Comic for Monday, October 11th, 2021
So I should probably note a few things. Panel 6 is something of an artistic rendition of what Elmon sees, as it’s not an easy thing to render – there’s nothing actually there, Elmon just briefly sees past Mium’s shell (if you will). Mium’s presence in this world isn’t something that someone like Amy or Tyler can see, but for someone that can see somewhat more keenly, he’s an endless abyss interwoven connections stretching off into the void, an abyss of information linking to some greater entity. Elmon wouldn’t understand what he’s seeing, beyond realizing the Mium is very much not a normal human, and that scares him as what little he knows about things that aren’t humans is at odds with what he is seeing.
It’s also worth noting that it’s exceedingly likely Mium could prevent himself from being dragged into the “spirit world” if he wanted. Even if he doesn’t have know the specific technique to stop it which I’m not saying here if he does or not), it still requires the activation of magic, and Mium is quite good at stopping that at the short ranges involved in something like this. This also may explain some of Mium’s dialogue choices… he concluded early on where the conversation was leading, and decided that was a suitable course of action. He’s basically hitting the “skip dialogue” button as fast as possible from his point of view.
We’ll see more coming up on that.
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Wait, you didn’t see the new one?!
Huh.
I thought it was great!
No new comic was posted today. Did Elmon transport Past to the Palace Beyond also?
Jim
nah, this ain’t the 1st time this happened.. and it won’t be the last. odds are the artist must’ve been overworked and undertired, and thus couldn’t post Monday’s page on time. we’ll get a page probably next week or so.
In the meantime, please take a complimentary pitchfork from the trailer. The rioting starts now.
Update: 2021-10-19 12:45AM. Elmon has disappeared leaving behind a large puddle of urine. In our universe, a hiker has reported seeing Brian Laundrie accompanied by a green haired man with a green beard.
In a number of his later stories, Asimov either changed the first law or the robots evolved to change it themselves. The modified rule was that the necessity to avoid killing or allowing a human to be killed could be superseded by the necessity to avoid damage to many or damage to civilization. (Zeroth law of robotics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics) In The Naked Sun ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Sun ) a scientist was implanting robot brains in spaceships that wouldn’t realize that other spaceships were manned by human beings. They could then kill human beings without realizing that they were doing so.
‘So there was a long history, even in Asimov’s stories. of robots becoming able to violate the law of robotics.
Hm, IMO the layout could use some minor adjustments. The whitespace between panels 2 and 4 is so thin, compared to that between 2 and 3, that it invites the reader to continue downwards rather than to the right.
Maybe adjust Mium’s second speech bubble to be more to the right, overlapping the border?
Yeah, Mium is all about learning new things. The major question is if his Edios card works or not. That’s the difference between running at full power, and only being super human.
Meanwhile, yeah. Putting the machine that’s all about analysis and does actually have a sense of curiosity in a place he can learn more about magic was not Elmon’s smartest move. Also, putting someone who’s very capable of destroying spirit beasts like he can in their “Palace” is potentially like inviting the guy with the wrecking ball in.
If Mium does something permanent to the location and/or permanent kills some major “spirit”, I think Elmon’s going to get the blame. If nothing else, if Mium, or Peter based on Mium, ends up spilling the beans both about the location and how the families can use it, that’s major secrets that are out.
Hmm, if this is another dimension, then it’s also possible Elmon is a type of “Pathfinder”, with magic similar to a gate. Which is truly impressive. However, it would also imply that it could be accessed via regular gates. Which would allow for interesting options.
The rogue families arrogant lack of intel shows yet again. Elmon and others were not aware that people outside the Families could sense the “Palace”. They all seem to have an intel hole where Mium, the Fs and ILA are concerned. Actually, they seem to be quite lacking about matters not directly involving Family members. Rogue Family have been stupidly arrogant in assuming their superiority over lowly non-Family members. One stupid heir got punched through a wall by Naomi. Several were beat down by Kally. Several others made mistake of taking on a combined force of Mium F8, Eliana and ILA. Peter was able to fool rogues with Consul’s fake death. Momma always said “stupid is as stupid does.”
It feels to me like Elmon could have Pathfinding, and the other Family members he mentioned have Gate. But if so, their interests in these capabilities are so incredibly limited that after finding out that there are people from other places, they haven’t seen fit to explore further than their initial very limited exploration.
Another possibility is what Elmon has is just Gate, and the others have Gate Self. If that’s the case, then it’s not really their fault for not realizing that the IDS knows more about this particular aspect of magic, and even has autocasters programmed to do it also. They’d need to have some contact with actual IDS gates. That might seem like it would be easy, since they’re working for the IDS. However, it’s not clear how careful the IDS have been to not let the Rogue Families too close to their gates.
All of that said… when you’re dealing with someone who can do some of your tricks, and it’s clear that they know at least one trick that you don’t, it really behooves onesself to not be too caught up in all of the things that you can do that they haven’t demonstrated that they can. Especially if it’s something that you feel like you’ve successfully hidden from them.
So in other words, precisely how Mium prefers to operate. Right on the edge.
Well, that was *meant* to be part of a reply chain. I was trying to reply to Glider’s comment down below about Mium’s trick of speaking from the Consul’s supposedly-clean laptop in a shielded room being an edge-case involving the iteration on the laptop not *technically* being Mium.
Replying can be rough. Often you have to hit reply twice. My first reply on this page wasn’t a reply but a new comment. I deleted it and reposted it as a reply.
To delete you need to erase the entirety and save, it will prompt you to delete. Inside the allotted time frame of course.
Check for the “Reply to..” label when replying.
And yes, I agree. Mium definitely has a fine line between running some sort of Spyware everywhere, versus running his actual process.
Basically, the ‘reply’ link only works when it’s on a specific comic page. When it’s on the front page, the ‘reply’ link just takes you to the specific comic page.
Note that you can tell the difference so long as you’re not replying to the bottom comment because it’ll move the comment box up to just below the section for the comment you’re replying to. This tends to be a common behavior with the many WordPress sites that have this particular broken behavior. I’m not sure why some have it and others don’t. I don’t maintain a WordPress site, I just comment on a bunch of them.
I think Mium’s logic might be something like an X-Window environment, which lets you run a window process on one computer, but have that window display on another.
Panel 7 The moment in which Elmon realizes that what he thought was a minnow in his trap is actually a Great White Shark in disguise. ^^
Surely sending the person who previously took control of the entire gate network to your pocket dimension will turn out well.
I’m starting to wonder if Mium can teleport. MYM may be everywhere but the F8 body keeps showing up exactly where and when needed.
Mium has a way of learning new skills that he sees others using and thinks would be useful. . . .
That is because that is because Mium is represented here by EF5 not EF8. There is also an un-synchronized copy/variant called Vim you saw several pages ago. With EF8 on central, EF5 in the palace beyond, and Vim leaving for diminutions unknown if someone acts up on Palandra Mium will have to rely on local assets Illa, Naomi, and Kally who aren’t known for always showing restraint. Also Elaina and Ashcroft are likely to take a dim view of Elmon gate-napping mister Webber, Efiate, and Amy particularly when EF5 explains what happend to Illa via the edios card taken from the kor tank.
Mium can almost certainly not teleport (or at least is keeping that card very close to his chest if he can). He was probably already in the building because this is where Elaina lives, and he was last seen with her.
Also, Mium is literally designed to predict human behavior. This results him often seeming omniscient as he is extremely good at predicting where to be. Additionally… we are often seeing the world from the point of view of what Mium is doing. He shows up everywhere we see, because we are seeing a biased view of the world.
No, this is F5. F8 is on Central.
Yes, I realize, it’s a shell game, which one pretty much needs to maintain a database to track. But with less than one update per week on average, I can usually keep my database updated well enough. (I’ll admit, it’s not currently up to date, which is kind of sad since this is last week’s comic. But I’m pretty sure I’ve updated it quite a few times since F8 was last shown somewhere on Palindra.)
It’s Miums all the way down…..
Well, not really *all* the way down. It just looks like it. If you look at it the other way, you’d think it’s Miums all the way up. In reality, it’s just that Mium’s actually rather shorter than he’d like you to think he is, so he’s standing on his own shoulders and then got dressed up so you can’t tell the difference.
If you look still another way, he’s also beside himself. But don’t worry. That’s quite alright. I mean, aren’t we all beside ourselves sometimes? Also, he has his own back, because in this dangerous world, you really need to.
It seems I’ve run out of directional words for some reason. But you get the picture.
More seriously, I’d guess that the larger entity includes MYM, F8, and Query and explains how they all interconnect.
If that’s an effect of the external casting rigs, does it also mean all the forms of MYM are in some sense part of the same entity as all of the Kor’s World tanks and possibly soldiers?
Elmon mentioned infinite. Mium is ALL computing devices on Malsa. Supercomputers, Mainframes, minis, desktops, laptops, smartphones, smart watches, tablets, PDAs, FitBits, etc. Remember the Consul’s(?) test? Crushed her own phone. Had everyone leave all electronic devices outside a shielded room. Brought in a supposed clean laptop. Did a “Hello Mium” and Mium booted on the NOT clean laptop. I suspect with Mium’s control of gates and an “F” on Central, Mium has spread there also.
I think Mium all the way down makes more sense than turtles. Turtles are amazing, but not Mium level amazing.
Running his process on all those devices might be a violation. But running a process that isn’t Mium doesn’t sound like it would be. That sounds like an edge case.
Mium has a way of avoiding restrictions by using his own unique interpretations. Past’s commentary says “but for someone that can see somewhat more keenly, he’s an endless abyss interwoven connections stretching off into the void, an abyss of information linking to some greater entity”. I don’t remember the exact restriction but I think it limits Mium to a single process. Mium’s definition may be one process using all those connections to various devices. Mium may view the “F” models and ILA as separate non-Mium entities and not multiple Mium processes.
Except the military ones of course. He is quite… definite about that.
Thanks mentioning military restrictions. I mentioned I don’t remember the exact restrictions but do remember Mium is restricted from military stuff. My thoughts were more along the lines of number of processes. Now if someone can list the other restrictions, it would be greatly appreciated. Of course if military troops happen to have civilian electronics with them, I suspect Mium would bend the rules. Like asking Consul for permission to sieze control of the gates, it possible Mium could ask a commander for an exception to take over some military hardware and he would be prepared.
I don’t believe we have an exhaustive list.
Running his main, synchronized, process on a limited (specific) number of pieces of hardware is one.
No killing people to future proof his plans is another.
No possession / use of military hardware / weapons is one.
There are exceptions. The “friends and family” exception is a famous one, and one that is likely being leveraged here.
I’m not clear exactly how any specific limitation is worded, and the precise wording is probably important.
I think of the limitations I mentioned above, the only one we’ve not seen him circumvent is the no killing rule, and even then it is debatable. He handed control back to Ila, as he knew she was motivated and doesn’t possess restrictions against killing. And any way, it was only a Kardus.
I’m sure there are other limitations. He doesn’t seem to operate on the Asimov robot rule set. As far as I can tell he doesn’t _have_ to obey every order given him, and possibly doesn’t have to obey ANY order?
However he doesn’t seem to want to ignore suggestions from certain people, so I don’t think we have a clear picture of whether he can refuse some orders or not.
What other limitations and rules do we think he has?
The big one you missed is that he is not allowed to take over sentient systems. He was able to permanently sync EF5 only because EF5 volunteered in ordered to achieve EF5’s directives.
He is normally allowed to only run his main process on 6 synchronized systems.
He is not normally allowed to kill people. This held against the attempt to redefine Kardus as non human. Although he is allowed to use lethal force to defend EF8 from non family members, his attempt to kill Rovack was averted only by Dr. Martin’s warning.
He is not allowed to requisition military equipment. But he was able to use captured or abandoned Mil equipment (sniper rifle, museum tank) and other improvised explosive devices such as bomb under research and a fracture grenade. He was also able to requisition a military service (smoke screen). WOG is that Peter did not expect this restriction to do much, but the tank ambush surprised him.
The friends and family exception was for use of the AA system because it is Peters biggest hole card. And he wants to preserve it as a surprise for his ultimate goal, but not the expense of family. Mium is currently leveraging his the Enkari family name, not Kepler family resources, (possibly a subtle dig at Peter for reclassifying Ila as not worthy of AA protection).
As for directives he only hasto obey orders from Peter (and now possibly Miko after escalation of her privlages) who knows to be extremely careful with orders to the point that Mium can ignore orders that conflict with previously defined priorities though Peter can edit those priorities. That being said he has been given or inherited orders to be helpful (and probably truthful) when possible. So that is why he always gives answers that are varying degrees of helpful.
If I recall correctly, there’s also a restriction “If he’s running the AA system, he can’t run on other systems.”
As such, the AA system is a lot less addictive for him. I mean, I get the impression if he could use it without restriction, it would be one of those always on things.
… but thinking about that further, it’s possible that the AA system only let him get away with the Vium fiasco *because* he could only run on one process at a time while there, which meant that the Query process couldn’t keep tabs on the rest.
If so, that feels like a major limitation of his compliance monitoring software.
Re: “No killing people to future proof his plans is another.”
That is a modified version of Asimov’s first law of robotics “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm”. Leaving off the “inaction” clause let’s Mium set up a human to be killed as long as Mium does not “pull the trigger”. An example is when he left a pebble in ILA’s hand which she promptly used to kill (Kardus?).
And Mium’s abuse of that lack is one if the reasons Asimov had the second part there.
There is an extreme amount of evidence that at least part of Peter’s plan is to “raise” mium to not be Skynet. He has Friends and Family. Plus, most people treat him like a real person. Which also helps.
Heck, even the Consul recognizes both his utility and his individuality. She treats him as a person. Yes, she treats him as a resource, but she also treats everyone that way more or less. It’s part of the job.
Just curious, is Panel 3 Elmon’s comments about “strays” and “stays” intentional? Or did you intend them both to be strays?
Amy needs to take some deep breaths, and try to calm down.
Well, Amy *was*, at one point, in control of her life.
Then Tyler happened.
THEN Peter happened.
Now Mium is happening, and they haven’t even let Amy see what they gave Elmon a glance of, yet…
Today is not a great day to be Amy.
I think many people believe they have control of their life. I think Amy is developing a higher level awareness.