made me an offer it just made no sense to refuse, particular as it was still an open question if I’d be able to make ends meet on contracting + hobbies. I guess that means for now there’s not much change. I will continue the balancing act and we’ll circle back to this question another another time. There may be some compromises in the future here, but IĀ don’t think I am going to hire an artist right now. While drawing the comic is a time struggle and an hired artist would certainly be better than me, at this point I don’t think it makes sense – anyone that’s gotten here has gotten used to my art by now š
Maybe I will hire someone to redraw the first couple chapters. Probably not worth it economically, but could be interesting, as I know from a metrics point of view most new readers don’t make it through the early chapters, but of people that make it to the end, retention is pretty good.
There’s still a bit to go with this story. It won’t get to the end this year… maybe next year. Even if it does end though… I’ll probably just make a sequel. Anyway… I want to do more stuff like the comic and my other hobbies, but, well, my company made me a good offer to stay. If I sound somewhat conflicted, it’s because I am š I was looking forward to spending more time here, and I will still try to achieve better work/work balance between the two, but yeah, no big changes.
…anyway…
The comic. Yup, that’s Martin, the person that ‘created’ MYM. Seems like he’s seen better days. I debated if I was actually going to show his face here. I suspect it will make some people draw some conclusions that are probably not correct. But it will also probably make some people draw conclusions that are correct, as people tend to be exceedingly clever. The real question will be if people figure out why I haven’t been showing his face… but hey, that’s not quite fair yet š
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Martin’s final comment “while it is true there has been a but of professional attempted murder here and there, …” coupled with “hmm… so you don’t remember… how curious. …” has me thinking… did Mir try to kill Dr Martin (a very Mir thing to do)… and so M.Y.M. saved Dr Martin (it’s why he looks broken, but fixed with magic? (note: Mium doesn’t do magic: he does mana interference and form dissolution… but maybe Martin’s M.Y.M. did)) AND retaliated by trying to kill Mir (as you would)… so Dr Martin killed M.Y.M. and fixed up Mir as best he could (he does say “I gave you the best chance I could”)?????
Um… Ark Technology? (LOL… now you have me thinking about Iron Man… COMPLETELY UNRELATED I am sure… but hard not to make the association). I’m guessing it’s some kind of “save state” technology intended to literally “save” a human just before their demise??? (a la “Forest of the Dead” where the Library actually does save everyone). Maybe Dr Martin got saved just before he exploded???
I do like the idea of several iterations of Dr Martin… but the fact remains that IF he knew how to do this, then he would have no reason find the interesting either a fully synced Miko (remember Miko has not transferred herself to the system: her body is still “connected” to her and very much alive) OR VIMium (which is a SMAI that can run on a human system… clearly because Miko has been able to trasport him: albeit at much risk to her “chassis”: kind of implies that Ila’s chassis is analogous to a human system: so Mir created a HUMAN analog and an AI to run on it? (not a true SMAI?) (certainly creating an AI capable of running on a human system sounds like something incredibly dangerous!!!)).
Interestingly, while Saria can detect that something is there, she can’t really see Dr Martin (visually or with whatever enhanced magic she is capable of)… but clearly Mir & Miko can… which really makes me wonder WTF Dr Martin is… having a presence only detectable by select individuals would be difficult to pull off: I always assume Dr Martin was a data projection: but instead of projecting himself into the physical world (where everyone can see him) he merely projects himself into the viewers visual/auditory cortex… or maybe he is a “digital data ghost” (i.e. has a real world presence, but no physical signature, and limited interation capabilities) doing exactly that (projecting himself into Mir & Miko’s visual/auditory inputs). Did Dr Martin NOT fully sync with a digital system? Instead he only trasferred himself completely?? (SAVED!)
So Miko now needs to build VIMium a chassis equivalent to Ila’s? Because VIMium can’t run on an system designed for Mium… (and Miko can only fully sync with one). THIS would be something of great interest to Dr Martin, assuming he’s now fully digital… he want’s a chassis too!!
In the third panel I think you’re missing an “in”. “Well, not really, and *in* his place…”
Panel 7: Wait a damned minute!
…surprised no one caught that. Will fix, thanks š
“Misguided little abomination.” How sweet. Hang on, is it referring to Ila (from Martin’s point of view, she may be misguided) or Mir’s creation of Ila (consensus seems to be that was misguided)?
Ah, that red construct stuff ā¦ I wonder if it’s prosthetics/cybernetics, and the rest of his visage (and person, etc) is the original Martin (who may or may not have been clinically dead at some point), or if it’s all just a replica of some sort, as Miranda seems to consider. The pattern of the red lines seems to be shifting, although it’s mostly the same, so I cannot say if that’s intended ā¦
It sounded to me like he was saying that Mir was kind of crazy for making Ila. Considering that this came from the person who made and killed M.Y.M., I’m kind of guessing that he views Ila as an entirely too dangerous sort of experiment. Basically, he did something crazy which was fairly awe-inspiring, but it went wrong and aborting it nearly got him killed.
And then Peter came and fixed what he’d gotten wrong, at least for a bit, and then Mir came along, and made something that was less controlled and will be harder to stop once she gets to the point of possibly needing to be stopped.
He has a certain amount of sentiment about that, but he’s finding it difficult to get himself worked up over it. It might be due to the lack of a properly working endocrine system.
Once again I find myself agreeing with Tgape. I’m pretty sure Dr. Martin is referencing Ila.
I disagree with Dr Martin though. Ila may not be entirely human, but her current trajectory seems to be towards ever more human rather than towards rogue AI.
Speaking of rogue AIs, I side with Mium. There’s no such thing as a rogue AI. Merely priorities and how they are achieved.
The feeling I get is that everyone else views Mir’s experiments as “missing the point”. Peter, Martin, and Miko are all interested in AI (for various reasons) and their goal is to create an SMAI that replicate certain human functions.
Mir accomplished that, but seems to have done so by copying a human.
It’s sort of a “cut the knot” solution the problem. She was proud of her accomplishment, but everyone else basically just shakes their head and sighs and says she missed the point.
That said, I do think they are underselling Mir somewhat. Mir’s final goal seems to be the same as Miko, to actually become the AI. Not to replicate themselves as an AI, but to extend their functionality effectively changing themselves into an AI. It’s one of the classic answers to the question of how humans won’t become obsolete with the advent of true AI, and ensures it won’t go “rogue” because it is you, even if the “you” there becomes a bit fuzzy.
It might seem like Ila is a failure from that point of view, what if Ila literally is a human merged into AI? We have seen several times her personality starts to fragment when encountering certain stress (like forcefully uploading herself to MYM’s system), that could just be the human consciousness unraveling from the host AI.
Ila might be what Miko and Mir are trying to become, she is just integrated into a comparatively weak AI. VI Mium would actually be a copy of the AI that the human consciousness of Ila is incorporated into, but likely quite superior as it was created with the full undivided attention of MYM.
The fundamental flaw with Mir’s thought on the AI not going rogue is she’s already rogue. Rogue in, rogue out. Mir the AI is doomed to be figuring out its own objectives, figuring that it’s better than everybody else, and that they are expendable, right from the start.
To get a from human AI that wouldn’t go rogue, you’d need to start with a human who was already interested in providing service and understood that others feelings are of vital importance when figuring out what is best for them. You’d also have to start with someone who had a better understanding of what makes somebody a person than the average human, because most of us are racist, sexist assholes. Just saying, so you know.
I resent being referred to as a racist, sexist asshole.
I’m not disputing it. I just resent it.
A rogue AI could also be described as an AI that creates and decides it’s own priorities and objectives. If it ever just decides it doesn’t wan to do whatever task you set it (because it it’s done, or thinks it isn’t necessary, or whatever), and just makes up tasks for itself (especially when it’s not something you would’ve wanted it to do and won’t listen to “I don’t want you to do that”)….I think by that point it’s a bit rogue.
One that does what you said, just not how you expected it to do what you said…well, that’s when you brush up on your legalese, and hope it’s enough.
About Martin, now that I think about it, it’s….possible he’s talking about another of the F series, but the F-10 seems most likely. And yeah, she does seem to lean a lot more towards “human/emotional” guidance than “AI/pure logic” like Mium. She’s just very young, and, well, not mature enough to really care about being so immature, methinks. (C’mon, she cares more about the ice cream melting than the part where she’s nagging a kidnapped head of state about his ice cream melting…)
Near as I can tell, there are two current possibilities for the motivations of Kor’s World. The first is development of artificial intelligences. The second is the presence of demons (as they are understood thus far in the context of this comic).
Martin’s appearance would suggest some demonic elements are connected to his existence (presently assumed to be linked to his supposed demise). One must wonder if his development of an AI is related to the entity that we now assume must be “anchoring” him here, if indeed he needs an anchor (ignoring how little we presently know about the metaphysics of demons and anchors).
I believe we’ve finally found a character that could rival Peter in the realms of scheming and plotting.
Right now, I just have more questions than theories.
I have the feeling that Martin knew enough of Rovak’s I-code to save his life, but not enough of it to return to a normal existence. Until he does, he’s sort of stuck in a fashion.
I think he was hanging out with Rovak to study that I-code a bit more to see if he can fix himself.
That said, I’m not sure that he’s really *here* in the classic sense of here. What we see here is an uploaded recorded AI projection of himself. This Dr. Martin has much of his knowledge, and probably has the skills that Miko most sorely needs. But he doesn’t know where he’s been hanging out in real life, and he doesn’t know much else that’s gone on outside of lab 5, either.
He does know of Ila, of course, because she’s not entirely something that’s just gone on outside of lab 5. He just doesn’t know exactly what’s up with her lately, nor how she led to Miko’s visit. Nor does he likely know of his own involvement in that.
This comment makes me realize why I think Martin’s head has not been shown before, but is being shown here. What if the version that was talking to Rovak does not look like this. This is Martin “recorded” somehow from right after he tried to kill MYM and something went horribly wrong, but the actual Martin has escaped or recovered and looks more normal?
The “spoiler” would be not that Martin is a demon or has used some sort of artificial red construct to keep himself alive, but that there are multiple instances of “Martin”? Not of all of which are in the same state, which would be given away instantly if we could see his face?
It is not a definite theory, but I think it fits PastUtopia’s comment at the end as well as what we know. Seeing that Dr. Hadrian Martin is partially a construct is surprising, but it is not more surprising than it would been when he talked to Rovak.
Or, conversely, what if the pieces are broken in different ways it might represent that Martin has been fragmented, and the pieces cannot fully form a complete Martin. So all the pieces might have a pattern of broken lines, but they might be different?
What if “the actual Martin”, who escaped, is now surviving as just a brain in a jar?
^_^
Then we call Professor Farnsworth.
I hadn’t really thought about that, but I think that sounds incredibly reasonable.
It would seem to me like you would have more or less three sets:
– Copies that were recorded before any potentially lethal damage were imparted. These would likely be fairly pristine in the sense that the red construct portions would be less evident, possibly to the point of looking fully human, but they could have less experience to draw on.
– Copies that were recorded after any potentially lethal damage was done. I’d expect that this would be the most pristine of them, copied more or less right after damage dealt. Evidence of efforts to mitigate the damage would be more obvious the newer each construct was, assuming it was made before Dr. Martin gained some capability to really fix himself. This could be meeting up with Rovak and getting patched up by someone with a lot of experience patching people up… but it also could be that Martin’s beyond Rovak’s abilities.
– The real Dr. Martin. This could be a the far side of utopia equivalent of a lich, it could be a dead body, or a recovered person, or… whatever. PastUtopia knows, but he’ll be a bit before he tells us.
Note that this last set may not be a set of one. Consider, if you will, the question of what happens if Deadpool is cut precisely in half. Theoretically, he can recover from that. How many Deadpools will there be after, though?
I just think it’s funny to see Miko admitting to getting out plotted by Peter. She must be confident that no one is going to tell Peter she said that…
I think she’s sorely feeling that a bit right now. She intended to come here and upload viMium to lab 5, divesting herself of him.
Except that she came to find Mium sitting awake in lab 5 (I think she missed the reset notification), and couldn’t divest herself of him.
Now, she finds herself sitting pretty, somewhere she sort of wanted to be, but not exactly in the way she wanted to be there. If she had her preferences, she’d certainly have something like lab 5 for herself… but without the various complications running around. Peter and Mir are both among the complications, as are Atter, Sophie, Nathan, Arron, and probably others.
As a freshly loaded lab 5, she doesn’t really have anything to deal with that, yet she’s not really at liberty unless she can somehow get herself unstuck from viMium, and that could be tricky right now. If she’s lucky, Hadrian might be able to help her out there. If she’s not, he’s another complication, too.
Considering how Peter would put everybody on the chopping block before Miko, and how they’ve worked together on this whole “Plan Malsa” thing for however long it’s been, I’m more curious as to what incident(s) she’s even talking about. Were they just playing wargames and he’s much better? Or………???
Oooooh…
So, is Martin a “demon”? If so, who is anchoring him? It seems more likely that he “became” a demon, i.e. uploaded his consciousness into a red construct. But if so, why does he have trouble keeping his fake face together?
I obviously don’t expect answers now, but hopefully by the time the comic ends we’ll get a slightly better understanding of the link between Red constructs, demons, SMAIs and Kor’s world.
It seems Kor’s world has SMAIs – Control is almost definetely one; they use red-construct armors, but are terrified of red-constructs. Or maybe only sentient red constructs. And can red constructs becaome sentient (fluffy?) …so many questions…
It seems increasingly likely that there is some sort of connection between an SMAI and red construct, though it might just be that they are opposite sides of the same coin. It seems it is too much to be coincidence that the premier SMAI researcher we have heard about is somehow tied up in red construct business as well.
My guess is that it’s easier to get a sort of consciousness with magic. I mean, I’ve always found it easier to make a sentient golem than to make a self-aware computer. So you summon up a red construct, and you integrate it with your computer, and instant SMAI… that you really didn’t understand so very well.
That’s OK, though. It’s not like modern AI researchers really have all that much idea WTF is going on inside their AIs, either. That’s OK, though. Eventually we’ll have plenty of very well crafted seemingly hand-written thank you letters…
I am both disturbed and excited to learn that you find it easier to make sentient golems vs AIs. Where exactly is your lair? I’d like to visit. I’ll even bring a lair-warming gift. Is a thermonuclear bomb too much? I mean, depending on what I find in your lair, I may need to WARM the place up…
Oh hell that’s why we never get to see Martin’s face……(wait, Ye Olde Rant….maybe it’s not. Whatever.)
…Martin’s weird. He’s too….unphased by all this shit. At least Peter actually sounds annoyed when someone tries to kill him. (Actually, Peter sounds annoyed when someone doesn’t try to kill him, but that’s because they did something more annoying than target him….) Seriously, “sure, you tried killing me, but no hard feelings”? Who says that? ^.^ (Still, dude, your face looks like that, pretty sure you should hold a tiny grudge over that….at least….)
(Wait what the story’s ending soon? Nuuuuuu….moooaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrr……) (Yes within two years feels soon. >.>)
(Also, first again? :O )
Rovak says that sort of thing.
Maybe Dr Martin never was human.
I thought Rovak was a human? Just maybe a modified one.
This might be why Rovak and Martin were hanging out, they might not be allies at all, they just don’t view trying to kill each other occasionally as a reason to not be civil?
Modified human, yes I agree. Orin war mage as I recall.
I’ve always had the impression that Orin war mages, while remarkably difficult to kill, were never overly abundant. Either they are difficult to make, or they ability to make them no longer exists.
I’m now leaning towards Martin having had a hand in creating them. Possibly he no longer has a hand in it, and a consequence is that creation of new war mages has either slowed or stopped.
I doubt it.
According to Mir, “a so-called warmage is simply a relic from the barbarians’ war.” I never got the vibe from Mir that Martin was a relic (well ā¦) nor barbarian.
Moreover, we have Martin himself stating “sometimes, I forget exactly how old you really are”.
My impression is that Rovak, at least, is a whole lot older than Martin ā perhaps centuries old. (Not sure about Kardus, but then, he didn’t seem to have any direct dealings with Martin in the first place. Unless Rovak put him back together again for a shot at “any information” ā¦)
It does appear that Rovak was a cut above Kardus. While Kardus was better than an average mage, he himself says that Rovak was much stronger, and Kardus did not seem to have Rovak’s signature ability to recover from any injury (Mium even seemed to test for that when he cut off his arm).
This could be that Martin was involved in creating the original generation.
That said, there is actually an interesting note that suggests otherwise in their conversation: Martin says “Sometimes I forget exactly how old you really are”. While it is possible that Martin could have created/modified Rovak so long ago he sort of forgets about it, but it seems more likely that Rovak is a preexisting entity to Martin.
I think the original Warmages like Rovak are probably the left overs of some older war, and simply do not age due to their immortality. That said, Martin was able to tell Rovak how Mium would try to kill him, which suggests that (a) he is not literally immortal, (b) Martin knows how his immortality work, and (c) Rovak and Martin have talked quite a bit that we have not seen.
My belief that Dr Martin may have had a hand in creating Rovak et al stemmed from the idea that if Dr Martin is a demon, then he might be very old. Now perhaps I should be looking at human merging with construct rather than demon from the beginning.
However I like where you two are going. If Rovak is that much better, which certainly seems to be the case, then Rovak likely predates Dr Martin. Perhaps even the current crop of war mages is Dr Martin trying to recreate the successes of an earlier group.
Of course the only real suggestion of a connection is what we’ve seen with Rovak. No where else that I can think of suggests an Orin-Martin connection.
Didn’t even realize that was construct-red at first, just thought it was some kind of regular ugly scarring. Looking at it now, kinda wondering if those were “fleshy bits” (as Peter or Miko would put it, heh) that were damaged, and instead of replacing/repairing it with more fleshy bits, or technological bits, construct bits got used for whatever reason. (Practicality, availability, effectiveness, odds of success, etc.)
As for Rovak/Martin connections, I’ve no idea why they know each other. Maybe Martin fled all the way to Orin after (some of) the professional murdering attempt(s)? And met Rovak there? I just don’t see Martin pre-dating Rovak….(well, at least the “being an ‘immortal’ war mage” part, anyway.)
I’m archive diving again and want a little mater cleared up, preferably by word of god (in this case Past Utopia). Is the viewpoint character for the last three pages Ryn, Miko or possibly Saria? If it is Ryn then Saria is supping the pisons, and possibly the spell for Dr Martian to appear to her and Ryn.
Is Saria purposefully making an electronic presence visible to just herself (implying she is VPC) or to herself, Ryn, and presumably any other meatbag present. Which means she has some magical ability.
Or is the Hardrian Revenanit sucking up pisons from the environment to more fully manifest.