The problem with crashing your simulated world when you’re a brain in a jar is that you end up sitting in pitch dark (or is it a blue screen…?). Not particularly preferable, all in all, especially once you realize it was the only thing preventing you from going bonkers due to sensory deprivation. Then again, maybe they have a “please wait for our regular programming to return” test pattern accompanied by elevator music…
My thoughts exactly. She was their top biotech scientist and brain schlorper. I doubt they have anyone qualified to both remove Dr. Lee’s brain and hook it up to a simulated environment for a long term session. I’d give better odds she’s still in her body in a bunker somewhere.
I would have enjoyed seeing Mr. Green’s reaction upon learning Dr. Lee had been extirpated… “You what?! Consigned our best scientist to VR hell? No, what could possibly go wrong?”
Why would Green care? He’s trying to eliminate non-humans and anyone smarter/weirder than normal humans. Lee falls into that category, and she fraternizes with Skin Horse, which he also wants to eliminate. A-Sig is a way to contain super-nerds, not profit from them.
I think that’s an over-simplification. They do sell arms to the government, and they may have significant pull in Washington (if you recall, Dr. Lee thought that they were “the” shadow government when she was first introduced).
Dr. Lee is very smart and very weird, but she’s still a normal baseline human. He wants to get rid of people like that because they’re uncontrollably dangerous, which she definitely isn’t.
She’s eventually going to beat this thing because she specializes in VR worlds and whoever stuck her in this one is an idiot for expecting it to work. There are other, easier, ways to contain her.
If she was an actual mad scientist she would already be halfway out and probably copying herself into the bodies of everyone else connected to it just because she could.
They didn’t get VR from Whimsy. They got the mind control software. So that is irrelevant to the question. But I imagine they could have several different VR sims, even if they’re based on the same engine. We know there’s the Homunculus they used on Nick, the VR hell they used on Sweetheart, and this. So that’s at least three so far.
Unlikely that Anasigma would hook a secure server to an internet connection.
Then again, these are the same chuckleheads who… well, I’d make a list, but I’m sure if I wait long enough one will appear under this comic.
Notice I never questioned the Whimsey World server having a net connection. Even living inside a computer already, that’s not going to be lower than the top five on any To-Do list made by any version of Nick.
Wow… Dr. Lee is going to be by far the most dangerous mad scientist we’ve seen. She’s totally lucid and pragmatic while clearly nosediving to the mad side. He should probably just cut his losses and let her go. O.O
Virginia made her career analyzing Mad Science and rationalizing it to mundane specs. Should we expect her to stop just because she finds herself inside a simulation?
The fact is, short of ending Dr. Lee’s life, Anasigma and Mr. Green are totally outclassed.
Virginia has used the VR before when she recruited Nick. She posed as an old man. Hell, she may even have created it. I have no problem believing that she could see through it and no problem believing that she can bring it down.
I may be alone in this, and others may hate on me for saying this, but I kind of hope that Dr. Lee isn’t a latent mad or something like that. Can’t fully explain why… just how I feel. Just felt like putting that out there after reading post after post of people talking about how she’s going to go mad. 😛
You’re not alone. Sure it would be a fun ride, but it would also be a repeat. The Tinasky study has been *done*. Why on Earth would we want to go through all that again? That’s what archive binges are for!
One of the things I most appreciate about Skin Horse is the unpredictability. Dr. Lee going mad would just be dull in comparison.
Whereas I get frustrated because I seem to be the only one who believes that she has already been Mad all along, and she’s just been good at appearing sane. There’s no “going Mad” left for her to do. And I think she’s going to prove it by escaping from VR hell without any outside help, and possibly leaving “Dr. Ao” trapped inside instead.
If it is any consolation to you I almost agree.
But I look at Dr. Lee’s situation a little differently.
To do the analysis she does she necessarily be both Mad and Sane. She straddles the fence the way a subatomic particle is both a wave and a particle.
I think this is her secret. She knows the truth of both worlds.
Same here, soft. I find Dr. Lee a much more interesting, and therefore much more satisfying, character as a sane scientist who happens to have the right mental alchemy–the brilliance, the fascination, the education, the childlike glee in brain-schlorping–to understand the work of mad scientists, than I would if she were a latent Mad and we were just waiting for her to snap.
In addition to the intrinsic interesting-ness of Dr. Lee as a character, I also feel like the latent-Mad-saves-the-day-by-going-over-the-edge scenario would feel much too deus ex machina for the kind of story Skin Horse is building. The way to stop the New War isn’t through some kind of decisive military stroke, like deploying an exceptionally brilliant mad scientist on one side or the other. It’s to forge some sort of new unity out of a motley assemblage of humans, aircraft, talking dogs, sapient swamps, Unity herself, and so on. And Dr. Lee is uniquely well-suited to build some bridges among those parties already, without having to cross any kind of sanity event horizon first.
I am finding it way too amusing to mentally superimpose Ira over every scene with Dr. Ao. It’s surprisingly easy to map the expressions from one character to another.
They really underestimated Dr. Lee’s ability to recognize VR Sims when she worked on the Whirligig project for so many years, making personal trips into the VR herself, and integrating Nick’s mind with the VR.
Either Monsieur Vert is really losing his touch, or he’s playing Virginia like a Stradivarius.
Or a Harp from Hell…
I repeat: we NEED to get Nick a recording of this.
xyzzy.
A hollow voice says “Fool.”
The Serval takes fish and escapes.
Nothing happens.
plugh
I wonder if you can crash this VR simulation by doing things it’s not programmed to simulate – say, bedbug DNA sequencing?
The problem with crashing your simulated world when you’re a brain in a jar is that you end up sitting in pitch dark (or is it a blue screen…?). Not particularly preferable, all in all, especially once you realize it was the only thing preventing you from going bonkers due to sensory deprivation. Then again, maybe they have a “please wait for our regular programming to return” test pattern accompanied by elevator music…
odds on Ginny now being a brain in a jar like Nick, then?
Who ELSE have they got to schlorp out brains?
My thoughts exactly. She was their top biotech scientist and brain schlorper. I doubt they have anyone qualified to both remove Dr. Lee’s brain and hook it up to a simulated environment for a long term session. I’d give better odds she’s still in her body in a bunker somewhere.
That sounds even worse!
They didn’t need to scoop out Sweetheart’s brain to put her in a VR hell. It’s not like they want to turn Dr. Lee into a helicopter or something.
Wait, the Not Mad Scientist who stuck Nick’s brain in a VR sim for months can tell she’s in vr??? Green, you’re losing your touch.
I would have enjoyed seeing Mr. Green’s reaction upon learning Dr. Lee had been extirpated… “You what?! Consigned our best scientist to VR hell? No, what could possibly go wrong?”
Why would Green care? He’s trying to eliminate non-humans and anyone smarter/weirder than normal humans. Lee falls into that category, and she fraternizes with Skin Horse, which he also wants to eliminate. A-Sig is a way to contain super-nerds, not profit from them.
I think that’s an over-simplification. They do sell arms to the government, and they may have significant pull in Washington (if you recall, Dr. Lee thought that they were “the” shadow government when she was first introduced).
Dr. Lee is very smart and very weird, but she’s still a normal baseline human. He wants to get rid of people like that because they’re uncontrollably dangerous, which she definitely isn’t.
She’s eventually going to beat this thing because she specializes in VR worlds and whoever stuck her in this one is an idiot for expecting it to work. There are other, easier, ways to contain her.
If she was an actual mad scientist she would already be halfway out and probably copying herself into the bodies of everyone else connected to it just because she could.
Unless of course she’s taking her time because she finds this all mildly amusing.
Her brain can run circles around “normal baseline humans”.
↑↑↓↓←→←→ⒶⒷ[glyph of controller being flung through wall]
With nerds programming the sim, I can imagine that actually working
I’d include it.
Boy’s got it bad. Ain’t nothing like one-way love to screw you up.
…but I’m a little scared for Nick about now.
Now I’m worried this IS all part of his plan.
Well, that was anticlimactic.
Who’d’a figured that Dr. Lee would figure that out?
Point of weirdness – extirpation showed up in the first time we saw Nick, right? So they’ve got two completely separate VR tech programs?
They did this to Sweetheart before they got the Whimsy tech (although they didn’t call it extirpation then), so I guess so.
They didn’t get VR from Whimsy. They got the mind control software. So that is irrelevant to the question. But I imagine they could have several different VR sims, even if they’re based on the same engine. We know there’s the Homunculus they used on Nick, the VR hell they used on Sweetheart, and this. So that’s at least three so far.
Ira’s presence implies embodied brains can be extirpated and the probability of an exit phrase…
We knew the first part already; Sweetheart was piloting the drone through a headset and got redirected into VR. That’s how we met “Dr. Ao”.
Enter Star Trek TNG Dr. Moriarty and his girlfriend to offer a ride on their shuttle.
Maybe Aimee and Alt-Nick and Bizarro Whimsey World are somewhere close by.
Unlikely that Anasigma would hook a secure server to an internet connection.
Then again, these are the same chuckleheads who… well, I’d make a list, but I’m sure if I wait long enough one will appear under this comic.
Notice I never questioned the Whimsey World server having a net connection. Even living inside a computer already, that’s not going to be lower than the top five on any To-Do list made by any version of Nick.
*comment derp
I love that Virginia figured it out by playing video games, and probably playing with Nick.
Wow… Dr. Lee is going to be by far the most dangerous mad scientist we’ve seen. She’s totally lucid and pragmatic while clearly nosediving to the mad side. He should probably just cut his losses and let her go. O.O
Virginia made her career analyzing Mad Science and rationalizing it to mundane specs. Should we expect her to stop just because she finds herself inside a simulation?
The fact is, short of ending Dr. Lee’s life, Anasigma and Mr. Green are totally outclassed.
Don’t give ’em any ideas.
Virginia has used the VR before when she recruited Nick. She posed as an old man. Hell, she may even have created it. I have no problem believing that she could see through it and no problem believing that she can bring it down.
I may be alone in this, and others may hate on me for saying this, but I kind of hope that Dr. Lee isn’t a latent mad or something like that. Can’t fully explain why… just how I feel. Just felt like putting that out there after reading post after post of people talking about how she’s going to go mad. 😛
You’re not alone. Sure it would be a fun ride, but it would also be a repeat. The Tinasky study has been *done*. Why on Earth would we want to go through all that again? That’s what archive binges are for!
One of the things I most appreciate about Skin Horse is the unpredictability. Dr. Lee going mad would just be dull in comparison.
Whereas I get frustrated because I seem to be the only one who believes that she has already been Mad all along, and she’s just been good at appearing sane. There’s no “going Mad” left for her to do. And I think she’s going to prove it by escaping from VR hell without any outside help, and possibly leaving “Dr. Ao” trapped inside instead.
If it is any consolation to you I almost agree.
But I look at Dr. Lee’s situation a little differently.
To do the analysis she does she necessarily be both Mad and Sane. She straddles the fence the way a subatomic particle is both a wave and a particle.
I think this is her secret. She knows the truth of both worlds.
Same here, soft. I find Dr. Lee a much more interesting, and therefore much more satisfying, character as a sane scientist who happens to have the right mental alchemy–the brilliance, the fascination, the education, the childlike glee in brain-schlorping–to understand the work of mad scientists, than I would if she were a latent Mad and we were just waiting for her to snap.
In addition to the intrinsic interesting-ness of Dr. Lee as a character, I also feel like the latent-Mad-saves-the-day-by-going-over-the-edge scenario would feel much too deus ex machina for the kind of story Skin Horse is building. The way to stop the New War isn’t through some kind of decisive military stroke, like deploying an exceptionally brilliant mad scientist on one side or the other. It’s to forge some sort of new unity out of a motley assemblage of humans, aircraft, talking dogs, sapient swamps, Unity herself, and so on. And Dr. Lee is uniquely well-suited to build some bridges among those parties already, without having to cross any kind of sanity event horizon first.
I am finding it way too amusing to mentally superimpose Ira over every scene with Dr. Ao. It’s surprisingly easy to map the expressions from one character to another.
They really underestimated Dr. Lee’s ability to recognize VR Sims when she worked on the Whirligig project for so many years, making personal trips into the VR herself, and integrating Nick’s mind with the VR.