Yes, Jeph has definitely read up on the Culture, but the problem with your analogy is that the Special Circumstances Minds aren’t more powerful than other Minds, just meaner. Presumably the Minds controlling the System class GSV Empiricist are as/more powerful than GCU Minds like Grey Area.
You can buy comics online…
No, actually. I’ve always been more of the Turing test fan for sentience. In other words, if it appears conscious, it is conscious. Otherwise, I can’t really know if anyone else is conscious, and that totally messes up any morality I have, since it’s based on other people being people like me.
Interesting idea, though. Jeph has brought up before whether even the AI we currently know are conscious. In fact, that UN speech above has the relevant parts.
Still, since I treat them as conscious entities, I see no reason not to treat SpookyBot as conscious.
I was more referring to the Meatfucker’s talents for mind-ripping and the like.
I didn’t get that impression, I gathered that all era-cohort Minds (not small-m minds like drones) were of more-or-less equal capacity and the distinction was more based on how old the Mind was. I think this is backed up by the fact that a Mind can move from a Ship to an Orbital without major changes being indicated. Also note that as you say, at least some GSVs are run by multiple Minds. The Empiricist, for instance, has 7 - so power is not scalable, clearly.
Yeah, you’re right. I actually thought about it more, and the utterly hilarious scene in Excesssion when the Core Group gets taken over by the Interesting Times Gang, who immediately expel the procedure-worshipping chairperson Mind(s?). The ITG was old, but some of them were relatively small ships, IIRC.
I just re-read Bubbles’ explanation for what Corpse Witch did, and it sounds like Corpse Witch may have the opportunity to become very wealthy once the news gets out. It doesn’t sound like what Corpse Witch did was illegal, just highly unethical, with a possibility of not even that, with a willing subject. So, AI’s out there who want to kind of forget something now have the opportunity to do so. Particularly handy once they’re a few centuries old and really don’t need to remember what they read in the newspaper 150 years ago.
Can’t we just get back to Emily doing goofy stuff?
She was remarkably lucid when she was jacked into Bubbles’ head.
I don’t recognize the redhead showing off her muscles in today’s (22 March 2017) strip (#3443). Is she new or have I forgotten her?
It’s Tai. Marten and Claire’s boss, Dora’s girlfriend.
If that’s Tai, she’s been doing a lot more than rock climbing … I mean, I get that it might give you muscles, but the waist and the booty? Thisis Tai before…
It’s Tai. Nobody else has an elbow tattoo.
And it explains why she suddenly jumped up when Dora complimented Elliot.
That was at least one if not two art style shifts ago. Everyone is wider now.
Here is her most recent appearance.
And here is probably the comic that inspired her to start working out.
(In case you think I’m some uberfan, it’s not that. I just have installed Questionable Extensions, which, among other things, tags all the characters and lets me easily jump to the previous comic where they appeared.
It’s not just the body. The face is different. I hadn’t forgotten Tai, or her star tattoo, but I really found today’s rendition of her unrecognizable. Ah well.
It’s the lack of glasses
Look! Tai has taken off her glasses! Why, she’s beautiful!
She’s also got the plug things in her ears. Maybe she and Dora had it done together? And it looks like she got herself an uber-butch haircut because Dora liked it on Faye.
Hmm? Far as I can tell, she’s wearing the same plugs she was back during Jeph’s ‘everyone is a stick’ style.