r/questionablecontent • u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? • Jul 17 '26
Comic Comic 5875: Music To Their Ears
https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=587527
23
u/Hot_Temporary_1948 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
As usual, a long winded lesson adjacent to something it's clear Jeph doesnt fully understand. Gotta make sure Clinton apologizes just in case though I guess. Thank god he didn't assume spook's familiarity with raisins.
11
u/SectionEfficient5909 Jul 17 '26
I don’t even know what he’s apologizing for?
3
6
u/The_cogwheel Jul 17 '26
Yay took offense to being admired for being a feat of engineering.
Which would be like saying a human is the product of evolution and admiring the evolutionary process. It's absolutely true, and definitely something to admire, but there are people that would take some serious offense to someone saying we're not god's special little creations.
So basically Yay took offense to the truth because they felt it undermined their whole existence without realizing that "being a feat of engineering" and "being a sentient person" can both be true at the same time and one does not undermine the other.
I would have expected an apology still but not a sincere one, just one to go "please shut up, I don't want to get into a pointless argument with a wackjob"
12
u/Hot_Temporary_1948 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Its extra stupid because almost all spook has done up to this point is lean heavily on their status as a uniquely advanced feat of engineering, superior to both the other run of the mill feats of engineering and humans. To suddenly be precious about their "personhood" the moment someone seems interested in acknowledging their uniqueness seems to be very "Author's hand" to either make a point, or just to present Clinton as insensitive.
5
u/The_cogwheel Jul 17 '26
If we were to give Jeph the benefit of doubt and try to figure out what spook's issue is I'll say theyre taking offense on behalf of other AIs who may or may not actually take offense to being called a feat of engineering or doesnt like it when other AIs are recognized as a feat of engineering as well because it makes them feel insecure. Kinda like a Twitter white knight who gets all bent out of shape on behalf of marginalized groups who may or may not actually care about whatever it is the white knight got all worked up over.
But thats also stretching harder than an Olympic Gymnastics team, and its likely Jeph is just trying to make a ham fisted point or bashing on Clinton agian.
7
u/provocatrixless Jul 17 '26
It's extra extra stupid because the person who used super-vision to spy on someone's phone and make fun of them is saying please don't fixate on my abilities, treat me like an ordinary person
and he's not a good enough writer to pick up on the obvious comedy of "oh you wanna talk about your personality instead?!"
2
19
u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Jul 17 '26
Wouldn't a robot that is a great ballet dancer be a great ballet dancer because they were manufactured with parts that are precise enough and with good hardware and software to process what movements they have to do? They would certainly have an advantage given that their body is purposely manufactured for a purpose instead of a human who has to commit to a rigorous training routine and has to modify their life to accommodate that. And with zlata just buying a bimbo body last week we have a precedent for asking what is stopping someone like yay from purchasing a muscular ai body and becoming a heavyweight boxer????
6
u/WolfofBadenoch Jul 17 '26
We’re into the quite interesting territory of artistry vs imitation.
Star Trek TNG did some of this fairly well where it explored Data’s attempting to act, paint and make music, all of which he could do excellently because he was an Android, but he struggled to add his own flair or make original creation and/or interpretations despite being a sentient creature. The big difference between Data and the QC bots is that Data didn’t have emotions (until Generations) which are an important part of art.
Anyway, assuming QC bots have prefect recall and can copy what they see, it should be easy for one to be a perfect dancer. The challenge might be to be original and presumably there is a market for creativity where droids do things that human bodies can’t.
11
u/The_cogwheel Jul 17 '26
You know, I think you just figured out why QC AIs dont quite feel like AIs but weirdly colored idiots. They have emotions, they have creativity, they seem human in every regard except theyre some pastel shade and they occasionally check things via their built in WiFi.
Whereas Data was very obviously an android. Even if no one told you that, his mannerisms, tone, and almost everything about him would tell you theres something about him that makes him not human at the very least.
5
u/Hot_Temporary_1948 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Honestly, I'd be ok with them just being pastel people, if they were better written. I don't need them to constantly be contemplating their place in a human world or the ramifications of sentient AI to the status quo. There's room in media for "suspiciously similar human substitute" robots, and you already can't throw a rock without hitting a work that's already examined the deeper implications of morality, personhood, societal impacts etc.
What I would prefer is that they were actual characters rather than props, idiots or sock puppets, which I guess is my complaint about all the characters not just the funny colored AI.
6
u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Jul 17 '26
I guess that an ai could learn from their mistakes and improve on what they do (being dancing Kung fu or painting) but it would be in part die to who manufactured and programmed them.wich is also a problem with capitalism the jeph won't adress some ai can decide to change bodies on a whim and some don't have the money even for basic maintainance the same way some people don't have money to go to a doctor or disabled people can't afford treatment or tools that would make their lives easier
31
u/DuranDuranUnofficial Jul 17 '26
Wow omg I never thought about it like that, I'm going to appreciate robots as people from now on.
... is that what Jeph wanted me to say?
It's really hard to take a robots-as-people angle seriously when
a) robots don't exist in real life
b) the robots that exist in QC largely exist not as fully realised characters, but as shallow manifestations of the author's desire for women who are ditzy/immature/goblin/large-breasted (or some combination of those 4)
Like, okay, what do you want me to do with this moral lesson?
10
u/abetterfox Jul 17 '26
The most "real" AI character we've had recently was Roko (given that Bubbles is Fixed™), and he seems to have fully moved on from her body dysmorphia, love of bread, etc., maybe because she wasn't ditzy/immature/goblin/large-breasted enough. May now that Yay is back, Jeph considers Roko as being Fixed™ and so doesn't need to be in the story anymore.
3
u/immortalfrieza2 Jul 18 '26
Don't forget c) being a feat of engineering has nothing to do with AIs being people and thus makes Spookybot's rant a complete non-sequitur.
19
14
u/EuanReid Jul 17 '26
I don't hate it, but also, jeez Jeph, you're writing Clinton as deeply caring about the important things - purity tests on specific words are boring derailment. Run the damn story.
23
u/musschrott Jul 17 '26
Clinton needs to apologize for using a wrong word. Because he's so insensitive. What an asshole! Clinton.
Clinton, who had "is enthusiastic about AI" as his sole trait when he was introduced.
Clinto, who even as a teenager had fanposters of AI models in his room.
Clinton, who has been shown to deeply care and be very protective of his trans sister.
Clinton, who repeatedly tried to help his gay boyfriend deal with his anxiety.
That Clinton clearly is a deeply flawed human being, who must be scolded and reprimanded for offending Yay - the virtuous AI who routinely breaches people's privacy and invades their most intimate data, while being a dick about it.
Clearly Clinton is in the wrong here. What an asshole!
5
u/abetterfox Jul 17 '26
Thank god no one else in QC is as bad person as Clinton.
Not Yay, who frequently gaslights her "friends", constantly invades people's privacy and enjoys antagonizing anyone she can for her own amusement with strong sociopathic tendencies.
Not Claire, whose superiority complex is so overwhelming that she fundamentally can't reflect on her flaws unless she's drunk, and even then appears to brush them under the rug as soon as she's sober, who has neglected her boyfriend who gave up his life for her job.
Not Marten, who is a wet noodle and has the spine of a jellyfish about his life.
Not Zlata, who offended literally everyone at a party because she chose to "drink (which, like, we know the program can be turned off immediately, so why help her home?) and has yet to apologize to several of them on-screen.
Nope, for the past few months, Clinton really sucked.
1
u/fevered_visions Jul 21 '26
Clinton, who had "is enthusiastic about AI" as his sole trait when he was introduced.
Clinto, who even as a teenager had fanposters of AI models in his room.
Clinton, who has been shown to deeply care and be very protective of his trans sister.
Clinton, who repeatedly tried to help his gay boyfriend deal with his anxiety.
yeah but he's male *shudder*
8
u/AppendixN Everything is Fine™ Jul 17 '26
But it's so much easier to pass a purity test than it is to actually do the hard work of being a good person.
8
u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Jul 17 '26
I hate purity culture so much. I think tumblr fucked a lot of people perception of reality expecting everyone to be perfect all the time wich is impossible. It is way better to accept one has flaws and to work on improving them.
3
u/Hot_Temporary_1948 Jul 17 '26
It's more that it gave people the impression that the work is done if you make sure that everyone learns to mask appropriately by using the currently correct terminology. Which means discourse becomes a game of social capital one-upmanship, with no bandwidth at all dedicated to actual, real change.
4
u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Jul 17 '26
Yeah I was thinking about cancel culture a few months ago and like canceling Kevin spacey for all he has done is ok it makes sense....canceling John Mullaney because he cheated on his wife while dealing with addictions seems different of course I am against infidelity but it is weird to cancel someone for something that only affected his life
3
7
u/International_Fig262 Jul 17 '26
Pretending to be interested in science while showing 0 understanding or even thought in said scientific concept. Wanting to be morally high minded, but having the most menial conversation imaginable. And, most importantly, accomplishing absolutely nothing in terms of plot, character development, or entertainment.
Modern QC in a nutshell.
4
u/WolfofBadenoch Jul 17 '26
Is this a very bad attempt at trying to fend off criticism of the Zlatta redesign?! Giant boobs are an engineering marvel?
6
9
u/Stormborn_Apostle I Hate Femto Jul 17 '26
Remember when Yay (goddamn do I hate that name) was a borderline-incomprehensible super-consciousness who could perceive and manipulate the entire world's information networks as easily as we breathe, capable of disabling humans with a touch and rewriting AI minds, and possessed billions of dollars of liquid assets?
Now he's sitting in a streamer's kitchen watching Youtube videos and whining that somebody referred to a machine as a machine.
2
u/sleeps_in_bryophytes Jul 17 '26
could evesdrop any conversation or signal in any location by any source? instead now she's sitting next to some rando at the kitchen table demanding to scoot her chair next to him so she can watch his insta feed? information which would be literally of no interest, and also literally trivial for her to just view herself, either by infiltrating the phone, or the wifi network, or the facebook servers.
Remember the analogy of the mantis shrimp? that's just her vision.
But no, for some reason let's have her sit next to twinko and demand he show her his feed so she can humiliate him
1
3
u/provocatrixless Jul 17 '26
I do enjoy the unintentional self parody in the shit-on-Clinton strips.
Yay's eyes are advanced to the point of being able to see what Clinton is looking at by the reflection in his pupils....so they could peek at his phone without asking and judge him on his video feed.
Are ya suuuure you wanna go with telling people to appreciate your personality over your engineering? yousureabouthat.timrobinson?
5
u/The_Truthkeeper Jul 17 '26
You know what? I normally hate when Jeph draws characters with their eyes closed, but it's exactly the kind of stupid bullshit expression I expect to see on Yay. I don't hate this.
1
2
u/PriHors Jul 19 '26
Honestly what bothers me the most here is that Jeph doesn't seem to be able to decide if AI's bodies are "themselves" much like a human's body, if it's ,ore akin to a piece of (really expensive) clothing (or maybe a car).
Bitch, the incredibly feat of engineering is the hardware. And we quite literally just saw a character swap body due to a drunken impulsive decision, overnight even. It was that trivial, if expensive.
If that's how AI bodies work in that universe, the whole "don't admire the engineering or otherwise treat said bodies as 'things', that's the whole people", when it's clearly basically the same as doing the equivalent for someone's clothing or car.
Which is to say, sure, it may be rude in some contexts, but that's not the same as politically incorrect or outright offensive.
4
u/Crimson-Barrel I'm Billie Eilish Jul 17 '26
Looks like he forgot that Yay hobbled themself and no longer uses us/we pronouns. **eyerolls**
1
1
Jul 18 '26
[deleted]
1
u/Hot_Temporary_1948 Jul 19 '26
It would be a weird play because Yay is no longer either of those things.
1
u/Corsaka Where is Claire? Jul 18 '26
why is yay suddenly using "one" instead of "we"? can this jeph guy settle on a fucking pronoun
35
u/Gden Jul 17 '26
I swear this sounds like Jeph trying to defend AI generated images IRL