Toot Toot
oh
Comments (130)
I never put politics aside...but if I ever had to ...it would be to say how I avoided Patreon for a long time (I would go broke buying comics if I let myself), but I put my money where your decent human (socialist) mouth is. Whoops guess I couldn’t put politics aside. 🤷♂️
Though I suspect it's tougher to push legislation than to write a benevolent check.
Just a heads up, the image on the website is the typo version.
I blame that on the PDF format :D
Why am I hearing Nelson voiced by Kryten from red dwarf?
ROBOCARE FOR ALL
Union Robotics on track to enter the Fortune 500. Bubbles will be the most menacing and yet huggable CFO. As for Fae... we already had Jack Welch.
Wait, won’t this mean a large loss of business for Faye and Bubbles? Or will it just change the name on the check?
Probably just the name on the check.
Oh no. There are lots of AIs with high end bodies in this world. Kinda worried where you're going with this Jeph. 😟
In the ideal, I don't expect he's going anywhere worse than what the ideal of universal healthcare is in the real world. What'll happen, though, could still be terrifying.
Yay vs John Ellicott-Chatham vs Union Robotics....
I think they’re all on the same side.
Exciting times!!!!
It occurs to me that this could be a very bad thing for Union Robotics.
not if they are used similarly to a health care provider and then are being paid by a system to work on any ai in need.
Chathamcare!
now i'm wondering how far in the future is this set where pdfs are that far behind
Parallel universe rather than the future.
I wonder what this bodes for a certain fledgling AI chassis repair shop?
Why shouldn't Union Robotics became a certified care provider?
Way to go hooking the oil tanker, but hope they can get May a better body before they move that far forward. poor May.
It isn't bad to be the pebble that starts the avalanche, Roko
I gotta ask... How does Beeps smell? "Pretty great, she showers every morning with that -" No. I mean... where did they put her olfactory sensors?
Wherever air could pass, I suppose... maybe the neck joint, or something hidden by her hair? Idk @~@
I would have thought the speech bubbles would be round, or maybe something novel, since this was an AI quoting a meat-person.
Roko doesn't do voices
I absolutely love the “I propose– holy shit–”. For me, this was perfectly creating tension.
This is absolutely a setup so you can eventually change what your AI characters look like on a whim, right? I'm calling it now!
Also in the first panel: "then an emulator to run TO software" should be "THE software".
Also "We wre" in the last panel. Must've been a bad day for Jeph.
someone probably already mentioned it, but there's a typo in the last panel: "wre" instead of "were"
Hmm that is relatively sad because you DON'T have health care for the humans...
IDK, we've seen the QC cast go in and out of hospitals and doctor's offices and never make any mention of paying for it up-front - maybe the QC-verse already includes socialized health care for the humans and the AI rights are just lagging behind, as ever?\
The number of people flipping out at the idea of universal care for all is kind of hilarious. In a depressing sort of way.
And while they are struggling with the oil tanker, May is still stuck with her ever falling apart body. I totally accept the reasoning, but we're leaving May here.
This is Hannelore's dad we're talking about. His approach to any problem is likely to try and re-write the way the rules work.
"Fully socialized body care for all AI." Coming soon everywhere, USA excepted.
Jeph is fixing all the ailments and injustices of the world though it may take a while
It means there will be no new body for May anytime soon. Still, a lot of good might come from this.
Go, John Elicott-Chatham!
How soon until we get to see Roko in a really smart suit testifying before Congress?
...welp. This is gonna...tank Faye's business won't it. Or force her to get super organized and shit.
Or provider her with more customers because someone needs to do the subsidized repairs, so now bots who couldn't afford it can hire her for work.
I recall that AI are “born” ...differently, but can’t recall the specifics. I look to forward to revisiting this and to more comics about how ‘fuck you if you’re poor’ is still not a sustainable strategy. 👍
Everyone's talking about the logistics of how this would work, but I'm over here just thinking that this will get Winslow some brownie points with Roko.
Good point! :)
I'm a blue collar kinda guy, I dont know what half of this means but I under stand what Roko said in that last panel so its gotta be good. I'm happy for her.
Well, as has been stated, May is a niche case in a niche case. And some A.Is are very attached to their bodies, so free repairs for everyone would be better suited for everyone in the long run. And if a beater body breaks down too much, someone is going to introduce the option of replacing rather than repairing.
Why does that response not surprise me?
Seeing so many libertarians in the comments is hurting my brain. Living in aggressive denial of the reality that is already standard for all the citizens of all the developed countries in our world is probably very straining? And trying to push this worldview in the comments to obviously left-leaning comic? Astounding. Also, all proponents of Invisible Hand are very pleased when this Hand is forced to give them handjobs by the government. Like when A*n R*nd Institute is getting government payout. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ppp-ayn-rand/in-sign-of-the-times-ayn-rand-institute-approved-for-ppp-loan-idUSKBN248026
I propose “Libertardians” as the descriptor.
I like how Roko stares directly at the camera in the final panel. It makes her stare feel really intense. (Also yay! This will be fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.)
Can't wait to see how the government fucks up Rokocare.
Looking forward to the Pintsize is a republican arc
Nah, he's an established socialist: https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=832
I guess, as robots, they might have more use for the products of an oil tanker than of a tuna.
These are the hopeful feels I needed today 💜
Same. Wish I could like it more than once.
"Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger... "
also, Jeph, you misspelled were, in panel 6.. by roko, you spelled it wre instead.
Oh great, our achievable goal is being replaced by a huge unobtainable one, thanks
Ummmm why are so many people freaking about the "logistics" of how this would work? Are people forgetting that this is a comic? And that it's not set in OUR universe? 😆
And also, this sort of thing already exists in our universe.
Ok but seriously why did this make my eyes wet?
So the thing about catching an oil tanker when you're fishing for tuna is that, most of the time, the oil tanker just keeps going and takes your line away without even noticing you. This is the next step up from when May was wanting a new body and Roko decided to solve the more general problem for all ex-convict AIs with the result that May isn't getting a new body any time soon. Maybe this will solve the problem Roko was working on, and maybe it won't, but either way it is likely to take even longer that it was already going to.
"emulator to run to software"?
Presumably the QCverse doesn't have regular operating systems. So a virtual machine to run Adobe on Windows, and maybe another bit of software to run a virtual machine that can run VMware or similar in the first place?
Almost ridiculous that this made me a little teary.
Robocialism works
“rocialism”surely?
Side note: we're about to find out how many people who follow this comic don't like socialized anything because they're gonna get real mad at this page
Eh, they'll just go cry in the comments section of LICD. This comic seems to draw a pretty progressive crowd.
And once again i find myself wishing i lived in the QC universe
I live in australia, we have socialized health care so i already do (apart from the lack of robots *sadface*)
*Sigh* *Facepalm* Really?
Imagine spending actual money on a comic just so you can tell everyone in the comments how much you don't like it.
One sure way to make sure no AI has a substandard body is to lower the standards....
That depends on whose standards are being lowered. Plenty of AI will get the body maintenance they need and those who are fortunate to obtain higher quality parts or repairs won’t need to participate in it, although it’s fair to assume many may do so if the status quo is less than pleasant even under the most ideal circumstances. The needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few
He clearly knows to fear the robot proletariat and to not give them cause to revolt
Did they just put Faye & Bubbles out of business, or make them future presidents? I can't tell.
Body mod and plastic surgeon queens? If repairs aren’t needed anymore they’d be able to do upgrades (and butt implants). Though... it would actually probably make them crazy wealthy because they’d be able to fix everyone and have it be affordable - paid for by insurance, maybe? Hmm...
Shit just got real. 'o.o
... Okay... Unless you have Magical Pixie Dust Generators, you're going into SO MANY PROBLEMS. Not the least of which is that SOMEBODY has to be paying the freight. Somebody has to make the bodies, somebody has to ship the bodies, somebody has to build the spare parts. Somebody has to build the equipment to carry the spare parts. There are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of things that have to be figured out and built-and no one person, or one AI can do them all. No one person knows how to *make a pencil*. https://fee.org/resources/i-pencil/?fbclid=IwAR0czjZfVR_cTzekq38NNrbxixx5MGyCTNdLGYbLMDUe7G0TPMsp42Oc-qc
nah. just pass a law. that makes it so, right??
hell yeah, thanks space dad! edit: does this make space dad the one good billionaire
It's, like, a metaphor for... for... um, for what, exactly? /sarcasm
Robot dad does not fuck around. Also, Tilly may have cried.
mario_kart_luigi_falling_off_edge_of_track.mp3
So... basically, better healthcare than current humans in the US. I can’t see the government going for it.
How many femtoseconds would Trump survive in this world?
oh my god
Interesting twist!
I love that good things keep happening in your story. Please keep it up! I don't think I could handle a tragic twist right now.
Aside: I used to run a piece of Scantron hardware using a VMware program run on an emulator that was abandonware for Windows95, so would need to be run on another emulator if that machine ever broke down.
At work we were about there. We tried to virtualize a VAX box but it needed it's own blade running Windows which ran the emulator. Spent all that money on a fancy high-end blade, tons of RAM and processor AND... it ran at about 5% the speed of the current 20+ year old hardware. Management was not happy. Pretty sure we got all our money back at the very least.
I feel like this needs a whale analogy. For reasons. Harpoon reasons.
Sure you want to go there? Brun still has the harpoon. And she's anti whaling.
Guessing Bubbles will get to figure out the new paperwork for the shop.
Head's up, "...to run to software."
My first thought was: this will either be very good, or VERY BAD for Faye and Bubbles' business.
Bad IRL. Probably good in this comic, tho. Narrative pushing intensifies.
I mean. He's AI Dad. He's at least acting the part.
We wre? Is that an acronym for Universal AI Healthcare?
No, misspelled for the sound of an ambulance. WE-WOO WE-WOO
wait a minute this is a friday cliffhanger YOU BASTARD
You're right. DARN YOU, JEPH!
Socialized, huh? That's going a hot potato.
Holy... Oh my gods, this is one hell of an arc. Like, seriously.
That’s no arc... it’s a space station...
I like this story arc. What year is this exactly?
I think it isn't exactly, exactly for this sort of reason.
So we go from helping May to providing all AI with mandated health care. Nice! Now they need to go to CoD and order tea. And maybe a hug for Hanners.
And remember kids, you can tune a robot body, but you can't tuna fish.
No. Go into the timeout corner, for two minutes.
Mr Ellicott-Chatham being pro-social-welfare makes me so happy. I can't wait for this to progress.
*puke* He COULD just make a trust fund for disenfranchised AI's and save the economy and tax wrecking legislative lobbying for a world pandemic.
Why did my brain immediately go to Pintsize sounding an "oil tanker" fog horn with ass cheeks? Help!
Good first step. Now we just expand that out to all people everywhere.
Oh dip
YES 😍
HOLY SHIT THE HEALTHCARE METAPHOR
VERY this
Whoa. Dial that one up to eleven!
Just a heads up, typo at the end where it should say 'were'
and one in the first panel, 'an emulator to run to software'
Missed an e in "We were" in the last panel
I'd say a better comparison is trying to catch a bass and hooking a blue whale.
Nah, that answer would just set off the klaxon.
i *cackled* as i read this, holy shit i love it