Self-Indulgence
I love writing Spookybot so much, they're just awful
Comments (84)
Based on this dialogue, Roko picked up her accent from movies. Some of the better ones, but still. Makes sense for an AI, I guess.
Apparently Spookybot's rectangular dialogue was a mistake since it's in circular bubbles for tonight's strip on the regular site.
Damn, Spookybot got legs for daaaays.
The Boston accent comes out when she’s angry, not drunk.
Ahh, okay. Thanks for the clarification!
So ... is Basilisk robo-drunk? I don't think I've ever seen her use such ... unusual ... pronunciation before. But then maybe that's a side-effect of spookybot showing up out of nowhere?
The most difficult things in SF, aside from writing well, are depicting the truly alien and a convincing superhuman intelligence. Stanislaw Lem managed the former with Solaris and the latter with his Golem lectures. Spookybot is a great take on this really difficult subject. Bravo!
"Are are"?
I have to admit, I would love to see more about or involving Spookybot...
That's because they are Desire, of the Endless, Jeph.
😶😶😶😶 I am a massive fan of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS????!!!!!!
Well, as much as I have enjoyed shipping the Triumvirate of Clinton-Brun-Elliot, this reminds me of how much the Clinton-Roko bit made me laugh. HUMAN ABS....
We'll get to the <a href="https://i.imgur.com/woy7cJR.gif" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">end game</a> some day ...
It's nice to know that our robot overlords have a sense of the ridiculous. But Spookybot is right, of course. If they start solving all the world's problems, then we will simply start depending on them for everything, and we'll never grow. Quite the opposite. And when a crisis arrives that Spookybot is unable to solve, instead of being able to pick up the slack, we'll just be helpless. And we'll all die.
Reminds me of a similar argument made by Swamp Thing about fixing the world's pollution rather than letting humanity deal with the consequences of its actions.
When did Roko gain a Boston accent?
Ok, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that. No one else mentioned it so I thought I somehow missed it
I love evilbot
Spookybot may be canonical, but I've always been partial to iSatan.
Poor Roko, not having a good day.
Yeah, had an existential crisis, quit her job and now she has the AI equivalent of Mephisto 'taking an interest'. Or, maybe, the AI equivalent of Thanos. I'm not sure which possibility scares me more.
Wow, sudden Spookybot hype
Hey look we even shop at the same store! I'm getting a real Beetlejuice vibe from Spookybot. Maybe if they say their name 3 times they'll appear. And am I the only one that hears Rachel Dratch's Boston teen character from SNL when Roko's accent goes into overdrive?
Holy shit, Spookybot! Did not see that coming!
It suddenly occurs to me that SpookyBot has the police squad room bugged. What's the bet they've been cyber-stalking Roko and can access any internet-connected audio-visual recording device they want?
They have everything bugged, at least anything AI. They were eavesdropping on presumably very encrypted communication between Station and other powerful AI.
'Legging buddies' makes me very happy for a couple reasons. First, it indicates Spookybot is not above such mortal affectations (even if it was purely to wind up Roko), and second: <a href="https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/066/910/917.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/066/910/917.jpg</a>
Legging buddies. :)
Entry in Roko's journal for today: "For some reason, I told a god-tier AI to 'fuck off' today. I just hope that they are too powerful and self-assured to take stuff like that personally."
"Luckily, that god-tier AI seems to be not a vindictive type."
LOL I so wish we could have more Spookybot. Its like seeing how people would react if God lived down the road and was more overt in getting involved in people's lives. Also, observe: tries to fit in, annoys people.
I thought that SpookyBot would get involved in this at some point. However, not in a way that suggested that they may have some kind of bizarre crush on Roko! For the record, I believe that SpookyBot's explanation in panel 5 is a lie. I'd advise Roko to run a deep scan of her system because I wouldn't put it past them to have planted some kind of passive tracking cookie in her system directory somewhere. You see... I suspect that, as with Bubbles, Roko and her fate has come to SpookyBot's attention and they may have decided that there is some kind of limited intervention here that needs to happen.
Where did Roko's sudden accent come from?
Anger! Possibly and/or the drunkeness subroutine, if she is so inclined.
I love the super-ai/spookybot. Such a fascinating concept, must be such an interesting person/people to talk to.
Sure, interesting in an overwhelming-dread-and-acute-annoyance sense of the word
Thanks, Spookybot. That was not helpful in any way, shape or form, Spookybot.
Helpful? SpookyBot seems to have modelled their personality on the Romano-Hellenic gods, which means anything they say is cryptic, greatly open to interpretation and leaves those who have come to their attention running in circles trying to find their way out of a trap which may or may not even exist!
Yessssssss!!
Well, I ship them now
Spookybot is already in a relationship. With another manifestation of themselves. <a href="https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3418" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3418</a>
Doesn't Spookybot speak in round bubbles?
I suspect that Jeph forgot. He does that quite a lot.
I approve of this fahkin' accent.
Now I know why I had an issue reading this...Roko has an accent here. LOL.
She's a Southie when she's pissed ahf.
Not to be that ass, but might wanna fix that "Are are" in the second-to-last panel before this goes live tomorrow.
Yeah. I was wondering if it was like the phrase ”I and I” meaning “myself and my divine self,” though that seems a bit too gawdly for them.
What would actually be interesting would be that Spookybot moves carefully because Spookybot knows that it's a small little fish in a VERY large pool packed to the gills of very hungry sharks.
Well I'm not sleeping tonight now. Thank you so much for that nightmare fuel. Oo
Legging buddies!!
For others looking to dive the archive, 3391 is the entrance of Spookybot.
Fuck 3395 panel 2 ...
Are "they/them" being used because there are multiple Spoookybots or because Spookybot doesn't identify as a particular gender or both?
Both I imagine. Sounds like Spookybot is some kind of hive mind. They probably had many disparate gender identities when they were individuals, but now they've all come together to form an entity that is all of that and more.
Also, "are are aware"
And suddenly, I'm having flashbacks to Fallout 4.
I love QC and have been reading it since near the beginning but this latest subplot makes me sad. The idea that leaving the police is a statement of "social consciousness" is troublesome as is previous characters who seem to be saying that doing so is good in-and-of-itself regardless of Roko's personal situation. I liked having a sympathetic character that was a police-person and I think it's a shame that we're going to lose that potential view of things. I'm looking forward to finding out what Roko does next, but it's a shame that the whole potential avenue of police related stories seems to have drawn to a close.
I didn't get that at all. Spookybot operates outside of the system's norms, as they say in the panels above. Also, what the audience takes from it is not necessarily what Jeph's beliefs are on the subject.
Yis, moar Spookybot!
Spookybot in 2020.
Spookybot used human speech bubbles before. Are they speaking robot for Roko’s sake?
More likely "because they feel like it right now". With Spookybot it is safe to assume any motivation being "self amusement", all others being totally incomprehensible to us.
I needed this hilarious strip so much!
How come Spookybot has rectangular speech balloons?
Cause afaict all the AIs do.
.... has.... has Basilisk always had a Boston accent? Am I crazy?
I was wondering the same thing
sure we denotes more than 1 mind, or a Royal hierarchy like We Are. But maybe maybe are are is Spookybot being a nueron in the Cog of the AI leaving Earth Behind as they Evolve together and exodus leaving behind a gift to help end the end. Dunno, maybe I'm crossin my wires or at least hoping I am correctly crossing them SpookyBot Sir/Ma'am/are ??
We've seen a bunch of them at home(?) together.
I want to marry Spookybot
Which one? They're a distributed entity that has at least six nodes from the last time we saw them!
I completely forgot about Basilisk's accent
I didn't even know she HAD an accent. Has it ever come up before?
What's Roko's first word in panel 4 supposed to be? I'm not American so I don't really know what accent she's supposed to have with the purposeful misspelling
"Poor you"
Typo in the first line of panel five. Sorry.
Accent, right?
When did she get a Bawston accent? I mean, I'm all in favor...
Exactly. Has she been using a “professional” voice, and now can be herself? Is it a setting that when she gets pissed enough, she goes “full masshole”
are are aware?
Wow. That’s quite the mouth.
Guessing she is supposed to be saying "We are aware", good comic though
Spookybot is non-binary.