Green Acres

We can ask Zlata and she will say "It is like constantly, constantly eating and pooping at the same time" and then we will regret asking Zlata.

Stephen Wells

Strong girl! Farm? ...ing equipment?

William Burns

My maternal grandfather was a cartoonist around this era (in his spare time - he was a technical artist). I'm so glad I've never seen his signature on any of these drawings (nor have I ever found anything like this in his drawings that I have).

Matt Pedone

I'm younger than Jeph and it's in my head, but to be fair I grew up on Nick at Nite (well, Nick at any time really) and TV Land.

Eric Lusby

OOHHHH, that's why she was too big for the streets! I didn't get it at all 🤣

enchantedsleeper

I feel like I’d get along well with Viktor.

M Cohen

Zlata just wanted Park Avenue.

Sean Kinlin

Hay Baler can be a profession that a person (including a human) has. I.e. someone works at the job of hay baling, and so is a hay baler. In the case of an A.I. it can also mean the individual was literally a giant piece of machinery that bales hay.

Sean Kinlin

Christ, this is just... Lost.

Harry Adams

Pat is currently only theoretically outstanding in their field.

Mad Marie

Whatever you do, don’t feed them after midnight.

Mad Marie

While everyone else goes drinking, Viktor is outstanding in his field.

Mad Marie

Could somebody please explain-like-I'm-an-idiot what the deal is with "hay baler" having a double meaning? I'm SO confused what the comments are cheering about :)

Stephen Wells

I’m allergic to that smelly hay.

Mad Marie

“Green Acres”? Is this how you sus out The Olds? By putting that stupid song in my head? 🖕🏾

William Hanna

The subtle plot twist of Zlata not just being a hay baler, but a HAY BALER is 👌

Daniel Blom Paulsen

So Zlata switched chassis to a baler? I wonder how somatic sense transfers over? Does the baler mechanism feel like one’s “hands”?

Shane Wegner

Shall I compare thee to a bale of hay? Thou art more dusty and far less neat. Rough winds do toss thy mop about, I'd say, Which looks far worse than hay a horse would eat. Sometime thy squinty eye looks into mine Through stringy, greasy hair that needs be trimm'd, And ne'er a horse had such a stench as thine, As though in stagnant sewers thou hast swimm'd. --https://photodharma.tripod.com/sonnet18.htm

William Burns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYLuKOvXdQs

Not in that hot-ass loft. Seriously, whenever someone brings up the concept of Hell, I think of that loft.

Yelling Bird

That's what she said.

Some Ed

Elton John wants his licensing fees. NOW.

Joseph Bonnar

Moray's true strength? She has ALL the gossip.

Joseph Bonnar

I wonder how much (and how it's done) of an adjustment it is to go from a piece of farm equipment to a human body?

JCfromNC

Me too also. At least if you had room in the hay loft, you could build yourself a little hideaway out of hay bales.

JCfromNC

Booo. Hisss.

Holly Nelson

Missing socks mate in the dark and become Tupperware containers and lids that don't match them.

Sleepy John

I went back and re-read the Bubbles' memory arc and she mentions that AI consciousness can be backed up, but I don't know whether that means two copies of the same consciousness can be active at the same time, or if the backup can only be used to rollback an existing substrate. If I had to guess, it's probably closer to the latter, since we haven't seen anything about duplicate instances of the same AI outside of Yay/Spookybot, who is unique as far as we know. But it's also easy to imagine a lot of AIs finding the idea distasteful if it *is* possible. That said, I like how the specifics of how AIs work is emergent as the comic explores them further, rather than needing every answer in a huge codex all at once. It's just fun to wonder about!

BaronHaynes

Even with a single body, there can be problems. It is important to always put your brain in the same place on the bedside table at night. Some days it feels like I must have put mine in backwards in the morning.

Charles Hirst

yes, anthropomorphic farm equipment, just what we need

darklion

I used to bale hay every summer. I do NOT miss it.

Yelling Bird

His next mistake was responding with “Aw, you bailin‘ on me girl?”

Andrew

That work history should be useful for preparing any straw-man arguments.

Andrew

Pat was all "Heeeey, baler", and then Zlata punched them.

Dean Reilly

John Scalzi plays with some of this in his Lock In series (highly recommended), although with neural implants in human brains operating android bodies rather than AIs.

Darcy Conaty

That’s why Sawtooth Rivergrinder from Freefall use remotes, so they can move about without their large body. Benny uses remotes, but combines it with a removable brain so he can put himself easily into different jets.

Thisguy

Viktor sounds like a guy you don't ever want to get drunk. He go on endlessly on the cost benefit analysis of choosing the right tractor for experimental farming.

The main reason Roko had/has body dysphoria is that she didn't want to leave her former body and get a new one. For her, the new body is not truly hers. If someone voluntarily swaps between two different bodies, it is a completely different matter. The principal obstacle would be affording two bodies. It's not unreasonable, of course. It would be similar in cost to someone buying multiple automobiles. And naturally, one would need someone trustworthy to perform the swap, unless you could develop a machine that would put the first body into sleep mode, transfer the AI to the second body, and then awaken the second body. There's also other questions. Are AIs registered to a single body? Can they register two bodies? What if one of the bodies is stolen? Can an AI be loaded into two bodies at the same time? Would that effectively make them two distinct people?

awgiedawgie

seems like many of the issues faced by AI inside machinery could be solved by having them in a humanoid body and having some kind of docking station on the machinery. then they can unplug and enjoy life after work.

Kate Cole

Had me puzzled there for a moment, but you mean she actually had herself uploaded to a piece of farm equipment. Actually makes more sense that doing it in a human form body if efficiency is what you're after.

Tudza

ah nerd farmers all they wanna do is talk shop amirite

SpookyPenguin

How about swapping bodies with another AI? And getting stuck in it because of some unforeseen circumstance, leading to hijinx? (Yes, I'm pitching a buddy comedy movie in the QC-verse.)

ValdVin

That's probably an individual skill or talent. A robot fighter might be a robot fighter because they can tolerate moving into a new body every week. Roko is not going to be a robot fighter, at least not without years of training and therapy. Also...wouldn't there be some serious trust issues involved with that? Someone pops out your AI core and...hopefully installs it in the new body, and doesn't toss it in the corner and clean out your apartment? This happens twice a day if you have a work and home body. Would there be connector wear? I wouldn't do this with a thumb drive on a USB port on my laptop due to the terrible data integrity issues...imagine doing that when the thumb drive is you. It could be a network sync system, but then there's another body lying around that could be turned on and become a version of you walking around that didn't live through your last six hours.

Zygo

There's a lot of logistical questions like that which are fun to speculate about, and extra fun when answers/details sporadically pop up in the comic over the years. And a big theme is obviously that AIs have a lot of variation and there's no single answer, too. (Also, it's Roko)

BaronHaynes

Reminded me of this Freefall comic: http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2100/fc02049.htm For the unfamiliar, robots in this setting are developing true consciousness and starting to have interests outside work. Sometimes this requires other bodies, but they're operated remotely because the essence of their "self" can't be moved/copied.

Peter Jensen

We see Corpse Witch pull out a robot fighter's armored AI drive without much ceremony, so I'd think it is technically feasible, assuming the AI can afford two bodies and doesn't have body image issues like that ex-cop whose name I can't recall right now.

Captain Button

I wonder if AIs ever hotswap in and out of multiple bodies for things like this. Like you work all day as a hay baler or a zamboni machine, then switch into a humanoid body to go drinking with friends. But you'd still have to be able to afford multiple bodies, even if the tech side is feasible.

BaronHaynes

The Little Hay Baler That Couldn't And Did Not Want To.

Stephen Wells

Indeed.

Miyaa

Can confirm, bailing hay suuuuucks.

ziPRR

Is that Zlata's resume Claire is reading? How long has she been out of university? Or did she have many jobs for less than a year each?

Bill Marcum

Also wondering what’s the latest research on where do missing socks go?

Miyaa

This puts a new spin on that Gary Synder poem. https://poets.org/poem/hay-horses

Emma Humphries

/me waves a Wendell Berry book at you in sympathy.

Paracog Steadham

Speaking as a person who failed their way around for a while, perspective can be very valuable. I don't know if it is as valuable as the lack of insecurity the failures gave me, but I guess Zlata doesn't have those.

Tannerbot