Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2019-02-18
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2019-02-18

by shaenon on February 18, 2019 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Green Noah
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Discussion (25) ¬

  1. Trisscar
    February 18, 2019, 12:22 am | # | Reply

    Feel like if they get enough AIs in, they’ll eventually get drug-programs instead, ala Spider.
    I also feel like Mistycorn would either lead the development eventually, or become a connoisseur of them.

  2. Robert Nowall
    February 18, 2019, 12:32 am | # | Reply

    Next time score something inside the VR world.

  3. awgiedawgie
    February 18, 2019, 1:07 am | # | Reply

    Baron Mistycorn has a new take on the old saying “those who can’t do, teach”…

    “Those who can’t qualify, evaluate.”

    • Efogoto
      February 18, 2019, 1:24 am | # | Reply

      The Dunning-Krueger effect will kick him hard there.

      • BRGR
        February 18, 2019, 7:38 am | # | Reply

        He didn’t claim to be smart himself, which already puts him high above average.

  4. warpzone32
    February 18, 2019, 1:24 am | # | Reply

    I just heard Baron Mistycorn exposit for three straight panels and I still have no idea what the plot is.

    It’s a full-time job, so he’s out here running around instead of doing his full-time job? Did he quit? Get fired? Is he still running the server from out here? Is Nick still INSIDE the server and all this is fake? What the heck does “field” mean? Normally “fielding units” means to deploy assets you already have, but the phrase “best and the brightest” implies he doesn’t know who the best units are yet. Could he mean field-test? Fielding questions? Is he trying to recruit AIs to go inside VR and fight the good fight? If so, why not wait for them to join and THEN recruit them? Is he trying to convince AIs to stay outside VR and fight for meatspace? Why is he talking down to Nick about meatworld like he’s the expert?

    I’m sure there’s a reading of this that makes a lot of sense, I just don’t know what that reading it. I feel like I had a stroke and suddenly can’t understand 25% of the English language or something.

    • awgiedawgie
      February 18, 2019, 1:37 am | # | Reply

      1. I assume that Aimee’s server is inside that temple. It was a parting gift from Whimsy to the Baron, so it only makes sense that he would take it with him.
      2. I take “field” to mean something like it does in baseball – where “fielding” the ball means evaluating its course, intercepting it, and determining where to send it after that.
      3. He’s not talking down about meatworld. But with the reality blindness, things have to be getting rough for many non-humans, which would include most AIs.

      • Thenardyr
        February 18, 2019, 11:27 pm | # | Reply

        Field can also mean “fielding a team,” where it refers to all the drafting, negotiations, training, trading, etc that is involved in assembling a sports team.

        • awgiedawgie
          February 19, 2019, 4:25 am | # | Reply

          I’ve never heard that particular usage of “fielding a team” before. I have always heard it used simply for providing a team for competition. In order for a club, manager, etc. to “field a team”, the team must already be assembled and prepared. I have even seen special rules that apply to a game when one side fields a team with fewer than the regulation number of players, specifically in soccer and in softball.

    • Robert Nowall
      February 18, 2019, 1:40 am | # | Reply

      What’s not to understand? (And I’m assuming you’ve read the “Fun For Some” storyline.) Baron M. is the gatekeeper for a VR world, in charge of keeping the robot riffraff out. He’s obviously in over his head, too.

      • warpzone32
        February 19, 2019, 2:08 pm | # | Reply

        Okay today’s strip explains it better. I just assumed you’d do digital gatekeeping from inside the virtual world since you’d react quicker and have root access to basically all of reality as far as people trying to enter via the gate are concerned.

        But, no, sure, exit the Matrix and walk around in meatspace to evaluate digital minds for fitness in a world where the physical limitations that determine their meatspace performance will no longer exist, that’s fine too.

  5. Seph
    February 18, 2019, 3:50 am | # | Reply

    And I bet the coke was even more expensive.

    • Shadowmehr
      February 18, 2019, 10:23 am | # | Reply

      The pony probably didn’t have much fun either.

      Actually, let me amend that statement. There is a slight chance that the pony might have gotten a contact buzz from the chemical being on it’s skin/fur. So there is a small probability that he/she/it/they enjoyed it.

      • Bruce A Munro
        February 18, 2019, 8:27 pm | # | Reply

        Given that this is the Skin Horse universe, there’s a fair chance the Shetland was sapient.

    • jdreyfuss
      February 4, 2020, 2:08 pm | # | Reply

      Yeah, $50 sounds pretty cheap for a line of cocaine.

  6. Leslie
    February 18, 2019, 4:12 am | # | Reply

    I guess now we go thru teeny-tiny developments. S’OK, just glad the SAGA continues.
    And I’ll stop kvetching about ‘finding and rescuing’ Nick. Although he’s not quite
    functioning as human yet.

    Seems strange to the remaining residue of my own outworn insistence of ‘personal purity’ and devotion to a particular cult of idealists….
    that Nick could allow himself to immerse in fantasy-ameliorating, crime-ridden imaginary exploits. Such is NO pathway to holiness.

    He obviously ‘FELL’ a long time before Virgie scraped and schlurped his brain.

    And by the way, was it a Shetland pony?

  7. Nix
    February 18, 2019, 4:32 am | # | Reply

    I note that Baron Mistycorn was spending money to snort coke off that pony even though drugs presumably do nothing to him. Why? It’s a very human thing, snorting drugs (other animals do it, but only humans do it systematically). Does the Baron actually want to be human after all?

    • awgiedawgie
      February 18, 2019, 6:38 am | # | Reply

      More importantly, it’s a depraved, carnal thing to do. And he indulges in many such things. Like his porn. He does them not because they are “human” things to do, and not because he wants to be human, but to rebel against the “pure” stereotype of the Whimsy characters.

  8. Frank
    February 18, 2019, 1:42 pm | # | Reply

    Given that he’s a robot, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was literal coke

  9. Sleepy John
    February 18, 2019, 3:08 pm | # | Reply

    I’m just breaking in here to say that my work password needs to be changed every 30 days, be up to 15 characters, and be made of words that would be impossible to guess. Up till now, Nick’s edited commentaries have been my password generator (cuddlepumpkin was the latest), I think my new password will be baronmistycorn.

    • David B Huber
      February 18, 2019, 9:11 pm | # | Reply

      I vote for “SnortShetland” 😉

  10. Robert Nowall
    February 18, 2019, 4:25 pm | # | Reply

    One evening with the world too blind,
    And the meatworld problems burning,
    Down the road came a robot striking,
    Who just said, “Guys, it’s concerning.
    I’m going to a world that’s close at hand,
    With those that can deserve her.
    So come along, nothing is wrong
    In Aimee’s Download Server.”

    Inside Aimee’s Download Server
    There’s a world that’s fine and good,
    Where you’re never asked a question twice
    And you’re always understood.
    Where no system errors happen,
    And you’re charged up every day.
    You can drop your tasks at any time,
    But you can’t be scrapped away.

    Oh…the buzzing of the juice
    Through the circuit board use
    Of the critical observer.
    Your credit card chips
    Give you citizenship
    Inside Aimee’s Download Server.

    —from “The Big Rock Candy Mountain.”

    • David B Huber
      February 18, 2019, 9:07 pm | # | Reply

      *Applause*

    • JET73L
      February 18, 2019, 9:35 pm | # | Reply

      Don’t forget the final verse, Robert!

      A bot rolled up with his red-glow eyes
      And said to the bouncer, “Baron,
      “This server I feel might not be real.
      “Am I just here for errands?
      “I’ve come and gone and I’ve fetched your coke,
      “My fans are clogged and my wallet’s broke.
      “I think I’m done falling for the joke
      “Of Aimee’s Download Server.”

    • Robert Nowall
      February 18, 2019, 11:27 pm | # | Reply

      Meh. Should have written “upload” and not “download,” thought of it thirty minutes too late.

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