Schlock Mercenary III: One million years of crowdsourced kitten videos

[Bulldog Psion]

Dammit, why did I have to check the comic before going to sleep?

Glyphstone -- you're an Eldritch Horror in the Playground. Stuff like this should give you good dreams.

[smuchmuch]

I don't see why you are all saying all those bad things about TAgII, she looks helpfull as ever to me, she even got a big ol' smile on her face.

Except for that page when she took a dive and started changing, that was somewhat unsettling, I have a hard time taking the evolution of crazy TAGII apparence seriously, Howard style is too cartoonish for it, I feel.

For some reason, that page while a chilling concept, makes kind of an amusing contrast with what happened with Enesby himself way back.

My guess is Ennesby and Tagii will get conjoined to form Engi, a brilliant strategic who's craaazy about old pop songs. She will sing her favorite songs on the ship speakers at max level non stop and commandeer the company to spread her albums throughout the galaxy and beyond.

I can't help but feel that would actualy be a very unexpected yet hilarious twist

[Bulldog Psion]

Except for that page when she took a dive and started changing, that was somewhat unsettling, I have a hard time taking the evolution of crazy TAGII apparence seriously, Howard style is too cartoonish for it, I feel.

Yes, the moment of the dive was the only genuinely creepy moment of the whole thing. Right now, she is too cartoonish and too exaggerated to be really menacing. The fact that she was still almost herself, but wasn't, back when she went into the lake was almost sinister.

Or maybe I'm just too jaded at this point by movies and books for anything except some real, material horror encountered in actuality to give me the creeps, lol.

[Kane]

I have a suspicion the Morokweng will arrive on the scene just as Oisri opens up, and they'll then find out how mistaken they were in their assumption that it was just a massive annie-plant!

I think they might also arrive just in time to save the Toughs. Remember the scale difference between Ennesby and Petey back in the day; I'm certain Morokweng is 'larger' than TagII and probably larger than (original) Petey was. (Naturally, nothing is larger than current petey.)

And while I agree that the most recent comic looks more silly than creepy, I thought the previous one was sufficiently so.

Edit: I'd also like to say that I knew replacing Tag with Tagii was a mistake to begin with. And while that might just be because I liked Tag, I feel extremely vindicated.

[Cikomyr]

Edit: I'd also like to say that I knew replacing Tag with Tagii was a mistake to begin with. And while that might just be because I liked Tag, I feel extremely vindicated.

Hey. He commited suicide, I hardly think we can blame anyone for replacing him. He was de-facto out of order.

[guttering flame]

Hey. He commited suicide, I hardly think we can blame anyone for replacing him. He was de-facto out of order.

He was depressed/decided to quit his bloody job. He was still talking after the incident was over.

Also, I think the math in today's page is wrong.

[smuchmuch]

Woah, talk about letting the door slam on you on your way out.

[Kane]

Hey. He commited suicide, I hardly think we can blame anyone for replacing him. He was de-facto out of order.

He resigned as a protest of conscience for something that wasn't his fault, and then was reformatted. That's as close to murder as you can get with an AI.

He made the best choice he could, resigned in shame over it, and then was killed and replaced by an infiltrating enemy agent. (Who may very well have just done that so that she could put her own AI in charge.)

I don't know about you, but I'm all ready to start blaming people.

Woah, talk about letting the door slam on you on your way out.

You are the worst kind of people. (I laughed. )

[BRC]

He resigned as a protest of conscience for something that wasn't his fault, and then was reformatted. That's as close to murder as you can get with an AI.

He made the best choice he could, resigned in shame over it, and then was killed and replaced by an infiltrating enemy agent. (Who may very well have just done that so that she could put her own AI in charge.)

I don't know about you, but I'm all ready to start blaming people.

Woah, I hadn't thought about it like that.

Before, I assumed that the Reformatting was necessary in some way. (Para described it as "Tag's lack of personality didn't give him enough sense of self to reconcile actively killing civilians without orders, even though waiting would mean countless more deaths, so I made a new AI with more personality). But when you consider that Para was a plant, that may have all been an excuse to get her own AI in the system.

Mind you, Para's views on AI's and Morality are a little strange. She thinks turning an AI into a puppet is abominable, but has no problem with brainwashing AI's by forcibly inserting "Fond Memories".


Hrmm...altering Memories in order to achieve a desired outcome. How very UNS of her.

[Bulldog Psion]

He resigned as a protest of conscience for something that wasn't his fault, and then was reformatted. That's as close to murder as you can get with an AI.

He made the best choice he could, resigned in shame over it, and then was killed and replaced by an infiltrating enemy agent. (Who may very well have just done that so that she could put her own AI in charge.)

I don't know about you, but I'm all ready to start blaming people.

Damn -- that makes Para a cold-blooded murderess, doesn't it?

[memnarch]

...

Also, I think the math in today's page is wrong.

Given: Acceleration due to gravity is either 18 gees or 180 m/s^2. 18 gees happens to be 176.58 m/s^2, so I'll stick with 180 m/s^2.
Given: The fall is 6km or 6000m.
Given: There's no atmosphere, so the easy projectile motion equations can be used.

Using y=(1/2)*a*t^2, we can solve for t. t=sqrt(2*y/a) which is 8.16497s. Using t and yv=a*t, we can solve for yv which is 1469.69385m/s.


Looks fine to me.

[Cikomyr]

He resigned as a protest of conscience for something that wasn't his fault, and then was reformatted. That's as close to murder as you can get with an AI.

He made the best choice he could, resigned in shame over it, and then was killed and replaced by an infiltrating enemy agent. (Who may very well have just done that so that she could put her own AI in charge.)

Not quite. He make a conscious action that his AI matrix couldn't properly rationalize. He saved the day, quite heroically I might add, but then ended up broken as a result. It's not simply a matter of "he resigned" and could have been turned around. It's matter of a moral lockdown.

Because, ultimately, for all her treachery and lies, Ventura is still an AI expert and she has proven to be truthful in that specific field of expertise. Kevyn's initial clumsy programing of Tag might have made him incapable of adapting and processing these sorts of moral conundrums.

Giving more time to think about it wouldn't have helped him. After all, he perceives time much different than we do. Either way, you still would have needed to brainwash him one way or another to save him.


Tag ended on a high note. Let's be happy at that. We all miss him, but I won't cry over characters gone for 3 years.

[Kane]

Not quite. He make a conscious action that his AI matrix couldn't properly rationalize. He saved the day, quite heroically I might add, but then ended up broken as a result. It's not simply a matter of "he resigned" and could have been turned around. It's matter of a moral lockdown.

I'll give you that, though keep in mind that your source for this is all Ventura, who, as has been proven, is incredibly suspect.

Because, ultimately, for all her treachery and lies, Ventura is still an AI expert and she has proven to be truthful in that specific field of expertise. Kevyn's initial clumsy programing of Tag might have made him incapable of adapting and processing these sorts of moral conundrums.

I'm not inclined to think that Kevyn does much of anything clumsily. If he did, I imagine he either wouldn't wear antimatter grenades on his shoulders, or would no longer be with us. Again, this is Ventura's explanation. But even if it's true, I don't see why they couldn't have just patched Tag up into functionality, fix the problem Ventura identified, rather than wiping and replacing him.

Giving more time to think about it wouldn't have helped him. After all, he perceives time much different than we do. Either way, you still would have needed to brainwash him one way or another to save him.


Tag ended on a high note. Let's be happy at that. We all miss him, but I won't cry over characters gone for 3 years.

I think there are degrees of brainwashing with the AIs. If all else failed, they could have simply ordered him to forget it. (like what happened way back when with Petey, though maybe they've learned their lessons over what happened last time.)

He did go on a high note, and he has been gone for three years. Characters have come back after longer though, I think. (Though personally, I see this as Tagii getting removed and a new ship AI (or Ennesby) getting the role instead.)


@BRC: Yeah, that does seem pretty UNS of her. I hadn't thought of that.

[Tavar]

Just because someone isn't clumsy in certain areas does not mean they won't be clumsy in others. Especially one possibly as exacting as creating an AI.

[guttering flame]

Given: Acceleration due to gravity is either 18 gees or 180 m/s^2. 18 gees happens to be 176.58 m/s^2, so I'll stick with 180 m/s^2.
Given: The fall is 6km or 6000m.
Given: There's no atmosphere, so the easy projectile motion equations can be used.

Using y=(1/2)*a*t^2, we can solve for t. t=sqrt(2*y/a) which is 8.16497s. Using t and yv=a*t, we can solve for yv which is 1469.69385m/s.


Looks fine to me.

oh yes. I forgot about the half in the distance-time calculation.

Shouldn't their armor or even Ennesby be capable of calculating the course of the gate? Counting on Bunni's minigolfing skills is, while dramatic, not that realistic.

[BRC]

Yeah, Kevin is brilliant, but he's primarily a scientist and engineer. Those don't necessarily make him qualified to build AI's. Also, he built Tag to be a tactical genius and a pilot. The idea of building an AI robust enough to rationalize taking innocent lives (in order to save far more lives mind you) may never have occurred to him.

[factotum]

Shouldn't their armor or even Ennesby be capable of calculating the course of the gate? Counting on Bunni's minigolfing skills is, while dramatic, not that realistic.

Their armour doesn't seem to have its own intelligence and we've never seen it provide added speed to a user either, and when you're trying to fit into a maybe 3m opening travelling at far greater than jetplane speed, both would be quite useful! As for Ennesby, well, he kind of has his own problems to worry about at the moment, or hadn't you noticed the giant insane AI that's about to do unpleasant things to him?

[Kane]

Shouldn't their armor or even Ennesby be capable of calculating the course of the gate? Counting on Bunni's minigolfing skills is, while dramatic, not that realistic.

When she says "HUD locked on." I assume that that's what she's talking about. Her armor just calculated the proper trajectory for her.

[HandofShadows]

When she says "HUD locked on." I assume that that's what she's talking about. Her armor just calculated the proper trajectory for her.

She probably figured out part of it before that though. Or at least made sure it was possible. Remember when some people thought she had turned out to be a double agent? That was what she was figuring out.

[ChowGuy]

It's not simply a matter of "he resigned" and could have been turned around. It's matter of a moral lockdown.

Your're all overlooking something. He may, for whatever reason have "resigned" from the company (and overlooking the question of whether he even had that right) but he was still occupying company property and assets to which he had no right. At that point, he became an infiltrator, and had at most two valid choices. Either remove himself from those assets (as Ennesby did when he invaded Kitesfear) or be removed by force. Saying "I quit my, but I get to keep the ship" was not an option. His refusal to cooperate had already gotten the ship broken in half and endangered the lives of it's crew. Para did what was required to get the ship's processors back online. That was her job.

[Coidzor]

I don't see why you are all saying all those bad things about TAgII, she looks helpfull as ever to me, she even got a big ol' smile on her face.

Except for that page when she took a dive and started changing, that was somewhat unsettling, I have a hard time taking the evolution of crazy TAGII apparence seriously, Howard style is too cartoonish for it, I feel.

Starting to remind me of the campy Parasite Eve transformations. Well, not quite campy, I suppose, not sure of the exact term to use there... :/

I think it works to an extent, not perfectly, but I don't think Geiger is quite appropriate either.

For some reason, that page while a chilling concept, makes kind of an amusing contrast with what happened with Enesby himself way back.

I always forget how bad the early years were. Even when I've done a complete re-read within the past 4 months... You'd think SM and QC would be better fodder for convincing people they can actually get better if they have some level of commitment to following through on it...

Hrmm...altering Memories in order to achieve a desired outcome. How very UNS of her.

My recollection is that they didn't realize they could do that and so were just going to waste the Toughs, so...

[BRC]

My recollection is that they didn't realize they could do that and so were just going to waste the Toughs, so...

Yeah, but when you consider that the Pseudowalskis are basically the same thing only more so, at this point they've gotten downright habitual about it.

[PhantomFox]

Five? Is this insinuating what I think it is? Yup, it is. This can't end well.

[The Glyphstone]

Five? Is this insinuating what I think it is? Yup, it is. This can't end well.

All it's insinuating is that MonsterTagii noticed Danita.

1)Bunnigus
2) Tailor
3) Tagon
4) Schlock

5) Danita (inside Shlock, which is why she didn't register at first).

[PhantomFox]

Right, forgot about Danita. Derp.

[BRC]

I'm kind of surprised Tagii can even consider killing Tagon and co. She's not an Unfettered AI, so she's got some hard-coded loyalties that no amount of insanity could suppress (like how Petey got ordered to forget about ghosts).

However, those loyalties would be to whichever branch of UNS intelligence Para works for, and probably to Para herself, rather than the Toughs, which means that Para could probably order her to repress herself back into sanity.

[The Glyphstone]

I'm kind of surprised Tagii can even consider killing Tagon and co. She's not an Unfettered AI, so she's got some hard-coded loyalties that no amount of insanity could suppress (like how Petey got ordered to forget about ghosts).

Why's that? Petey (The original) was a fettered AI, he also had hard-coded loyalties, but once his memory repression orders were undone by the Psychobear commander, he promptly blew himself up and killed them all.

[Ravens_cry]

On the plus side, falling through an airless vacuum means aiming is much simpler, assuming you get it right.

[Cikomyr]

Yeah, Kevin is brilliant, but he's primarily a scientist and engineer. Those don't necessarily make him qualified to build AI's. Also, he built Tag to be a tactical genius and a pilot. The idea of building an AI robust enough to rationalize taking innocent lives (in order to save far more lives mind you) may never have occurred to him.

I remember the wording at the time. Tagon expressely asked Kevyn to make the next AI LESS intelligent so there wouldn't be the same kind of problem of self-initiative that Ennesby created which led to the loss of the Serial Peacekeeper.

It's not necessarily that Kevyn did an amateur mistake, it's that he deliberately handicapped the processing pathways of Tag. Eventually, given enough parameters, that led to a neutral-lock.

Your're all overlooking something. He may, for whatever reason have "resigned" from the company (and overlooking the question of whether he even had that right) but he was still occupying company property and assets to which he had no right. At that point, he became an infiltrator, and had at most two valid choices. Either remove himself from those assets (as Ennesby did when he invaded Kitesfear) or be removed by force. Saying "I quit my, but I get to keep the ship" was not an option. His refusal to cooperate had already gotten the ship broken in half and endangered the lives of it's crew. Para did what was required to get the ship's processors back online. That was her job.

Another point. I mean, I know we sometimes like to treat AI as full-fledged character, but for all instances and purpose, they ARE the ship. If the Ship AI resigns, you have to go and brainwash him back.

[Ravens_cry]

You know, I wondered if Teraports followed the Portal rule.