Comic for Monday, September 5th
Trying to keep track of how AI use the term ‘I’ will cause headaches. I cannot recommend it. Naomi frequently stumbles into this issue with Mium. It seems that whatever is talking to Mir has attained the capacity to be snide. An important stage in the evolution of any intelligence, right up there with introspection and adaption.
Poor Mium, the tallest thing for him to sit on the edge of was a car. This probably bums him. Assuming he can be ‘bummed out’. If he power isn’t ‘appear on top of objects’ (it’s not) I bet that’s what he secretly wishes for.
The text is blurry in the bottom left intentionally. Kally is mumbling. I’m sure she isn’t mumbling anything important (…it’s not, really).
An AM Spike a piece of IDS slang for a single use chemical injection device that delivers a cocktail of things that tend to cause a the subject to be re-conscious-ified from a great deal of things. They are sort of a dirty catch all, counter-acting a wide range of knockout drugs, shock, etc. Due to their drastically unspecific nature, they tend to have some negative side effects, though they don’t tend to manifest for a few hours and usually just entail feeling like shit, headaches, and vomiting. They are also extremely widely used by the IDS field operatives for the intended purpose and less intended purposes, as they make you alert in almost any condition. Long term side-effects are also present, but treatable with IDS medical technology. There have been pushes to use more specific field-drugs (like, say, a fast acting pill that was given to Tyler) but field operatives tend to prefer to the more foolproof catch all nature and have been resistant to adapting and phasing it out.
So the buffer hasn’t been growing, but I did do some stuff, we have two new chapter covers with more coming (I’m fond of the Chapter 1, mostly because it a version of one of the old ‘concept’ art pictures of the early days of The Far Side of Utopia; people that have read a long time will have seen other versions of that drawing – though Naomi’s addition is new because it inexplicable entertained me for her to point out the obvious here… ) 😉
A new logo (this largely comes from the Minus Years cover I did awhile ago, but I decided I should use it beyond that project, as we didn’t really have a logo previously – the palm tree/dog silhouette was the logo from my business and never comic specific):
And a new .gif that will likely be used in the few places an annoying animated ad is acceptable (yes… that is about three spots on earth…):
Even than, I can only handle somewhat subtle animation without feeling too bad. For the record, that drawing of Ila is intentionally somewhat older than she appears in the comic (it was original a Patreon art), but it made a neat .gif so I’m trying it out in a few spots. I have previously answered the question of if prototypes age as ‘yes, in a manner of speaking’ so that’s not exactly a spoiler 😉
I’ve also been updating the site. Please let me know if you have any issues.
The poll wrapped up, top four were:
- Naomi
- Tealy the Hacker Girl
- Ila
- Miko
Tealy was definitely the darkhorse underdog this round, considering that we don’t have her name, and she’s only been in a handful of pages. In the end Naomi won, but I think Tealy did pretty well considering that she was up against historical vote-powerhouses (Ila and Naomi were the previous top 2 I think). I did say I would take Naomi out of the next one to let someone else win, but since I ended up drawing most of the ones that got a vote last time, I thought it was fair to let her appear again. I will do a vote incentive for at least the top four here, but they will come over time.
The next series of vote incentives will probably be the run up to Halloween costume ones. Have an idea for what for a near The Far of Utopia character costume? Feel free to shoot it along. If we get enough suggestions I’ll maybe set up a vote for them. The ones I remember from last year were Jedi-Tyler, Fairy-Princess-Kally, Scarecrow Mium… a few others. Please note suggestions do not have to necessarily be Halloween themed, and I will put out an official ask for suggestions as we get closer to me actually, you know, drawing those.
Dear gods this was a long commentary.
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Hey, felt like I should mention that I couldn’t quickly find an TWC link on your site, and had to go to TWC directly. If you could change that, you might have a higher ranking, because unless someone was that dedicated, it’s unlikely that they’ll vote for you.
Don’t mean to be mean, just Saiyajin.
…It’s kinda sad to see your comic so low in the rankings.
I apologize. found it. Was hyped up on caffeine and missed it.
It is the top item next to the commentary, but it’s a custom avatar. You click the image below it and it goes to TWC. Maybe not intuitive, I guess I’ve gotten used to it though.
Yeah, I should probably have somehow incorporated the standard the TWC logo to make it a little easier. Hopefully I’ll have more vote incentives in the near future and the maybe the ranking will be better than 😉
Ruin your….? He’s turned the F5 into a “dead end project” into something useful. He’s improved it. You’re just too biased and stupid to see that.
Mium just sitting on top of the cab is hilarious, by the way. It might not be a skyscraper, and I can’t think of any logical reason for it, but that’s hilarious.
Doctor MIR definitely is not as logical as she would be expected to be as a scientist/engineer. Maybe she is a doctor in robotic philosophy.
I think she might have a Doctorate of Mad Science. They use more crazy and less logic.
hey! What are saying about Philosophy majors? We are the only ones that take logic in class! We hold a monopoly on logic! 😛
Though I guess robotic philosophy might be slightly different.
(Just joking around, I was a Philosophy major way back when. I know what you meant :P)
I don’t think Mir’s success criteria involves things other people made. She is a wee bit on the possessive side. Previously F5 was only useful to her as a specimen to study, but I suspect that just became a bit trickier 😉
” Oh. Right. I almost forgot who I was talking to, Doctor Em Eye Are. ”
I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s glad that MYM / Mium does not have the capacity for hate. But, it seems clear that he -does- have the capacity for humor. And, for that, us readers -are- grateful. ^_^
It does beg the question of how exactly he got a sense of a humor. The way it seems like it is being set up is that Ila was somehow made from the starting point of “human” (either figuratively or literally remains to be seen) but that Mium was not. This would be why, according to him here, he simply does not have hate or anger.
But why would someone add a sense of humor?
Your theory about Ila having a far more “human” starting point sounds very reasonable. But who says that someone engineered MYM to have a sense of humor? Why couldn’t this be something he learned, developed or evolved? (In regards to having a capacity for anger, he did stipulate “yet”…)
I mentioned on a previous page that someone in Babylon 5 (and probably in other works) said that humor is a sign of sapience. Having a sense of humor may not be a prerequisite of sapience, but it is most likely a very reliable indicator. And I would not be surprised if the evolution or artificial development sapience tends to give rise to at least a rudimentary sense of humor.
On the other hand, we know that Dr. Mir’s (deceased?) predecessor used to head Avon’s secret AI research and he was the one who created MYM/Mium and the rest of the F-series (prior to Ila). I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he -did- put a sense of humor in MYM or Mium. If he managed to pull that off, then he could boast to the board of execs and/or his peers about this as evidence that his AI are truly and unquestionably sapient.
Oh, and if Dr. Mir’s predecessor is -not- dead, having his creations make snarky comments at her expense sounds like something he would do.
I agree. Long ago MYM was referred to as specifically “Self Modifying Artificial Intelligence” I think. I’ve been trying to find it, but I haven’t so I might have just head canon-ed that. Likely anything that he’s not told to NOT do, he can develop on his own. I imagine there is a list of things that he either cannot do, or there are no “advantage” to developing (like hate).
I think humor really is just a in-depth understanding of context and language. A computer doesn’t typically have a sense of humor because it doesn’t reflect on what it is happening, it just executes the appropriate action. I don’t think Mium has pre-caned responses programmed in, but I think he actually processes and understands what is happening around him.
the kor’s world soldier said that about mium… it was around the building that got smashed
acctually i was wrong, it was one of aaron’s minions that called mium and the kor’ world ai s.m.a.i.
the kor’s world fighter said mium was a virus person.
I believe what you meant was “raises the question”.
Yeah, sorry. I won’t do that again. Just couldn’t resist.
Anywho, with F8 being capable of self repair, and presumably F5 as well, my current theory is that Ila, F10 is actually biological, but running a black box reformatted version of the MYM system. I mean, at the time of my posting, we know a biological system can run on the MYM system, but causes errors similar to that caused by MYM running on the F10 chassis. If F10 is just a human body using a black box AI, then of course it would have a key. Oh well. This will probably never be read.
Meoi Lass
heh that was almost as snarky a comment as one of peters. tho mium probly has a better or more complete view of mir than we have.
also now that kalisto is awake… THE RED DRAGON AWAKES RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!
Peter’s bad habits probably rub off on Mium.
This is a good turn of events. I’ve been waiting for Kally to get back involved for awhile. I have a feeling she will not be happy, but it really comes down to who she is not happy WITH. It seems obvious Mium left or planted the AM Spike to give her some sort clue. Hopefully he manages to talk to her before she starts attacking things.
The cut is also very interesting (I like that you can see the reflection of Ila in Mium’s eyes). I think we have foreshadowing here that Ila CAN be angry and hate things. This would be in line with her being more human.
It also looks like MYM has essentially absorbed Eff-Five, but seems like it was a two way street. This makes a lot of sense for an AI that doesn’t really have the same concept of identity as a human. This is probably also how he has been modifying his restraints (something brought up a long time ago by Miko).
” (I like that you can see the reflection of Ila in Mium’s eyes) ”
Even looking for it, I can’t really tell if that’s Ila or not. But we can assume that it is. Though, it is impressive to add that level of detail when many readers probably won’t even notice.
I mean, I drew it and too me it’s only sort of a vague suggestion of a reflection of Ila. 😉
I figured a handful of people would notice that there was a reflection on his eye since I rarely draw them, and most would extrapolate from there. I like details where missing them doesn’t mean a reader is missing any point of the story, but people that find them feel like they’ve found something.
I am unsure what MYM is doing concerning the F series chassis (as an aside English is a dick language as that is also the plural) he is currently running around in. Throughout the backstory are scenes where Peter and MYM reference that MYM is not actually F-8 (Naomi confuses MYM in one scene this way). Being human I think of Mium as a person rather than a mobile shell for an AI that can leave it at anytime. Seeing as people can’t have 2 physical forms at the same time I think of Kyle Effive (yes it should be Mium but this is confusing enough) as a separate person. I suspect I am wrong and MYM is taunting Dr. Frankenmir AND morosely contemplating his proximity to the ground on a car roof at the same time. Also with Jase doing the rescue I suspect Kyle will not be remaining at Avon although I wonder if Naomi will get a new friend or will MYM thoughtfully not trouble Peter and company with the knowledge there is two of him running amok.
So, if you have a theory on the blurred text head over to the Contact page where I’m trying to decode it. I have almost half of it. Put over there in case I can decode a “spoiler” from it.
g’luck.
Oh, wow, you’re killing me here! ^^
From Dr Frankenmir whining because M.Y.M. made the F5 a thousand times better than anything she could have done with it, to Mium’s obvious frustration for having to use an inferior perch, to all the off-screen mayhem being perpetrated by Ila, you have presented me with an absolute smorgasbord of pleasure.
To which I can only say, “Yes, to all of the above, and thank you”. 😀
Mium may have some point gained some directives from a security camera.
I like this page too. I wanted to see Rovak-Miko-Tyler, but I can wait if we are going to get Kally-Mium-Ila. Mium-Kally has excellent trolling and plot potential, Mium-Ila is where I see the most potential character growth, and the action potential could only be higher if you tossed Naomi in.
I wanted to see Rovak-Miko-Tyler too, they sort of stolen the show recently. They’ve sort of made a good trifecta, villain-antihero-hero.
We’ve had a lot of action pages recently, and I it seems like Kally, Ila, and Mium teamed up would be pretty one sided, and any set up where they don’t team up will be painful to watch one of them carrying the idiot ball.
I don’t think we’ve seen enough of Miko to put her in either a hero or antihero category. What has she done to deserve the title of “hero”? What has she done which puts her in the antihero category? As far as I know, she hasn’t tried to maim or kill any villains. Though, she seems to be furthering the goals of Peter and Mium. And I suppose all that hacking has involved breaking all sorts of laws.
Tyler does seem to be the hero here. That said, his loyalty is clearly with Malsa. And one nation’s ‘hero’ can easily be another nation’s ‘villain’. It’s a matter of perspective. Consider Joan of Arc, for example.
Anyway, I doubt a Kally, Ila, and Mium “teamup” would be as one-sided as one might imagine because they would never be able to cooperate or trust each other. Rather, it would be one of them carrying the idiot ball… which would probably be hilarious to see, actually.
Glad you’ve found it an interesting turn of events. I figure people were mostly expecting it to cut back to Tyler, but this way a good transition and I didn’t want to leave the Kally thread hanging forever 😉
Maybe not but you’ve got the “cliffhanger” trope down pat – three of them running simultaneously!