Comic for Monday, October 29th, 2018
Well, we have good news and bad news – the good news is that we have a comic, and for once its a full length one, as this was drawn when I had a nice 4 comic buffer and was thinking the world was smooth sailing. The less good news is that it looks like I will be traveling a lot this month, and travelling is the arch enemy of comic updates, as I can’t bring my actual drawing tablet with me.
We currently have a 2 comic buffer, so there’s no immediate danger of missed comics – that’ll cover my work travel next week as long as I stay on schedule, but unless I get a head again we might miss something near the end of the month, and we are woefully behind on Halloween stuff (after I asked you wonderful people for ideas). Will probably still have some sort of Halloween doodle for the actual day, but I’m aware that we could be doing better in the department 😉
This comic and the next comic will be full comics, but than it’ll be back to half comics while we try to get the buffer beefed up for the coming travels.
Like we saw with Ila, this isn’t really an artificial world, but more what Mium’s server makes for beings that expect to see and hear and things to prevent insanity and the dissolution of consciousness and what not that stems from breaking things down in what Mium would view a more logical thinking structure. How much that applies to the version of virtual interface, well, that’s something we’ll leave for another day, though I will say it is not the sensory rendering that requires the use of the A.A. System.
We’ve seen Miko’s avatar a few times, in a few different forms – usually we see the more chibified version, but that wouldn’t really help the current situation, it’s not really necessary to use an avatar, but there’s a reason that it’s being used here, and it has to do with Miko more than Mium.
I think we may have reached peak 1st Person/3rd Person confusion on Mium, but he’s a little complicated right now.
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And doing this reread, I just realized what Mium did: he remade the F5 interface as a more-realized separate entity. i.e., he made himself a brother out of the one he had to “eat.” The question to which I do not recall an answer is: can he upload this one into the F5 chassis?
Wow!
It’s a real bugger when you make a virtual interface that then decides it would like to continue existing independently. That’s one heck of a system driver! All to let Mium run around in the Eff Ten and save Ila’s bacon.
I’m guessing one of Mium’s restrictions is he isn’t allowed to make independent copies (faux-Mium clearly indicates creating faux-Mium intentionally would break one of Mium’s restrictions)… and from previous observations, he’s only allowed so many copies… which then suggests the AA system is required to maintain the extra copy and still meet his restrictions?? I.e. Mium can’t simply move faux-Mium to a suitable container (another server? or maybe another chassis?) because that would break one of his restrictions intentionally. Mium initially had to activate the AA system to handle the input data overload device that Kardus used: and now that faux-Mium has shifted onto it… he’s in a catch-22 over what to do (until he realises he can reclassify faux-Mium (error is [self]) as [not Mium]!?! Can’t delete [self], but [not-Mium] should be OK!).
Is it me, or is it Mium who speaks to Miko first (he does refer to it as “my server” not “Mium’s server”) and then faux-Mium speaks (referring to Mium several times: “Mium created”, “Mium to shut down”, “Mium knows”, etc).
Let’s hope faux-Mium is bound by the same restrictions as Mium… otherwise it’s potentially this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUAie-X3u8I but with magic & in the real world (“squee! that would be kind of cool! and terrifying! terrifyingly cool too!). Sorry: had to make the Agent Smith connection: really it the only similarity is the virtual nature of the two entities (faux-Mium & Agent Smith). Technically Mium is a virtual entity as well… but since he runs around in a chassis, he is ALSO a physical entity (with the advantage of being able to shift physical entity should his current chassis gets destroyed).
faux-Mium’s reply in the last panel had me slightly confused at first… but then I realised in the first bubble he’s answering Miko’s assertion that the conversation is weird, and in the 2nd bubble Miko’s observation that they are the same height. LOL. Well faux-Mium certainly seems more verbose than Mium. And more responsive then Mium (who typically only answers questions).
Looking forward to seeing how this plays out!
I fail to see the distinction between your clip and the situation you are proposing with every server becoming Mium.
Agent Smith can do magic, just as Neo can. The magic that they present in those movies is mostly limited to physical adept stuff, but with the explanation they give for their magic, that limit is entirely up to Agent Smith and Neo. Admittedly, we are talking about two individuals who are noted for their difficulties with grasping new concepts.
The worlds presented in the Matrix is the real world as nearly everyone knows it and the real world as a few rebels know it. It’s basically as real of a world as the one that Mium is in or the one we are. It’s all just a matter of perspective.
I strongly suspect that he can’t just re-classify faux-Mium as non-Mium. The real restriction would have been by action not name – that he’s unable to make other AI processes. It’s potential that he would be allowed the process, so long as it fit within his processor cap – except that this particular AI process has aspects that he’s flat out not allowed to have. I think having the AA system on let him ignore that restriction temporarily, as that was needed to protect his sister. But temporarily ends when the AA system shuts down.
Thinking about this, I’m guessing that Mium’s missing element to let him write to Eidos is that the restrictions which prevent him from going full SMAI-megalomaniac also prevent him from exploring what can be done with Eidos fully. In making Ila, Mir went a different direction to prevent machine takeover – a machine that thinks so unlike a machine, she doesn’t have any aptitude for talking to other machines apart from the communications APIs she was specifically created with to facilitate giving her directions in the field. This isn’t to say that Ila is not still incredibly dangerous, but it’s in the way that Kardus is… err, was dangerous.
Ila really is the successful prototype, but sort of proves why their experiment was flawed. By the time they make an AI so human it can use magic, the AI is too human to be useful as an AI. Or at least Mir misunderstood the nature of the experiment – likely Martin (and presumably Peter) knew that they could make an Ila-esque version, but that is not what they wanted.
The feeling I get is that Peter is planning on Mium developing further, and may even have anticipated something like this. While Arron views Mium as on the verge of the end of his life, Peter may be deliberately letting Mium overrun an AI’s boundaries to keep evolving it.
Peter seems to be hedging against losing programmatic control of Mium by getting Mium to view Naomi and Miko as his friends.
Ya’know, somehow I wondered if Mium on the F10 would have weirder consequences than just him running on the F10 and then popping back up to the rest of the Mium Cloud…..
…somehow I also doubt this is going to have the fastest, simplest resolution…..(they’re running this at faster than a 1:1 time ratio, right?)
(PS: Fewer updates for the next while would be sad. But it’s not as bad as you just disappearing!)
Well, as Mium noted with Ila, it’s unlikely that Miko’s clock speed is up to his specs, but I’d hazard a guess its not real time, as seen with last time Miko partially connected to the system and realized the time had drastically slowed down from that point of view.
“I am virtual interface Mium created”
should be,
“I am a virtual interface Mium created”
Fixed, thanks 🙂
Even in his digital world, Mium still perches on tall things…
And presumably would shoot something in the back, if there was something there to shoot 🙂
@edorfaus: looks like you were right – imitated could have been a foreshadowing.
@faux_Mium: that explanation is probably also why her avatar has bigger bumps on her chest than her local server.
I get the feeling Miko is somewhat insecure about her appearance normally, both from her avatar and her tendency to wear loose baggy clothing. It does bring some focus on her apparent dissatisfaction with her local server, and it might not just be its mental faculties.
Also her tendency to slouch. By slouching, a woman with large breasts in baggy clothing can hide her exuberantly abundant gifts to a surprising degree. But by the same token, someone without notable gifts of that particular sort can hide their lack with the same action.
I also notice on this point that Miko’s avatar is not slouching.
While it’s less good news that you won’t be able to update as often for awhile, it’s ok with this reader. Better to have a full schedule than to have too much idle time. Will patiently check your page and hope for updates.
The fun of banter between Mium and Miko aside, this seems like something that is going to have pretty big ramifications. Mium seems to have accidentally copied Ila, essentially, with all the human failings that she has (like wanting to exist).
While it is still tempered by Mium-rationality (he realizes he is probably trying to justify his own existence when justifying his own existence), this could have pretty major implications with how he interacts with things if he suddenly has a since of self-preservation.
In all previous interactions, it was pretty clear that as odd as his approach sometimes was, fundamentally all he cared about was completing his objectives in a ways that would make people he liked happy. If Mium develops an ego of his own, it could be a fairly large shift. I am not entirely sure though, as it frequently seems like Mium did have some degree of his own ego previous (as evidenced by the fact that he “liked” or did not “like” people previously, as well has his sense of humor).
I think the other elephant in the cyberspace is if this virtual interface has an Eidos key, which could explain why the A.A. System would be needed to maintain it (as it seems to be implied that the A.A. System is somehow used to artificially interact with humans).
All around, a very solid “and so the plot thickens” page, impressive, as the plot was already concrete levels of thick.
While most of your analysis seems to be spot on, this seems to less be a copy of Ila, and more like a cross between Ila and Mium. Parts seem more like Ila, but on the whole, it seems more like a younger Mium.
I have a slightly different take on this in that Mium indicated that this prototype interface driver was originally designed to facilitate communication with Milo and not Faux-Mium/Ila-Mium. This would address the height issue. Its not that Miko is Taller, but rather Ila-Mium was created At Miko’s height. Miko believes she is taller in this instance when in fact she is the same size and the other creation is smaller because there is no arbitrary third item of known scale because this is a virtual environment there is no way to actually tell that she is the same size or not.
Also because this is a virtual environment there is no way to have a reliable third or other object to use as a Define scale all you would still know is that these two are the same height and are different from the things around them. Because without some form of measurement everything is relative. For instance if you made a really tiny car then these people would be Giant but in fact there Heights haven’t changed by the creation of a small car. If you tried to play with scale on the car then that would be playing with scale on the car and not necessarily adjusting the scale of the other objects in the room. In a completely virtual environment only an object’s relative size Matters. It’s absolute size does not.
Panel 2: I should have probably seen that coming…
Fixed, thanks 🙂
“Local server” LOL. I love the way Mium references human physical hardware.
“Probably vanity” LOL. He’s still Mium alright.
A complicated turn of events…