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Self-Indulgence

🕑 Added 2018-09-25 02:12:18 +0000 UTC

Comments

unsurprising

Based on this dialogue, Roko picked up her accent from movies. Some of the better ones, but still. Makes sense for an AI, I guess.

Brent Catherman

Apparently Spookybot's rectangular dialogue was a mistake since it's in circular bubbles for tonight's strip on the regular site.

awgiedawgie

For reference: <a href="https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3695" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3695</a>

Will Weaver

Damn, Spookybot got legs for daaaays.

Gary Walker

I would like to state that "oaff" is the best possible spelling of how an angry Southie says "off."

Brad Knowles

Ahh, okay. Thanks for the clarification!

Matt Grayson

The Boston accent comes out when she’s angry, not drunk.

Brad Knowles

So ... is Basilisk robo-drunk? I don't think I've ever seen her use such ... unusual ... pronunciation before. But then maybe that's a side-effect of spookybot showing up out of nowhere?

And now the question we need answered: Who is wearing the leggings better? Roko or Spookybot?

Matt Grayson

The most difficult things in SF, aside from writing well, are depicting the truly alien and a convincing superhuman intelligence. Stanislaw Lem managed the former with Solaris and the latter with his Golem lectures. Spookybot is a great take on this really difficult subject. Bravo!

John M Davis

"Are are"?

Joshua Roberts

😶😶😶😶 I am a massive fan of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS????!!!!!!

DP

Reminds me of a similar argument made by Swamp Thing about fixing the world's pollution rather than letting humanity deal with the consequences of its actions.

Peter

I have to admit, I would love to see more about or involving Spookybot...

Scott Kenney

That's because they are Desire, of the Endless, Jeph.

Peter Jensen

We'll get to the <a href="https://i.imgur.com/woy7cJR.gif" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">end game</a> some day ...

Ted Van Roekel

Well, as much as I have enjoyed shipping the Triumvirate of Clinton-Brun-Elliot, this reminds me of how much the Clinton-Roko bit made me laugh. HUMAN ABS....

Ok, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that. No one else mentioned it so I thought I somehow missed it

Jeffrey Nonken

It's nice to know that our robot overlords have a sense of the ridiculous. But Spookybot is right, of course. If they start solving all the world's problems, then we will simply start depending on them for everything, and we'll never grow. Quite the opposite. And when a crisis arrives that Spookybot is unable to solve, instead of being able to pick up the slack, we'll just be helpless. And we'll all die.

Drew Teter

When did Roko gain a Boston accent?

I love evilbot

Peter Jensen

Spookybot may be canonical, but I've always been partial to iSatan.

Peter Jensen

They have everything bugged, at least anything AI. They were eavesdropping on presumably very encrypted communication between Station and other powerful AI.

Ben Russell-Gough

Yeah, had an existential crisis, quit her job and now she has the AI equivalent of Mephisto 'taking an interest'. Or, maybe, the AI equivalent of Thanos. I'm not sure which possibility scares me more.

Chris Hull

Poor Roko, not having a good day.

Leugi

Wow, sudden Spookybot hype

Brent Catherman

Hey look we even shop at the same store! I'm getting a real Beetlejuice vibe from Spookybot. Maybe if they say their name 3 times they'll appear. And am I the only one that hears Rachel Dratch's Boston teen character from SNL when Roko's accent goes into overdrive?

Ol' Firebones

Holy shit, Spookybot! Did not see that coming!

Ben Russell-Gough

It suddenly occurs to me that SpookyBot has the police squad room bugged. What's the bet they've been cyber-stalking Roko and can access any internet-connected audio-visual recording device they want?

Ben Russell-Gough

I don't think that she's drunk. I think that she's angry (probably at the way her superiors and former colleagues talked to her when she quit) and more than a little afraid of her future. Those things combined means she's lost control of her Bostonian accent.

Erin Hartshorn

Yay, Spookybot!

Ditto, I always assumed that was because they were so advanced they didn't have "robot-inflection" (whatever that may be.)

Evgeniy Semyonov

"Luckily, that god-tier AI seems to be not a vindictive type."

I see Basilisk has reached critical Mass.

MalkToast

Why are spookybot's speech bubbles square? They never were before. She was unique in that way.

Douglas E. Smith

'Legging buddies' makes me very happy for a couple reasons. First, it indicates Spookybot is not above such mortal affectations (even if it was purely to wind up Roko), and second: <a href="https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/066/910/917.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/066/910/917.jpg</a>

Bagge

Sure, interesting in an overwhelming-dread-and-acute-annoyance sense of the word

Czarzhan

Legging buddies. :)

Thomas Boys

Well I'm not sleeping tonight now. Thank you so much for that nightmare fuel. Oo

Ben Russell-Gough

I just think it's a deliberate aesthetic choice they made to emphasise the fact that they are not human or aspire to be human-like (basically the precise opposite to Momo in many ways).

Has any other AI been seen with the sort of eyes Spookybot has? Eyes like a cats, or some species of snake... Sauron's eyes...

Ben Russell-Gough

Entry in Roko's journal for today: "For some reason, I told a god-tier AI to 'fuck off' today. I just hope that they are too powerful and self-assured to take stuff like that personally."

Rudolph Gerber

Spookybot is already in a relationship. With another manifestation of themselves. <a href="https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3418" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3418</a>

Rudolph Gerber

Does she believe it was stigmata or a miraculous source of mountain dew? Inquiring minds want to know.

Rudolph Gerber

LOL I so wish we could have more Spookybot. Its like seeing how people would react if God lived down the road and was more overt in getting involved in people's lives. Also, observe: tries to fit in, annoys people.

Stoodmuffin

Wheeen Did Roko get drunk?

Ben Russell-Gough

I suspect that Jeph forgot. He does that quite a lot.

Ben Russell-Gough

Which one? They're a distributed entity that has at least six nodes from the last time we saw them!

Ben Russell-Gough

Helpful? SpookyBot seems to have modelled their personality on the Romano-Hellenic gods, which means anything they say is cryptic, greatly open to interpretation and leaves those who have come to their attention running in circles trying to find their way out of a trap which may or may not even exist!

BobC

Spookybot in 2020.

Ben Russell-Gough

I thought that SpookyBot would get involved in this at some point. However, not in a way that suggested that they may have some kind of bizarre crush on Roko! For the record, I believe that SpookyBot's explanation in panel 5 is a lie. I'd advise Roko to run a deep scan of her system because I wouldn't put it past them to have planted some kind of passive tracking cookie in her system directory somewhere. You see... I suspect that, as with Bubbles, Roko and her fate has come to SpookyBot's attention and they may have decided that there is some kind of limited intervention here that needs to happen.

Megan Lane

Anger! Possibly and/or the drunkeness subroutine, if she is so inclined.

Ack

Where did Roko's sudden accent come from?

Evgeniy Semyonov

More likely "because they feel like it right now". With Spookybot it is safe to assume any motivation being "self amusement", all others being totally incomprehensible to us.

Thomas Halpin

I love the super-ai/spookybot. Such a fascinating concept, must be such an interesting person/people to talk to.

Bagge

Thanks, Spookybot. That was not helpful in any way, shape or form, Spookybot.

Katrina Urmson

Yessssssss!!

Mitchell Sealy

Both I imagine. Sounds like Spookybot is some kind of hive mind. They probably had many disparate gender identities when they were individuals, but now they've all come together to form an entity that is all of that and more.

Fart Captor

Well, I ship them now

Seth Aaron Hershman has they she pronouns

Doesn't Spookybot speak in round bubbles?

Oh freaking NO NO NO NO.... JEPH! You made me snort an ENTIRE glass of Mountain Dew through my nose and my Catholic niece saw it and thought it was a miracle and NOW, and NOW I have to go before the Bishop and be debriefed because it was a miracle... AGH!

I approve of this fahkin' accent.

Holly Nelson

Yeah. I was wondering if it was like the phrase ”I and I” meaning “myself and my divine self,” though that seems a bit too gawdly for them.

Chris Heg

She's a Southie when she's pissed ahf.

Shawn K. Younkin

Now I know why I had an issue reading this...Roko has an accent here. LOL.

Am Queue

Cause afaict all the AIs do.

Bryan Freehan

Not to be that ass, but might wanna fix that "Are are" in the second-to-last panel before this goes live tomorrow.

z

What would actually be interesting would be that Spookybot moves carefully because Spookybot knows that it's a small little fish in a VERY large pool packed to the gills of very hungry sharks.

Shawn K. Younkin

Legging buddies!!

Alcaria Swain

Accent, right?

Fuck 3395 panel 2 ...

BearPerson

For others looking to dive the archive, 3391 is the entrance of Spookybot.

JD

Are "they/them" being used because there are multiple Spoookybots or because Spookybot doesn't identify as a particular gender or both?

Chuck Dee

I didn't get that at all. Spookybot operates outside of the system's norms, as they say in the panels above. Also, what the audience takes from it is not necessarily what Jeph's beliefs are on the subject.

Dylan T

Also, "are are aware"

Dylan T

And suddenly, I'm having flashbacks to Fallout 4.

David Durant

I love QC and have been reading it since near the beginning but this latest subplot makes me sad. The idea that leaving the police is a statement of "social consciousness" is troublesome as is previous characters who seem to be saying that doing so is good in-and-of-itself regardless of Roko's personal situation. I liked having a sympathetic character that was a police-person and I think it's a shame that we're going to lose that potential view of things. I'm looking forward to finding out what Roko does next, but it's a shame that the whole potential avenue of police related stories seems to have drawn to a close.

Crash Collison

Yis, moar Spookybot!

Matt Grayson

Spookybot used human speech bubbles before. Are they speaking robot for Roko’s sake?

Andy Sleeper

I needed this hilarious strip so much!

Brian Ellingboe

I was wondering the same thing

How come Spookybot has rectangular speech balloons?

Kyle Jenkins

.... has.... has Basilisk always had a Boston accent? Am I crazy?

Kenneth Carlile

We've seen a bunch of them at home(?) together.

Populuxe

Spookybot is non-binary.

sure we denotes more than 1 mind, or a Royal hierarchy like We Are. But maybe maybe are are is Spookybot being a nueron in the Cog of the AI leaving Earth Behind as they Evolve together and exodus leaving behind a gift to help end the end. Dunno, maybe I'm crossin my wires or at least hoping I am correctly crossing them SpookyBot Sir/Ma'am/are ??

Ami

I want to marry Spookybot

Chris Hewson

I didn't even know she HAD an accent. Has it ever come up before?

William Hanna

Exactly. Has she been using a “professional” voice, and now can be herself? Is it a setting that when she gets pissed enough, she goes “full masshole”

Cave

"Poor you"

What's Roko's first word in panel 4 supposed to be? I'm not American so I don't really know what accent she's supposed to have with the purposeful misspelling