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Easy Peasy

🕑 Added 2019-06-30 01:23:24 +0000 UTC

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And, PLEASE, don't suggest that "the government" can be trusted to use that money for the "right" causes. James Buchanan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Buchanan) disproved that idea, and won a Nobel Prize for it.

Jim Feldman

I think this pretty much confirms SB's alien origins. No name, minimal ethics (self described), it's home (in space) and the fact that it is unlike terrestrial AI's including Station. There's also a callback to Bubbles describing a massive hive intelligence.

Dustin

Or they could have a very "loose" or "liberal" definition for "their" money ;)

Marc Moskowitz

That's the thing I love most about this plotline. Hopefully it's impossible to continue the chain further.

Well, Roko did say money...so that could mean just money in whatever bank accounts they have. Stocks, bonds, IRAs, are holdings that earn money so they may not be in as tight a spot. Will be interesting to see where this goes!

David Pipes

Isn't Spookybot really a collective?

Jonathan Price

then*

Tachpmg

I expect the boston accent to make a comeback with that

Some Ed

Spookybot has plenty of scruples. They're just not exactly aligned with the scruples you may think they should have.

Shawn K. Younkin

DID Spookybot HAVE a lot of money in the first place? She is an all powerful super sentient AI that can get anything she wants without NEEDING money. I wouldn't be surprised if she actually only had like 30 dollars or something.

Brad Kirkwood

here is where we learn that either Spooky actually doesn't have alot of money and simply manipulates other people or that she's trying to teach Roko that throwing money at a problem doesn't work

Tinwhisker

Yup, monkey's paw here we come.

Joe

Spookybot are a djinn, are they not?? they've 'helped', may god help us.

All mankind

I mean, it would be better to not let anyone mass that kind of fortune in the first place. Now, of course, we're going to have to take his money from him in some creative way.

Hilda Leyes

Damn you're right, better let Bezos keep it all

BREAKING NEWS: small Massachusetts dog sanctuary becomes world's wealthiest non-profit, buys Wyoming and Montana as dog park

Aquaholic

But then you need to be sure that Tax is going to the right places - infrastructure, helping people in need, scientific development, etc. And not into politician’s pockets or to a contractor of a contractor of a contractor of a contractor...

Peter McDevitt

If only there was a system in place that took only a portion of someone's wealth (varying based on exact amount of wealth) and reallocated it to areas in need. a "Tax," we could call it...

Dean Reilly

Spooky it probably did it in a way calculated to attract the least attention, which is almost the same thing.

Waffliesinyoface

hey, now Roko and May have something in common! Both of them accidentally caused a good thing to happen via sarcasm

Thomas Boys

Erm...that makes the huge assumption that Spookybot was looking to cause the least harm. Which, given their character, I find to be really unlikely. Oo

All mankind

The stupid thing is, if Bezos wanted to give away all his money he'd have to be pretty careful about the time and place to avoid completely destabilizing the world's economy in ways nobody could predict. I'm assuming the mighty AI was able to calculate instantly how to put their money to the most use with the least harm of course.

Dylan T

concern

Bagge

They are contributing

jimfromtx

More like Chaotic Neutral. With slight leanings towards good.

Yonatan Zunger

... OK, I'm thinking we're about to find out what happens when you try to make the friendly neighborhood Deus ex Machina into a bona fide character. o.O

Czarzhan

Aaaaand we have a new pet name for Spookybot...

gatherer818

That's the sixth comment I've read so far saying the same thing 😛

Luzahn

what a good robot?

Devinity

I hate to be a grammar pedant, but in the interest of saving Jeff from 10,000 emails, that first panel should be "then" not "than"

Minzoku Bokumetsu

what are the odds it was easy because there wasn't any money I mean, AIs

GJT

I honestly doubt spookybot actually PAYS taxes, but that's true enough in general.

Chuck Dee

Funny thing... if you give away all of your money to charity, you'll be in a bit of trouble once tax time comes around as you can't deduct all of that, so you'll still owe taxes.

Oh no, now I can't unsee the pointyness, lol.

Seth Aaron Hershman has they she pronouns

I assume it's for our benefit, a visual reminder of robotness.

awgiedawgie

Even if they <i>have</i> given all their money away now, that doesn't mean that they won't be insanely wealthy tomorrow.

Andrew Mitchell

The request was "give all your money to charity", not OUR charity. So... who knows what's happened?

Andrew Mitchell

I agree many charities suck. But it's easy to find worthwhile ones Give Well spend thousands of hours per year researching charities and publish the results for free. https://www.givewell.org/

Space_horse

i think i figured it out. we're in the pointy chin phase of jeph's art

Andrew

Hmm, with some kind of twist of course. Like... everyone Roko helps gets a Philomena model G body identical to hers? They could be the Roko-bots!

MalkToast

Then*

Sleepy John

WHICH charity, Spookyboo?

BobC

Why does Spookybot even *bother* with neck seams? It's not like they get their chassis off a production line. Right?

Matt Grayson

Must... not.... say.....

Brent Catherman

The fact that they are concerned about exposure reaffirms my suspicion that Spookybot is wanted by a lot of government agencies especially the secret ones. And if they were completely invulnerable they wouldn't care. I'm more concerned with Roko's safety than anything else. If there is a group as unscrupulous and resourceful as Spookybot then they wouldn't hesitate to get to them through Roko.

Than in the first panel should be then I think.

Danya Michael

Apparently SpookyBot has a similar sense of humor to May's..."that would be hilarious if you quit your job because of me." https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3833

Shawn K. Younkin

I'M HELPING!!! I think two are my new favorite dynamic.

Adam Friedlander

Wow. Some charity just got sixty nine billion dollars.

Gamera

Yeah, it would be then. Than is like "I'm better than you", and then is like "and then I did it"

Michael Boettger

Anyone wanna bet that Beeps doesn't remember the charities password for financial matters. Money lost.

I just hope you don't have a body like mine. (58, short fat man)

z

Actually, this is a BAD idea... An amazing amount of charities have horrible through-put (i.e. you give them $1, how much goes to the causes that they proclaim to be trying to help). Once upon a time, I had to find out about these kinds of things, and the numbers get bad and scary, fast. There were one or two big charities, I can't recall which ones, where the "cause" gets about $0.30 for every dollar that goes in. The rest goes into "upkeep," for a charity that has no paid employees beyond the leadership. The best charities I'd found out were Catholic charities, ethically run Muslim ones, and a number of smaller charities. Of course, for all we know, Spookybot is doing money laundering for another project...

Erin Hartshorn

They said they have helped. They did not say they followed Roko's suggestion. *waits for the other shoe to drop*

Alcaria Swain

They better not have donated to The Salvation Army. The bigots.

Jessie Cook

Tomorrow: There $500 donated. You actually thought we had need of money?

kuilin

I'm 50/50 on the next strip being like "we only have $20 in our account, we use influence to get money as we need it" vs "the economy is now in ruins and the salvation army just bought america"