We didn’t NEED stochastic skills to know she was going to call him anyway. But while her stochastic skills are good, I think Unilock has some things to learn about relationships.
However smart Unity may be, she’s still young and inexperienced, and she doesn’t understand love. I choose to believe Ginny and Nick can find a way to be together. After all, they did first meet in a virtual reality simulation that seemed completely real to Nick.
I agree. Unity’s comments suggest that she thinks Ginny just wants sex, which is a pretty narrow way of looking at a romantic relationship. I’m not entirely sure that she gets that there are other aspects of a relationship beyond that.
There’s a big difference between “just wanting sex” and “wanting sex,” but Nick’s current existence makes him unsuitable for a partner that fits either description. And Unity’s comment seems to refer more to there not being any physical component in their relationship at all, which might be a deal-breaker. And even if it’s not, it makes sense that someone who spends as much time working on her body as Unity does would consider the corporeal aspect of any relationship to be important.
Yah, I wouldn’t have expected the super-brainy (and also queer, and also occasional “shapeshifter”) character to have fallen into that… mundane? a thought-trap. It’s a relationship of the /minds/, dammit!
I took Unity’s line of commentary in a more dualistic fashion:
At one level she is commenting that Virginia has de-bodied Nick, which will act as a minor impediment to their romantic involvement.
At another I read it more as a censure of Virginia’s tarting around with Artie and Tip, and how that is affecting Nick (inspiring jealousy, among other things), while noting that now, in this moment, she wants to have a deep meaningful relationship moment with Nick. Put simpler – “Chicklet, you are blowing hot and cold to your VTOL-boyfriend, and now he’s not going to be able to be there for you, because he’s got to work through his own issues, brought on by you.”
ngmatt8652, if you’re referring to the last panel, I know it kind of looks like her head is turned backward, but she’s really just looking down. Look at her hair — the blonde is still on the right, like in the other panels. If her head were turned backward the blonde would be on the left. Also, you can see a little bit of her nose.
I think it’s a reference to Stochy, the computer in the Red Dwarf episode Holoship, who uses “Stochastic capabilities” to predict things that shouldn’t be that predictable.
Dr. Lee is a mad scientist. She can transplant brains. She has no effective morals. All she needs is to find a fully-functional, living body that Nick will want to be transplanted into, that is currently lacking a functioning brain.
But there is no such thing! Nick sees himself as a helicopter, just like I and most likely you wouldn’t want to suddenly wake up as a helicopter. Nick will not want to get transplanted. That’s not to say she couldn’t give him some fun bits if she wanted to. No innuendo intended.
…or, y’know, try out a new drone to be a strap-on analogy instead of a long-term interpersonal interface. Even though he is transspecies, it should be worth a shot.
…now I’m tempted to ask Shaenon for a sketch of Dr. Lee in Nick’s tentacle closet during the next Kickstarter in which I’m able to participate, even though 1: I’m not sure she’d accede to said request, and 2: What I REALLY want is Nick as 1940s Violet Bee painted on the side of his own nosecone (which I know we’d each like to happen, given her fondness for drawing airplane pin-ups). Oh, and 3: That would probably be REALLY creepy of me and I’d rather not alienate one of my favourite authors, especially for something I don’t actually care about.
Lee is a sane scientist who specializes in making Mad Science more comprehensible. I suspect that becoming Mad would pretty well remove all the nagging self-doubt and indecision that seem to be her stumbling blocks.
She’d have a whole new set of problems of course, but constant second-guessing is not something Mad Scientist seem to experience.
As for Nick having a relationship with her, I think Unity believes the ‘opposite sides in a war for reality’ may be too big a stumbling block. Lack of certain fun bits is easily worked around.
In reply to Ian Thompson, there’s a difference between enjoying being a helicopter when you have no choice, and remaining a helicopter if you’re given the chance to be human and “anatomically correct” with a former crush who is now a willing partner.
I truly think that if she ever comes up with a viable way to transplant him into a human body, he’d go with it.
The whole point of the homunculus program was to transform his body image into a helicopter, and it worked. He’s not trapped in a helicopter body, he fits in a body he wasn’t born in. He even suffers body disphoria when he’s in the drone, which is why he gave it away. Actually, its analogous to being transgendered. Except that in his case the body image shift is due to invasive surgery and cybernetic brainwashing, which is where the metaphor falls apart…
Irdburns: (first, minor nitpick — it’s transgender, not transgendered. Identity, not “something that happened”.)
Second, the metaphor doesn’t fall apart nearly that much — Goldbug broke the program before they even got to the visual component. The was no cybernetic brainwashing. The shift of self from human to copter ws entirely a product of him having no sense of human self, and finding that he was a helicopter.
Additionally, given that he dies in fact identify with an identity role significantly physically, psychologically, and socially different from the role assigned to him at birth, he arguably /is/ trans (although not trans/gender/, and highly unlikely to identify as part of the greater trans community).
We didn’t NEED stochastic skills to know she was going to call him anyway. But while her stochastic skills are good, I think Unilock has some things to learn about relationships.
Actually I have made a terrible mistake. Her nickname is, of course, Sherity.
However smart Unity may be, she’s still young and inexperienced, and she doesn’t understand love. I choose to believe Ginny and Nick can find a way to be together. After all, they did first meet in a virtual reality simulation that seemed completely real to Nick.
I agree. Unity’s comments suggest that she thinks Ginny just wants sex, which is a pretty narrow way of looking at a romantic relationship. I’m not entirely sure that she gets that there are other aspects of a relationship beyond that.
There’s a big difference between “just wanting sex” and “wanting sex,” but Nick’s current existence makes him unsuitable for a partner that fits either description. And Unity’s comment seems to refer more to there not being any physical component in their relationship at all, which might be a deal-breaker. And even if it’s not, it makes sense that someone who spends as much time working on her body as Unity does would consider the corporeal aspect of any relationship to be important.
Yah, I wouldn’t have expected the super-brainy (and also queer, and also occasional “shapeshifter”) character to have fallen into that… mundane? a thought-trap. It’s a relationship of the /minds/, dammit!
Are those brains extra-cynical flavour?
I imagine Unity’s response would be something like: “a relationship of the minds? You can’t build a strong relationship on food alone!”
Not realizing that if she just wanted sex, Tip would be more than happy to provide.
I’m not sure Nick would be thrilled by that division of labor.
Shouldn’t that be “I’m sure Nick would not be thrilled by that division of labor.”
I took Unity’s line of commentary in a more dualistic fashion:
At one level she is commenting that Virginia has de-bodied Nick, which will act as a minor impediment to their romantic involvement.
At another I read it more as a censure of Virginia’s tarting around with Artie and Tip, and how that is affecting Nick (inspiring jealousy, among other things), while noting that now, in this moment, she wants to have a deep meaningful relationship moment with Nick. Put simpler – “Chicklet, you are blowing hot and cold to your VTOL-boyfriend, and now he’s not going to be able to be there for you, because he’s got to work through his own issues, brought on by you.”
How are her limbs still working if her head it at that angle? The spine is ovisly disconnected for her to be able to do that.
You’ve never tilted your head all the way down? I can do that myself, and I’m not Promethean American.
Unity’s limbs still work when they’re not even connected to her body. The spine is pretty irrelevant here.
ngmatt8652, if you’re referring to the last panel, I know it kind of looks like her head is turned backward, but she’s really just looking down. Look at her hair — the blonde is still on the right, like in the other panels. If her head were turned backward the blonde would be on the left. Also, you can see a little bit of her nose.
Stochastic means fundamentally random, like in a theory which takes a sequence of random numbers but does not explain where they come from.
So, does this mean Unity thinks of her smarts as not only inexplicable but also irreproducible?
I think she just means that she’s very good at predicting things.
I think it’s a reference to Stochy, the computer in the Red Dwarf episode Holoship, who uses “Stochastic capabilities” to predict things that shouldn’t be that predictable.
Dr. Lee is a mad scientist. She can transplant brains. She has no effective morals. All she needs is to find a fully-functional, living body that Nick will want to be transplanted into, that is currently lacking a functioning brain.
But there is no such thing! Nick sees himself as a helicopter, just like I and most likely you wouldn’t want to suddenly wake up as a helicopter. Nick will not want to get transplanted. That’s not to say she couldn’t give him some fun bits if she wanted to. No innuendo intended.
Tentacle cabinet!
…or, y’know, try out a new drone to be a strap-on analogy instead of a long-term interpersonal interface. Even though he is transspecies, it should be worth a shot.
…now I’m tempted to ask Shaenon for a sketch of Dr. Lee in Nick’s tentacle closet during the next Kickstarter in which I’m able to participate, even though 1: I’m not sure she’d accede to said request, and 2: What I REALLY want is Nick as 1940s Violet Bee painted on the side of his own nosecone (which I know we’d each like to happen, given her fondness for drawing airplane pin-ups). Oh, and 3: That would probably be REALLY creepy of me and I’d rather not alienate one of my favourite authors, especially for something I don’t actually care about.
Lee is a sane scientist who specializes in making Mad Science more comprehensible. I suspect that becoming Mad would pretty well remove all the nagging self-doubt and indecision that seem to be her stumbling blocks.
She’d have a whole new set of problems of course, but constant second-guessing is not something Mad Scientist seem to experience.
As for Nick having a relationship with her, I think Unity believes the ‘opposite sides in a war for reality’ may be too big a stumbling block. Lack of certain fun bits is easily worked around.
Triple word score for the usually loopy Unity.
Okay, they need to install a copy of the Brain-O-Mat in Annex One. Smart U.N.I.T.Y. is too much fun to give up.
Besides, having someone who can actually figure out what’s going on might help things later.
Oh, and by the way, iburns? You had it right the first time. It definitely should be Unilock.
Unilock is okay. But I prefer Sherity for the pun and her probability powers.
Mad Science Time: Let’s strap unity to a chair, force feed her brains in high dosis’, and let her solve all of the worlds problems.
In reply to Ian Thompson, there’s a difference between enjoying being a helicopter when you have no choice, and remaining a helicopter if you’re given the chance to be human and “anatomically correct” with a former crush who is now a willing partner.
I truly think that if she ever comes up with a viable way to transplant him into a human body, he’d go with it.
The whole point of the homunculus program was to transform his body image into a helicopter, and it worked. He’s not trapped in a helicopter body, he fits in a body he wasn’t born in. He even suffers body disphoria when he’s in the drone, which is why he gave it away. Actually, its analogous to being transgendered. Except that in his case the body image shift is due to invasive surgery and cybernetic brainwashing, which is where the metaphor falls apart…
Irdburns: (first, minor nitpick — it’s transgender, not transgendered. Identity, not “something that happened”.)
Second, the metaphor doesn’t fall apart nearly that much — Goldbug broke the program before they even got to the visual component. The was no cybernetic brainwashing. The shift of self from human to copter ws entirely a product of him having no sense of human self, and finding that he was a helicopter.
Additionally, given that he dies in fact identify with an identity role significantly physically, psychologically, and socially different from the role assigned to him at birth, he arguably /is/ trans (although not trans/gender/, and highly unlikely to identify as part of the greater trans community).
It DID happen to Nick, but I’m not going to pretend that was what I meant. Sorry about that.