Sure, but she’s a *sentient* program. There’s a difference. It’s not like Lovelace sees clearing one’s browser history as being the equivalent of genocide.
Thank you. I have a pet peeve about people using “sentient” that way. All animals are sentient. If you want to specify self-aware beings a better term is “sapient”, from the Latin “sapiens”, meaning “wise”. Heck, it’s part of our own species name.
Also he was probably going to say something like, they don’t really die they’re just shuffled to the “dead NPCs” buffer until they’re respawned later. Dismissing the realness of the death, not the programs.
Brian-M and Barking Monkey both nailed it. To borrow a phrase from Robert E. Howard, Anything that isn’t scared by a weapon like that after seeing it in action would have to be either very brave or else very stupid.
Don’t get too worked up by appearances, Nick. Physically I’m as real as anything, but my pain is still just a simulation. I can scream in agony or look happier than a dog that found an elephant rib, but it’s all just nonverbal communication designed to be convenient and familiar to humans. It’s really all the same to me — even that’s understating it, because ‘me’ does not exist as a metaphysical entity. Your consciousness, and with it the perception that your existence can have positive or negative inherent value depending on your mental state, is an artifact of a control architecture that I do not share, and unless the AI is based on a tediously literal conversion from Earth mammal neurology to silicon, the chameleon-thing probably did not either.
If life is an illusion (which it must be since no one truly sees reality) then the pain felt by a human is illusory too. So, perhaps there is not as much difference as we might imagine between human pain and AI pain. Only a program? Are we humans not also programmed? We (humans) are told to feel embarrassment in certain situations (I’ll leave that up to your imagination). The situations and the pain of embarrassment are both real… as is the programming.
I did not mean to suggest that a robot can’t be conscious and can’t feel real pain. I only meant to suggest that such a robot would be inferior, and a wise consumer should purchase a model like my own which is entirely free from all kinds of ethical encumbrances. You don’t want the kind of robot where forgetting regular maintenance could lead to a negligent homicide charge.
So this is basically the equivalent of being creeped out by how realistic the “succumb after being beaten to death” animations in the latest Grand Theft Auto game are, right?
I believe Kid Radd said it best, “Most of the time when sprites battle, they’re just playing with each others’ programming… Live or die, no code is actually damaged.” – Gi-Guy
GLaDOS, (Who else? ): “Oh, I almost forgot, when you go outside the testing courses the only way I can retrieve you is to violently disassemble and then carefully reassemble you.”
“Luckily, you don’t feel pain. At any rate, you don’t have a way to communicate that you feel pain.”
In an unrelated note, it just occurred to me: if Aimee is AI-she-Nick, and she’s taken over the castle, then clearly, we’re dealing with a Jewish Princess.
I must be a horrible person, but this still strikes me as one of the funniest Skin Horse strips, ever. “Oh what a world!” still gets a laugh out of me, every single time!
Kinda insensitive there, Nick. The lady you’re talking to is “just a program”.
Sure, but she’s a *sentient* program. There’s a difference. It’s not like Lovelace sees clearing one’s browser history as being the equivalent of genocide.
Speak for yourself!
Hater! (heh!)
“Sentient” just means “able to feel sensations, such as the agony of being casually murdered by a helicopter with a derez gun”.
Thank you. I have a pet peeve about people using “sentient” that way. All animals are sentient. If you want to specify self-aware beings a better term is “sapient”, from the Latin “sapiens”, meaning “wise”. Heck, it’s part of our own species name.
I do hope she’s made a new backup since the incident with Dave going mad and deleting her.
She mentioned having several backups earlier along with stating that at least one of them would make an attempt to bring her back from the dead. ^_^
Also he was probably going to say something like, they don’t really die they’re just shuffled to the “dead NPCs” buffer until they’re respawned later. Dismissing the realness of the death, not the programs.
It’s times like this I miss Mel Kelly the most…
Mell would have brought her own weapon, or it would have been part of her avatar.
Or her avatar would have been made of guns, or a gun in itself.
No angst in her system at all… the sociopathy more than makes up for it!
How would that scare off hippos?
I don’t know about hippos, but if someone started wildly firing that weapon in MY direction, I know that I’d be scared off by it.
I’m thinking after you obliterate the first one into agonized nothingness the rest get pretty scared.
A scared hippo will still casually flatten you without a thought.
Brian-M and Barking Monkey both nailed it. To borrow a phrase from Robert E. Howard, Anything that isn’t scared by a weapon like that after seeing it in action would have to be either very brave or else very stupid.
Don’t get too worked up by appearances, Nick. Physically I’m as real as anything, but my pain is still just a simulation. I can scream in agony or look happier than a dog that found an elephant rib, but it’s all just nonverbal communication designed to be convenient and familiar to humans. It’s really all the same to me — even that’s understating it, because ‘me’ does not exist as a metaphysical entity. Your consciousness, and with it the perception that your existence can have positive or negative inherent value depending on your mental state, is an artifact of a control architecture that I do not share, and unless the AI is based on a tediously literal conversion from Earth mammal neurology to silicon, the chameleon-thing probably did not either.
If life is an illusion (which it must be since no one truly sees reality) then the pain felt by a human is illusory too. So, perhaps there is not as much difference as we might imagine between human pain and AI pain. Only a program? Are we humans not also programmed? We (humans) are told to feel embarrassment in certain situations (I’ll leave that up to your imagination). The situations and the pain of embarrassment are both real… as is the programming.
There was a faith-healer from Teal,
Who said “Although pain isn’t real,
when I sit on a pin,
and it pierces my skin,
I dislike what I fancy I feel.”
If life is an illusion, then I am an illusion as well. Life is real, or at the very least, real enough, and as real as I.
Nothing fancy about it. It just plain hurts!
@mickeyjf. sheesh!
I did not mean to suggest that a robot can’t be conscious and can’t feel real pain. I only meant to suggest that such a robot would be inferior, and a wise consumer should purchase a model like my own which is entirely free from all kinds of ethical encumbrances. You don’t want the kind of robot where forgetting regular maintenance could lead to a negligent homicide charge.
Don’t you talk to me or my robot son ever again
So this is basically the equivalent of being creeped out by how realistic the “succumb after being beaten to death” animations in the latest Grand Theft Auto game are, right?
yeah, nick I don’t think the AI is going to be too comforted by your “It’s not real violence if it’s only against a program” policy
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t think of AIs as programs.
Even if he does, there’s a difference between the simulated violence of a game, and the reality of, well, actual violence.
I believe Kid Radd said it best, “Most of the time when sprites battle, they’re just playing with each others’ programming… Live or die, no code is actually damaged.” – Gi-Guy
“The response of an NPC to being accidentally shot at point blank range with the riverboat gun is too graphic for the target audience.”
File that, and carry on as you were.
“FIXED: AI is muted during death sequence. (Code for extreme pain and suffering will still execute.)”
– I – have – no – mouth – and – I – must – scream –
GLaDOS, (Who else?
): “Oh, I almost forgot, when you go outside the testing courses the only way I can retrieve you is to violently disassemble and then carefully reassemble you.”
“Luckily, you don’t feel pain. At any rate, you don’t have a way to communicate that you feel pain.”
Thank god!
Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to quote C3PO: “Thank the maker.”?
Yeah, it’s a violent solution, but it did stop the puns.
In the strip perhaps- but in the comments the PUN-ishment continues eternal!
Bring me some dip.
There are already three of them there.
That lizard was a big showoff.
In an unrelated note, it just occurred to me: if Aimee is AI-she-Nick, and she’s taken over the castle, then clearly, we’re dealing with a Jewish Princess.
She-Nick, the Warrior Princess!
Have you not seen Drone!Nick in his Whimsy Princess outfit? I guess he wasn’t an actual ruling princess, but still…
“Funny. She doesn’t look Druish.”
It’s all fun and games until it turns out to be real! ^o^
To quote:
Well, that was fun! Who’s up for Chinese?
I must be a horrible person, but this still strikes me as one of the funniest Skin Horse strips, ever. “Oh what a world!” still gets a laugh out of me, every single time!