Quote Originally Posted by Traab View Post
I wonder if a better use for spookybot would be a sounding board. They have a lot of knowledge of just about everything, or at least the capacity to get it. Think of it as a sentient search engine that knows exactly how to best find whatever they want. Roko could use that in a variety of nonsketchy ways from legislation information like who supports what to know if lobbying would be effective, or even if there are already laws on the books that would help here but just dont get enforced very well. Virtually every state/nation on earth has tons of these laws. Some very stupid, some absurdly regressive that are on the books but never enforced so nobody knows or cares about them, but some that just dont get a lot of effort put into using them. Or it could be there are laws meant for humans when written as AI didnt exist yet, but that could/should apply to them as well, with a few court cases to make it official. Or its possible spooky could put together a list of names of ais like may so they could approach about a class action suit to bring large scale attention to the issue. The problem with what roko tossed off about no interest loans is, its basically certain to cause a loss in funds for spooky because SOMEONE is going to default, the only question is, how many would and could/should spooky absorb that loss in an effort to help? There is no doubt that this WOULD help, and im sure spooky could utilize this program in any number of ways to spread its influence further, so its a risk/benefit scenario for them.
Spooky is a near-omniscient AI which could easily make as much money as required by manipulating the stockmarket or any number of "I have godlike computer powers, pay me" means.

Which is why I don't like them as a character in a webcomic focusing on a bunch of lower-to-middle income 20-somethings. Spookybot is far outside the scope of the characters in the comic, and shouldn't be present. It's like watching an episode of Friends where Joey is looking for a job, and Joey turns and asks "Any ideas, Q?"