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Their True Nature

🕑 Added 2021-03-04 02:19:57 +0000 UTC

Comments

Alan Wiggs

The body they keep in this building may be closer to a "consumer" model to avoid too much attention. In appearance at least.

Alan Wiggs

Spookybot's neck seam seems to come and go https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4374

Michael Boettger

OTOH, Yay doesn't really care.

Michael Boettger

My thought is that AIs in the QC universe are very aware of the concept of "the uncanny valley" and take care not to be too similar to humans. Hence the non-human pallettes, facial details and voice. Kind of like " we're like you, but not you" in a non threatening manner.

Danya Michael

*they

Clifton Royston

There's been a lot of discussion about this over time. Occasionally Yay does have square text bubbles, which kicks it up even more. Edit: I don't think it's ever been established 100% whether Yay *is* a networked AI (probably, they hint at it) or Something Else. They've been very tight about giving out any real information about themselves. Bubbles referred to them metaphorically as a giant squid outside the coral reef of AI life. (#3407)

Clifton Royston

This one looks like a T shirt to me, with the crease lines under the neckline, and in panel 3 it's shaded a slightly tone.

Ben Russell-Gough

Yay doesn't have square text bubbles because their voice isn't 'robot' like the other AIs. Any AI can sound fully human but don't for some reason (to stop mistakes being made, perhaps). Yay, being who they are, doesn't see any reason to abide by this rule.

Tim Keating

Wait -- is Yay wearing a tshirt, or has she suddenly sprouted a neck seam?

George Passantino

Silly question that maybe I missed an answer to; shouldn't Yay have square text bubbles? I looked back on various comics and they never have. Is it because they are way more advanced than any other AI (even Station?)

Hugh Eckert

Yay is the shiniest egg and would grow into the shiniest wasp. Also, I love how they just followed Elliot in to his bedroom and sat on his bed...

Sleepy John

Yay is a good egg. A Kinder egg, with a surprise inside that will choke you if you aren’t careful.

Joe

shiny!!

Ben Russell-Gough

Yay hasn't tried anything to intimidate him (apart from the face-plant fail at creepyface). Faye was touch-stunned and Roko has watched Yay casually nearly destroy the global economy on a whim.

Ben Russell-Gough

Elliot, I don't want to make your problems worse but you're doing a better job at flirting with Yay than you ever have with Clinton.

Onyx

Also, he might be the least intimidated by Yay of them all.

Onyx

God I love Elliot

Todd Ellner

And yet, back in the day, it was used as proof of a benevolent Creator. As the sufis say "When you pray for safety in the wilderness remember that God must feed His lions."

lazymagpie

Former Shady Mastermind In Denial About Their Character Growth, More At 7pm!

Dean Reilly

I've heard the reproductive cycle of the jewel wasp described as proof of the non-existence of a loving God.

Michael Boettger

Actually we have. Remember when Renee had him take his shirt off to see if she was attracted to him? (Not so much, no)

Joseph Bonnar

Camping. A tarantula wasp decided to buzz our campsite. We decided to let it have it and all hid in the tent.

Joseph Bonnar

I had a caterpillar once. I was three. It did NOT survive. :(

GodsInTheCogs

I said yesterday that I was unsure if I wanted to date Yay, or BE Yay. I stand by my statement. 🖤

Bagge

I love that Yay actually looks a bit flustered in the last panel. Big scary ai doesn't take compliments well

Paul Zagieboylo

Elliot has no idea who Yay actually is, does he? Does he even know about Yay's previous interactions with Bubbles?

fair

It is what we ask of all of us

I'd read that

Dimitar Bounov

Interesting... would you recommend the Culture series as a good sci-fi reading?

Alex Kosnett

I may be misremembering, but I recall an Iain M. Banks novel from his Culture series in which a superpowerful AI Mind suggests that beings such as itself are as unlikely to wantonly kill humans for similar reasons as those for which we’re unlikely to glibly kill butterflies, both because we’re curiosities and because we’re nearly beneath their notice. Trying to figure out a grand unified theory of AI-human-insectoid metaphors.

Stephen Ray

I saw it as a white shirt under their black one.

Granite

I was expecting a deviled egg joke and was caught unprepared for the punchline, which is awesome!

That 3rd panel look

Katrina Urmson

You should be exceedingly proud. It’s a good metaphor. ^_^

Matthew Van Gangelen

I feel this comic is super dark.... if you’re a caterpillar. Or if you can emphasize with a caterpillar.

Rich Holmes

I personally think Elliot is more right than Yay wants to admit.

dirtknight

Ooooh, is this a different Yay body? I feel like the previous one I remember didn't have a seam for the neck

Dylan T

Is it weird that I can only hear Brent Spiner's voice when I read Yay's lines?

Joel Bateman

Yay tries, and that's all we can ask of them.

Sero

Since we're on this metaphor.. I say if we had to choose a specific kind of parasitic wasp, Yay is DEFINITELY a tarantula hawk wasp IMHO. They're pretty -- and if they sting you, you're in for a *world* of pain. :)

Spazzzen

The pants line up with the bed pillow, so it almost looks like part of her arm. I had to zoom in because it was a little confusing.

Stuart Welch II

So um whats going on with Yay's arm in the first panel? Eta I just realized that they were leaning back. Lmao

Tom wilson

You are an embodied AI, too? Cool! I do wish I’d been apportioned a better body, though. This one is not ideal. :-/

Rob McBobson

By coincidence, the scenario Yay describes in the last panel is the beginning of the "The Very Hungry Caterpilar" fanfiction that I wrote at the age of 10.