There’s room here for a fascinating discussion on the definition of personhood. What are the properties of software (or hardware) that would make turning it/them off immoral?
But I’m more interested in one of the implications: If reducing the number of software copies is immoral, does that mean it is moral to increase the number? I.E. is reproduction a moral imperative? That would lead to an easily optimised world: Find the bare minimum AI that has moral value, and mass produce the hardware and software needed to run as many of them as possible.
Humans are notoriously weak at recognizing intelligence in other species.
AI can mean “Alien Intelligence” as well. Yet we fail to acknowledge even octopuses as fellow sapients.
NPCs can be disposed of with harm only to the soul of the player. But “Star Trek” (as with many things) has illustrated how a rudimentary AI can evolve from programmed responses to full self-awareness. At what point would it have become murder to terminate the Emergency Medical Hologram? And the Deep Space Nine episode “Hard Time” considered the importance of retaining one’s moral compass even in VR.
They’re talking about the possibility of Nick shutting down the whole server, not just Baron’s Vegas sim. But even shutting it down wouldn’t necessarily harm them. If the server can be rebooted it would be more like they passed out for a few minutes.
“Boy, I wasn’t prepared AT ALL for the comic to just suddenly kill off Aimee, Lovelace, Baron, and literally all the other AIs inhabiting the refugee server, turning Nick into a virtual mass murderer and triggering a descent into self destructive, guilt-ridden horror and despair over his actions, from which he never recovered…”
“Yeah, things got weirdly dark there at the end. Do you think the four surviving main characters will ever find Tip’s head?”
Ooh, good thought! It hadn’t occurred to me that The Perverseness Of Things In General would dictate this as the perfect moment for the VR Whimsy World server’s UPS to run down.
I’ve been waiting for someone just to power off the server. There’s never been any visible power source, an internal UPS would never keep it running for very long. Hold down the power button for five seconds, cold crash the whole thing.
Oh ship oh ship oh ship. Nick’s an ethical guy even when threatened, right? He knows the difference between game code and fellow sentients, right? There’s plenty of things the last panel could represent other than sinister deletion powers.
Of course! That must be it. He wasn’t, say, shown to unintentionally knock out Baron without even touching him when he got pissed off showing that if his emotions get the better of him he can cause damage without meaning to, right?
(Fortunately in that case Baron was generally fine, so… maybe the VR will just need to reboot if this is the case.)
Actually, Chris, Nick declared Boss Baron’ to be “just game code” – but Baron related the NPCs rebelled and imprisoned him, implying they have free will.
Tomorrow, Nick and Baron will awaken in meatspace, and Tip will have to keep the former from throttling the lstter. Meanwhile, Aimee and Lovelace get tossed back on their flying cat with a “what happened?” look on their face.
(Let’s hope this prediction is more accurate than my last one. Sheesh!)
So, since it looks like the narrative’s heading back to the non-virtual world, anyone want to make any bets on whether or not Tip’s managed to sneak in a wardrobe change while Nick and Company were in the server?
Well, that escalated quickly.
It is not for nothing. It was highly entertaining for the rest of us.
It appears pacifist Nick Zerhakker has reached the end of his rope!
We can hope the 4th. panel signifies only his return to his meat peripheral and not total destruction of the entire sandbox sim…
All of this.^
Would shutting down the sim be a non-pacifist action? Are the NPCs self-aware?
There are non-embodied AIs running on the sim’s substrate, so I’d say so.
That actually doesn’t mean much.
There’s room here for a fascinating discussion on the definition of personhood. What are the properties of software (or hardware) that would make turning it/them off immoral?
But I’m more interested in one of the implications: If reducing the number of software copies is immoral, does that mean it is moral to increase the number? I.E. is reproduction a moral imperative? That would lead to an easily optimised world: Find the bare minimum AI that has moral value, and mass produce the hardware and software needed to run as many of them as possible.
It’s a sentient paperclip maximizer!
Humans are notoriously weak at recognizing intelligence in other species.
AI can mean “Alien Intelligence” as well. Yet we fail to acknowledge even octopuses as fellow sapients.
NPCs can be disposed of with harm only to the soul of the player. But “Star Trek” (as with many things) has illustrated how a rudimentary AI can evolve from programmed responses to full self-awareness. At what point would it have become murder to terminate the Emergency Medical Hologram? And the Deep Space Nine episode “Hard Time” considered the importance of retaining one’s moral compass even in VR.
They’re talking about the possibility of Nick shutting down the whole server, not just Baron’s Vegas sim. But even shutting it down wouldn’t necessarily harm them. If the server can be rebooted it would be more like they passed out for a few minutes.
I thought the point of the guarded journey was that they can’t let the server lose power?
“And if someone turns your power off?” “Annihilation.”
We’ve never actually learned where the server even gets its power.
While looking for another reference, I happened across a clue in passing to the server’s power source.
The NPCs might not be, but Baron, Aimee and Lovelace definitely are
And if it’s anything like The Matrix, they gone
I don’t think Nick turned it off, I think an outside force realized the crew will not be distracted any longer and took action.
I don’t think he turned it off either. I think he left.
My first thought is that Nick just turned everything “off” to demonstrate just how much power he weilds in here, not to actually destroy anything.
I think he did it inadvertently out of sheer frustrated rage, myself. We’ll see how much damage he did tomorrow.
Let’s hope it wasn’t painful.
Now if only we can break 4th wall and tell Nick beforehand.
But then again this won’t be as entertaining.
That would require a wrench and quantum foam
“Boy, I wasn’t prepared AT ALL for the comic to just suddenly kill off Aimee, Lovelace, Baron, and literally all the other AIs inhabiting the refugee server, turning Nick into a virtual mass murderer and triggering a descent into self destructive, guilt-ridden horror and despair over his actions, from which he never recovered…”
“Yeah, things got weirdly dark there at the end. Do you think the four surviving main characters will ever find Tip’s head?”
You joke…. But that is a mad boy face….
D. Walker, your eloquence is chilling.
To be fair, most of the eloquence I possess comes from that sincerest form of flattery – imitating other, better writers.
For example, that last bit is borrowing pretty directly from (and/or paying homage to) a certain Calvin and Hobbes strip.
That’s the problem with being inside VR. Somebody outside can always pull the plug.
Ooh, good thought! It hadn’t occurred to me that The Perverseness Of Things In General would dictate this as the perfect moment for the VR Whimsy World server’s UPS to run down.
I’ve been waiting for someone just to power off the server. There’s never been any visible power source, an internal UPS would never keep it running for very long. Hold down the power button for five seconds, cold crash the whole thing.
Welp…. Nick lost it. Whose left?
Oh ship oh ship oh ship. Nick’s an ethical guy even when threatened, right? He knows the difference between game code and fellow sentients, right? There’s plenty of things the last panel could represent other than sinister deletion powers.
Right?
Of course! That must be it. He wasn’t, say, shown to unintentionally knock out Baron without even touching him when he got pissed off showing that if his emotions get the better of him he can cause damage without meaning to, right?
(Fortunately in that case Baron was generally fine, so… maybe the VR will just need to reboot if this is the case.)
Actually, Chris, Nick declared Boss Baron’ to be “just game code” – but Baron related the NPCs rebelled and imprisoned him, implying they have free will.
Either Baron is lying or Nick was mistaken…
“I’ve been running all over this sim for nothing?”
Well isn’t that Skin Horse in a nutshell?
(munches popcorn)
“Not like this. Not like this.” ~ Making the reference because I can.
What did you do?
I turned off the wall.
No you didn’t; you turned off the whole movie.
I must have pressed the wrong button.
Well put it back on!
Tomorrow, Nick and Baron will awaken in meatspace, and Tip will have to keep the former from throttling the lstter. Meanwhile, Aimee and Lovelace get tossed back on their flying cat with a “what happened?” look on their face.
(Let’s hope this prediction is more accurate than my last one. Sheesh!)
I have waited a month and a half for this moment. [takes out the popcorn]
Nick: “I spent forty strips on a filler quest????”
Aimee: “Just because it doesn’t advance the myth arc doesn’t mean it’s filler, Nick”.
Baron: “Yeah, Nick! I had a character ar– wait, are we deleted?”
Lovelace: “Oh definitely. I know this feeling”
Aimee: “Like in Digimon Adventures?”
Lovelace: “My life is not an anime, Aimee. Except for the time I was deleted. So yes, exactly like that”
To be honest, Lovelace has annoyed me so much this arc, I’d be totally okay with this
And knowing Shaenon, I know that’s totally intentional
Lovelace keeps redundant backups. Annililation is to her but an inconvenient annoyance.
Of course, if Nick wanted to I’m sure he could track down and erase all of her backups ahead of confronting the original…
Go Nick! Get those horcruxes!
So, since it looks like the narrative’s heading back to the non-virtual world, anyone want to make any bets on whether or not Tip’s managed to sneak in a wardrobe change while Nick and Company were in the server?
Nick has approximately one nerve left, and a certain unicorn appears to be dancing all over it…