Comic for Thursday, February 1st, 2018
Sorry, going to be level here was a bit of trouble getting this out. Was a little behind on drawing as it’s been pretty hard to concentrate on drawing with the stupid tooth problem. It doesn’t actually hurt that much, but it’s like… really distracting when you are trying to do something that is not highly engaging. Normally when I draw I sort of just zone out and listen to an audiobook but somehow that process is really derailed by vague consistent pain and headache (turns out an old filling cracked, and for some reason that hurts – I’m not really clear on why, that’s not even the tooth part of the tooth, but mouths are stupid apparently); fortunately I’m scheduled to have them apply a lot of drills to that tomorrow, which I imagine will be briefly be far less pleasant but ultimately solve the problem.
Meh! Don’t mean to spend the whole commentary whining, but it’s so hard when there is a box right there and you can just type “Wah wah wah wah!” right into 🙁
Some people guessed right, it was indeed Mium and Naomi; I think it’s perfectly fair that guess were mixed. While I can tell Peter and Mium apart the variance in them is probably more subtle than it should be 😛 and, for reasons that are now revealed, his dialogue lines were distinctly on Mium like. This will naturally invoke the question where Mium’s default personality comes from, but… I’ll leave that an open question (some of you can probably guess).
PS: I’m aware that Naomi’s comment on gamma is not strictly correct, but it refers to a common practice in video games of adjusting the gamma on games that are meant to be dark to light up the object detail 😉
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“Excuse me, just breaking your…’everything’. That won’t be a problem, will it?”
I’d pick something of their conversation to point out that I was laughing at it, but just reposting the entire page seems a waste of time. (Extra special laughs though for “adding Mir is counter-productive”, and “anything over 25% Miko standard typically gets threatening and/or shooty”.)
That said, that trend does seem to exist. People would rather something they don’t like to just go away, and the easiest thing for the guy to do that he could get away with was just send them on. (Looking back on the previous page, though, Naomi looks mildly surprised at Mium at first, then later looks like she’s feeling bad for the poor receptionist. Considering the way that went, I think I’d agree with her….)
You can feel doubly sorry for the receptionist when the real Nick Otte shows up.
People wish that annoying would go away, but if you press too far, into actually attacking language, people tend to want to fight back, or just dig in their heels. That is probably why too much Miko isn’t good, unless you have a gun pointed at them, or something.
I had not actually realized they were just casually destroying the place as they talked until I read this comment, lol!
One of the corners of logic that people often find counterintuitive is that “If (false statement) then (false statement)” is a true statement. Although in its pure form it’s common in idioms expressing skepticism: “If you have permission to do that, I have a flying pig to sell you.” -> “I’m certain you don’t have permission”. “If I’m 24 years old, my younger brother is 90.” is logically true if the speaker isn’t 24 years old.
You can get tricky if you know a statement is false and the person talking to you believes it’s true. “If my Special Agent credentials say I can blow a hole in the wall, they definitely let me clean up inconvenient witnesses.”
Note of caution for aspiring truth-twisters: This only applies to “If I am…”. A statement like “If I were…” starts a hypothetical, so the second part of the statement needs to be true under at least some circumstances.
Mium lies in his last speech-bubble, though. He might have justified it as a speculative inquiry, but his intention wasn’t pure.
Well, from what we’ve seen of Mium’s “creative interpretation” logic previously, he might be being “honest” in the last bubble, in the sense that, in order to make that statement, he had to convince himself (arguably, easy if you’re an AI) that it was true, so he wasn’t saying something he “believed” was false.
You picked a bad age to use for the older sibling. if they were born on February 29, they would count only their actual birth days and be a smart ass and say they are 24 instead of 96+.
I am not sure he did. Mium is not a human. He may have built an assosiation between “asking what a human thinks dying would be like” and “human becomes more helpful”. It might have been an actual speculative question rather than a rhetorical one, he just knows from data that asking that sort of question increases the cooperation of humans.
I can’t stop imagining Miko giving Ila lessons how “how to be maximally irritating in conversation” now… lol!
Mium is, as usual, gold. It makes sense that he would know Miko’s personality well enough to replicate it, considering he has effectively downloaded her brain at least once, and nine percent should be manageable given the amount of time he has spent around Peter. The touch about the Avon Customer Support calls is just genius, obviously he would have access to huge data banks of recorded support calls.
I also how we are going getting a better image of Naomi and Mium’s relationship. Naomi clearly understands what Mium is, but that is why she likes him, she just worries that Peter and Miko are bad influences, all the while Miko worries that Naomi is a bad influence. The funny part is they are both probably wrong as Mium is smart enough to run subtly different personalities around each of them.
As for his original personality I would guess that is from Query, as when he is not “acting” he decided more Query-like, with his main traits being curiosity, social analytics, and trolling (the last one being the odd one out, but a story I eager look forward to getting more details on).
Customer service calls… YE GADS! Satan’s lullaby music! Which he pumps out ad infinitum in the corridors of hell!!! Weep, and despair, for abandon all hope all ye who enter here!
“…noxious people sampled from Avon customer support calls…” *snerk*
Now >i?>THERE’S a rich mine of irritation. ^^
Well I think it is perfect that Naomi refers to whatever Mium does to let him see indoors while wearing sunglasses as “adjusting the gamma”, while Mium refers to it as “adjusting the light sensitivity”. I.e. Mium is annoyingly correct, while Naomi is saying what we’re all thinking – even though we all know its wrong.
Mium is learning not all annoying personalities are created equal? I love the idea of Mium seeking to reduce the time of social interactions WHILE seeking additional data! Hmmmm. I see a flaw in that plan.
As for your cracked filling hurting… well my understanding is that this means the nerve inside the tooth is now exposed to saliva & whatever else resides within your mouth-hole… which is something the nerve is not meant to be exposed to! Hope everything went well… and did the dentist (oral professional?) tell you have some ice cream to help numb the pain? Or have they finally worked out the conflict-of-interest in telling someone that? 🙂
There may be saliva reaching the nerve, which would be quite painful. But there’s also another aspect: fillings are made to fit incredibly precisely in the hole they’re in. It’s like they’re actually made using that hole as a mold. Oh, wait. 😉 Anyway, when they *crack*, even if it isn’t all the way through, and even if there isn’t nerve at the bottom of the hole they’re filling, that crap is a gap in an object that was perfectly filling a hole without that gap. With it, it’s trying to stretch something not designed to stretch at all. That generally is also known to be pretty excruciating. So cracked fillings are pretty bad business all around.
I have heard from one unfortunate person with whom I was once acquainted that cracked fillings hurt worse than if the filling just fell out. I do expect there is some variation between fillings, due to different materials being used, different particulars of the hole, and different amounts of sensitivity of the nerve and even the nervous systems involved. It’s a subject matter that I believe all of us who have fillings would prefer to have their knowledge of it be as theoretical as possible. My condolences to you on having some practical insight.
I had one fall out, as I recall (or at least mostly fall out – there was definitely some left behind). I only noticed when I drank water, but then, OW. Dull throbbing in my entire side of the mouth.
If cracked fillings hurt worse than that… well, ouch.
Counterproductive is actually one word.
Also, seemingly confirmed that Mium “cannot lie,” to at least some degree. Probably a result of a restriction from Query.
> Also, seemingly confirmed that Mium “cannot lie,” to at least some degree. Probably a result of a restriction from Query.
They fey are also said to be incapable of lying, and look at them. Heck, it was also a thing with the Aes Sedai from The Wheel of Time.
Keeping someone from telling outright lies just encourages them to twist the truth even more so. Mium is probably good. If only because he’s already shown an ability to bypass pretty much whatever order he wants to.
I’m gonna quote/paraphrase Gunnerkrigg Court here: “Coyote cannot lie. Therein lies the danger”.
panel 2: I know that for you, personality (add comma)
panel 9: Peter really will have no one to blame (will, not well)
Fixed, thanks 🙂