Comic for Monday, April 22nd, 2019
Apr23
…okay, well, that’s basically still Monday.
…I should probably note that Miko being “out of focus” in the last panel was an intentional effect, and not intended to represent anything “in world”. I realize that after some of Peter’s shenanigans that might not have been the best artistic decision in retrospect, but I thought it was a good idea at the time.
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Page will be tomorrow. Sorry for the delay, though I expect that’s not too surprising given that it’s not posted yet. 😐
Until you posted, i was sure that space monkeys had kidnapped you. I’m glad you are back and the page will be up tomorrow.. i need more Saturday comics.
Meh, they are goals rather than deadlines anyhow – we know you have things to do, and we can wait another day or so 🙂
For some reason, I feel like this is one of the most significant pages we’ve had in this comic, so far. . . .
So…. After that last statement, what are the chances that MIR just decides to try to murder Miko (damn the consequences)?
Best guess? Probably not. Mir strikes me as more bark than bite. Also I think viMium+Miko now have her properly off balance.
Considering that almost nobody seems to know where DR Martin went, the only other option for MIR at this point is to try to get information out of Miko. It is hard to say, however, how much bark vs bite Mir has. We know that she is a mad scientist, by absolutely everyone’s admission, but how much is that “mad computer/engineering scientist” vs “mad human experimentation scientist” (with the squicky things not shown on screen)?
I’m thinking a demand for information, followed by an abandoning of her post to try to chase Rovak down, is more likely; but i’m not counting out an outburst of murderous anger either.
I think having Miko out of focus in the last panel’s a good idea. Gives us a chance to see Mir’s expression, which we wouldn’t be able to see if she were the one out of focus. Adds to the weight of what Miko’s saying.
Please note that I’m bad with who’s who)
…….damn, Mir doesn’t look angry or annoyed, for once….visibly shaken….maybe there is a little bit of person left in there.
Maybe Mir is starting to realize Mium is running on Miko and is suddenly struggling with the old “kill it or study it” dilemma.
This really just fuels my need to know what is going on with Doctor Martin and what the nature of Peter’s time there was.
1) Miranda either becomes Mir, or Mir is created and believes she used to be Miranda.
2) Martin disappears and is now hanging out with Rovak in a way that it SEEMS like no one else can see him. Either as a hallucination or something weird.
3) Ila recognized Peter, but seems to have recognized him as a different name.
4) Miko or Mium was envious of Miranda.
5) Mir only became Mir near the start of the comic. People were remarking on her appearance as something new and strange. Most people that knew her had not seen her like that.
6) People DID know Mir prior to her being… whatever she is. This means that Miranda almost certainly was an actual person previously.
7) Doctor Martin is still a giant mystery.
8) MIUM did not know Doctor Martin was still alive after whatever events transpired, and considered this information important enough to effectively shut down his whole network to avoid losing it.
9) Mium did not trust Peter or Miko to just tell him again, which implies they already knew and did not tell him, and Mium knows this.
10) Mystery overload.
Nice bullet points.
1) I have no clue. However I am currently choosing to believe that Miranda got her hands on the same Ark technology that permitted Central to create the implants, possibly using Peter’s help to make them even more aggressive in merging human and machine. This ended up in transformations similar to what we’ve seen with Miko. Except Miko under the guidance of Mium became more human looking, or at least closer to looking like a mainstream human. Miranda drifted or is drifting towards a more machine appearance.
If that’s the case, then Peter may not be surprised at Miko’s appearance changes, but may not be happy about the feedback either. For that matter these changes may not be unheard of on Central, depending on how extensively they have experimented.
2) Yup! And as Mium believes him to be alive, I’m no longer willing to believe Martin is a hallucination. Mium can be wrong, but it seems silly to bet against him.
3) I believe Peter took a job under an assumed name working for Dr Martin, which is why Ila knew him, but not as Peter. This disappearance into Arpon under an assumed name would probably be why IDS couldn’t find Peter.
4) I think it is Mium, but that’s mostly because I don’t think Miko and Miranda knew each other. I am leaning towards Peter working with Martin and Miranda in order to gain the knowledge necessary to help Miko. If I’m right, Miko’s presence in Palindra started after Peter’s involvement in Avon ended.
5) I agree. I hadn’t considered it, but that is likely important.
6) Yup!
7) Yup, massive! But as I mentioned above, I’m compelled to follow Mium on this and assume Dr Martin is discreet from Peter, and that he is in fact still alive.
8) vi-Mium suggested that Mium may have planned such an incident, suggesting that vi-Mium doesn’t have 100% access to Mium’s data, and that Mium already considered that Martin being alive was at least possible.
9) I have to think of it as not trusting. The trust relationship between Peter and Mium is remarkable. Several times Peter has indicated that he doesn’t always know what Mium is planning, yet clearly trusts Mium with his life. Mium appears to know that Peter lied or at least withheld data regarding Martin, but still seems to give Peter the benefit of the doubt regarding why. I suspect that Mium has directives that need to be fulfilled if Martin is alive, and that Mium understands and agrees with Peter trying to down regulate those directives by masking Martin’s continued existence.
10) No kidding.
2. Something I saw the other day doing an archive binge was someone (I think during Ryn’s investigation of “why we need your departments” when he was made CTO) saying something like “Martin’s either dead or reclusive”. The theory of him being Rovak doesn’t seem to make much sense to me, but it is possible that Martin is just being so reclusive that Rovak is the only one he’s showing himself to.
(Actually, come to think of it, Peter’s used some little hologram marble things on more than one occasion. Maybe Rovak just keeps one of those around all the time and Martin just visits to chat? That or some other variety of implant thing that makes him visible to Rovak and nobody else. (Or just one of those marbles surgically embedded somewhere, like how Peter keeps Mium’s reboot switch.) Or somehow their heads got merged. (Which seems the least plausible, but you never know.) And Rovak remembers to keep absolutely quiet about that, somehow.)
9. I don’t know about trust, but…hang on, I’ll just go find the page this time…Page for Mon, Nov 5th, 2018. “There is nothing Mium would want to hide from me…something Mium has to hide from me. Okay.” And he just rolls with it. Now I’m wondering: why does it have to be hidden from Peter? To protect Martin, or protect Peter? Something else entirely? Previous page starts to make it sound like protect Martin, and I could just be suspicious over nothing, but….with a mess of mystery like Martin…
(Actually, considering how much of a guardian Mium is for Miko, I wonder if part of the reason Martin is supposed to be gone was so Miko could be Mium’s highest safety priority.)
Few other thoughts, mostly on that 9th point, but I think I’ll stop there.
Personally, I think Miko calling her a “fake” has more to do with saying that she pities the A.I. that thinks it’s Miranda. Miko is suggesting, I think, that Dr. M.I.R. is a delusional A.I., and that the experiment to upload Miranda failed, resulting in Miranda’s death. Whether Miko is right or not (assuming I’m right in assessing her thoughts) remains to be seen, but given that Miko barely can run on Mium’s entire framework, the idea that she believes no human consciousness truly survives upload into something as simple as a single robot chassis is reasonable to me.
Art evolution has been… kind… to Mir.
The plot developments on the other hand have not. Ouch.
So Mir was previously weak to cyan shaded secretaries? I mean, that’s pretty heavily implied when you say the secretary can’t stop you any more.
Also heavily implied that Mir is a failed prototype. Ouch.
And a big thank you to everyone who pointed out that Miko is probably experiencing identity blurring/crisis. It makes way more sense now.
I think the cyan-shaded secretary might be Ryn’s bodyguard as well as his secretary. There have been a few hints that she is not “just” a secretary.
Considering that she is cyan-shaded, she is probably either from the Families or a Designer Child, either way meaning she could be a powerful mage.
I just love saying “cyan shaded secretary”. It will probably take an act of Fluffy to get me to stop.
Mir isn’t a failed prototype, she’s an experiment never reached that stage.
I find it interesting the Miko/Mium calls Mir Miranda. That makes it seem like Mir is short for Miranda, but typically a Doctor would be Doctor Lastname.
Given that Miko keeps calling Mir a fake, I wonder if Mir is even a doctor at all.
It seems the Miko/Mium is an expert of hitting right in the angst. I suppose Miko is a bit of an expert in the angst department.
Now what to call Miko/Mium. Mikium? V.I.Miko?
Mir could be a fake doctor. But I read it as a fake success. I think Miranda (or Martin) was trying to make a edios / AI / Human combination. Could be either. Maybe even both?
Dr. Firstname isn’t unprecedented. I don’t have any handy references of it, but I’ve personally met several. One because he hated his last name with a passion only slightly less than his hatred for excessive paperwork, such as that which he’d have needed to fill out to legally change his name. Another because he worked in an office with his father and grandfather, and he didn’t particularly like the sound of Dr. The Third. But, as is common for thirds, he had a unique within his family nickname based on his given name. I’ve met more than two, but I only recall hearing the explanation for two of them.
Also, while Onlyname isn’t very common, Dr. Onlyname is the only way to go when such a person achieves a doctorate.
That’s a fair point, Tgape. I’ve known a number of Dr Firstname people as well. Often they are in the psych/social sciences, but I’ve met at least a couple with hard science PhDs as well.
I’m not sure what the driving motivation is for most, but for instance the Dr Bill who hangs out in the local comic shop is a legitimate, practicing MD. He dislikes the formality, I think.
My favorite university physics professor was a Dr Firstname as well. In his case I suspect he associated last name instructors with high school.
Now I’m curious if you’re actually in GMT, or if that’s just something about the site.
Wow, Miko, what a burn… Kind of makes me feel sorry for Mir after seeing her reaction. And after reading the rest of Miko’s rant, now I feel sorry for Miko. (I really don’t think you have to worry about Peter, Miko.)
“check the policy there *now* that I think about it”
Frankly the last half of the comic sounds like Mium rather than Miko. She isn’t an experiment of Peter’s. Not really. Mium is, though, and knows it. We still don’t know what it is exactly that causes Mium to work for Peter, but I suspect Peter gave him a purpose when he needed one.
Mium claims there are no such thing as rogue AIs, but I suspect an AI with no objectives would rapidly go insane.
Miko may view herself as Peter’s experiment. She seems to have some issues, and it seems like she was used as an experiment previously. From a reader perspective, it seems like Peter is actually pretty ticked about that, but not sure if Miko even really knows that.
Definitely seems like there is some bleed through going on here though, which would make sense, as this instance of Mium is being fully supported on Miko’s hardware while she’s still conscious. They are basically sharing as far as I can tell. Given that just running Mium for a few seconds usually knocks her out, something is clearly going on here a bit above and beyond the normal. I get the feeling that VIMium probably has a much better integration due to being built for Ila’s system, which seems to be remarkably similar to Miko if Mium’s earlier comments are to be believed (and he tends to be right).
That might be Mium showing through, questioning whether he is Peter’s friend, or experiment.
My impression is that Miko was dying, and Peter arranged a Hail Mary, that worked, but which was highly illegal, and only ethical because it was this or certain death, (which, for some, possibly even the majority, would be unethical because it might have killed her before she managed to die naturally).
Now, of course, the technology to fix her right, (years after she would have died,) might exist, but she LIKES being part machine.
There seems to be some sort of fairly common implant available in Central, one that Peter has chosen not to receive. It appears that Miko had an implant that went sideways. Whether that was because she was implanted younger than usual, or with an unusual or experimental implant, I don’t know.
The impression I have is that Peter did not do the initial experiment on Miko, but did manage some sort of firmware or software upgrade for her. This was I believe not life saving, but rather restored quality of life. How dangerous this fix was isn’t clear to me.
It’s my impression that while that implant is fairly common now, Miko was an early adopter, and it doesn’t really matter whether she chose it or not because she was too young to understand the risks of what she was choosing.
We know that Miko was (1) in a wheelchair and could not walk at some point, and (2) in a coma at some point. Arron seemed surprised that Miko could walk, so he probably had not seen her since she was “completely” healed.
My guess is the sequence of events went like this:
1) Miko (as Taki) was a normal kid.
2) Miko (as Taki) was used as a test subject for a new experimental implant.
3) Miko (as Taki) was in a coma from that experiment for at least awhile.
4) Peter integrates Query into the implant. We have one flashback scene of Kally, Miko, and Query, while Miko is in a wheel chair. Miko is now Miko, and crippled, but awake. Peter leaves Miko in Central.
5) Peter helps create or steals MYM using Query to create Mium.
6) Peter returns and uses Mium to completely fix Miko, taking her with him to Palindra this time.
7) Miko integrates with VI Mium to prevent him from being deleted during reboot.
8) ???
It is possible that Miko was handicapped before the first experiment, but this seems like the most likely sequence of events. It also seems like that Miko was in the coma for a long time, given her stunted growth.
I could also be completely wrong, but that is the best timeline I can piece together from more hours of study than I should admit to.
Interesting. That sounds like Mium talking at the end rather than Miko. I suppose there are downsides to having him run on her for an extended period.
Considering how I’m pretty sure Miko getting scratched is one of the things Peter would “burn a country to ash” over, it does make a lot more sense for that to be Mium talking.
Except that even if Mium did seem like a “failure”, unless things go very wrong, I’d sort’ve expect Peter to keep him around anyway, if only as extra insurance to keep Miko protected. (That and getting rid of him would also probably prove difficult.)
It also seems difficult to think that Mium might be considered a failure in the near future. Effectively counters Skyhammer, Aegis, Kor’s World’s “Control”, and can monitor and sift through information more efficiently than anyone else. Why would he feel the need to worry about being branded a failure? Ila rubbing off on him? (Actually, this would’ve been the process running on the F-10. That might actually be it, for “this” Mium.)
I’m having trouble imagining Mium (or Query) capable of admiration and envy. “There are merely directives and how you complete them,” was it? “I am incapable of being angry,” he also said.
Capable of faking admiration and envy, sure – but to what end? And why desync with Miko first, if he was going to run on her system? No, to me, this sounds like new information about Miko, who last time indicated she’d “heard a lot about” Mir, but didn’t think highly of her understanding of “basic A.I. principles” or her creations.
Or alternatively it might sound like either Miko or Mium filtered through the other’s perception …
Probably meant “now” in the third panel instead of “not”.
Fixed, thanks 🙂