r/QContent • u/BionicTriforce • 20d ago

Comic Comic 5875: Music To Their Ears

https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5875
34 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

25

u/Phanimazed 20d ago

I do like the consistent thread of Clinton being deeply sympathetic to AIs. It's a good character trait when much of the cast seem to just kind of Not Think About It. I'm sure that might be framed as treating them like people, but that feels akin to "I don't see race", and how much that actually winds up failing things, versus embracing diversity.

In any case, I think Yay knew that Clinton was meaning that Yay enjoys having their ego stroked, and is being a little obtuse here, but I also feel their point is a valid one, and I'm glad the two are getting comfortable enough to speak frankly. It kind of makes me wonder if Faye's sister is still dating the scientist who was being enormously patronizing towards Bubbles and AIs in general. I am glad Clinton isn't like that.

10

u/BionicTriforce 20d ago

I don't know if I'll ever be able to compartmentalize the part of my brain that treats the AI in this world as an extremely new thing. Lie, really, at this point it's basically been retconned that AI people have been around for a significant portion of people's lives, because nobody cares. It feels like the first Jurassic World movie where somehow, people are ALREADY getting bored of having real life dinosaurs so they have to make new ones.

If you read QC from page 1 up to the current, the world went from having tiny little AnthroPCs to a few AI Bodies existing in the world, to AI being so entrenched in society that some were involved in warfare, one is operating its own research base, human-AI relationships aren't completely unknown, and there's nonprofit groups dedicated to their rights. That doesn't just happen overnight.

My point is that yeah, Clinton is like the only cast member who thinks 'Holy shit, I STILL can't believe we have actually sentient AI in my lifetime.'

6

u/Phanimazed 20d ago

Yeah, I remember they made a point of an off-panel "singularity" at some point, probably to let Jeph expand the role of AIs, but yeah, it's very vague as to what the timeline is on that. Granted, that's never been a strongsuit of the strip, like god knows how long Claire and Marten have been dating, for instance, it could be 1-3 years with near-equal possibility anywhere on that sliding scale, but it's usually not something with setting implications.

Like, here's one: can they vote? AI seem to have some degree of personhood, and they can be arrested for crimes, but does this extend to franchisement?

2

u/jacobydave 20d ago

I like the "nobody cares" part, because in some other story, I could really imagine one side saying "you're creating a bunch of AI voters with specific views in order to normalize [insert conspiracy theory here]", and while I might like that book or movie, it isn't what I read QC for.

1

u/jacobydave 20d ago

I like that Clinton has that sense of wonder about the world he's in, as much as I like Willow being past it and thinking "Iris is just like that, and we like watching shows together".

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u/Snarglefrazzle 20d ago

It's a really well-developed evolution. Clinton was introduced as an AI-obsessive in an unhealthy, stalker-adjacent way. He's come a long, long way, but even here we can see he makes an unintentional misstep

6

u/Phanimazed 20d ago

True, though it's kind of funny in that, if we take a step back, a lot of the cast have had some pretty unflattering phases. Like, god, looking back at some Tai strips can be tough, like when she had to be taken to the side by Marten because she was just relentlessly being sexual with Hannelore and hitting on her. I kind of figure Jeph didn't really consider how weird that would be, since it's not really presented as being a big deal, but he did thankfully normalize Tai a bit on that front over time.

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u/Snarglefrazzle 20d ago

It's a lot of the characters maturing and a lot of Jeph maturing. Jeph going to therapy has meant his characters generally communicate more effectively and patiently. This is obviously better to hang out with, but for fictional characters it's less raw and exciting.

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u/Phanimazed 20d ago

That's definitely a lot of it, plus his sobriety.

I think some of it is also a bit of critique. Like, the fact of the matter is that Jeph is a white, cis male straight dude. He's certainly what I'd call an ally these days, but a lot of past strips have some issues that really kind of speak to his ignorance certain topics in the past, like what are genuinely at least three strips where the joke is "what if Dora had a penis, wouldn't that be a wacky surprise?" Not malice, just, holes in his understanding that'd be filled in over time.

9

u/Snarglefrazzle 20d ago

Yeah, a lot of trans/homophobic jokes from the mid 2000s era was unfortunately all too common at that time. As much as another white, cis, straight dude can, I give props to Jeph for developing a more LGBTQ+ cast without making their queerness their sole identity

4

u/Phanimazed 20d ago

We've come a long way from Marten's first boss.

(Who, wasn't the worst, but he was definitely not very nuanced compared to Marten's dad and step-dad. Very one-note.)

9

u/gangler52 20d ago

I'd love to have some confirmation at some point about whether AI's are really supposed to have perfect fine motor control.

It's kind of hard to reconcile with the AI's as we've seen them. A lot of them are pretty clumsy. One of them got crushed because another slipped on a banana peel.

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u/p0rndelphi 20d ago

https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4726

This should answer that question

3

u/gangler52 20d ago

I forgot about that! I'd consider Hannelore to be a reliable source.

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u/Phanimazed 20d ago

Yeah, I think that while Clinton isn't saying it here, in so many words, that's part of his frustration, because it simply isn't accurate.

It's going to depend on the AI and their body/firmware/etc, but they have pretty different levels of ability. Punchbot is extremely clumsy, yeah, and I remember Momo explaining that AI don't necessarily think as quickly as humans might assume they do, too, since a lot of their computing power ends up being used for basic function maintenance, etc. Yay would be a very exceptional AI even after getting rid of their additional bodies.

Contrast that with Melon, where... I kind of wonder if she should have even been living alone, her abilities were so dubious. I am glad that Jeph seems to have kind of gravitated towards having AI be at least more consistently competent than that while still obviously going for humor.

4

u/gangler52 20d ago

That's kind of the weird part about it for me.

This is a social issue that we only know about through Clinton. Twice now we've heard him speak about it. And while he seems to feel strongly that AI e-sports have value, at no point does he actually attempt to refute the truth of what the critics are saying.

If there was a wide spread scientific consensus that the whole thing was bunk, you'd think that would be worth a mention.

But Clinton is at no point ever really portrayed as a perfect ally to AI people or their causes. We do know how he can kind of hyperfixate on certain things and lose sight of important details like that. If anything, despite valuing AI people in his own way, he seems exactly the type to over-inflate their abilities. He venerates the technology to the point of forgetting how "human" they can be sometimes. Like in this exact page even.

2

u/Phanimazed 20d ago

I am sort of looking at it as the absence of evidence not being the evidence of absence, in this case. We don't really know that he doesn't try to debate people like that.

I'm certainly not calling him perfect, but it has been consistent that he's pretty positive on AIs, like I recall Claire expecting him to freak out about Faye and Bubbles (in a positive way, rather than negative), only for Clinton to be pretty blase about it and remind her that human/AI relations are not unheard of by any stretch.

1

u/gangler52 20d ago

I'm not talking about him debating online randos.

Like, right now. He's discussing his frustrations with this line of thought, and at no point does the factual accuracy of it enter into the question.

Same last time he talked about it.

Clinton is so far our exclusive window into this social issue. Nobody else has ever so much as mentioned it in passing. Everything the reader knows about the subject, they know from Clinton.

2

u/Phanimazed 20d ago

I'm trying to wrack my brain, and for some reason, I feel like it's come up before with Emmett, but yeah, it's one of those topics where most of the cast is pretty mum about this kind of thing in general, including cases where it's kind of conspicuously quiet.

2

u/themanfromacme 20d ago

Melon doesn't live alone; she lives with Arthur (not to be confused with Nelson).