Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2014-05-07
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2014-05-07

by shaenon on May 7, 2014 at 12:01 am
Chapter: The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
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Discussion (53) ¬

  1. Anderson
    May 7, 2014, 12:08 am | # | Reply

    This rampage is going to be fabulous.

    • Jay Eff
      May 7, 2014, 12:11 am | # | Reply

      I concur.

    • mechageist
      May 7, 2014, 12:15 am | # | Reply

      Quite. Nothing quite like a psychologist on a rampage to drive others mad. It will be glorious. (i hope)

    • irdburns
      May 7, 2014, 10:11 am | # | Reply

      If he’s rampaging, does that mean Tip is a creation of Mad Science?

      • Ser Pentrose
        May 7, 2014, 10:35 am | # | Reply

        You don’t have to be the creation of mad science to go on a rampage, but it helps.

        • Jeff K!
          May 7, 2014, 11:22 pm | # | Reply

          Gonna Facebook that quote, with credit to you.

      • Zap Rowsdower
        May 7, 2014, 11:40 am | # | Reply

        He’s human – if he goes on a rampage, a better question might be, is he going Mad?

        • Jude
          May 7, 2014, 12:40 pm | # | Reply

          The world needs more Mad Social Scientists.

          • Ian thompson
            May 7, 2014, 4:52 pm | #

            I agree completely Jude. mustachio is in an infinite loop right now, which is pretty much catatonia If you are a Ferro American. if Tip Is in fact going mad This will not end well.

  2. Jacob Haller
    May 7, 2014, 12:14 am | # | Reply

    Yesterday I thought that, whatever this was, it was Gavotte’s idea of the opposite of a team-building exercise, but now I’m not so sure.

  3. Towering Barbarian
    May 7, 2014, 12:17 am | # | Reply

    Tip has become assimilated? o_O

  4. HH7
    May 7, 2014, 12:17 am | # | Reply

    Yeah CRHIST, don’t forget his other character trait: sociopathy!

  5. The Ponytrician
    May 7, 2014, 12:26 am | # | Reply

    This can only end well. ^_^

  6. BMunro
    May 7, 2014, 1:44 am | # | Reply

    A bit off-topic, but as Mustachio struggles to avoid a Star Trek robot-type meltdown, I find myself wondering what it would be like to be in his metaphorical shoes: to know that your self-awareness is sustained by structures (gears, steam, wax cylinders, etc.) that by any _non-mad_ science shouldn’t be anywhere near capable of doing so. I do, for his sake, hope the existential creepy-crawlies are beyond his capabilities.

    • abb3w
      May 7, 2014, 8:09 am | # | Reply

      …in that light, how much consideration have you given to the nature of human consciousness?

      • Kona
        May 7, 2014, 11:31 am | # | Reply

        Now that’s a thought that’s going to fester.

    • Rex Vivat
      May 7, 2014, 10:06 pm | # | Reply

      @BMunro: He probably finds himself wondering what it would be like to be in your metaphorical shoes: to know that your self-awareness is sustained by structures (electricity, fat, blood, etc.) that by any _non-mad_ science shouldn’t be anywhere near capable of doing so (wait, when did “any _non-mad_ science” become capable of even explaining self-awareness, let alone sustain it?)

      • BMunro
        May 8, 2014, 1:24 am | # | Reply

        Bad analogy. The brain is a fantastically complex object, as anyone with even a smattering of either mad or regular science should be aware of. And really, 1850s hardware shouldn’t be able to support basic cognition, let alone self-awareness.

        (Of course, it’s quite possible Mustachio is actually a Chinese Room. And perhaps you are, too. 🙂 )

        • BMunro
          May 8, 2014, 1:29 am | # | Reply

          And on the gripping hand, perhaps Mustachio really considers the distinction between mad and regular science irrelevant…

        • Rex Vivat
          May 8, 2014, 10:27 am | # | Reply

          I don’t think you get the point. No matter how complex it is, as far as regular science can tell, a structure made of what your brain is made of shouldn’t be able to support basic cognition, let alone self-awareness either.

          • BMunro
            May 8, 2014, 10:59 pm | #

            I really don’t understand what your are talking about here.

          • BMunro
            May 8, 2014, 11:04 pm | #

            Or perhaps you did not get my initial point: I am not arguing that the problem is a brain made of metal rather than meat, but that you can’t build a set of steam-propelled gears, levers, etc. small and complicated and still mobile enough to emulate a living brain while fitting inside Mustachio. The engineering is simply impossible.

          • Rex Vivat
            May 8, 2014, 11:59 pm | #

            The problem with that point is that you think only a living (human-like) brain or an emulation thereof is the only way to achieve sentience, even if you have no idea how sentience is achieved or maintained in the first place. There is nothing to support the assumption that any level of complexity is necessary for any of that. How do you know that you can’t make a self-aware construct by, say, inserting a matchstick into cottage cheese in a specific way? In fact, pretty much anything you ever did could have created a sentient creature that unfortunately lacks any means to express itself.
            TL;DR: We have no idea what makes something self-aware, so we shouldn’t make assumptions about it.

          • WJS
            July 12, 2019, 7:38 am | #

            By that logic a brick could be sentient; unless you can prove that it isn’t, of course?
            That kind of argument from ignorance deserves nothing but contempt.

          • Rex Vivat
            July 12, 2019, 11:05 am | #

            I think that was the point, even if I was stretching the logic to the point of absurdity for a while there: construction should not be a basis for determining sentience. If a brick started talking to you, and you found the logic in its speech to be consistent, why would you not consider it a person? Oh, and there’s no reason to require you to prove that something isn’t sentient when it’s not showing any sign of it.

        • jedaifou
          May 10, 2014, 11:58 am | # | Reply

          I never really bought the “Chinese room” argument because to me as long as it is indistinguishable from sentience, then it is sentient and that’s that. Maybe the man in the room can’t translate Chinese but the whole system room+rules+man can, and that’s all I care about.

          If one managed to prove that we have a “soul” that would change the debate of course, but I don’t believe in that so I don’t see the difference between intelligence and a “simulation” good enough to fool anyone.

          • Rex Vivat
            May 10, 2014, 4:51 pm | #

            I guess it depends on the definition of “soul”, not all of them would invalidate that. I mean… Suppose someone makes an exact copy of your body right in front of you, brain and all. The guy would be completely sure he’s you, would have all of your memories, yada yada yada. And yet… that guy would be a different person. You would be looking at him from outside his body, his thought processes wouldn’t be running trough your head. Even through you brains are (or were just a second ago) the exact same, there is still something that differentiates you and him. What is it? Might as well call it “soul”.

          • jedaifou
            May 11, 2014, 10:42 am | #

            There’s two possibilities here: either you think that you have a soul and not the copy, in which case I disagree (how would you even know that you are not the copy ?), or you think that both have a soul but they’re not the same, though I don’t see why we can’t just differentiate on experience since the copy, we don’t need a “soul” for that.

          • Rex Vivat
            May 11, 2014, 6:27 pm | #

            “you think that both have a soul but they’re not the same” -> Yes, that.
            “why we can’t just differentiate on experience since the copy” -> The thing is, there was a moment, however short it may have been, when the brain was exactly the same. There wasn’t any difference in experiences, but you were still distinct entities. The latter differences in experience derive from that (you can’t have different experiences than yourself, after all).

          • Sailorleo
            March 3, 2017, 12:58 am | #

            Except that there wouldn’t ever be a state in which they were identical.

            Macro-scale physics is deterministic. The only way real-world science can support the idea of will is if it is a quantum mechanical effect.

            Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle says A) the exact state of the original cannot be determined, and B) the act of making the copy will change the state of the original.

            The copy will never have been an actual copy, only a vague facsimile, and by the time that facsimile exists the original has also been irrevocably altered.

          • WJS
            July 12, 2019, 7:41 am | #

            That argument is complete bullshit that simply assumes the existence of a soul to prove that you have a soul. Classic circular logic.

  7. robertnowall
    May 7, 2014, 4:01 am | # | Reply

    Just what is it in that water Bubbles dispenses?

    • oneuniverse2
      May 7, 2014, 9:33 am | # | Reply

      Maybe Unity is leaking into Bubble during their kisses?

  8. jdreyfuss
    May 7, 2014, 7:08 am | # | Reply

    I thought of this yesterday at about 11, so I don’t think anyone saw it, and this isn’t refuting my idea. There are mad social scientists in the Narboniverse. He sn’t speaking with the mad font yet, but is it possible we’re seeing the other unhinged genius scientist in this comic begin to go mad? Is it possible that’s why Gavotte recruited him and did this on purpose?

    • oneuniverse2
      May 7, 2014, 9:32 am | # | Reply

      You might be right, but I don’t see any of Shaenon’s usual visual clues.

      • Batteryhorse
        May 8, 2014, 10:40 pm | # | Reply

        I wouldn’t be so sure. Tip’s already shown some superhuman psychological talent, in his ridiculously successful seduction acts. If he were a normal human being, even a ridiculously attractive one, he’d still get turned down more than once or twice.

    • ariela
      May 8, 2014, 5:23 pm | # | Reply

      I think Tip’s just pissed off at being underrated, and therefore is being passive-aggressively snarky.

      But maybe that’s his task: “act however you are expected to act”.

  9. Merle
    May 7, 2014, 7:50 am | # | Reply

    I know I should be worried, but Tip just looks so goshdarned cute in this. Also, it’s sweet to see Moustachio trying to help his friend robot-style.

  10. davidbreslin101
    May 7, 2014, 7:57 am | # | Reply

    I was convinced for a while that “The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” must be from a song, since it’d sound so damn good sung by a barbershop quartet. It’s a children’s book. Of course it’s a children’s book. Question is, who gets to be Alexander?

    • daibhidc
      May 7, 2014, 8:02 am | # | Reply

      It’s always a children’s book. I’ve got a list somewhere.

    • oneuniverse2
      May 7, 2014, 9:31 am | # | Reply

      So this is what Shaenon is going to teach her offspring?

      • auntiebarb
        May 8, 2014, 12:08 am | # | Reply

        I certainly hope so!
        My kids were allowed to read my copy of Alexander & the THNGVBD
        but it was always returned to MY bookshelf.

  11. Frank Hightower
    May 7, 2014, 10:26 am | # | Reply

    it can only get worse, can’t it?

  12. Becky
    May 7, 2014, 10:40 am | # | Reply

    Maybe Gavotte told him that he is the one to deliver the files to the basement or something like that. In that case, I wouldn’t blame him if he’s snapped.

  13. freddiefreelance
    May 7, 2014, 1:53 pm | # | Reply

    Mustachio is performing error handling like a champ! He’s recognizing Tip’s error condition and not freezing up on the recursion.

  14. BMunro
    May 7, 2014, 2:17 pm | # | Reply

    I’m not sure where this “Tip is going crazy” stuff is coming from: he’s just pissed off and trolling people. He’s surely heard much worse about his stylistic choices in the past.

    • WJS
      July 12, 2019, 7:45 am | # | Reply

      That seems more likely, although the idea that Tip is latent Mad doesn’t offend nearly so much as the constant rabbiting on about Ginny being Mad whenever she does anything even slightly unusual. He actually has done the requisite impossible things that are the chief symptom of Madness in the Narbonic universe.

      • awgiedawgie
        July 12, 2019, 10:52 am | # | Reply

        What impossible things, pray tell, has Tip done that are symptomatic of Mad Genius?

  15. Saberbeam
    May 7, 2014, 5:10 pm | # | Reply

    Maybe Tip’s task was to thoroughly confuse the whole team in a manner specifically catered to each of them. Hence attacking Chris’s manliness (again, as he put him through some makeovers a while back), and going for the classic Star Trek “barrage of illogical behavior against a logical machine” technique.

  16. Shadowmehr
    May 7, 2014, 7:17 pm | # | Reply

    On the horizon, the clouds grow thick and grey.

    Thunder rolls in the distance.

    Animals raise their heads, scenting the air, only to hurry to their dens and burrows.

    The wise read the signs, and seek shelter from the oncoming storm.

  17. Eddurd
    May 7, 2014, 8:17 pm | # | Reply

    I have had one of THOSE days. I actually wrote this in the morning, then forgot to post it before I went to work. The day did not get better.

    (TUNE: “All I Know”, Art Garfunkel)

    I serve you!
    You ask me,
    If I lie facetiously?
    How could that be?
    I’m just a toy!
    Serving all is my only joy!

    No, I won’t admit … if I’m using wit!
    M’s confused, in a loop that’s infinite!
    Now will he blow a fuse? Will he have a fit?

    Just what Tip is up to isn’t clear …
    What will he accomplish here?
    Is he sincere,
    Or is this a ploy?
    Serving all is his only joy!

  18. SotiCoto
    August 22, 2014, 10:15 am | # | Reply

    “Mindless fashion plate” does sum up Tip rather aptly at the moment.
    His concern for makeup and crappy clothing has topped his survival instinct… and that is the point where you know a character has become truly flanderised.

    • merleblue
      August 22, 2014, 11:32 am | # | Reply

      Ohh, them’s fighting words, mate.

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