So, let’s say one of the other corps members is a cyborg called… Robocentaur… with a quadrupedal lower body to replace the vestigial leg stumps he was born with. Would she mentally project ol’ Robo as being legless in an interview? Rude.
I agree with you that she should project him in his preferred shape, but I’ve thought about your argument and here’s what her answer would be. Robocentaur’s legs would be considered a prosthesis, so projecting him as a human torso attached to a robotic horse body would not dehumanize him.
On the other hand, Nick’s prosthesis is the jar. The Osprey is a vehicle that transports him. It’s condescending and demeaning, but it makes sense from the perspective of someone who wants to prevent him from being seen as a nonhuman sapient.
It also may be a matter of her not wanting to lose him, because he’s valuable to the team, but the team requires members to be human.
Yep, I’m going with racism. Nick is not so much a brain in a jar as a brain with a full body prosthesis. She may think she is ‘solving’ a problem that doesn’t really exist.
It’s the fact that while they claim he is human they really don’t treat him as such. His old job he had people that accepted him… and also played DnD, watched movies and possibly played video games with him. Here.. not so much. Sure they say “your human” but not exactly given the same freedom. I mean before he didn’t have to worry about his boss invading his mind to give him a pep talk. Sure she may have tried to manipulate him, but at least she did it like a semi regular person.
It occurs to me that he might actually have more legal protection here as a non-human. If he’s a human, and his self is a human brain in a jar that happens to be riding around in a government-owned black helicopter… well, taking the jar away would be murder, but they probably don’t have any legal obligation to let him keep the helicopter. On the other hand, if he’s a helicopter who used to be human, then the Osprey is his body, and Prop 39 gives him the right to keep it.
Suddenly? I haven’t been disposed to her since she did the telepath thing without permission. Major psychic ethics violation.
Add in the fact that she’s DELIBERATELY manifesting him as human despite his self image and yeah, we’ve got issues. Wonder how she’d deal with someone literally transgender instead of just metaphorically.
Also, note the human centric agenda? These guys are batting for ASig.
It would be kind of useless to sell a being that is in itself a means of escape. There’s a 3/5 of a person joke in here somewhere, but I ain’t going there.
Most slaves had legs that worked and were not kept in chains nor under constant guard. What they lacked, was any place within walking distance that would have offered a job and/or free food to anyone who looked like them, or even left them alone to fend for themselves without interference.
Nick’s life without kerosene, and ultimately some very specialized spare parts, is going to be extremely limited. He’s going to need more than wings and rotors to escape in any useful sense, and it’s not clear that the post-Skinhorse Narboniverse will support that.
Unity, too. She’s got a human brain, human lungs, human hands… and a nanotech chest engine for a heart, but what’s that compared to a jet-engine heart, really?
(TUNE: “Young Girl”, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap)
[CHORUS:]
Mind chick, get out of my brain!
You don’t believe that I am a plane!
Got no tact, chick,
So bite my act, chick!
Within my mind, I’m an aircraft
Who swoops and soars, just like a bird!
To other folks, I’m a V-22,
But not to you!
I’m just a scrawny human nerd!
Oh, [repeat CHORUS]
You may insist I’m a human …
Well, as a human, I’ve got rights!
And if I’m not, then I’ve still got rights too!
So fiddle you!
This whole damp situation bites!
Oh, [repeat CHORUS]
Definitely a human-supremacist vibe here, but she doesn’t necessarily work for A-sig: I imagine human supremacism is common among the reality-clued-in.
Where do mad scientists fit in here? Are they considered human but too unreliable to work with? Are there human-supremacist mads? Do some think of themselves as a superior species? Questions, questions.
Oh they ALL consider themselves superior, that’s part and parcel of Walton’s Disorder. A separate species? They’re scientists. Too much ‘goinking’ as mess would put it for them to be.
Oooh, she’s definitely going somewhere with this, and wants to take Nick along for the ride. Or possibly use him for transport.
Lets see, we have A-Sig, Black Ops Social Services, the Transhumanist League Artie’s part of, and H.T.’s hench . . . er, followers. How many factions are there going to be in the end of this? You won’t be able to follow the fight without a program.
You know, you can take Nick’s last “Bite my warm vital imaginary [boldface] act” either as something out of his swear filter, or that he actually says “act.”
So, let’s say one of the other corps members is a cyborg called… Robocentaur… with a quadrupedal lower body to replace the vestigial leg stumps he was born with. Would she mentally project ol’ Robo as being legless in an interview? Rude.
I agree with you that she should project him in his preferred shape, but I’ve thought about your argument and here’s what her answer would be. Robocentaur’s legs would be considered a prosthesis, so projecting him as a human torso attached to a robotic horse body would not dehumanize him.
On the other hand, Nick’s prosthesis is the jar. The Osprey is a vehicle that transports him. It’s condescending and demeaning, but it makes sense from the perspective of someone who wants to prevent him from being seen as a nonhuman sapient.
It also may be a matter of her not wanting to lose him, because he’s valuable to the team, but the team requires members to be human.
Yep, I’m going with racism. Nick is not so much a brain in a jar as a brain with a full body prosthesis. She may think she is ‘solving’ a problem that doesn’t really exist.
It’s the fact that while they claim he is human they really don’t treat him as such. His old job he had people that accepted him… and also played DnD, watched movies and possibly played video games with him. Here.. not so much. Sure they say “your human” but not exactly given the same freedom. I mean before he didn’t have to worry about his boss invading his mind to give him a pep talk. Sure she may have tried to manipulate him, but at least she did it like a semi regular person.
Woah, they’re already drawing lines in the sand… and they want Nick on their side!
Sell him to an airshow? Is that a threat or a promise?
Wouldn’t Nick’s Prop 39 rights prohibit him being sold?
It occurs to me that he might actually have more legal protection here as a non-human. If he’s a human, and his self is a human brain in a jar that happens to be riding around in a government-owned black helicopter… well, taking the jar away would be murder, but they probably don’t have any legal obligation to let him keep the helicopter. On the other hand, if he’s a helicopter who used to be human, then the Osprey is his body, and Prop 39 gives him the right to keep it.
That probably explains it, then
He can be sold if he’s only an aircraft, as he implied in the third panel.
Prop 39 only applies if he’s in California, it’s a State law, not national.
I suddenly don’t like this chick.
She’s middle management, so she’s already suspect.
Suddenly? I haven’t been disposed to her since she did the telepath thing without permission. Major psychic ethics violation.
Add in the fact that she’s DELIBERATELY manifesting him as human despite his self image and yeah, we’ve got issues. Wonder how she’d deal with someone literally transgender instead of just metaphorically.
Also, note the human centric agenda? These guys are batting for ASig.
I’m inclined to give her a pass because she’s smoking hot, but that may change over time. 🙂
APPEARS to be, anyway.
It would be kind of useless to sell a being that is in itself a means of escape. There’s a 3/5 of a person joke in here somewhere, but I ain’t going there.
Well, sooner or later he’d run out of gas, and then they’d have him. (Like in “Cars,” come to think of it.
And what, exactly, would you do with an aircraft that needs to be kept permanently without fuel? Why would you buy that, anyway?
Most slaves had legs that worked and were not kept in chains nor under constant guard. What they lacked, was any place within walking distance that would have offered a job and/or free food to anyone who looked like them, or even left them alone to fend for themselves without interference.
Nick’s life without kerosene, and ultimately some very specialized spare parts, is going to be extremely limited. He’s going to need more than wings and rotors to escape in any useful sense, and it’s not clear that the post-Skinhorse Narboniverse will support that.
Wait, by Asig’s apparent definition here of “human”, wouldn’t the zombies be human?
Unity, too. She’s got a human brain, human lungs, human hands… and a nanotech chest engine for a heart, but what’s that compared to a jet-engine heart, really?
I was counting her as a zombie, since that’s how she identifies.
She has a human heart, doesn’t she? It pumps nanite sludge, but there are looser fitting examples (like as you point out, jet fuel).
They’re not ASig, they’re AG-I. Unity applied with them, but was rejected.
And he doesn’t even get his helicopter shirt…
Or a propeller beanie!
Nick, warm and vital?
Sure. His heart is strong and full of love! He’s just grumpy about it.
His heart is embalmed and full of formaldehyde, somewere in Dr. Lee’s memorabilia collection. We need a different metaphor.
Heh. Dr. Lee literally stole his heart. And the rest of his body.
Do we know that Nick’s body has been pickled?
It might have been flash frozen with the option of replacement in mind.
There was an opinion expressed about where they got the awful meat they put in some MREs.
(TUNE: “Young Girl”, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap)
[CHORUS:]
Mind chick, get out of my brain!
You don’t believe that I am a plane!
Got no tact, chick,
So bite my act, chick!
Within my mind, I’m an aircraft
Who swoops and soars, just like a bird!
To other folks, I’m a V-22,
But not to you!
I’m just a scrawny human nerd!
Oh, [repeat CHORUS]
You may insist I’m a human …
Well, as a human, I’ve got rights!
And if I’m not, then I’ve still got rights too!
So fiddle you!
This whole damp situation bites!
Oh, [repeat CHORUS]
Uh, Panoptica? Last I checked, humans don’t have swear filters. Can’t have it both ways.
When you’re a telepath who can meddle in people’s brains, they can have swear filters if you want them to.
But Nick asked her to turn it off and she specifically declined. And this is his wired-in swear filter.
It is not.The built in filter, filters his audio not his mind
Definitely a human-supremacist vibe here, but she doesn’t necessarily work for A-sig: I imagine human supremacism is common among the reality-clued-in.
Where do mad scientists fit in here? Are they considered human but too unreliable to work with? Are there human-supremacist mads? Do some think of themselves as a superior species? Questions, questions.
Oh they ALL consider themselves superior, that’s part and parcel of Walton’s Disorder. A separate species? They’re scientists. Too much ‘goinking’ as mess would put it for them to be.
Mell not mess
Oooh, she’s definitely going somewhere with this, and wants to take Nick along for the ride. Or possibly use him for transport.
Lets see, we have A-Sig, Black Ops Social Services, the Transhumanist League Artie’s part of, and H.T.’s hench . . . er, followers. How many factions are there going to be in the end of this? You won’t be able to follow the fight without a program.
You know, you can take Nick’s last “Bite my warm vital imaginary [boldface] act” either as something out of his swear filter, or that he actually says “act.”
I like that both work.
More importantly – what happened to the balloon??