I know most of the people in this story are varying degrees of mad, but even mads have some degree of self preservation instinct.
I’ve just always felt like every single person who has ever met or become aware of UNITY ought to be a lot more worried about the fact of her continued existence.
And exactly why are weapons of mass destruction allowed to exist, again?
Because they seem like a good idea at the time, and hopefully you can point them at someone ELSE.
Unity’s never actually rampaged[1], and she’s actually come through for the team on several occasions.
And personally, I’m worried about the existence of mostpeople (did you know that, statistically speaking, most people who were stabbed were stabbed by a person?) but I’m prepared to allow them to continue doing so until there’s a concrete reason not to.
The mads preserve themselves not by instinct, but because doing otherwise would incur a considerable opportunity cost for doing mad science.
And Unity is a self-aware sentient and sapient entity, exactly the kind of person Skin Horse exists to protect. Making her an agent was the best way to keep tabs on her.
Why, would you eliminate everyone who is a potential danger to others? Would you eliminate me?
Everything is a sliding scale. We accept some dangers, and we refuse to accept others. Somewhere this is always a tipping point between the two.
So no, of course I (or anyone, really) wouldn’t eliminate every potential danger. But the most extreme ones? Absolutely.
You don’t worry about the fact that your neighbors own knives. You do worry about them owning handguns, assault rifles, and the things like that. And you supremely worry about them owning nuclear weapons.
UNITY is a walking WMD. We’ve seen her attempt to murder and rampage, and only be foiled by her conditioning safeword of “Blueberry Waffles”. At some point, that safeguard is probably going to fail (she overrides it somehow, or the only people who know it aren’t present to use it, et cetera).
We’ve seen her bodily invade and possess people against their will. She essentially raped Dr. Lee at one point, physically restraining and abducting her before forcibly invading her body and mind controlling her. And everyone was just okay with it afterward because Virginia didn’t make a fuss about it.
She’s also a nanobot cloud designed to self replicate. There is a very real potential for a gray goo scenario if something goes wrong (like taking a mad science energy/particle beam to the chest, perhaps).
UNITY is far and away the biggest threat to life we’ve seen aside from Moustachio – but there’s a reason he’s bolted to the floor, and even his fission pie going critical would only result in localized damage, and not full scale planetary destruction.
If I understand you correctly, you want to quantise threat into two categories: That which is allowed to exist, and that which must be eliminated.
Among the latter category you group anyone who possesses fire-arms or nuclear weapons. That would include hunters, police, the military, and the population of Switzerland.
If your wanting to eliminate them makes you a credible threat, they might put you into your second category. How does that make you feel?
Speaking of walking WMDs: Unity is grey goo in the same way that you are pink goo: You are a mass of self-replicating cells that metabolise anything they can, including other living things. You are at least as much a threat to the planet as she is.
Above all, Unity is a self-aware and empathetic being.
She has as much a right to her emotions as you do.
And the world SO needs more Unity rampaging through the streets…
At least her kind.
What? I’m first? How’d that happen?
Just love how Unity spins that bumper sticker into something just short of Armageddon.
It is an adage by Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
Well, if H.T. went on a rampage, it would probably hurt his cause in the election. OTOH, there could be other unfortunate…consequences.
Be the rampage you want to see in the world!
+1
So… why is UNITY allowed to exist, again?
I know most of the people in this story are varying degrees of mad, but even mads have some degree of self preservation instinct.
I’ve just always felt like every single person who has ever met or become aware of UNITY ought to be a lot more worried about the fact of her continued existence.
And exactly why are weapons of mass destruction allowed to exist, again?
Because they seem like a good idea at the time, and hopefully you can point them at someone ELSE.
WMDs are, at least in theory, controllable. UNITY is, at best, suggestible. That makes her considerably more dangerous. (Albeit more charming.)
Unity’s never actually rampaged[1], and she’s actually come through for the team on several occasions.
And personally, I’m worried about the existence of mostpeople (did you know that, statistically speaking, most people who were stabbed were stabbed by a person?) but I’m prepared to allow them to continue doing so until there’s a concrete reason not to.
[1]Since joining Skin Horse[2].
[2]On-panel[3].
[3]As far as I remember.
The mads preserve themselves not by instinct, but because doing otherwise would incur a considerable opportunity cost for doing mad science.
And Unity is a self-aware sentient and sapient entity, exactly the kind of person Skin Horse exists to protect. Making her an agent was the best way to keep tabs on her.
Why, would you eliminate everyone who is a potential danger to others? Would you eliminate me?
Everything is a sliding scale. We accept some dangers, and we refuse to accept others. Somewhere this is always a tipping point between the two.
So no, of course I (or anyone, really) wouldn’t eliminate every potential danger. But the most extreme ones? Absolutely.
You don’t worry about the fact that your neighbors own knives. You do worry about them owning handguns, assault rifles, and the things like that. And you supremely worry about them owning nuclear weapons.
UNITY is a walking WMD. We’ve seen her attempt to murder and rampage, and only be foiled by her conditioning safeword of “Blueberry Waffles”. At some point, that safeguard is probably going to fail (she overrides it somehow, or the only people who know it aren’t present to use it, et cetera).
We’ve seen her bodily invade and possess people against their will. She essentially raped Dr. Lee at one point, physically restraining and abducting her before forcibly invading her body and mind controlling her. And everyone was just okay with it afterward because Virginia didn’t make a fuss about it.
She’s also a nanobot cloud designed to self replicate. There is a very real potential for a gray goo scenario if something goes wrong (like taking a mad science energy/particle beam to the chest, perhaps).
UNITY is far and away the biggest threat to life we’ve seen aside from Moustachio – but there’s a reason he’s bolted to the floor, and even his fission pie going critical would only result in localized damage, and not full scale planetary destruction.
Sorry, mistake – FUSION pie.
If I understand you correctly, you want to quantise threat into two categories: That which is allowed to exist, and that which must be eliminated.
Among the latter category you group anyone who possesses fire-arms or nuclear weapons. That would include hunters, police, the military, and the population of Switzerland.
If your wanting to eliminate them makes you a credible threat, they might put you into your second category. How does that make you feel?
Speaking of walking WMDs: Unity is grey goo in the same way that you are pink goo: You are a mass of self-replicating cells that metabolise anything they can, including other living things. You are at least as much a threat to the planet as she is.
Above all, Unity is a self-aware and empathetic being.
She has as much a right to her emotions as you do.
HT to Sweetheart to Unity has to be the most pathetic love triangle ever.
I think you misspelled “Amazing”
Sweetheart and H.T. now finally have something in common.
The world continues to be far too silly for orderly thinking.
(All things considered, that’s a good thing for the world.)