Comic for Thursday, June 22nd

Jun22

by PastUtopia on June 22, 2017 at 9:56 pm

Chapter: Chapter 9

Location: Far Side of Utopia

Hmmm. Have we ever seen Mium say “I like” before?

And yes, I suspect Peter is referring to her dragon construct.

Wow, that was short ramble. But I’m tired.

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Discussion (17) ¬

Myself

July 22, 2017, 7:41 pm | # | Reply

“But I saw him using manipulating mana!” Should be using *and* manipulating mana, I think? Or, maybe using — manipulating mana!

Although, this could be an indication of just how flustered “miss Winters” really is. If Kally is that taken aback, this is probably a *truly* serious danger, and one that would be ridiculously hard to contain.
Sandman366

June 23, 2017, 10:28 pm | # | Reply

Kally: “You have an AI using mana just walking around like a student!”
Peter: “You use tactical-class magic as an umbrella.”

Wonderful. (I especially love the panel with them just staring at her at the statement of “That’s dangerous!”. I’m not sure if they’re going “And…?” or “So…?” or “What did you expect?” or what, but whatever it is, it’s awesome.)

(And…yeah, I don’t immediately recall Mium ever really….”liking”, anything. (Almost never even seems like he has much by way of preference…))
- Amaranth
  
  June 24, 2017, 1:09 am | # | Reply
  
  My read on the “staring at her” panel is Peter is saying “And…?” and Miko is saying “What do you mean dangerous? He’s a stupid server stealing chatbot with some redeeming qualities like making me invincible and being my best friend. Stupid witch. Your face is dangerous”.
  
  I may have gotten a little carried away on my Miko imitation there though.
  - Sandman366
    
    June 24, 2017, 11:53 pm | # | Reply
    
    I think that’s only carried away if you get called out on it. Until then, it seems about the right length, if perhaps not verbose enough.
Segev

June 23, 2017, 2:53 pm | # | Reply

I like how her reaction to “Mium is an AI puppetting a robot that used magic” is, “That’s incredibly dangerous!” rather than “That’s impossible!”

Also, I suspect that this wasn’t designed to get rid of Kally. I’m not 100% convinced it will WORK, either; she can always resign and stay as a student. And everybody would know that this is only a hand-wave and that her loyalties remain IDS.

Of course, the cut off from official support might force her to work with Peter more closely again, which COULD be Peter’s Xanatos Gambit plan B. Either she is forced to leave (getting her out of his hair and out of danger), or she’s forced into a position where he can bring her in on his side.
- EmperorArthur
  
  June 23, 2017, 6:52 pm | # | Reply
  
  Peter has explicitly requested (as one of his favors) that they don’t get rid of Kally.
  
  Everyone knows there are multiple factions inside the IDS. The fact that Kally was the one who came to Malsa’s aid when they were fighting IDS troops is proof enough of that. She doesn’t even need to resign, just say she’s on “paid vacation”. It’s one of those obvious political fictions that no one is going to challenge.
  
  When it comes to support, well Kally hasn’t really gotten much in terms of actual in person support from Arron’s people. Heck, her working with Peter isn’t a bad thing. Arron is primarily interested in figuring out what he’s doing, and keeping family safe. Something that Kally being close to Peter makes easier. Besides, I get the feeling this isn’t the first wild and crazy adventure for those two.
  - Amaranth
    
    June 24, 2017, 1:02 am | # | Reply
    
    I think Peter is trying to keep a balancing act with Kally. He does not want her too close that she could be seen to be working with him, but she also represents the stick he is most familiar with hitting things with. If he needs be brawn, he wants her in a spot where he can leverage her into smashing things for him. Even Naomi had trouble against the Kor’s World solider for example, while Kally would probably mow through actually enemies (where she does not have to hold back) like wheat chaff.
    
    Least that’s my theory for why he’s keeping her at the arm and half length, but also clearly not entirely trying to get her moved away from him. He probably figures that he is in little actually danger from her, even if she will glower and occasionally yell at him.
Amaranth

June 23, 2017, 1:50 am | # | Reply

Really hard to tell where Peter is going with the last line there. I do not imagine Kally is going to let him off the hook that easily.

Interesting seeing Miko in the flashback. It looks like she might be in a wheelchair? Or hospital bed? I may be reading too much into that. Also she sort of looks like a Miko (color schemewise). Coincidence?
- FencingGreyhound
  
  June 26, 2017, 5:29 am | # | Reply
  
  Remember that miko is really taki? In one of the strips with Peters’s uncle it is revealed that taki had an implant the was broken and the implant is shown fixed when mium saves miko from the teleporter.
Delta-v

June 22, 2017, 11:33 pm | # | Reply

It shouldn’t be too much longer before Kally realizes that Ila is “special” too. That should be interesting. ^^
- Just_IDD
  
  June 23, 2017, 4:12 am | # | Reply
  
  I can’t wait till she figures out that Ila is Mium too. This has to be the most elaborate way of getting rid of Kali though. I wonder if she try to trump with being a student at Leavenworth. Although I have pondered if your choice of that name has some interaction with the story, or if you were going for some other like a vaguely British sounding boarding school.
  - Delta-v
    
    June 23, 2017, 5:05 am | # | Reply
    
    Of the AIs we’ve met, M.Y.M. is integrated with Query, F8, and F5. Ila is of a different architecture, and is incompatible. It gets confusing from time to time. 🙂
    - Segev
      
      June 23, 2017, 2:50 pm | # | Reply
      
      That’s right. F5 was the one that developed its own personality, just barely enough to have free will, and wanted to be integrated with M.Y.M. to save somebody.
      
      What one might hope is that F5 is not just a puppet, but still has his own awareness, but he may have been committing a noble act of suicide. F8, as far as I know, is just a puppet for M.Y.M. Which…I think is an evolved Query, or Query N.0? Not sure.
      
      I may have F5 and F8 backwards, too.
    - EnderDDT
      
      June 23, 2017, 4:44 pm | # | Reply
      
      I’m pretty sure it is less “incompatible architecture” so much as “oooh, sister!” that is the reason why Ila is not integrated with MYM. Peter seemed “all go” to pick up a new updated chasis, but then Naomi pulled her “veto” right on the whole thing and tripped MYM’s “friends and family” clause (by calling Ila his sister) which forced MYM to get her out. Peter seemed resigned to the whole thing, but MYM decided to delete the server files on the entire “F” series to prevent him from having more siblings to care for.
      - Amaranth
        
        June 23, 2017, 5:41 pm | # | Reply
        
        It is one of the interesting not entirely explained things. My assumption has been that friends and family exception was never intended to tie into Mium’s friends and family as he did not have any (being a computer process) – rather, it was intended to refer to Peter’s friends and family as he seems fairly protective of people he actually likes, but by designating Ila as Mium’s “sister”, suddenly could access more of his processing power (and the A.A. System) to go retrieve her.
        
        Prior to that, I don’t think the thought of other F series being his siblings had never really occurred to Mium, so he did not really care that Mir could make new ones. Once he learned that concept, he decided that letting Avon irresponsibly make new ones would be a hassle for him.
        
        I have to say at this point I am still pretty curious about the relationship between Ila and Mium. Mium seems to have filed her into a position pretty similar to Miko. Something like “priority one, take care of this slightly foolish thing”, “priority two, when possible, make fun of this slightly foolish thing”, “priority three, occasionally be nice to this slightly foolish thing”.
        
        xpacetrue
        
        June 23, 2017, 6:47 pm | # | Reply
        
        Quote, “…Something like ‘priority one, take care of this slightly foolish thing’, ‘priority two, when possible, make fun of this slightly foolish thing’, ‘priority three, occasionally be nice to this slightly foolish thing’…”
        
        That pretty much describes a sibling relationship, does it not? Though, perhaps with more teasing and/or disdain? Kind of like a love/hate thing?
        
        Miko, anyway, seems to have the love/hate thing down pat with Mium. She seems to genuinely like and show concern for Mium. But, at the same time, she’s often irritated at him – like how she still hasn’t forgiven him for not returning her server. 😀
        
        ila, too, has some of that. But it’s more of an extreme competitiveness for her. Then again, it fits that a sibling feels compelled to rivalry, right?
      - EmperorArthur
        
        June 23, 2017, 6:42 pm | # | Reply
        
        It’s explicitly noted that Ila doesn’t think like an AI would. Mium is both introspective (knows why/how it thinks) and is logical. Ila is neither of those things.
        
        It’s actually really interesting because they’re both successes and failures depending on what the goal is. If the goal is to create an artificial person Ila is what you’re after. If the goal is to create something else* then you want Mium.
        
        * See here: http://pastutopia.com/?comic=comic-for-monday-april-24th