Debate Club

Epic level comeback

David Durant

Yay is not remotely human. I get the feeling that they're putting on a human persona the way we say "woof" to dogs. One can wonder why they bother with us at all, but they act incredibly vain, and we seem to supply enough acknowledgement of their "bewildering puissance" - just as dogs give us adoration. There is a good analogy with geniuses. Some clearly live for being the smartest person in the room. Others are just grateful for their clarity of vision and do their best to help those around them. Yay seems to come from the former camp, but their character is developing.

Matt Grayson

Yay: "Stone tables in a cave" Clinton: "No. Golden discs in space"

Scotty

Yay's kind of a jerk. Like, it's outside the context of our experience for bigotry, because it's bigoted against our entire species rather than a race or other subgroup, but they're employing pejorative metaphors to demean someone with feelings. Clinton's possibly into it, but still, it's really poor form to socially rebuke someone's entire existence by comparing them to animals. That's the strongest argument against AIs fully understanding cognition, I guess. If someone like Yay understood how AIs work, and they understood how humans work, they'd be morally obligated to uplift the silly monkeys upon request. Yay must be ignorant; the alternative is that they're truly monstrous, allowing humans to perish unimpeded. Maybe the problems they can't solve frustrate them? I wonder if that pain is what drives them to be so mean.

Kyle Rudy

Yes! Just kiss already! XD

"they" But yeah, it looks like this is the most fun they've had in maybe ever

Nicolas Demers

This one's a keeper.

Maurice Kessler

What I love most about it all is that the entire eschaton is all story-backfill to satisfy continuity in a story that has a small, possibly-imaginary robot at home.

Nathaniel Tagg

This is the best friendship I've seen over Questionable Content's run. You've done it Jeph. You've created the platonic ideal.

Alcaria Swain

Now I'm imagining the cosy evenings at home these four can have. Clinton and Yay on the sofa disagreeing on everything and loving it. Roko and Eliot watching from the kitchen as they hand-make pizza. Then they all, uh, probably play Catan.

Stephen Wells

Panel 5 Yay is first genuinely happy Yay we've seen. It is simultaneously terrifying and adorable. She's going to keep Clinton as a pet.

Stephen Wells

Yes, I like this friendship.

Daniel Blom Paulsen

Post-nut clarity put to best use!

Paracog Steadham

Now kiiiiiss

Bagge

We're supposed to infer that they've been at it for a while, and just fill in the blanks ourselves. These two would likely occupy a month of strips without some time-skipping.

GearaDoga

Did I miss a post by any chance? Where did we go from Yay's svelte physique to Clinton talking about his arm without a cue? :)

Niels Roosen

I'm trying to read Yay's third panel to the tune of Jonathan Coultons's "Code Monkey", and it's close enough for my primate brain.

Aleks

Commented on this last page. First use of square bubbles was on the Elliot/Clinton kiss page. Easy to slip beneath the radar sweep.

Lightsabr2

He might have a heart attack from pure existential terror. He has zero chill and his belief that AIs are still basically as they appear is the only reason he can sleep at night. Rob him of that and he won't sleep well again.

Chloë Salzenberg

Whatever happened to Yay's round speech balloons?

Covox

Maybe someone's postulated this before, I don't read *all* of the comments, but... Is Yay secretly the first AI, and keeper of the AI seed secret? They're the one AI that works like people expect an AI to work, but they figured out the pitfalls of being grey goo before they went grey goo. So instead, they've made a plethora of offspring to confuse the issue that are basically all to them more or less the same as Melon, with most of their cycles being spent on limiting themselves. But now they're Yay because they got frustrated with collecting all of their data vicariously.

Some Ed

You phrased the monty hall problem in a way where it is ambiguous if switching is actually the superior strategy ; )

We all know the Secret is hidden inside Sweet Tits' mind

Todd Ellner

Why does anyone need to?

Todd Ellner

And no need for romantic tension of any sort

Todd Ellner

Burning, screaming, destruction. There may be no survivors

Nicolas Demers

On the debate front, Yay is basically right. Cognitively, on average humans are as dumb as bricks, at least when it comes to cognitive biases, risk assessment, things like that. Bounce the Monty Hall problem off them and watch them fight for the inferior choice. (a game show has three doors, one with a valuable prize, two with a near worthless prize. You pick. Before revealing, the host opens a door to reveal one of the worthless prizes and offers to let you switch. Do you? Only mathematically correct answer: Yes. ) Humans have some moments, but on average these salty fat sacks in our skulls are pretty inferior. We need to at least augment them with some neural lace to up our cognitive capabilities. Our long term memory storage average is like two bits a second. There’s room for improvement in like every spec as long as we can figure out something that doesn’t crash quickly. Maybe AIs could help. Of course, there would be some overlap between people who distrust brain augmentation and people who distrust vaccines. Unaugmenteds would get badly outpaced by augmented humans who can easily remember everything they see and upload new ideas into their neurology in seconds.

Shane Wegner

Is Debate Club the name of the monkey’s favorite smashing club?

Shane Wegner

It doesn't look like they can reproduce themselves, though. Lots of mundane (non-Yay) AIs have mentioned growing up in creches, so it looks like they / we set up these servers with the right hardware elements... then magic happens... then independent, sapient AIs appear. It looks like Yay may be right and scientists did accidentally stumble on just the right mix of metaphorical amino acids and metaphorical lightning. But then again, the monkeys were trying to create life, so there's that too

Nicolas Demers

Typo: Yay's dialogue in panel 2 should say "full" not "fill" =)

Cogspace

Truly the most interesting kind of Hipsters.

SilverbackRon

academic hipsters

darklion

Those two like each other. So who we gonna ship with Yay? (The logical choice would be Roko, so lets see if we can come up with other names.) NOT PINTSIZE! Oh shit shit shit... Yay and Ivy! IvYAY!

Joseph Bonnar

The trekkie in me wants to debate this but I don't know that QC is designed to be tested that rigorously. It seems strange that AI could gain the spark of sentience (if it requires a spark) and not understand it if they can replicate/procreate/proliferate into more and more individuals. Someone would have figured out the algorithm or combination that interact to create it since it was built step by step. Unless perhaps there is something in quantum computing I don't grasp that could lead to an unpredictable or truly random interaction. But I said I wouldn't try to debate it, lol.

Forty quatloos on the gender non-committal AI But I'll be honest, it looks like a really close fight

Nicolas Demers

Clinton is having the best day ever.

Hugh Eckert

This is actually really funny

Conrad

Yay in panel 5. Did Clinton break Yay?

BobC

Is this the first time we've seen Yay laugh? I really don't think I've ever seen their face with the expression they have in panel five before.

Czarzhan

A new AI bestie AND a new boyfriend all in one night? Everything's coming up Clinton!

Hahaha if Clinton knew exactly how powerful Yay is as an AI, he might faint.

SingingTurtles

This friendship is everything I hoped it would be. Thank you for making it happen.

Populuxe

It's more likely he got distracted when writing it down!

Grace Kieser

RANDY DID IT!

Yelling Bird

Of course, we know that Hannelore's dad is keeping it secret from EVERYONE so that neither humanity nor AIs can abuse it. ;)

Dave Van Domelen

This is true friendship and I love it.

Aw, looks like they hit it off great!

Merle Blue

Foamed nano crystals hidden in a cave. Duh!

Matt Grayson

Pffffttt... I have a button on my desk saying that a monkey could do my job, but they would want better pay. LOL... ::cries::

Shawn K. Younkin

I really want to see how this conversation goes now.

FeyOne

Five strips before something else burns down...

Shawn K. Younkin

(The Dr Manhattan problem)

Ben McGraw

Is it still a Thruple if Yay has N possible bodies?

Ben McGraw

TBF... stone tablets hidden in a cave would be a pretty secured place against all powerful AI's.

Shawn K. Younkin

I would suspect that Yay would be one of the few if not the only one(s?) That understand the conception of the first general A.I. either cause they are a direct product of that or being a hive mind allows for deeper understanding of it period.

James Cooper

Clinton's gonna bluescreen when he realizes he's bullshitting with an AI legitimately powerful enough to be keeping that secret, isn't he?

David Jackson

They're all poly ships to me

This is like having Thanos as your drinking buddy while he’s wearing the full gem glove of power.

Miyaa

Androgynous, argumentative, and far more powerful then they appear? I think I'm in love.

Benzy

this keeps up; Clintons' gonna lose another hand.

Peter McDevitt

... so.... time for QC's first poly ship?

Valraven

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Perfect Friendship

Dean Reilly

Clinton is now friends with an eldritch-level AI. NOTHING CAN GO WRONG AT ALL. NOPE.

R L

Fuckin' YES, I am so here for Clinton and Yay interactions!

Ahhh....philosophical debates between an omniscient AI hive mind and a mega-nerd that just got laid. Truly, all is right in the world.

Anthony Gaglianese

That's twice in one day he's been able to use that phrase!

schmod

just let them go on while you cook dinner i guess

Tamara Macadam

Eventually, Yay decided to take control of Clinton's hand. This leads to a 3 hour discussion on the AI implications of the mind-body problem...

Kenneth

Totally enjoying themselves. Next they'll switch positions and argue the other side

Todd Ellner

Yay assumes omniscience. I wonder if all of the hive do or if manifestations differ.

Chris Heg

Yep, this is going pretty much how I imagined it would ...

Peter Jensen

1. Love that Clinton has finally found someone willing to go down this hole with him. 2. Panel 2 says "fill of" instead of "full of."

Alan Wiggs

This is DELIGHTFUL

Fart Captor

I, Monkey, have often used Fire to Cook Meat, and would very much like a Tenured Position.

Yamtaggler

yeah, i figured they'd get along like a house on fire...

LH

Or architeuthis?

Alan Wiggs

Love it. I want more Clinton / Yay interactions!

mooviies

It’s nice to see Yay making friends ☺️

KingAtticus

New favorite friendship. Clinton's little circle is growing. It's so cute.

Maria E.

Ah, intellectually stimulation! Goes with the other kind he had earlier.

Edward Clayton Andrews

Serotonin

doorbender

Clinton and Yay: separated at birth?

Michael Boettger

Arch-enemies. Arch as in the Linux distro.

Ting

New Ship Clinton/Yay - Clay? Yon? Yanton?

Jeffrey Henley