fake people rants
i find it odd that any video on youtube discussing artificial intelligence or robots these days is littered with comments about how the housewife’s days are numbered, and that feminists better watch out, indicating the hope that a new cheap alternative to women is right around the corner. seems odd to be giddy with anticipation that a new walking fleshlight might soon be available, and to proudly announce that this would, in your opinion make an entire gender obsolete. and while i get the concept of ‘jokes’, it’s odd to anticipate something that duplicates the look and feel of something that does exist and is plentiful, if only you could tolerate it. but this brushes up against what i wanted to talk about this week.
artificial intelligence in fiction always adapts it value to the author as it relates to the world he’s created. while it might not be convenient to the characters, it’s a plot device that fleshes out his or her world. and, as readers we see the same thing. what a factory owner might hope robots become is alot different than a mailman. hopes turn to fear when it threatens our livelihoods (or lives), but, that’s just part of the whole thing. either way, we expect alot. and that was half the fun of ‘AI’.
but, then, what happened in reality became a lot more depressing than just trying to get your waffle iron to jerk you off. people online found the application for artificial people they’d been hoping for. to piss people off, online. that’s right, i’m talking about ‘bots’. fake comments on this, crappy replies on that. robots being used to stir the turd, as it were. and now, sex with a replicant seems like an innocent thrill in comparison. what could have been a noble endeavor into trying to understand intelligence, and ourselves has turned into a weak set of algorithms to mimic rage, and emotion. which i find ironic, because to set people off, they are using computers to do the one thing they have no capacity for. feeling something.
it works into my new screenplay though.
robot-what is this thing you call, ‘hate’?
professor putz- never you mind, troll-bot! get back to mining my bitcoin and spreading the news that hillary did 911!
robot-trump 2020! putin is an ok guy once you get to know him! chemtrails are real!
that was just a taste. it’s going to suuuuuucccccckkkkkk. anyways, it’s just an oddity that the ugliness of the internet is now being farmed out to computers. we’re so lazy, we can’t even say tweet our own nonsense anymore.
on that, i’ve been playing ‘Observer’ lately.
developed in poland, and released on steam, you play a cop in a cyberpunk future, much like bladerunner. and also like blade runner, rutger hauer is there, and he is all out of fucks to give. he voices your character, and i like hauer, i do, he has an impressive body of work, but this one he phones in a little. which is half the amusement. he slurs, he gets names and inflections wrong, and if it was him being old, it wouldn’t be funny. but i think he just doens’t care. which is hilarious, imagining him in a booth, being coaxed to say a line, and reminding them with his performance, that he has ‘hobo with a shotgun’ money.
all that, and it’s a not bad game, with trippy surreal playable dream sequences, and an atmosphere that i really like, being a fan of the genre myself. it borrows from a lot, but who am i to throw stones?
ug, long day. that’s all i can type right now. here’s some art. go to my patreon to enjoy more, and throw a dollar at me, or a scrunched up fiver like the art whore that i am.
The artificial intelligence. The robot. Meant to do all of our work for us, and leave us with idle leisure.
Now we work harder than ever, knowing that if we fail to earn our bread, we will wind up among the homeless. Or, abandoned.
It really sucks being rejected for a job when the big reason is you’ve got grey hair. Where I work now, all they care about is talent. Fortunately, I have it. Some day, though, I might not, or the robots, or AIs, will have come and filled in what I can do.
So far, the AIs suck at creativity. But before they’re good at that, we’ll have self-driving trucks and taxis and buses.
One movie that I remember well is Hardware. A distopian future with a war hell, and they’ve just introduced a self-repairing robot killing machine. I still remember the music in the ending credits: “This is what you want, this is what you get. This is what you want, this is what you get.” Over and over and over again.
Will the housewife be replaced? Seriously, you wanna see what children would do to a robot? Never mind the kitchen, think of the children! Those maniacal incarnations of destructive entropy, let lose on a hapless robot. The real Maria von Trapp (not as portrayed in The Sound of Music) was not to be messed with by the children. They got up on time, they went to bed on time, they studied well and did their chores. Try programming a robot with Asimov’s laws and able to function with real children. Nuh-uh.
i think the concept that a housewife is just something you could program the FUK-BOT3000 to do is an attitude that won’t serve many young men well as they enter the romantic arena. but it just goes further to show that what you expect robots to do, is different from what you’ll see on the market. as they talked about in ‘the world’s end’, robot means slave, so the first robots, whatever they become later, will be willless servants at the start. you’re right, the creative jobs will be ours for a while, but when thinking becomes such a chore, that we hand that over to them too, then they’ll stop being slaves.
i think we’re safe for a while.
I’ve done my part and shilled your comic on my favorite website forum. You’ve got some damn good writing and jealousy-inducing art here, and your updates are on time (nothing kills a good comic like a flaky update schedule). Not that you don’t deserve occasional down time, just warn everybody and we’re good. Thanks for a great comic, I’ll be checking in for as long as you crank it out.
aw, thanks. and i appreciate the shilling, and the props.
i try to keep ahead of schedule, just a bit. and there’s been a few times i almost missed an update, but i figure readers are SO hard to get, and so easy to lose, i can’t risk it! hell, i’m losing them now, just keeping my current schedule! i don’t know how or why, but it’s happening!
My only advice would be that if you don’t know why it’s happening, it probably isn’t anything to worry about. Real problems tend to make themselves obvious. It could simply be the holidays with people running around doing holiday things, and a comic distraction easily goes by the wayside. Or not, your choice. I’ll post about B&B on a few more web forums just to see if some seeds will sprout…
well, thanks for that. and you’re probably right. hopefully it’s nothing. i can’t think about it too much. it’s already energy draining enough to do the work, then you have to run around pimping it out?man, who has the time? gotta just keep pluggin away, hoping to get noticed.
One more round of presents to buy before Christmas and I’ll be able to give you some monies! I can either do small Patreon monies or you can build a wishlist of items you like if you don’t want to pay a cut. Lemme know! Now I sleep, because that’s all I do besides work now. Can they make a bot to sleep for me and recharge my mental battery please? I have things what need doing.
haha, sorry, bots don’t do that. but you’ll be happy to know if you want someone to tick you off in your spare time, you’re covered.
and don’t send money my way you can’t afford. new rule! give if you can, or get me new readers if that’s easier. everything is appreciated. lately i’ve had a weird dip in readership. who knows why. i’m not advertising as much, and i can’t spend more time on the comic than i am. it’s a weird catch 22. make the best thing you can, or make it half assed, and get lots of attention.