Comic for Thursday, April 20th
This page went through a couple of iterations, which is part of the reason it’s on the later side. More iterations does not really mean better, it just means indecisiveness. The content was always the same, of course, but there were more or less three contenders; one, this one, one where Kyle’s muttering was replaced with a few thought bubbles of similar content, and one where I’d just removed most of it. Each had it’s pros and cons, but I don’t like adding new full point of view characters, and I prefer to keep Kyle as a semi-point of view character. I had never really planned on him or Peter being full point of view characters, but I figured since I broke that rule on Peter I could break it on Kyle, but then I flip flopped… you see!? Anyway… I think I’m okay with the result. Yeah, his got a lot of exposition-y muttering, but it more or less fits with his character anyway.
Ultimately I thought it would be too unclear what happened without some more exposition. I imagine even with that, it’s not super clear what Query (errr…. not Query, who’s Query?!) did.
Using magic without an autocaster is a lot more rare here. There is a reason that Kally is called the Red Dragon Witch. There’s also a good reason it would be… particularly surprising for someone in the Civil Service to use magic without an autocaster, though it’s mostly down to superstition about people that can use magic, as most people can use it without an autocaster to some extent with practice and understanding of the principles. Of course… it’s debatable if any magic without an autocaster was used here… it sort of… a matter of definition? Hmmm…
I think I will do a mini-Q&A over the weekend as I’ve gotten a handful of question recently. If you got one to add, shoot it along; if it’s like some of the less appropriate ones, prepare for it to be ignored (you would be amazed at what people ask…) otherwise I’ll include it.
Edit:
Q&A is up; pardon the long ramble, read at your risk:
http://pastutopia.com/?m=201704
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Q&A is up.
Missed your chance to ask a question? Ask in the comments there I’ll probably answer it there. 🙂
Unrelated note, there is also a new sketchbook entry (which is just what I call patreon art set to public).
Hopefully will get a new vote incentive this week as well, but we’ll see.
Do I even need say it? Yeah, comic’ll be up closer to end of day Monday 😐
I dunno, weekends are getting shorter. I thought I was going to be fine, than bam, sunday night. Page is about 3/4 done but probably can’t finish till after work tomorrow.
Well, in the likely event this guy is part of the grand conspiracy, they just f***ed up big time. It’s one thing to go after peter or Arron. They are already involved, and expecting something like that. Going after the rest of the Keplers is probably the fastest way to bring things crashing down.
Seriously, they just brought the Civil Service into all of this. You don’t keep a conspiracy hidden by ticking off every (other) government organization on two planets.
Which ever idiot is behind this has just made opposing them a PERSONAL issue for Arron and/or Peter. And we know how serious they take professional issues, so yeah bad plan.
I love the last panel
Following what I suspect is a part of Kyle’s line of reasoning here (one of several simultaneous lines of thought):
“It can hack an implant” -> it can have an effect on people’s minds? I mean, an SMAI is dangerous enough, but giving it a direct mental canal is much moreso.
“I had always thought […] with Taki… but this thing… that could…” -> Peter doesn’t want to render himself vulnerable to being hacked by Mium, thus he doesn’t want to have a direct implant – because if there’s one thing more dangerous than giving an SMAI direct brain access, it’s giving it direct brain access to the very brain controlling the SMAI, especially for an SMAI with as much creative liberty as Mium.
“What have you made…” -> his conclusion as to realizing how risky this all is (in terms of our current analysis of general AI, anyway).
Corollary: Much the same reasoning, presumably, holds for Naomi (in addition to her needing one less and presumably having a preference against them, given how she interacts with Mium regularly). In fact, she may even be (in part) Peter’s bodyguard against Mium as a contingency plan, in addition to being generally useful…
Hmm, a question. Alright, in light of Fantastic Beasts and J.K. Rowling telling us about Ilvermorny: do other magical schools (assuming they exist, even if they are not as good quality [?]) have as much chaos as this one, or is that mainly just Peter?
Everyone is so suspicious about these poor brain hacking SMAIs. Didn’t Mium say it earlier? AIs don’t go rogue. Perfectly safe. He said so. 😐
Question added to the list. 🙂
While Mium seems to have his own goals and his own will, he has to follow rules, such as his programmed directives and promises or instructions made by Peter. The thing is, we’ve seen examples of how Mium can slightly or even almost entirely twist the intent of a rule or instruction to get a desired result. He’s like a genie who can twist the intent of a wish, or a slimy lawyer who can twist the wording and intent of a law. But for (mostly) good reasons, of course. 😉 Though, in Mium’s defense, he probably does not understand Peter’s (or a human’s) intent or reasoning about half the time.
At the moment, the only question I’d really like answered (that may or may not be too spoilery) is whether Central is similar to the Earth we know to the point of having similar history, languages, etc, or whether it is very (or completely) different.
I’ll think on that, it’s a tricky question. Will include something about it leastwise.
I can see how it could be tricky if it may count as spoilers, depending on the reply or how it’s stated. I figured that if Central was completely different from Earth, then it likely would not be a spoiler to state as much. But if there are at least some striking similarities, perhaps you could confirm this much (“Central is not completely different from Earth”) and just leave it at that? Or not. Just a thought. But, I think the fact that you hesitate hints at the answer.
Though, perhaps this is one of those things which readers are better off waiting for in-story clues or confirmation? It could be fun to have more reasons to play Spot the Clue (like how we enjoy debating Taki’s identity).
Please stop trying to qualify your question to the point no answer can be made. You have asked the question let him answer.
I put an answer to the question in the Q&A; I just think he wanted to make sure it wasn’t too much of a spoiler question.
A Q/A! I have been waiting for a chance to ask a few questions (Though feel free to not answer any ones with spoilers (or that would just take way too long to answer (you know what, just pick one you like and I will be happy))).
Hmm first one – Magic space flight: Did at any point in Palindra’s history a nation get together a bunch of mages, put them in a sealed box, and have them cast accelerations on the box until they got into orbit? I am guessing there are quite a few more considerations than that but nonetheless, how has access to magic changed space flight? Weather satellites were mentioned and Peter mentioned having been to space so both worlds probably have some sort of space flight.
Second question – Larger spells: Most of the magic we have seen so far has been relatively quick to cast , which of course makes sense in a fight. However, what about magic outside of a fight? Are there spells that take minutes (or hours) instead of seconds to cast?
Third question – Spells persisting: Can spells persist without a mage actively sustaining them? Can they be given a store of energy to keep using?
Last question – Magical production: If I am not mistaken, it was mentioned somewhere that mages could (with difficulty) create physical matter with magic. What sort of effect does this have on the economy? (Especially with the use of auto-casters). Though I would guess most things would be very impractical to produce with magic, there are certainly materials where even a very small amount could be valuable. (Rare earth metals, carbon nanotubes, antimatter). Magic production of materials would likely be useful for labs too, as they could get samples of extremely high purity.
On today’s page: Vicksberg gets to be heroic, how unexpected! Also interesting information!
Nice page.
Questions added to the list.
Whatever mages supply their spells, it’s not energy.
“Are we in immediate danger? If so, please shoot it.” – Quite possibly the best reaction to getting shot at ever.
There’s so much partial and yet revealing information here it’s just nuts. Peter apparently didn’t fall too far from the tree (smarts-wise), though his sister almost seems like she’s from another tree. (I think I should feel bad for her, but Kyle there is spending too much time being impressive.)
Must find out about all of the things…
I’d use my time machine to skip ahead and find them out faster, but I left that in the timeline where I was smart enough to make one. :'(
Let us be fair, she was just shot at. Kyle’s reaction is very much how I would expect Peter to react, but that has more to do with being insane than smart. It is also possible she is the only Kepler we have seen without an implant of some sort, and these could dampen their emotional responses, if they can process their thoughts quicker or have more logical analysis available.
Panic?->Negative, Panicking Modeled and Found Unproductive->Investigate Situation->Mock Danger and Live Like a Crazy Bastard.
On second thought, maybe their implants are collectively malfunctioning…
I am still leaning toward Peter not having an implant though, purely because of Miko’s line “you are WAY easier to kill” to Peter, which, to me, implies that Miko is aware that she cannot really be killed as Mium will just take over, delete the dangerous shit, and then patch her back up. If the same does not hold true for Peter, it would because he does not have an implant Mium can hook into (he also does not seem to have the same utterly reckless disregard to danger, I mean, he has a reckless disregard to danger, but not a MIKO level utter ambivalence).
It is also worth nothing that this is likely different than what happened with Miko, as Kyle seems to have be somewhat impaired, but not like Miko was. Additionally, Query still got hit, so maybe could not just delete all the shots effortlessly like he did via Miko.
I suspect that his implant didnt allow mium to take over, but rather made use of his functional edios key and the minimal assistance needed to actualize the results.
Also possible that this is a difference of what was actually in that little shell. If it’s actually a full Mium and capable of watching like that, or if it’s more basic, or has just the framework and less on the upper capabilities….
Not enough information!
You know, the one think I’m getting from this page is that, the entire Kepler family seems to be able to think faster than thoughts can form. As though they can reach the next logical conclusion before their minds can finish forming the words.
An information-rich page indeed. So what did we learn?
Kyle DIDN’T know what Query really was, therefore he probably was not colluding with Peter.
It’s a 99.999% certainty that Taki = Miko.
Peter probably didn’t have anything to do with the chip in Take/Miko’s neck, but he seems to have brought her out of the coma the implantation caused. Which is probably why she views him more favorably than anyone else.
Kyle seems to have an implant of his own–not sure ab out Mari …. or Peter.
Peter managed to surprise/impress/worry Kyle. ^^
I think the implant being the reason behind the coma sort of fits with Mari’s sort of bitter line last page about “…weaponizing your kid is a Kepler tradition…”. Taki’s implant at least is speculated to be an implanted autocaster, which would definitely fall into “weaponizing”.
This also means that Miko has been partially ingrained with Mium a long time. Like, before he was Mium possibly… and looking back on that, it makes a lot more sense why she tends to be jealous of him talking to other people or starts to act panicky when he stops replying even for a few minutes. It is like her imaginary friend is cheating on her.
I am truly impressed by how each time we get new information it ties back into everything we have seen so far. I keep expecting the comic to run out of new twists (a plot can only twist so much, right? But no, somehow it just keeps building).
As for Taki = Miko, it is pretty much a wrap. Taki is probably short for Takiko (though it both are Japanese girl names, Takiko is more common) and both are thematically linked to Japanese miko (I sort of went down the rabbit hole on this one researching the theory before). A lot of the names are thematic either superficially, or once you start digging (Naomi being a superficial one; meaning “pleasant” Hebrew and “beautiful” in Japanese, and Kepler being brilliant scientist / astronomer… who also dabbled in metaphysics and the concept of mathematical objects, forms).
Panel 11 also… (You can call these typos, or incoherence, whichever you want.)
…some inquir(I)es for the manufacture(R)…
With grammar problems its like 50/50 if was intentional or not, spelling errors are pretty much never intentional, since spelling is the substance of the medium, not the content. That said, I totally blame the first one of those on spell check. Best I can tell inquires
Like… if I use grammar wrong it might be trying to make it read a certain way, but just misspelling words is just sort of an error in the textreading process for people that notice 🙂
Of course, as neither inquires or manufacture his spellcheck, technically I guess those are grammar problems and not spelling problems? idk!
Anyway… fixed, thanks 🙂
” That’s… That’s how you… Damnation, that’s how you got Taki awake. He fixed the implant. ”
” I had always thought his dislike for enhancements came from what happened with Taki… ”
Now that sounds like an interesting story.
It seems safe to assume that Peter instructed Query to protect his dad from any clear and present danger. And it sounds like Peter built Query with certain autocaster or magic technology, possibly of questionable origin and legality.
Further, we now know Peter went to certain lengths to help Taki. (Did Taki end up in a coma after being implanted with an experimental autocaster device? Perhaps the same device which allowed Mium to remotely alter reality and save her life?) Combined with the previous page’s statement on how “Taki has been missing for awhile now”, I think this may support the theory that Taki is currently in Malsa, possibly using a different name.
Query hacked Peter’s dad the same way Mium took over Miko when she was in danger.
Query was just acting as one of Mium’s terminals. He still can’t properly use magic on his own, but he can borrow a human to get it to work properly.
Taki is almost certainly Miko.
This new information actually ties in very well with the “Miko wakes up scene” here.
It is implied here that Query(MYM) has a huge influence on Miko, being able to turn on and off her ability to feel pain, as well as “…at least I can move and talk and stuff.” as well “replacing a few of [fleshy bits] made thing work better“. In context of the page, it could be that she could not do those after the sync because some of the fleshy bits being damaged, but in the context of this page, it could be in a more general sense.
It sounds like Taki (as yes, this point Miko is almost certainly Taki) is aware that Query pulled her out of a coma or the like. This could even be a reason that Miko is sort of small and scrawny if she spent a lot of time in a coma (though that might be unrelated). One of those things where pieces just keep tying together more and more.
Of course, maybe Taki is MIR and PastUtopia is screwing with us.
They have to save Query he is a part of the title therefore he is obviously the most important character.
On a more serious note, we now have a fairly good idea where one of the ac.comp.assist.impl. chips is maybe.
yay first time linking and it seems to work, took a while to find the place it was said how to do that.
“If any of my parts or components will help, I’ll gladly donate them!”
Nice reference. ^^
noo the me, i mean avatar me… wait multi-verse powers! yes ill transport chashed equipment from reality 679902!
Yeah, I don’t want to redraw the logo, so… 😐
Panel 2: WITCHCRAFT! MORE LIES! Panel 11: it might’ve explain a few things i suppose. it seems i owe him one after all. how.. fascinating. I had always thought he had his dislike for enhancements came from what happened to Taki.
Fixed (mostly), thanks! Truly, you are a life (grammar) saver my good man.
I didn’t fully fix panel 11 as I didn’t want him to be too coherent, but I think I got the major errors you noted.
you’re welcome my friend.