Tragedy

Ursula didn't do much with AIs or robots.

"James Tiptree, Jr." (Alice Bradley Sheldon)

Nelson

Chris Arnold

Yes

Nick Hodgson

When your pants fall down In the middle of the town It's Tragedy!

Kerin Schiesser

or did he choose a first name, second name kind of name? Is he Arthur Nelson? There is a mildly famous politician named that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_E._Nelson Perhaps Arthur/Nelson picked a name reflecting a mildly successful bureaucrat on purpose? :D

Jared Cyr

Wait, is his name Arthur or Nelson?

Cleo Schmitz

Except when the person 'they' refers to doesn't want 'they' - then it's problematic

Marc Ducharme

Waitwaitwait...so Beepatrice is in charge?

Barry Callahan

Or a very robust focaccia.

Some Ed

Claire Excluding Radical Feminist. (Yeah, I know what the T stands for, but I thought I'd try to short circuit any questions on why Jeph might care.)

Some Ed

That was already answered a negative, if I'm not mistaken. Although, depending on how that all went down, there could be an open question of 'should you?'

Wild Card

If you didn't call the author she, I would have put money down on it being Asimov

Zach Elwyn

TERF? Terribly entertaining ribald freelancer?

Stephen Wells

She's not going to leave Beeps in the lurch, don't worry :)

Chris Crowther

Yeah. Good writer who made a lot of people happy...but kind of spoils it by being a shit show of a human being.

DrummerGeek

Nice Beetlejuice reference.

Blakey

Nah, JK Rowling is an outspoken TERF, I can't imagine Jeph is in a great hurry to reference her!

Jax

Except in the QC Universe, Harry is an AI.

OldGoat

But Jo is very much alive and she writes fantasy, not sci-fi.

OldGoat

Andre Alice Norton would qualify.

Zach Elwyn

Better if it was JK Rowling, Roku would be sitting on, like, quadrillions of dollars by now.

Kriss Pang

W h a t ?

I'm pretty sure the author is Ursula K. LeGuin. She passed away a few weeks ago or something. :(

Mark

I'm fond of a lot of Jeph's cute ladies, but damn if there isn't something special about Roko's combination of passion and vulnerability.,

In Roko's case, Sweetheart. I've given up any pretense I wouldn't enjoy curling up with her and a loaf of seedless rye.

Dean Reilly

Isaac Asimov

Bagge

To be a garden statue seems nice

Stephen Wells

Oh, good call. I was bracing myself for a Dr. Susan Calvin joke.

Stephen Wells

The characters seem to use "she" routinely, and "they" is never problematic.

Stephen Wells

"Actually the ship is fine but the crew have mostly deserted and you can be captain now." :)

Philip D Jones

The girls(?) outfits are really cute. How does one refer to an AI that has assumed a female persona.?

David D.

I feel like there's a missing "a" in front of wealthy in Beep's speech bubble in the first panel.

Áine Yore

Ursula Le Guin

Elf Sternberg

I can't help but wonder if Roko is about to go to a outdoor sculpture park and Have Words With Someone™.

Summer Sudbrink

The AI is now a talking statue of Marcel Marceau. I wonder who the human was.

Jason Rock

Someone please hug Beeps.

MercuryBuddha

Arthur Nelson?

Raphael Bressel

When did he change his name from Nelson? https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3954

Chuck Dee

Zero Oversight was my first thought...

fizzlefist

And thus Roko learns she can take command of a sleeping battleship

Churchill (formerly TeaBear)

Arthur Nelson. ;)

Brad Kirkwood

still confused, is his name arthur or nelson?

Joseph Bonnar

Why couldn't the AI have decided to become a toaster? That would have been helpful for poor Roko.

William Cole

Nice work if you can get it.

William Karr

Reminds me of the time Martin and Pintsize got into it, and Pintsize declared he now understood all of their lyrics... 😂

Sleepy John

There is no shame in not being successful in a position for which one has no training, aptitude, or desire.

drone r0m-3

Being a garden sculpture sounds nice actually.

This seems to be an underlying assumption, but Roko should stay. Stomping out in a huff would be dramatic, but if she didn't repent and return it would be a huge disappointment.

Joseph

"Oh, did I mention the ship is sinking?"

Gary Walker

To be fair to Beeps she didn't give Roko the packet because the printer wasn't working.

Andrew Mitchell

Good ideas. Note that Beeps said "hemorrhaging volunteers", not money, so maybe there's a decent amount left?

Ted Van Roekel

Okay, what we haven't mentioned yet is, if the funding is still intact, Roko will be in charge of some sort of organization with money and ZERO OVERSIGHT. I love this idea.

Slight typo: "estate of A wealthy..."

Andrew Mitchell

Depending on how much money is left, this could be a huge opportunity for furthering AI rights. Beeps said "hemorrhaging volunteers", not money, so it will be interesting to see where Roko takes this.

Captain Button

Tragedy When the feeling's gone and you can't go on It's tragedy

Populuxe

I want to work there. I want to work with Roko, Beepatrice, Winslow and Arthur. And I want to have a job where I’m doing actual good.

Joel Bateman

Beeps tried so hard, and got so far.... but in the end, does it really even matter?

Richard Riley

The real question SHOULD be how many fines they owe for all of the reporting they haven't done to the government. :P

Czarzhan

I think, funding-wise, this is a job for Yayy.

Miyaa

Now that we know where the money is coming from, Roko can start to find another rich person (maybe Hannerlore’s parents?) to help support them and be a de-facto board of directors to give them guidance and an initial financial support.

JD

The real question is how much funding do they have left. If they still have plenty of funding left, with Roko in charge, they can easily turn things back around.

Michael Boettger

So, Roko needs to look at their finances and look to long term prospects. Maybe Robot-Grandpa can help out. This may be a way to get him more engaged with the world at large.

Isaac Rivers

D- do you report to the garden sculpture?

Matt Grayson

Best. Job. Ever!

Samantha Yeaman

Well, now that Roko is here, they're about to get a LOT more productive, because she means business. I'm almost scared to see what she'll accomplish, but excited, mostly.

Alexander W Couzens

Poor Beeps :/

Tamara Macadam

baby :(