Return To The Sea

I like the Poolg being the reverse of Gloop.

I think that the sound would be more like a quiet "Shhhhkhllluuuuphp".

Oh yes. AI ethics!

"ANTEATER: ...I am on the best of terms with ant colonies. It's just ants that I eat, not colonies..."

I am quite surprised that people who read a comic centering on AIs these days are so naïve about continuity of personality. When people can merge split and rearrange like corporations, concepts like murder and suicide no longer really apply most of the time. Play SOMA or read Rudy Rucker or something.

Mr. Meeseeks meets the Founders from Deep Space Nine <3

Interesting. This entire arc is neither black nor white. Are the Moray units independent, free willed beings? If so, could they (and other AI units) have a soul? (My personal answer is yes, by the way.) And if so, what happened to her and to her soul... This is a serious moral question Jeph has dropped on us.

Tbh, I don't think it's murder or suicide. More like cutting off and then reattaching a limb; or taking a cup of water out of a bucket of water then pouring it back in. The director breaks off a piece of their consciousness/personality/code and grafts a sense of self onto it. Then afterwards all the original material and code is reintegrated, meaning nothing dies or is lost, merely returned to it's original place.

Just so we're all on the same page here... This is murder. What the Director just did was murder.

I'm going to have an existential crisis over jelly bots.

This is simply the best arc I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Thank you Jeph!

Reminds me of the Juggler World seas in Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Some swim in them with knowledge hopefully seen as at least amusing to the minds permeating the ocean in order to get some useful archived knowledge. Many simply get permanently absorbed.

"Ahh, sweet child of Kos, returned to the ocean... A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea. Accepting of all that there is and can be..." - Bloodborne

So the Morays operate independently from the Director until re-absorbed. Yay's unique-ness is preserved, for now.

Kinda reminds me of Captain-Doctor Simon Afriel encountering an alien hive mind in Bruce Sterling's 'Swarm' - it grows an intelligence to speak to him on a level he can comprehend

Hoot! Young lady, I mean... Claire , the hero! You have defeated the Addictions! You have proven your wisdom, courage and power! ... ... ... ... As part of the Void Fish's spirit, I am the guardian of his world... But one day, the Addictions entered his world and began wreaking havoc. Then you, Claire , came to rescue the island... I have always trusted in your courage to turn back the Addictions. Thank you, Claire ... My work is done... The Void Fish will sober up soon. Good bye...Hoot! (the owl fades away)

How I kinda want avatars that I can bloop off to do tedious tasks. Like *bloop* unload the dishwasher, *bloop* check the mailbox...

The Director's Morays are almost always self-absorbed.

Have some existentialism

Moray's final line does allude to a real-world ethical conundrum around AI, which is that a suitably advanced AI will be able to manipulate human psychology so subtly that you never notice it, you'll do exactly what it wants but believe it was your idea the whole time. Does Clare actually want to work for Cubetown or did the Director know exactly which buttons to push to get her to stay? What does it mean for human free will in a world where Director-level AIs control the flow of information upon which we make our decisions?

That went from wholesome to Cronenberg with remarkable rapidity.

Okay, now I feel like this is slime vore somehow

for be to be re-absorbed. The first be should be me. :-)

Well, that's a bit of a creepy ending. Love it.

The whole body glooping thing, though demonstrative, seems a bit inefficient. Surely there's a more efficient way for a post-singularity entity to absorb information.

Both cool and DEEPly creepy.

Panel 5 reminds me of the genie from Aladdin a little bit.

I’m gonna miss my gloopy girlfriend.

"People come and go so quickly here!" -- Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz"

Shades of the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

The Director gave Claire a piece of their mind, and then took it back.

This brings up a question asked in earlier strips "how many Morays actually get reabsorbed?" We know there's at least one running around still. I guess ultimately, we, as humans, cannot judge these non-human entities with non-human emotions and values. That said, I think if a Moray expressed reluctance, the Director would be okay with it and just let them keep living.

Meanwhile, Marten bumped into Steve and wet cereal is everywhere.

So...the Morays are like Meeseeks, but if you could spawn Meeseeks by carving out redundant little chunks of your brain

So she's a Meeseeks?

Claire didn't even get a change to give a pmolg.

Just a little existential dread

Poolg

Creating self aware sentient beings without a self preservation instinct? Do. Not. Like.

when the slime girl says "bye" and you know she must die, that's a Moray when she's gone and you're not, contemplating her lot, that's a Moray

"A Very Merry UnBirthday... To YOU!"

I don't mind the 51 weeks of non-Bembo filler strips each year, but they can get pretty weird sometimes

And Claire realizes she was there for the entirety of Moray-44's life just now, beginning to end.

My wife says "I would rather talk to the Director themselves. I do not want to be put off my guard by the APPEARANCE of humanity."

Jeph just casually throwing out ever more cursed corner text to see who bites.

The ol reverse gloop slimegirl unbirth. Classic maneuver.

This a philosophical mind field.

So does he keep incrementing the number if one of them gets reabsorbed? Like is the next one going to be Moray-45, or just Moray-44 again?

POOLG

Ah yes, that philosophical cliche of "free will is dependent upon the whims of cyber jellyfish."

Small misspelling in panel 3. It should be "time for ME to be re-absorbed"

The drop becomes the ocean

Dang throwing some Mr Meeseeks ethical quandaries in at the end, starting the year with a bang

Love that warp effect in panel 5.

the circle of unbirth is so beautiful 🥹

Hi I'm Mr Meeseeks!

Shhhhhhhh.... no tears, only POOLG now.

RENOT WOL

Well, that was an ethical conundrum I didn't expect to have embedded in my brain space

Hmst

Nothing more relaxing than a good poolg at the end of a job well done

Not the existential crisis I came in here looking for, but here we are.