Comic for Thursday, September 28th
Sep29
…okay, sorry that was a little late. Unfortunately I didn’t get as many chances to work on it as I wanted, it and was a page that took awhile. The less said about that last panel the better. There was some degree of ‘fuck it, they’ll get it, it’s a bloody helicopter flying over things’ at work by the end 😛
Yeah, just lack of time and poor time management, mostly. Nothing bad going on or anything.
Well, I’m not sure Mium is quite up for best actor awards yet… just doesn’t emote his emotions enough, you know. Got to be more screaming and stuff. E for Effort though.
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Oh Mium!! Can’t resist a scheme of opportunity!!! Plans within plans!!!! Contingencies for contingencies!!!!!
I love the idea that you can’t look at an AI using any networked technology without the AI noticing… because looking at Mium with networked technology is probably the physical equivalent of looking at someone while shining a bright torch at them. Actually because networked technology is everywhere, and everyone almost certainly carries some… that would make NOT getting noticed nearly impossible.
“All these fleshy bits I need to live” oh, Mium. These last two panels, he has really cranked up the Mium-humor dial to eleven, and he is striking gold more often than not.
I had suspected Mium could do that, but Mium really is powerful in his own right. It seems like the only reason he let it chew on him was he realized someone was recording it. As soon as he was off camera, he shattered a red construct (or maybe even two) more or less instantly. I have for awhile suspected that Mium’s power compatible is sort of the rock-paper-scissors counter to Ethereal Constructs. If the IDS null caster could shatter Kally’s dragon, it was almost certain Mium could.
Miums magic potential is clearly unimaginably high compared to the human average. He just cant do anything constructive with it due his nature as an AI. But interference is not a constructive use. Ie no intuitive leap steps are required and mium can put the full force of his power behind it. I doubt there is a living mage who can overpower him.
I do not know if it is that clear. Mium can potentially serve as an incredibly powerful autocaster due his calculation capability dwarfing a human, but that is actually the part of magic he does not really use (as he lacks the “key” to actualize it). In terms of mana strength though, it is not obvious that Mium has an inherent advantage, or why he even has mana. That said, we know that he does, and fair amount of it. Additionally, we know that Ila is at least on the same tier there as Naomi/Kally/Tyler.
Note that computers/autocasters do not inherently have mana, they work off the users mana. My guess is that mana is somehow tied to the prototype, otherwise he would not really need to be physically present to do the nullification trick, he would be able to do it on anything he could “see”, which is more or less everything.
It was implied by Ila and perhaps by Kally that he actually nullifies things using less mana then a normal null-caster. This is potentially explained by the scene with Miko where it seems like rather than destroying the data of an Eidos Form, he floods it, causing it to error out and be erased (or something like that; this part is pure speculation based on how the Mium-vision part of the page was drawn).
Of which is to say, Mium may not be a brute force powerhouse just because he can calculate an unimaginably large amount of data per millisecond. Of course, he might be.
Hmm. I also was torn about whether Muim was incapable of higher level magic until the conversation with Peter a couple of pages ago.
“You could do something… Drastic”
I struggle to imagine what drastic would mean at this point, other than high level magic.
I don’t think it is digital plane. Muim has already fought head on with a Kor’s world SMAI, took out AGEIS, which is specifically built to counter digital attacks. So it seems like everything drastic there has already happened.
The only thing left seems to be magic. And there is positive evidence for this as well. There was that artificial edios key from the Kor’s world attack that “Muim had a need for another one” (probably for F5).
And there was the explosion here http://pastutopia.com/?comic=comic-for-friday-july-31st that was part of “Family and Friends exception” that the most plausible cause of was magic use by Muim. Miko described that instance as Muim going “literal genie”, which sounds like magic to me.
My conclusion is that one of Muim’s primary restrictions is for constructive use of magic, and he can break that restriction if someone important is on the line.
Mium himself cannot properly do magic.
The AA system which Mium has is capable of trying to use magic, but it lacks the ability to properly write to Eidos, causing everything it does to simply result in a massive explosion as sheer power is released.
With the Friends and Family exceptions Mium can make use of it. At full capacity I suspect he could blow up a notable portion of the city. And that is nowhere near the only normally restricted trick he has.
Mium going “literal genie” is an idiom. It means hes taking orders, requests, and questions completely literally rather than answering the intent behind them. Like wishing for a million bucks from a genie and getting a million male deer. That one has nothing to do with magic.
I don’t think that’s it. Mium’s displayed significant amounts of creativity before. Shooting someone with a tank so old it’s not “military hardware”, then using an experimental bomb implies creative thinking. Especially since it’s surprising Peter with it.
Well, the F8 is self-repairing (see THIS PAGE), so having a few rips isn’t violating Peter’s prohibition. 🙂
i’d forgotten the comic used to look like that lol
Ancient history, my friend, ancient history. Pay no attention to the art behind the mists of time. ^^
Mium might have slipped up. The metal bits inside his arm are likely to be visible on the recording.
Not necessarily. How do we know that Palindra does not have sophisticated cybernetic limbs? They may even have magical cybernetics. They have androids that are indistinguishable from humans – or, at least, Avon did. That is arguably far more advanced and difficult than cybernetic limbs several generations more advanced than what we already have today. Anyway, I’m fairly certain that Central’s world would have such cybernetics as they are far more advanced than Palindra, particularly with conventional technology. And some individuals on Palindra have obtained Central technology, often through the black market.
Also I just find it unlikely they would be able to pick up that detail. You can see their view in panel 4. Zoom and enhance all they want, he is just going to be a tiny blue and green blob unless they have a better angle. Also it seems that Mium cuts the feed (probably) in panel 7 before all that much of the flesh is torn away from the metal frame. In panel 6, they would need a view as good as ours to see any hint of a metal frame, and there is plenty of blood, so it it is not super obvious even then.
I find if they picked up the audio of the encounter to be a bigger problem, but I really doubt they did given the distance and method.
It’s a fair point. Peter had a metal thing on his arm. Could be the whole arm is a cybernetic limb even from the scar pattern around his shoulder. Few characters have had obvious cybernetics on their head. Miko has a cybernetic chip of some kind in her brain.
Technically, Mium lets you see what he wants you to see… I don’t see any reason he couldn’t digitally alter the feed to hide anything he didn’t want you to see (and he would alter the feed between the camera and your system… thus making checking for image tampering almost impossible (only possible with multiple cameras: the multiple feeds would need to mis-match for proof of image tampering… so if you’re good enough at image tampering and can do all the cameras simultaneously… POOF, you just might disappear on the Navtrans?!?)).
I don’t think Mium is permitted to do that sort of image tampering. It would violate his “no lying” principle.
Except he bends that principle in panel six of the current strip. What’s up with that?
I am not sure Mium actually has a rule against lying.
Additionally, he is probably not technically lying in panel 6. The prototype quite possible does need the fleshy bits to “live” and quite possible does feel pain and suffering. Mium probably does not actually register those as anything besides “data”. He just has not taken irreparable damage at that point.
Ila (who is just the prototype without the MYM plugged in, in a way) sleeps, gets hungry, needs to breath, etc. Using “I” flexibly (Mium has demonstrated being somewhat fuzzy on personal pronouns) is Mium’s wheelhouse of not-technically-lying.
Very technically, he also does not make a statement, so could not have actually told a lie. After all, his sentence could have finished “is nonexistent” [trivially, logically speaking, since there are no such fleshy bits] and there would be no lie…
That said, I get the sense that the only context in which Mium cannot lie (literally or in spirit) is one under which his injunctions from Query come into play – i.e., when he is explicitly asked a direct question.
Interesting. That wasn’t the directive he was just given by Peter, technically speaking, and yet he did it anyway (apparently without consulting Peter, given the timescale of the decision). [Or a standing order, but given that Peter only listed three things and didn’t establish other priorities on that scale, that’s apparently still up to Mium’s discretion.]
Assuming this is nevertheless in line with Peter’s interest, it shows off the corresponding power that is to be traded off with the danger of having a “creative” AI… because if Mium had maintained his directives as stated here, the helicopter would probably have witnessed a very different scene.
If you think about it, it sort of is what Peter asked for though. His primary direction was to stall Atter. Atter has been stalled thus far it appears.
His secondary ones were “don’t lose F8”; We don’t know for sure yet, but it seems to have only be somewhat ripped up, and “kill him”. He may have just triggered a basically full scale witch hunt of a nation’s mages against Atter. Quite possible that’s going to give Atter a lower chance of surviving then Mium tried to kill him directly.
I agree though that this is the power/danger of a “creative” A.I.. Mium may have just aided the start of a war to follow Peter’s directions. That said, I think everyone is has basically been waiting for the war between Malsa and the IDS to go from Cold to Hot. From what I’ve been able to tell, Peter was trying to avoid it up till someone tried to shoot Miko and blow up his house, then flipped to full “I’m going to screw the IDS”, so this is probably more or less what Peter would have wanted even if Mium is being “creative”.
Um… Peter did say “Stay under the ruleset for secondary priorities. Ordered, stall him, don’t lose eff-eight, kill him.” (Him in this case is Atter, because Peter decided that if he didn’t clarify Mium’s goals, then things might get a little out of hand (because who knows what drastic measures Mium might bring to play to stop Atter killing Peter (Peter himself pointed this out)).
So really Peter was ADDING secondary priorities to what I suspect is a very detailed (long) list of primary/secondary/tertiary objectives. Mium’s actions here are probably fulfilling one of Peters primary objectives.
My interpretation of this scene is that the moment Mium realized that there was a news chopper observing him (see the “Hmmm” in panel 3), he decided to put on a little “show” to further Peter’s primary goal(s). And, to do this, he had to play the victim. So, he let Atter’s monstrosities chew up his body for a while, ON CAMERA.
The goal, obviously, is to make relations and feelings towards IDS even worse than they already are, for Malsa and, hopefully, most of Palindra. It’s pretty clear by now that Peter’s goals directly contradict Biana’s. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to not only force IDS out of Malsa, but force them to renegotiate and make concessions for their continued presence on Palindra.
The second to last panel was pretty telling, too. It seems that Mium’s plan worked. The actions of Atter may have been the last straw for the IDS as far as Malsa is concerned. They had just warned IDS to cease all operations in their country, or else. And then THIS happens. I wouldn’t be surprised if higher-ups in Malsa’s government have already identified Atter as an IDS agent. So, they’ve activated all their military reserves, preparing to drive the IDS out by force.
Well, Biana and her team were pretty obnoxious and full of themselves at that diplomacy meeting. IDS needs a wakeup call. And, hopefully, there are still some officials in Central with enough of a brain to reign Biana in or hold her responsible before their position on Palindra becomes untenable.
As for Peter’s recent directives for Mium, I don’t see the problem as long as Mium retreats before his F8 body becomes completely nonfunctional.
While that does seem to be what he’s doing, it could also be that he doesn’t want to show off the fact he can blow away a red construct easily as well. These things gave some pretty powerful people a pause, so that would raise some questions probably he could be identified from the footage.
Not really. Given the signal lost, followed by Mium’s “cut,” I’d say he could have stopped the broadcast at any time. He might have just been taking advantage of the situation, but wasn’t forced to do anything.
I doubt that Atter is officially an agent of the IDS, with Peter’s comments about him being “let out” it seems like he was more likely classified as a prisoner. So I’d expect that the IDS or Biana will try to spin his actions as that of an escaped prisoner whom could not be apprehended because the IDS had withdrawn all their troops. Such a shame for the civilians.
Of course the Consul and anyone else with a hand in the current plots would see that as the lie it is, but I suspect that Biana will try to have all the evidence fixed for that narrative. Considering Atter’s complete failure though I suspect that Central will step in and back Arron and his plans for diplomacy, because I’m sure he has one.
“…So I’d expect that the IDS or Biana will try to spin his actions as that of an escaped prisoner whom could not be apprehended because the IDS had withdrawn all their troops.”
“…but I suspect that Biana will try to have all the evidence fixed for that narrative.”
It’s possible that this is Director Sophie’s plan. It does rather sound like her. But, the problem with this is that it assumes several things.
Also, IDS’s presence on Palindra hinges on their promise to curtail illegal gate activity. For their official story to be that Atter is an escaped convict who somehow made his way to Malsa is for IDS to publicly admit that they allowed one of their world’s most destructive and dangerous criminals to escape to their world via a gate. They would be sacrificing their main narrative in an effort to do damage control. Indeed, it could be interpreted as evidence supporting the Malsan government’s recent accusations – that the IDS is intentionally ignoring illegal gate activity.
Besides, this is an opportunity for them to push the IDS out. I’m saying that – at this point – Malsan authorities are looking for a reason to act. They would not want to accept IDS’s excuse or apology. (Too little, too late.)
Edit: I suppose it’s possible that IDS will say that Atter was being held in a prison in Malsa (or somewhere on Palindra). But that opens up a whole other can of worms. I highly doubt Malsa has allowed IDS to build a prison for their world’s most dangerous convicts with their borders.
Yeah… at this point I think it would take a god of spin to spin this into something that doesn’t look like “Oops, we dropped a WMD in your lands while flying over. And double Oops, looks like it went off”, which while appeasing won’t really cover anything with anyone who was anywhere near the fence.