Comic for Monday, February 25th, 2019
Sorry if I’ve been a tad behind on some stuff… everyone I know is sick, and while I don’t think I’m sick per se, I’m barely above that threshold… just really tired this last week in a way that no amount of caffeine has been able to fix (trust me, I’ve been trying…!).
Buffer is still intact, fortunately.
I think it is a grand question of well the Consul understands what she is doing some of the time, but I think it’s worth keeping in mind that she views the IDS as a definite a threat, which makes anything else seem like “maybe a good idea?” While it may seem like she is being reckless – and, to an extent, she definitely has made a few reckless decisions – when one is fairly convinced that space-people might annihilate you with a death-beam from the sky, it changes your risk-reward analysis a tad. It’s a bit ironic cycle that while would likely be lost on Biana, is certainly not being lost on everyone involved……………..
I don’t think it is fair to say the Consul trusts MYM. I think it is fair to say that Consul is prepared to use anything that looks like a port in a storm, particularly when that port seems vaguely on the omniscient side.
That said, the Consul would probably be familiar with the clause MYM is proposing invoking, the question would more be if she has any clue how he would intend to carry that out, given that Malsa very definitely lacks the ability to carry it out in the current situation.
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I have a question for the author of this comic. I have been following TFoU for a couple years now, and just now thought of a question.
The A A system that Mium can run, where does the name originate? Does it come from the order of the Golden Dawn, the astron argon?
What the AA System really is or what AA might stand for hasn’t really been revealed yet. As it’s something we will likely see more of, answering details would be sort of spoilers, and I try to avoid spoilers. 🙂
Always appreciate hearing from readers, and hope you’ve enjoyed the ride so far! 🙂
It’s not the Alcoholics Anonymous System? Aw, man, I feel gypped.
Actually, I tend to think of it more as an Anti-Aircraft System or Automatic Artillery System, due to how we were introduced to it.
But it’s clearly none of those things, and maybe both of the latter two and something more.
That’s OK, though, we’ll eventually find out what the Admin Access System is for. Maybe it helps with math, because it’s an Automated Abacus. But until then, it can be the Active Anticipation System. I should probably give this a rest before I Annoy Author too much.
Central is needing to lighten the strain on their planet’s resources at the moment. Biana has a plan that involves sneakiness, invasion, and setting themselves up in a powerful position on another planet. Malsa looks like a piece they can get control of and use to bargain with others nations on Palindra. Aaron speaks plainly and honestly and doesn’t seek to harm others in order to survive; would rather be a guest than a king. The world belongs to the doers and Peter and Miko seem to be taking a pragmatic stab at the issue.
And I think F8’s comment about his fleshy bits during atter’s attack were just for the camera, adding some drama to the “student gets mauled by demon constructs” narrative. He doesn’t seem to sleep. He’s referenced taste and food and energy but I don’t think I’ve seen enough to indicate that he needs food the same way humans do. F5 has had his body maimed/blasted by Rovak before and while I’m sure the repair will require energy, I don’t imagine the energy must explicitly be food, or that he’ll need bandages.
F10 seems to be a bit of a fork in the dev cycle. Emotions, hunger/food-based energy restoration… Each chassis chassis is unique in construction and capabilities, but she seems to be a bit more divergent from F5 & F8. Accounting for that divergence is part of how we got VI-Mium. VI-Mium who is like Mium except that VI-Mium is aware that Dr. Martin is alive, which Mium apparently isn’t, and Peter/Miko either don’t know that themselves or aren’t sharing it with Mium.
Mir mentioned some of the problems with Martin’s experiments, about them betraying and going rogue, and that’s why she was focusing on incorporating tech into herself to wield magic more powerfully. Perhaps Martin’s plans always involved controlling an AI that wielded the actual magic. That VI-Mium’s awareness of Dr. Martin’s continued life is so relevant to him makes one wonder. How did Mium’s transition from working for Dr. Martin to working with Peter happen? Was the deceit of Mium involved? That could bring it all down. As could a languishing prerogative to protect Dr. Martin.
Do you think Mir has unintentionally turned herself into a sort of chassis? Do you think Miko could overwrite Mir with VI-Mium?
I think F5 is the one that hangs out with Naomi more on missions and playing games. F8 is more of the brother-body for F10 and protector for Peter and Miko. As such, I think F5 is the one passed out with Naomi. I realize that functionally, many things could happen, but from a literary perspective, giving entities roles helps consumption and digestion.
Mari has an installation of M.Y.M. running on Central. It can likely communicate with M.Y.M. on Palindra, so Mari’s actions are likely accounted for and aided.
Where the freak did Dedrin come from if not Central or Palindra? Kor’s World deserter?
There is every chance that MYM is not limited to Malsa. Copies are likely in the gate hardware on the other side.
Malsa just invaded Central by accident.
… oops? ¦-D
Am I the only one who thinks that, with the full authority of the sovereign ruler of Malsa, the AI could take as much computing and electrical power as he wants to fulfil her order? Given what we’ve seen Mium do with magic, and how his limits are processing power, I suspect that he’ll use every computer in the nation to achieve power and proximity on the Gates such that the answer to “How will he assume control of the Gates?” is going to be: “Directly.”
We’re 99% certain Mium is good. But I still can’t help but feel a tiny twinge of fear; like this is John Connor giving his security codes to Skynet.
(And yes, I did see the latest movie where Skynet ‘converted’ John. I’m referring to all the movies before that.)
I think calling Mium “good” is a bit too simple. Naomi has confirmed that Mium has some degree of ambivalence to mass murder if people run contrary to his goals. MYM is loyal in the sense that has shown no real desire to be free of Peter and Miko giving him directions, and he has things programmed into him like “do not kill people” and “avoid causalities”, but I do not think I would call him “good” in a traditional sense.
I think Peter is hoping that Mium learns some degree of morality from Naomi (or at least will operate under her morality to make her happy), but I do not think he is there yet.
Peter himself may or may not be “good”, though I learn toward that he probably is.
As a side note, all of that assumes that Mium is actually obeying Peter.
I’m actually approaching this from the angle that Mium the SMAI is effectively the same as a person when it comes to betrayal. You never know for absolute certainty that you won’t be betrayed until after the fact. Mium could have a secret agenda and could be using Peter. But even if Mium is obeying Peter, Mium and Peter could be betraying Naomi. Or Mium, Peter, and Naomi could be betraying Kally. But here’s the biggest kicker: even if Mium isn’t betraying anyone, Mium never promised to help Malsa. He only agreed to share info and probability calculations.
Mium has effectively announced to Madam Consul that this is a predicted outcome he prepared for. He’s ready to seize power. And the only chance she has to save her country is to trust an AI. And she knows she CAN’T trust this AI, because it doesn’t have the best interests of her country at heart. She can only hope that whatever goal the AI has, that goal is furthered by her country surviving.
Now somebody reading this is all ready to point out that Mium can easily seize power without permission. Yes, that’s true. But Mium has shown a history of waiting for permission to take resources. And a history of not letting go of them. He kept Miko’s music server even after he didn’t need it anymore. In fact, he was ‘soft ordered’ to give it back, but disobeyed.
There is a huge chance that Mium will ‘betray’ Malsa. And Mium has proven himself to not be completely trustworthy when it comes to giving stuff back. And Madam Consul effectively gave him EVERYTHING.
I empathize with her.
Really depends on how much leeway Peter gave the Consul’s authority over MYM. While the Consul may have the authority to give MYM all the processing in Malsa, unless that is a defined override he would not be able to go over his processing power cap. I think there is a good chance the Consul willingly would give MYM whatever processing power he wants right now though if she can. I think she realizes she would already have been deposed and probably killed if Peter had not taken an interest in Masla for whatever reason. It is possible that if Peter had not taken an interest, neither would Biana, but I think her plot is a lot bigger than just trying to kill Peter, that has just become a major prong of it after he interfered with her.
Right now there is a good chance MYM is operating over his normal limits though, so it is quite possible. As for seizing the Gates, yeah. I assume they basically a giant AutoCaster, and hooked to a computer.
It’s my impression that Peter is in Malsa because Biana/Sophie were going to cause trouble there. He’s visibly in Malsa because they happened to provide a very exciting amnesty program that gave him direct access to contact everybody he wanted to talk to except for the Consul herself. Fortunately, access to the Consul was provided to him readily enough due to one of the people he had decided to directly contact doing something that Peter felt was very stupid, but in fact was pretty clever… though clever might be a clever way of saying stupid, I’m not sure.
The fact that Peter was able to walk around visibly where Biana/Sophie were not legally able to apprehend him, and so annoyed them into overplaying their hands was a bonus that he did not fully appreciate. At least, I think this is why he’s felt the need to state several times that events were moving faster than his plots predicted. Admittedly, it’s also possible that he stated that events were progressing faster than he predicted to give Biana/Sophie the false impression that he was caught off-guard by them, and thus encourage them to continue overplaying their hands.
I don’t see anything in the Consul’s wording that suggests any attempt to override Mium’s limits, or even an awareness that he has limits that would be an issue there, apart from his need for authority to do the thing. He’s offered to seize all of the gates in Malsa. She stated she had the authority to authorize that activity, and then did so.
This still could come back to haunt her, but I currently think that’s unlikely. The Peter/Mium faction don’t really have enough resources to take advantage of that gigantic opening to drive a convoy of buses through. Specifically, I don’t think they have enough buses do do that. I mean, they might have one. But probably not, unless you count a decommissioned troop transport with a defensive turret mounted as a bus. That sounds like the sort of thing Mium might have squirreled away somewhere.
Assuming the theory that the Malsan weather satellites are actually IDS spy satellites that they “sold” to Malsa as weather satellites, I’d expect Mium can actually render the service he offered leveraging the nation-sized gate detector and using those satellites to project his own special sauce to disrupt the gates like he would any other spell… If that was the case, then Mium would be in a really good position right now to kill Atter, because he’s in a construct that could be destroyed without killing an innocent. That having been said, he still might not be able to, because the spirit beast construct might require some additional computation to counter, and the essence that is Atter probably requires a bunch of additional computation to counter. Mium probably would not need additional authorization to actually kill Atter, so long as he wouldn’t lose Efaite in the process.
Alternatively, Mium offered more than he’s really capable of, and he’s going to shut down the gates by simply switching off all of the autocasters used to make them, since he’s already cracked them.
Tpyo panel 7: “sovereign authority”
why do I think M.Y.M is going to toss what corporate affairs has been doing in the faces of the people who have been attempting to ignore it for their own benefit, and in a manner that would *require* them to take severe disciplinary action?
I can’t help but feel that the alibi thing from Mari and Kyle’s scene was the trap being set up. I can’t predict what will happen yet (I’m no Amaranth here), but the chance that they are not currently playing into MYM’s trap (some unexpected downtime aside) is basically nil in my mind.
I also can’t help but notice that there is the F8 has been missing this whole time (assuming the F5 is with Naomi).
Mari and Kyle needed alibis because Corporate Affairs is moving foreign troops through central to get to the Council, something they would desperately like to blame on Keplers.
EF8 is suffering from nerve gas poisoning and EF5 is probably failing to protect Dr M.I.R. from Miko’s tung-lashing. Though its possible the EFs are switched as you suggested.
I rather doubt that EF8 or even EF5 would suffer permanent ill effects from nerve gas. (Then again, I suppose it depends to some extent on the gas.) They are androids, not human. And it is questionable, even, how much of their chassis is biological or if they have any biological components. EF8 was down because M.Y.M. was temporarily down and had to reboot itself.
I think it is more less confirmed that F8 does not actually need to breath, which would make it really hard for nerve gas to effect him. Strangely Ila does seem to need to breath, but there are a lot of things weird about Ila.
All the prototypes are artificial humans first androids second with lots of squishy parts. EF8 has been modified with under skin armor and possibly an extra oxygen reservoir.
Mym could slow down his metabolism like like Naomi, or speed it up to burn it off, or analyze and neutralize it. However the prototype that was attacked did not have Mym resident at the time. And thus probably did not have the wit or self control to take prophylactic measures. Once Mym is back in control he can repair even mortal wounds but that takes time and lots of computational resources, cycles that are in short supply due to several ongoing crises.
Do you happen to remember roughly where in the story (or comments) where EF8’s “squishy parts” are explained?
Even if the phrase “squish parts” was used to describe them, that can be interpreted different ways.
And even the term “organic” has multiple meanings. Technically, stuff like carbon fiber, graphite and plastics are organic – at least according to my chemistry courses and the periodic table of elements. Though, it could also mean biological tissues in living organisms.
Just because an android has a need to breath oxygen, that does not prove that they have actual biological tissues that are vulnerable to nerve gas. For instance, I could easily imagine an android or robot with a fuel cell (or small petrol engine) that needs oxygen to burn fuel for power. Indeed, there are some robots today built like that.
I question why any android would need actual human or animal tissue or organs, even in the distant future. Search for an article called, “Artificial Skin That’s Way More Sensitive to Touch Than The Real Thing” for an example. And we already have artificial noses and taste sensors that are way more sensitive and accurate to smell and taste than humans have, to say nothing of digital cameras for vision or the pickup range of microphones for hearing.
Keep in mind: EF8 and the rest of those androids were designed and created by Avon’s secret research division with the goal of developing them for military applications. If, for some bizarre reason, the designers saw fit to include actual living tissue, I would assume that they would have a gas filtration system to protect it – at least in an emergency, such as when gas is detected.
Also, I would assume that an android that needs oxygen would be built in a way that it would have a separate process to automate breathing, much like the medulla oblongata is responsible for regulating body temperature and respiration in humans. That way, if an android’s brain is completely occupied doing something else, it wouldn’t “forget to breath” so to speak. Logically, it would follow that said automated system would also take care of certain emergencies, such as warning the brain, switching to oxygen backup, engaging the gas filtration…
So this is before going on an archive dive to confirm and source the answers but my collection of data points (not proving any particular case, just in general regarding the Prototype nature):
1) When Mium was getting attacked by Atter referred “fleshy bits I need to live”. While it is unlikely he was being particularly serious, he does not tend to outright lie.
2) I think PastUtopia confirmed that if Ila survived long enough, she would keep growing. This would strongly imply that the Prototype bodies are grown/cloned, not built from scratch.
3) This would also be a reason they would have squishy bits. Growing/cloning a functional body would be a lot easier than building one from scratch (given current technology, Avon might be able to do either).
4) The F8 is has things like subdermal plating and internal reinforcement. He is definitely not entirely flesh and blood. Even his “hands” are segmented metal like gauntlets covered by a thin layer of skin.
5) I do not think Martin was originally making them as a military thing necessarily. I thinking Martin was making them as a continuation of the Shinoji Project, that was trying to make an Artificial Eidos Key. I think Mir may be less high minded and philosophical than Martin was. Though Martin may have contradicted this during his conversation with Rovak (assuming that is Martin and not a hallucination of Rovak’s)
6) Ila F10 has an extremely human in interface, such that Mium has to create new entity to run it (VI-Mium), while he was able to run F5 with no trouble. This suggestions that the original prototypes have a fundamentally different command interface (brain) than the F10 does, but that the F10 has a brain that very similar to a human (possibly an actual human brain that has been modified).
7) F8 is a lot denser/stronger than a human even without visible boosting, able to survive jumping off a building without any apparent effect, with the concrete below taking more damage than he did.
8) F8 and F10 both bleed to damage, though F8 bleeds relatively little it seems.
9) Both Ila and Mium eat, and Ila can apparently actually taste.
I think out of all this, the one that I need to confirm as I think it makes the biggest difference is if Ila would actually grow up. I think PastUtopia said that somewhere, but that was probably a Q&A or comment, so it might be hard to find. It would definitely make sense that she would (I do not think they would intentionally make a kid).
If that is true it would both explain why they would have squishy bits and why they would have otherwise unnecessary human weaknesses. They could be heavily modified clones rather than build from scratch. Rapidly growing clones is semi-possible with current tech and we know that Malsa has very advanced genetic tech, and I suspect that Kor’s World (“ark technology”) has highly advanced cybernetics.
What exactly the prototypes are has been one of my long running sources of speculation!
F8 eats to gain energy. Oxygen is used for that energy breakdown in animals, so reasonably likely replicated in F-series. It’s possible that they could’ve used a different energy breakdown mechanism, but then you might’ve had weird exceptions as to what was valid food or not and possibly even odd poisons.
So I think the F-series could be equipped with a separate oxygen reservoir, maybe even be ridiculously selective about pulling oxygen from air so able to handle very low partial pressure of O2, but I strongly suspect they still need a fairly regular supply (especially with how fast they can burn through energy).
Just because we know at least one of the F-series can eat food to gain energy, it may not be safe to assume that other models in the series are the same. After Dr. Martin left, I assume that Dr. Mir had her own design goals and her own ideas about what features they should have. (Not to mention: I doubt Dr. Martin left all the little details on how to build the F-series units. Dr. Mir may have had to reverse engineer and reinvent some stuff to make Ila.)
We already knew that Ila was very different from previous models, even before Mium freed her from Avon’s control.
And just because an android can eat food for energy, that still does not necessarily indicate that it utilizes biological tissues (read: cloned or donated human or animal tissue) that would make it vulnerable to nerve gases.
But, yes: I totally agree that they (at least later models) should be equipped with some amount of stored oxygen. And, yes, considering their energy use, the oxygen probably would not last long (unless they were in a standby or low energy usage mode).
Mium Efaite is not suffering from nerve gas because he does not have nerves as such. Sure, he has organic portions, but nerve gas specifically targets nerve cells, hence the name, and the only possible reason I can think of for an android to need nerve cells would be to interact with mana. However, the Eidos Drive Card seems to rule that requirement out. Mium uses one of those, as if I’m not mistaken, so he doesn’t need nerves for that reason. Nerves transmit electric signals chemically, and it’s much faster to transmit electric signals electronically.
In other news, the last time I have recorded a sighting of Mium-F8 was chapter 12, page 29. I’m not sure where you get the thought he was nerve gassed.
I mean, it’s possible F8 was the one with Naomi, though it is more likely it was F5. Telling them apart is a bit tricky, as they could just swap the scarf and we wouldn’t really know.
Just swap F5 and F8 in their speculation.
I think it plausible something like nerve gas could effect Ila, and Ila is the same basic framework as F5/F8. When they first met he said she was using his chassis, and she can do things like get hungry and cold sort of like a human. I think nerve gas wouldn’t effect Mium due to his ability to regenerate and control himself (just not breath when he doesn’t need to), but I do not it fundamentally wouldn’t effect the prototype bodies. They are at least partially fleshy bits.
Ila may or may not have the “same basic framework as F5/F8”. I think that’s an assumption based on too little evidence. We do know that Ila’s brain or mind is completely different from her ‘siblings’ (older models) as this was talked about many chapters earlier.
On a related subject: Have you heard the NASA spokesperson who claims that they “lost” the technology to go back to the Moon? It was suggested that they threw away the data or have no way to read it off of reel-to-reel computer tapes. But, to some extent, it sounds like part of the problem was losing the ability to build some of the old rocket designs that got us to the Moon, such as the old rocket engines, because (a) the designs are so old and use completely different manufacturing methods than what we use today, (b) the people who actually worked on these are all either long retired or dead and (c) while we do have blueprints and schematics that show the basic parts and layout, all the fine little details on how to fabricate the parts, assemble them, adjust and fine tune them are missing as they were terrible at leaving detailed notes.
See the “Why Can’t we Remake the Rocketdyne F1 Engine?” video for a good documentary explaining part of the problem: https://youtu.be/ovD0aLdRUs0
How is this related? I doubt Dr. Martin left all the fine details on how to build the F series. It seemed hinted that Dr. Mir had to reverse-engineer or reinvent some of it when she built Ila.
You probably think that he’s going to be doing that because it feels consistent with the method of operation we’ve seen Peter and Mium using already.
Also, if the person in charge of a particular military force submits an inquiry into exactly how the array of gates under their control were shut down at a certain time when the gates were not supposed to be in active use, there is a tendency for it to raise the question of how the person knew that the gates were taken offline at that time. Normally, that additional raised question wouldn’t really go anywhere, but when someone like Mium is pulling at the strings, it only seems reasonable that they would turn it into an “I drank what?” moment for the people who have been turning a blind eye to team Biana/Sophie.
Alternatively, the additional raised question could be, “exactly how much are we spending on this particular effort, anyway?” They certainly would not be the first rogue directors shut down by Finance. Indeed, one should not discount the ability of the finance department to shut down projects. While my personal inclination when trying to shut down a project I feel is harmful for the company has been to try to invoke Physical Security, IT Security, Legal, or Quality Assurance, Finance has come through for me more often than any of those other groups. Admittedly, this is generally because my primary reason for trying to shut down projects is I don’t think it’s a good idea to have flying lead pigs, and Finance tends to agree with that opinion. Unfortunately, they tend to agree after far too much effort has been spent trying to get the lead pigs to fly.