Comic for Thursday, July 19th, 2018
Jul20
So… just for booking keeping sake, I should probably make two notes. Yoav is his first name; his name is Yoav Cao; I only note that as its been so long since we’ve seen him that art development may make him impossible to recognize. While we are on the note of names, I suppose I will note that MYM does have a peculiar habit of calling people things that are not their names sometimes, though it crops up only here and there.
I will also note that Tyler did tell Peter they had hired Tamara, as Miko or Mium made them promise not to arrest her when they were mopping up after the whole Avon building business.
Will be a short commentary because I am late and people are probably impatient, so… upload!
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So, did the consul just add another server to MYM’s processing cap, and does she KNOW she just did that? 🙂
I don’t think it is that easy. Using a machine to communicate with someone, and tapping it for its resources are likely to very different things.
The Consul does not have the authorization to increase MYM’s cap. He may move some processing here or use it as a terminal. He’s not allowed to just add processing here.
“I knew you were going to ask for this, so I cheated ahead of time instead of cheating right there on the spot.”
Mium manages to lawyer rules into being the funniest on the page, again.
Regarding the wiki, I feel bad. I had planned on contributing more to it, but most things have already been covered already. I do not see anything on the new questions and requests pages yet, but I will check back this weekend.
Otherwise maybe I will update more info on the characters and organizations. It looks like that list is pretty complete now, but a lot of them are sparse.
There are currently 71 pages on Special: Wanted Pages. 9 of those 71 are pages I’ve committed to producing if nobody else gets to them first.
Most of the characters which have been listed on the main page have only a very short listing there, and do not have their own pages. It does feel to me like most of the information we’d want on the wiki is currently buried in images.
I’m not saying this is something that has to be done, but if you’re looking for stuff to do, it’s stuff that could be done.
I populated all the character pages that did not have images with images. This seems like the sort of thing that would be helpful to new readers actually trying to use it. I guess the question is what to do with all the characters on the main page – it seems somewhat impractical to create a wiki page for literally every character. Maybe we should make a “supporting characters page” and just put a heading for each of them with their image? Not sure.
Hah! MYM is showing off on multiple levels.
First, the obvious one. He arranged all of this with a few well placed hacks. What else could he (or did he) do?
Second, this means he showed off access to the information on the meeting, the ability to monitor it, independent thinking and a willingness to act.
Third, “I have been asked to assist you with minor requests” shows off that all of this was minor to him.
I agree. I think the predictive abilities are as potent as anything else.
That’s not just raw number crunching, that is an amazing ability to model the real world and predict probabilities accurately. Mium is probably the only one with any real clue what direction the climate is headed in, why, and how to change it!
And yup, the “minor requests” just seals the deal!
Nice to know that M.Y.M can be defeated by a dymo label machine.
(An eager to please young intern receives a confidential message directing them to “search for a misidentified information unit, and correct the error” The intern is given “one time use passwords”, and security patrol schedules, and is told that this is a “training exercise” not only to determine said intern’s ability to perform the task but also to “maintain operational secrecy even if interrogated by superior officers”. The message hints that successfully fulfilling those objectives will result in “a favorable performance review.” After the intern is given a date to perform the task, the message scrambles itself leaving only the security codes and the patrol information.)
You were saying?
Sure, the dymo label idea is not fool proof but he’d have to know the dymo labels had been applied to engage in that subterfuge. It would significantly lower M.Y.M’s success rate.
@TMLutas: That’s just it, he does know. He’s already hacked every system in Malsa (and Arpon–probably most of Palindra)–including the security systems. He can hear through every microphone, see through every camera lens, intercept every communication–and decipher most of them (he’s working on the rest). He can re-purpose otherwise limited devices, hack implants, and control systems remotely. That’s why Arpon is so thoroughly screwed–and doesn’t know it.
Just to keep you up at night, almost everything I’ve just outlined is, to some degree, possible for hackers in our here-and-now.
Sweet dreams. ^^
You’ve nicely described Mium’s scope. It’s not just that he is a highly evolved SMAI, he is a distributed SMAI. It is an awesome concept.
Lets give people a touch of piece of mind back: Hackers can’t do all that M.Y.M. does simply because they don’t have the time to work it out or implement it. Two things that because of AI thought speed increase MYM doesn’t deal with.
Who needs a criminal when our own governments routinly do this to the citizens. In Britain the ccd camera network is such that they can follow individuals traveling across town. In the US facial recognition lets them identify everyone walking into or out of any large venue. Multiple countries monitor all transcontinental communication. These are just the things that have been leaked. For every one of these sad ideas exposed, there are probably 5 more waiting in the wings. This is just the clandestine government stuff. It’s not even going into semi public data sources — marketing data, employment information, life event records, licensing, mail, or credit.
In fact spammers are now routinely spoofing phone data sent to phone companies so their systems report the wrong information number to the endusers. That isn’t even difficult as its just abusing a loophole in the callerid protocol which isn’t illegal to do.
I think it is interesting to note. Yes, Mium actually cannot hack the most basic of things. He has a clear weakness. But like we see here, he does not have to hack the label, he can just hack the database that people use to store what means what.
You can Mium-proof your system if you are willing to go back to the stone age and carve it in tablets (though he may or may not have chisels ready…).
Mium occasionally seems sort of omnipotent, but he really is more of a symptom of a culture that depends on technology they do not understand that well (something of a reflection of our culture). Mium can navigate Central technology because he likely originates inside their firewall given the level of access Peter had previously. He can navigate Palindra technology because they just are not on his level.
Of course, he can also literally just walk in the front door with a pile of bullshit authority and relabel the machine if he really wants. Presumably the PACT facility we saw him and Naomi trashing decided they were safe by not being connected to the network, but Mium is a computer with legs attached, and not so easily thwarted.
That is my hot take anyway.
Porpita is apparently a teal colored jellyfish. It’s apparently called a “Blue Button Jellyfish” but looking at pictures via Google, it looks pretty teal.
Best I can surmise, this is something of a Mium-insult, likely to her apparent tendency to work with whoever is convenient at the time, but this is just speculation. We have seen his nicknames target personality flaws (as he sees them) before, such as calling Kally “Miss Winters”.
Not sure if there is another connection I am missing, or if I this has gone over my head entirely (I just Googled it and that is what came up).
It may just be a comment on her hair. Mium is known to be snarky on many levels.
That is true, I forgot that her hair is dyed, something her new employers almost certainly do not know.
Avon might not have known it was real. But if there intelligence agency of Malsa doesn’t know this, then the law regarding the requiring odd colored hair for designer children is pointless.
I believe at this point the intelligence agency of Malsa is defaulting to being PETER.
But also even the intelligence agency of Malsa doens’t know what it knows, because also Peter 🙂
This is almost like the short guy from Princess Bride… “I knew you’d know I’d do ______, so I did _________.”
I think that is the dangerous thing about Mium. It is like playing your computer chess. He really does just consider all the fronts. It was his job as Query to analyze humans, and with MYM he has plugged that power into massive computational backing.
He is essentially always crazy prepared, because he can run the scenario hundreds of times and prepare for all the outcomes he deems probably. You have to be really insane (Rovak), really impulsive (Naomi), or get outside of his scope of focus to have any real chance of surprising him.
this is an amazing comic page. I didn’t detect any misspelling in any of the panels.
Uh-oh, better through in some errors or people will realize I’ve hired a ghost-writer… (nah, guess I just got lucky this time, haha! :D)
That would be “throw” in some errors.
It’s sort of like a digital signature so you know its me and not my PR agent make the post.
Perfect!
Well worth the wait. I love the Consul.
She seems to have made surprising popularity gains so far (the Consul). Appreciate the patience! 😉