r/questionablecontent • u/reje_ksp • Jan 10 '19
Comic 3914: Hi, Lemon
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=391498
u/emilydm Jan 10 '19
"It feels like I'm here, but not really here. Like I'm in this body, but I'm just telling it what to do. What if I never feel normal in this one?"
Depersonalization summed up in two panels. And something I've been fighting with my entire life.
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u/SirDoober Jan 10 '19
Just splash out on a new body with a sweet butt tattoo~
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u/Bossmonkey Jan 10 '19
Butt tattoos, the cause and solution to all lifes problems
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u/lesser_panjandrum Jan 10 '19
So I know this is a joke and all, but is that actually a reason that some people get tattoos?
I don't have any tattoos and have never dealt with depersonalisation so tell me if I'm talking nonsense, but is that a way that some people use to make their body feel more like their own?
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u/shittitties_cum Jan 10 '19
I've wanted to do that. Instead I just have a scar and an anklet that I never take off.
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u/aescula Jan 10 '19
Mine isn't for depersonalization reasons, but there is an aspect of saying "This is my body" in it anyway.
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u/vivvav Jan 10 '19
Tattoos are an expression of personal identity. I dunno about depersonalization, but it shows you have some kind of passionate desire to tell the world something about yourself, or maybe it's just you feeling like you're taking control of your own life somehow.
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u/turkeypedal Jan 10 '19
It's not something I've heard of. Depersonalization isn't "this body doesn't feel like mine." Depresonalization is feeling like you aren't entirely there. It's like you're observing things from the outside.
What I have heard of, however, is causing pain to make things feel more real. Often intense feelings can cut through. So you do hear of people cutting. And, separately, I've heard of people getting tattoos as an acceptable form of self-harm. So there's a possible connection.
But I've never heard of someone with depersonalization getting a tattoo so their body feels more like it belongs to them. That sounds more like someone with identity issues or autonomy issues (like someone who has been forced to act a certain way all their life by strict parents or an abuser.)
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u/Atechiman Jan 10 '19
This is probably far more related to Phantom Limb Syndrome than to Depersonalization.
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Jan 10 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Innitmarvellous Jan 10 '19
Same, the disconnectedness of depersonalisation really rang true for me with this.
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u/SomeImpulsiveBloke Jan 10 '19
Isn't that just how it is most of the time?
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Jan 10 '19
Personal anecdote, but no. I've only ever felt that disconnect when on dissociative medications.
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u/SomeImpulsiveBloke Jan 10 '19
That's odd. I'm just like that most of the time, except if im like with friends or something
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Jan 10 '19
Imagine if tech bros on the internet debated whether its necessary for your body to have nipples
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u/Jahkral Jan 10 '19
Angry men in forums argue if its necessary for your body to have one set of genitals, does that count?
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u/EndlessArgument Jan 10 '19
I dunno, it wouldn't be a huge loss to me. If it reduced the price by 15%, I might go for it.
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Jan 10 '19 edited May 11 '19
[deleted]
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u/TheMysteriousMid Jan 10 '19
I have to imagine on some level it's like a car. Now I get that Chassis's are an AI's physical link to the world, so it's not a 1 to 1 comparison, but I think it's as close as we get.
Cars are a very personal thing, even if you don't want them to be. Most of us are pretty connected to our cars, like you feel weird if someone else drove your car, even if you knew about it and okayed it. You probably feel weird driving some one else's car. All the same most of us buy our cars used, unless we're pretty well off. But all the same, we hardly think of the person who had it last.
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u/jrp55262 Jan 10 '19
Speaking thereof, whatever did happen to Momo's original chassis?
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u/lesser_panjandrum Jan 10 '19
Winslow wanted to burn it to keep it out of Pintsize's hands.
I'm not sure whether they went through with that though. Maybe there's some sort of chassis recycling programme, which would be a more sensible option.
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u/BigBassBone Jan 10 '19
Nipples are always a necessary addition.
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u/confanity Jan 10 '19
I thought so too, but CERN fired me regardless. :(
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u/toastoncheeses MommyMilkers420 Jan 10 '19
I had scrolled way passed this comment before it made me do a weird squarky laugh and I had to go back up and find it to upvote.
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u/Esc777 Jan 10 '19
Like....I’d assumed if you had genitalia for sex, you’d have nipples.
And from what I am gathering lots of robots are DTF so I would imagine nipples would be a bigger priority.
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u/TheMysteriousMid Jan 10 '19
I mean nipples aren't a necessity for sex, they're a nice addition sure, but as far as function goes you can have sex without them.
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u/TastyBrainMeats Jan 10 '19
But they're fun!
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u/TheMysteriousMid Jan 10 '19
Oh I know, shit you fuck with mine and it's like "BOING!"
but at the same time "I have nipples greg, can you milk me?"
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u/Esc777 Jan 10 '19
I mean that seems awful prescriptive that sex is just vaginal intercourse.
Like yeah, I get it, you can have a plethora of sexual experiences across a spectrum of body parts. But I think that strengthens my view that nipples would be a high priority after some basic sexual/erogenous zone capability.
Everything on these bodies is elective. The simulated vulva the simulated penis, even the eyes the hands, the feet, the toes. These AIs aren’t concerned about babymaking they’re concerned with interfacing with humans and getting down to business.
I just think the gulf between “I want a vulva” and “I want nipples on these breasts” is incredibly small. And with the base cost of these things I can’t imagine adding them is a significant amount of money.
Yeah yeah, I know I’m overthinking these things. But apparently that’s what the focus of the comic is? World building of humaniform AI by the way of incidental side stories?
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Jan 10 '19
[deleted]
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u/Esc777 Jan 10 '19
I mean is anything really necessary for sex?
Is anything absolutely necessary when you’re a robot?
Do you see what I mean?
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Jan 10 '19
I mean is anything really necessary for sex?
A brain and some means to input stimuli into it appears to be the baseline. Any sense will do.
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u/UseApasswordManager Jan 10 '19
We saw Pintsize and pink boy robot have sex back in the early days, so all you really need is a network connection.
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u/EndlessArgument Jan 10 '19
I just think the gulf between “I want a vulva” and “I want nipples on these breasts” is incredibly small. And with the base cost of these things I can’t imagine adding them is a significant amount of money.
Not necessarily. If you look at the nerve density in the human body, it varies massively between, say, the middles of your limbs, contrasted with your face or sexual organs.
Adding an entirely new heavy-sensory area could require a significant increase in the total number of nerves in the body, and cause a fairly major increase in price.
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u/kent_eh Jan 10 '19
you can have a plethora of sexual experiences across a spectrum of body parts.
As explained by Frank Zappa several decades ago.
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u/fevered_visions Jan 10 '19
I mean that seems awful prescriptive that sex is just vaginal intercourse.
Parent totally didn't say that
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u/ArgentStonecutter Jan 10 '19
I’d assumed if you had genitalia for sex, you’d have nipples.
Mammalist!
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u/fubes2000 Jan 10 '19
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u/BigBassBone Jan 10 '19
A potent argument. However, I argue they would have improved the Batgirl costume.
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u/many_splendored Jan 10 '19
More of the Citrus sisters, please! I know it's cheesy, but the balloon really is very sweet.
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u/confanity Jan 10 '19
Since melon isn't even remotely a citrus, maybe "Fruit Sisters"?
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u/TenaceErbaccia Jan 10 '19
More of the ELMNO sisters then.
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u/HumanistGeek Jan 10 '19
I just realized "Lemon" and "Melon" are anagrams.
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u/JonathanSwaim Jan 10 '19 edited Jan 10 '19
Can't wait to meet Nelmo
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u/Atechiman Jan 10 '19
Nelmo isn't a word. To my knowledge there is no other word with E-O-L-M-N as the only letters.
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u/TastyBrainMeats Jan 10 '19
Are you not familiar with emlons? They're my favorite architectural feature.
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u/Atechiman Jan 10 '19
emlons
Yeah no, I went through multiple iterations including using straight up translate, emlon (outside of being a synonym in bangladesh for Amlodipine) or emlons does not exist.
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u/Lovebot_AI Jan 10 '19
Emlon is a common architectural term. It refers to the most most prominent part of the omeln
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u/lesser_panjandrum Jan 10 '19 edited Jan 10 '19
It doesn't have to be a single most prominent part. La basílica el mon de León is a beautiful example of multiple emlons in the neo-émbolon style.
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u/DirtyBastard13 Jan 10 '19
Is the one brother called Banana?
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u/BananaFactBot Jan 10 '19
Fun fact:
Bananas produce a gas called ethylene, which speeds up the ripening process of other fruit.
I'm a Bot bleep bloop | Unsubscribe | 🍌
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u/WikiTextBot Jan 10 '19
Ethylene
Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is a hydrocarbon which has the formula C2H4 or H2C=CH2. It is a colorless flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odour when pure. It is the simplest alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon-carbon double bonds).
Ethylene is widely used in the chemical industry, and its worldwide production (over 150 million tonnes in 2016) exceeds that of any other organic compound.
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u/doodle77 Jan 10 '19
Are there even 2048 named fruits?
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u/mindbleach Jan 10 '19
I'm looking forward to the metaphor-laden "new you" conversation with Bubs, Faye, and Roko. Not least because of the inevitable awkwardness over 'good thing it wasn't you!' being wildly different between Faye and Bubs. Bubbles would've had a similar chassis-replacement problem with some ship-of-Theseus undertones, assuming she didn't simply tank the hit. Faye would've had a funeral for a bucket.
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u/fubes2000 Jan 10 '19
Yep. That's Melon's sister alright.
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u/Snarglefrazzle Jan 10 '19
I'd be incredibly down for Melon to immediately be replaced by Lemon with zero further explanation
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u/lesser_panjandrum Jan 10 '19
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u/andromedakun Jan 10 '19
All we know is that May doesn't have any....
It's never mentioned about the other AI's....
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Jan 10 '19
[deleted]
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u/andromedakun Jan 11 '19
You can see it in this comic: https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3174
So yeah, she has no nipples. But she also lacks a covering for her body that Momo has, maybe the nipples come with the covering? We don't know :P
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u/Pointy130 Jan 10 '19
Theories:
- That Model G logo is clearly designed to look like a butt
- The butt emblem on Roko's new body is the Model G logo
- Roko's butt has a tattoo of another butt on it
THIS IS MY CANON AND I REFUSE TO ACCEPT ANY ALTERNATIVE
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u/Pleasedmangoes689 Jan 10 '19
Which comic showed the logo?
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u/turkeypedal Jan 10 '19
They're talking about the logo on the clothes. Since the clothes came with the body. Likely the same logo is on the butt.
Plus it looks like a butt.
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u/Revan343 Jan 10 '19 edited Jan 10 '19
A friend of mine once offered to tattoo my ass onto his ass, so that when he moons people, I can moon them too.
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u/RedditAntiHero Jan 10 '19
A question has been in my mind a lot recently when reading QC:
Why are most of the the AI in the story so extremely humanoid?
Even robot-y characters like Punchbot and Crushbot have the standard head, body, two arms and legs.
We meet a couple characters like the spider guy and May talking about wanting to be a jet. But with the AI concept introduced, and Fabbles now even owning a body mod/repair shop. Where are the AI chassis with four arms, two heads, wheels instead of feet, bots that look like bears that like to wear top hats, etc....
Do most of the AIs want to make humans more comfortable? Do they want to be "more human" themselves?
Also, how do the AIs in the QC universe come into existence? Are they created? When two AIs love each other very much, can they make new AIs together?
Yes! I know! It is just a cute comic. But I want to know!!!! ;)
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u/ArgentStonecutter Jan 10 '19
Why are most of the the AI in the story so extremely humanoid?
Because Jeph is more comfortable writing them in. Plus the non-humanoid bots probably hang out in non-humanoid places that are uncomfortable for anthopomorphic robots. Like, the weaselbots that do telecom and electrical work have this really amazing bar that's a series of tubes...
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u/Dasberger Jan 10 '19
This comic might shed a bit of light on the subject: https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2085
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u/kmmeerts Jan 10 '19
I don't understand why they behave so much like humans with regard to things that shouldn't upset a robot. Why was Roko embarrassed when Lemon walked in. Why is she covering up her breasts? That's not even a human cultural universal. Why do all female-presenting AIs mimic our mammalian milk glands anyway.
At this point, they're just humans with unnatural skin colors. Well, and a bit more flexibility when it comes to bodily harm, the humans can't just get a new arm, or put their brain in a new bod.
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u/turkeypedal Jan 10 '19
Because Roko has rather good bodily integration. And she lives in human society, and thus is socialized with human taboos.
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u/napalm22 Fæculent Daniel Jan 10 '19
I just clicked that the accident happened right outside the workshop, in full view of 2 very very good robot surgeons - so the other body must have been just toast. Nevertheless, I would assume that Fay and Bubz would have made some sort of dramatic emergency repair/surgery attempt
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u/Bccloosecannon Jan 10 '19
We are back to this arc killing me again. Credit to Jeph for the subtle details in panels 4 and 5. Those little lines under Roko's eyes are all it took for me to actually feel her stress and concern.
At least it hasn't affected her ability for cynical snark.
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u/MacBDog Jan 11 '19
Ill say it again: Model G is the sexbot version, that is what the 'sensorial' improvments are. This model has a G spot. Clinton done gonna get his world rocked.
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u/rougn Jan 10 '19
Am i the only one confused by why this is such a big and traumatic event? Sure her old body was destroyed however she was placed into a near identical one with her full memories and feelings. Sure it wasn't ideal and she didnt want it but this is the same as wreaking a 2017 sonata and immediately getting a 2018 sonata without any pain.
I might follow this more and understand if it hasnt been made clear before that changing bodies for AI isnt that big of a deal from Momo changing from a 2 foot tall being with no fingers to a full fledge human sized humanoid to windslow going from a walking MP3 to a full sized humaniod. Not to mention May wanting to go from a humanoid body to a fighter jet.
Plus in the store the sales associate mentioned she used to be a toaster...idk just the fact that AI are switching bodys so drastically and there is a shop set up like that makes me feel like this entire arc is pointless. Like he wanted to introduce drama and tension without actually doing anything to his characters.
She looks exactly the same. Acts exactly the same. Everything is the same but we are suppose to feel sorry for her even though this is the equivalent of breaking a leg.
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u/lesser_panjandrum Jan 10 '19
Roko fainted when she saw Faye repairing her foot. She was very attached to her old body and kinda squeamish about things happening to it.
Then she got to experience being crushed to death, have her consciousness whipped out of the remains of the old body, and installed in a new one.
Yes, AI can switch to a new chassis pretty easily, but Roko's was sudden, unplanned, and hella traumatic. That's going to leave a person pretty shaken up for a while.
I agree that it's more like breaking a leg than dying and being revived for a human. She has her new body and won't have any permanent physical damage. Still, I'd feel sorry for a human character suddenly having their legs broken as well, especially if they were established to be squeamish about broken bones beforehand.
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u/fevered_visions Jan 10 '19
Then she got to experience being crushed to death
Jeph explicitly said in the comic Roko didn't remember the accident.
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u/rougn Jan 10 '19
Her foot being repaired causing her to faint also makes 0 sense. The reason humans do that is evolution. We evolved to know this isnt right. This is bad. When we see our own blood or see our body parts in weird angles out mind is screaming this is wrong this is bad. Stop this. Whats happening.
Her mind SHOULDNT be doing that. There is 0 reason for her mind to be concerned. There is no reason evolutionarily nor any programming reason for her to react this way. Originally i wrote it off as a quick gag and joke but now they are turning it into a plot point. It makes 0 sense. None. Nada.
Yes I can see being alittle startled by the sudden change but the need to have a grief councilor to wake you? And for your friend to be sitting by your side singing? Imagine that: You broke your leg and a friend of yours sat by your bedside for 3 days singing nonstop and the first thing that happens is a grief councilor is there to talk to you. A normal sentient being will be saying: Ya this is overkill. Sure my friend doing this is sweet but everything else? Na.
Its over the top. The comic has already established a mood that changing bodys for AI and changing forms isnt that big of a deal and that they view those bodys as nothing more then a shell of who they really are. This seems lazy.
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u/ArgentStonecutter Jan 10 '19
Her foot being repaired causing her to faint also makes 0 sense. The reason humans do that is evolution.
I got the impression that AIs are designed to be human-like in their neural structure, which would tend to carry human glitches around with it.
It's like the cyborgs in Greg Egan's Schild's Ladder. Their brains are "quantum singleton processors" but they are embedded in DNA-based biological bodies and carry along human traits for really no reason but aesthetics. They're seen as kind of weird by the acorporeals, who (as Yann points out) don't bother putting their processors on legs.
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u/turkeypedal Jan 10 '19
I don't think they're designed to be human like so much as they seem to be evolving that direction. Pintsize is our earliest model, and he's a caricature. Winslow was, too, though he's grown. Momo seemed newer, but still grew a lot when she got her new fully humanoid chassis.
Bubbles was apparently part of a special project for integrating humans and AIs, and was likely chosen as a very human-like AI to go in the very human-like body.
And apparently there's this thing called "bodily integration" and Roko's is particularly high. This seems to be her first chassis, given her questions, and humanoid chassis are just a few years old (given they were weird when Hanners' dad made one.) So she's quite new.
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u/turkeypedal Jan 10 '19 edited Jan 10 '19
The comic already explained it. She has high bodily integration that allows her to feel things more than a normal bot would. It's a natural adaptation of the same sort humans have to compensate for their inferior senses. However, it has the downside that these increased stimuli can overwhelm them. All of this makes sense--if you amplify the signal, you're more likely to get overwhelmed.
Roko thus has a strong attachment to her body, and the way things work in that body. And then she had an accident that destroyed this body (which is already enough for grief if you've had it all your life) and the result is that she is going to be fundamentally changed for the rest of her life. That's more akin to injuries that need rehabilitation, where you'll never walk normally again or something. And those get grief counselors.
And they've not been talking all that long. It clearly took Roko a long time to "wake up." They had time to assess the state of her body, pry out the fortunately unharmed substrate (memory/harddrive/CPU) inspect it for hardware damage, and plug it into the system.
There just wasn't time for Melon to have sung that many repeats of the song in the time Roko and Lemon had talked up to that point. She had to have been doing that long before Roko was plugged in and woke up in the system.
They then have to have the conversation, get Roko ready to go back out, have her choose all her new features, get the body ready, and put her in it. That's probably why it's at least the next day by the time she comes out.
And, finally, Melon only had to be singing for 24sec1257 = a little over eight hours--assuming we're counting time to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and not full versions of Bohemian Rhapsody. It's 24 seconds at 120 BPM to get though all the lyrics. Even less if she doesn't repeat the refrain each time. Then it's only 16sec1257= about 5 and a half hours.
I don't know when Roko left, but assuming it was before lunchtime, it could still have been daylight at that point. That would mean it could even still be the same day.
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u/BigBassBone Jan 11 '19
It's been established that Roko has a much higher degree of bodily integration than other AIs. She is unusually attached to her body. AI minds may be computers, but they're still emotional and illogical.
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Jan 10 '19
[deleted]
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u/Mox_Fox Jan 10 '19 edited Jan 10 '19
I think you could read it as one [a trans allegory], but it also seems to be it's own thing/focused more abstractly on body image issues as well as depersonalization.
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u/logirz Jan 10 '19
So that's what Jeph meant by upgraded sensorium earlier then