Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

[Xanyo]

ETA: Also bad: they are all so same-y. I no longer can remember who all the balloon ones are or what their personalities look like. And there seem to be more and more of them, all with impossible to remember names. I am not good at remembering characters by the colour of the skin.

Grey Wolf

My mental Oafan cast:
- Iafa: Broken Wind, crazy for a couple million years, murdered all the Oafans
- Yaeyoefui: I don't actually remember the name usually, but this is Iafa's precursor, giant orange Oafan that was in charge of the mausoleum, is the only physical Oafan I can remember
- Ufu: new AI pilot of Broken Wind
- The rest of them: mostly show up as holograms (not yet restored) / AIs, they seem to have one general personality characterized by phrases such as "We reserve the term 'firing solution' for situations in which firing is, in fact, an acceptable solution."

[factotum]

Hmmm. Some maths seem in order. The worldship left the galaxy 73 million years ago, and it's travelling at around 10x galactic escape velocity, which is estimated to be 537km/sec in the region of Earth. That puts it currently at 3.4x10^16 km out, or a little under 3600 light-years. So, the scale in the second panel is completely out--the Milky Way is 100,000 light-years across, it would still fill nearly half the sky from only 3600 LY away. I also have to wonder why they need super large amounts of power to communicate with a vessel that's so close, relatively.

Incidentally: yes, I know the ship would be being slowed down by gravity as it flies, but when it's travelling at 10x escape velocity, the difference is 10% at most.

[DeTess]

Hmmm. Some maths seem in order. The worldship left the galaxy 73 million years ago, and it's travelling at around 10x galactic escape velocity, which is estimated to be 537km/sec in the region of Earth. That puts it currently at 3.4x10^16 km out, or a little under 3600 light-years. So, the scale in the second panel is completely out--the Milky Way is 100,000 light-years across, it would still fill nearly half the sky from only 3600 LY away. I also have to wonder why they need super large amounts of power to communicate with a vessel that's so close, relatively.

Incidentally: yes, I know the ship would be being slowed down by gravity as it flies, but when it's travelling at 10x escape velocity, the difference is 10% at most.

That's assuming it was coasting after leaving. If it kept accelerating on the other hand, it could easily be somewhere around 10-50,000 lightyears away. Still not as far as shown in the image though.

[Radar]

Hmmm. Some maths seem in order. The worldship left the galaxy 73 million years ago, and it's travelling at around 10x galactic escape velocity, which is estimated to be 537km/sec in the region of Earth. That puts it currently at 3.4x10^16 km out, or a little under 3600 light-years. So, the scale in the second panel is completely out--the Milky Way is 100,000 light-years across, it would still fill nearly half the sky from only 3600 LY away. I also have to wonder why they need super large amounts of power to communicate with a vessel that's so close, relatively.

Incidentally: yes, I know the ship would be being slowed down by gravity as it flies, but when it's travelling at 10x escape velocity, the difference is 10% at most.

Communication cost might be due to similar reasons that make teraporting outside of our galaxy energy-consuming. I found this page with an extensive footnote explaining hyperspace, but it would seem that it should still be easy to communicate at that distances.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Hmmm. Some maths seem in order. The worldship left the galaxy 73 million years ago, and it's travelling at around 10x galactic escape velocity, which is estimated to be 537km/sec in the region of Earth. That puts it currently at 3.4x10^16 km out, or a little under 3600 light-years. So, the scale in the second panel is completely out--the Milky Way is 100,000 light-years across, it would still fill nearly half the sky from only 3600 LY away. I also have to wonder why they need super large amounts of power to communicate with a vessel that's so close, relatively.

At what point does the expansion of the universe become significant enough that it needs to be taken into consideration?

(Note: all I know about this topic is what I recall from the depressing Kurzgesagt video on the topic of why we'll never be able to reach other galaxies, but I assume that doesn't apply to Andromeda, since it is on a collision course with us?)

Grey Wolf

[factotum]

At what point does the expansion of the universe become significant enough that it needs to be taken into consideration?

Not in a period as short as 73 million years--that's barely an eyeblink in galactic terms. That wouldn't even be enough for the Sun to make a third of its orbit around the galactic core.

[Onyavar]

The cannonball from the M-Civ has, naturally, never changed course or velocity in the lädt 75 million years, so everyone can teraport right there.

Maaakes sende, if youre an airhead.

[Xanyo]

The cannonball from the M-Civ has, naturally, never changed course or velocity in the lädt 75 million years, so everyone can teraport right there.

Maaakes sende, if youre an airhead.

It's far more efficient for them to not change course or velocity. Oh, and if they increase velocity, that makes it harder to stop when they reach somewhere.

They didn't adjust course when they disturbed the Sol system. There's pretty much no reason to change course out in the galactic void. Plus, if the world-ship isn't right there, they'll still be extremely easy to spot, given the lack of other things around. The ship is travelling at sub-light speeds, so even if it did change velocity, it will almost certainly be visible to sufficiently capable sensors.

Also: not everyone can teraport right there. The dinosaurs were able to be teleported to the ship because of a cage on the other end, which I'm sure dramatically reduced the energy cost. Otherwise though, you need power production on the scale of a core generator. We only know two entities with access to such an energy source, and the Paanuri can't use the teraport and don't have any hints as to the location anyway.

[Thomas Cardew]

Why do I suspect that this has all been a truly tedious and extranauos arc to justify sending the Toughs...

And it's ridiculously unnecessary.

[The Glyphstone]

The unnecessary part is stretching this plan out over multiple strips, one line of dialogue at a time with a slightly different expression on Petey's face at each one.

[smuchmuch]

I wish Howard had chosen to follow the Schuul-led civil war/rebellion plot instead of the AI godhead plot. That would have kept the action at a level relevant to the Toughs, instead of this sprawling plotline of exposition and literal talking heads.

I think this may bedue to the fact that the civil war/rebelion plot is tied to the godhead plot . There's been sort of a hint of it in the way the all star "rogue agents" of the All Star were using body jacking in a way that was not dissimilar (if more advanced) than the Schuul agents.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

The unnecessary part is stretching this plan out over multiple strips, one line of dialogue at a time with a slightly different expression on Petey's face at each one.

Indeed. And yet occasionally, there are absolute gems like today's strip that reminds me why I still read it. I just wish they were more common.

Grey Wolf

[HouseRules]

Yeah, return to Maxim 41: “Do you have a backup?” means “I can't fix this.” Thurl is doing a good job with those backups.

[Knaight]

The unnecessary part is stretching this plan out over multiple strips, one line of dialogue at a time with a slightly different expression on Petey's face at each one.

The pacing would be a lot better if Howard just broke out the larger text boxes a bit more, as we saw in previous books.

[Onyavar]

In all honesty, why did I read this comic for the last six months?

All I need to read are the occasional plot summaries, like today.

If only I knew in advance when in the next six months the next summary will pop up, I could just wait and jump back into the story then.

[The Glyphstone]

In all honesty, why did I read this comic for the last six months?

All I need to read are the occasional plot summaries, like today.

If only I knew in advance when in the next six months the next summary will pop up, I could just wait and jump back into the story then.

This. I know more about what's going on in the last hundred strips or so than I did actually reading them.

[Thomas Cardew]

This. I know more about what's going on in the last hundred strips or so than I did actually reading them.

And its joke was at least in the top quintile of the last 100 strips...

[Ibrinar]

Maybe he should only do summary comics so he can finish quickly and start something fresh.

[factotum]

I dunno, I find Mr. Tayler's method for telling a story to be a bit bizarre. So we saw the start of that massive meeting of historians, with no explanation of why it was happening, then we get the explanation for it happening in a single summing-up strip. Then, rather than showing us the rest of what happened there, we jump forward to a scene showing that the meeting must have been a success (because the Toughs are being congratulated). It reminds me of the Eina-Afa storyline where it seemed to just stop halfway through and jump to "Three weeks later, when everything is resolved". I'm sure he used to be better at plotting than this, how do you actually get worse at something you do daily?

[geoduck]

I dunno, I find Mr. Tayler's method for telling a story to be a bit bizarre. So we saw the start of that massive meeting of historians, with no explanation of why it was happening, then we get the explanation for it happening in a single summing-up strip. Then, rather than showing us the rest of what happened there, we jump forward to a scene showing that the meeting must have been a success (because the Toughs are being congratulated). It reminds me of the Eina-Afa storyline where it seemed to just stop halfway through and jump to "Three weeks later, when everything is resolved". I'm sure he used to be better at plotting than this, how do you actually get worse at something you do daily?

The congratulations might be about the artifact-rubbings discovery specifically, instead of the conference as a whole.

[Narkis]

I dunno, I find Mr. Tayler's method for telling a story to be a bit bizarre. So we saw the start of that massive meeting of historians, with no explanation of why it was happening, then we get the explanation for it happening in a single summing-up strip. Then, rather than showing us the rest of what happened there, we jump forward to a scene showing that the meeting must have been a success (because the Toughs are being congratulated). It reminds me of the Eina-Afa storyline where it seemed to just stop halfway through and jump to "Three weeks later, when everything is resolved". I'm sure he used to be better at plotting than this, how do you actually get worse at something you do daily?

That has been an issue for all recent storylines. We get the setup for a crisis and then immediately skip to the denouement where someone talks about how the crisis was solved offscreen. I have no idea how he could start failing in this specific way after getting it right for so long.

[Ibrinar]

I am a proponent of the theory that he has grown tired of the story so he can't be bothered to show the stuff happen but he still wants to finish the story he started.

Or maybe with the focus of the story moving to large scale problems he is just worse at writing it.

[Xanyo]

My (semi-optimistic) explanation is thus:

At the present time, the story is simply on a scale far larger than the Toughs. Accordingly, Howard cannot illustrate details very well because there are simply too many of them. Especially since this arc is tying everything back together: the Toughs, the Godhead, the Oafans, the UNS, the Andromadeans, even the vanished civilizations. All of it is being wound together, and if he tried to illustrate that in detail, it would take about six times as long as we have the patience for. And we would be complaining about him hopping from storyline to storyline. Instead, he's focusing on the gathering of the stories from just a couple perspectives. The Godhead is the most aware of everything that is happening, so it makes since to primarily use their perspective to explain the present events.

Regarding the deep history conference: That follows from Liz's conclusion that more ancient historical information was needed in order to avoid their galactic civilization disappearing like the rest. And, they need to find some experts to retain to assist with the relevant discovery.

Regarding jumping forward: Not necessarily happening here. The Toughs may be receiving congratulations for how well the conference is going, as a precursor to the "now go shoot people" part.

Post script: An out-of-character explanation may simply be that Howard has a life. He's been pretty dang consistent, let's be grateful for that rather than criticizing the current snippet of the plot we see.

[Douglas]

I dunno, I find Mr. Tayler's method for telling a story to be a bit bizarre. So we saw the start of that massive meeting of historians, with no explanation of why it was happening, then we get the explanation for it happening in a single summing-up strip. Then, rather than showing us the rest of what happened there, we jump forward to a scene showing that the meeting must have been a success (because the Toughs are being congratulated). It reminds me of the Eina-Afa storyline where it seemed to just stop halfway through and jump to "Three weeks later, when everything is resolved". I'm sure he used to be better at plotting than this, how do you actually get worse at something you do daily?

We got that explanation via seeing, on screen, the discussion that resulted in it happening. That discussion starts here and has a few developing segments at intervals through the time between then and now.

The current comic does not indicate that the meeting is over, or even that we won't be returning to it later. The congratulations could easily be for the discovery of the alien artifact that told them about the world-ship that left the galaxy and said world-ship's location.

[Grim Portent]

Soooo... Why are they wanting to send the Toughs to do this rather than just spinning off a copy of one of the existing super AIs? A version of Petey or an Oafan AI is probably going to be far better at this than a copy of Tagon running on the same hardware. It also saves time on needing to ask for consent to do it.

This is just going to be so we can have some silly exchange about how humans come from Earth and so do the dinosaurs, isn't it?

[Xanyo]

Soooo... Why are they wanting to send the Toughs to do this rather than just spinning off a copy of one of the existing super AIs? A version of Petey or an Oafan AI is probably going to be far better at this than a copy of Tagon running on the same hardware. It also saves time on needing to ask for consent to do it.

This is just going to be so we can have some silly exchange about how humans come from Earth and so do the dinosaurs, isn't it?

A super AI would probably have to be gutted too much to fit in the miniscule ship. Normally Petey would send a little thing that has little capability of its own, keeping in touch by hypernet, but hypernet is more expensive - I presume - when you're talking intergalactic void. Whereas a fully functional mind can be the size and shape of a domestic muckworm. Using a super AI, even if stripped, would be sending a lot more information, expensively.

EDIT: Also, recall that Petey has said that he's the best reason he can think of for a galactic extinction event. The fleeing civ may be more amiable to talking to a (gestalt of a) biological being.

[factotum]

What I'm wondering is: why is this being a one-way trip a big deal? As far as I can tell, it's going to be a *copy* of Tagon piloting the ship, so the original will still be around.

[Radar]

What I'm wondering is: why is this being a one-way trip a big deal? As far as I can tell, it's going to be a *copy* of Tagon piloting the ship, so the original will still be around.

Because the copy will be just as much Tagon as the one already here. We already had this notion covered with rebuilding of Schlock, Kevyn and the others.

[keybounce]

The big thing about a one-way trip: How will the Toughs get any information back about what the Taigon Copy does/finds/learns?

[Xanyo]

The big thing about a one-way trip: How will the Toughs get any information back about what the Taigon Copy does/finds/learns?

My guess is a (significantly less expensive) hypernet text message with bare minimum information.