Toot Toot

I never put politics aside...but if I ever had to ...it would be to say how I avoided Patreon for a long time (I would go broke buying comics if I let myself), but I put my money where your decent human (socialist) mouth is. Whoops guess I couldn’t put politics aside. 🤷‍♂️

MrFrenchFries

Parallel universe rather than the future.

Mark

I blame that on the PDF format :D

Jere

Though I suspect it's tougher to push legislation than to write a benevolent check.

Lightsabr2

Just a heads up, the image on the website is the typo version.

MysteryCow218

not if they are used similarly to a health care provider and then are being paid by a system to work on any ai in need.

Ashley Thomas

Why am I hearing Nelson voiced by Kryten from red dwarf?

Nicholas A Wagner

ROBOCARE FOR ALL

Jonah Hillman

Union Robotics on track to enter the Fortune 500. Bubbles will be the most menacing and yet huggable CFO. As for Fae... we already had Jack Welch.

William Burns

I think it isn't exactly, exactly for this sort of reason.

Some Ed

Probably just the name on the check.

tamtheotter

Wait, won’t this mean a large loss of business for Faye and Bubbles? Or will it just change the name on the check?

GreenThreads

In the ideal, I don't expect he's going anywhere worse than what the ideal of universal healthcare is in the real world. What'll happen, though, could still be terrifying.

Bryan Freehan

Oh no. There are lots of AIs with high end bodies in this world. Kinda worried where you're going with this Jeph. 😟

Bryan Austin

I think they’re all on the same side.

Matt Grayson

Yay vs John Ellicott-Chatham vs Union Robotics....

Nicholas Sturm

Exciting times!!!!

Brooke Vibber

It occurs to me that this could be a very bad thing for Union Robotics.

Churchill (formerly TeaBear)

Chathamcare!

David Pipes

now i'm wondering how far in the future is this set where pdfs are that far behind

Also "We wre" in the last panel. Must've been a bad day for Jeph.

Jan Szejko

Why shouldn't Union Robotics became a certified care provider?

Mark

I wonder what this bodes for a certain fledgling AI chassis repair shop?

Timothy Mann

This is Hannelore's dad we're talking about. His approach to any problem is likely to try and re-write the way the rules work.

Reyn Goldfur

IDK, we've seen the QC cast go in and out of hospitals and doctor's offices and never make any mention of paying for it up-front - maybe the QC-verse already includes socialized health care for the humans and the AI rights are just lagging behind, as ever?\

Reyn Goldfur

Way to go hooking the oil tanker, but hope they can get May a better body before they move that far forward. poor May.

Tina Pegar

Jeph is fixing all the ailments and injustices of the world though it may take a while

jimbo

It isn't bad to be the pebble that starts the avalanche, Roko

Randall Norman Pick

Wherever air could pass, I suppose... maybe the neck joint, or something hidden by her hair? Idk @~@

Roko doesn't do voices

Gabriel Burns

I gotta ask... How does Beeps smell? "Pretty great, she showers every morning with that -" No. I mean... where did they put her olfactory sensors?

I would have thought the speech bubbles would be round, or maybe something novel, since this was an AI quoting a meat-person.

Zach Elwyn

I absolutely love the “I propose– holy shit–”. For me, this was perfectly creating tension.

Tim Weber

This is absolutely a setup so you can eventually change what your AI characters look like on a whim, right? I'm calling it now!

Also in the first panel: "then an emulator to run TO software" should be "THE software".

“rocialism”surely?

James Dore

someone probably already mentioned it, but there's a typo in the last panel: "wre" instead of "were"

Jessi Lloyd

Hmm that is relatively sad because you DON'T have health care for the humans...

Milo

The number of people flipping out at the idea of universal care for all is kind of hilarious. In a depressing sort of way.

Chris Crowther

And while they are struggling with the oil tanker, May is still stuck with her ever falling apart body. I totally accept the reasoning, but we're leaving May here.

Jan Gampe

Good point! :)

Kevin Symonds

Basically- Roko- "Mr Chatham, AIs who have been convicted get raw deals because they're giving beaters for bodies and their criminal records mean they can only get very low paying jobs, and thus can't afford the upkeep on their bodies. We're looking to overall the system that assigns bodies, but there's a money issue..." Mr. Chatham- "Ah, I see! That is indeed a terrible scenario. However, I feel it would be better to address the root of the problem, that repairs cost people money, rather than the issue that some people have busted bodies and can't afford to fix them. So I'm going to focus on that." Basically.

Valraven

"Fully socialized body care for all AI." Coming soon everywhere, USA excepted.

The knowledge that American Libertarianism exists hurts my brain on a daily basis. Also offends me, as it appropriates the term...

Valraven

More like Pintsize parrots some republican bullshit to troll people and literally everyone threatens him with blunt force trauma. Or they expect him to and Pintsize is like "look, far too many of my trolling antics require repairs after, even I'm not so dumb as to oppose this."

Valraven

Except it's not unobtainable... It's socialized healthcare. Most Western countries already have it.

Valraven

I'd like to think that a billionaire who understands morality enough to pull this also understands the kind of timeline on it and the fact that there are AIs in need *right now*, and would be willing to figure out a "meantime solution"

Valraven

It means there will be no new body for May anytime soon. Still, a lot of good might come from this.

Bagge

Or provider her with more customers because someone needs to do the subsidized repairs, so now bots who couldn't afford it can hire her for work.

Lev Vaesinis

Go, John Elicott-Chatham!

Joseph Bonnar

How soon until we get to see Roko in a really smart suit testifying before Congress?

...welp. This is gonna...tank Faye's business won't it. Or force her to get super organized and shit.

Aqua Allison

I recall that AI are “born” ...differently, but can’t recall the specifics. I look to forward to revisiting this and to more comics about how ‘fuck you if you’re poor’ is still not a sustainable strategy. 👍

MrFrenchFries

Everyone's talking about the logistics of how this would work, but I'm over here just thinking that this will get Winslow some brownie points with Roko.

The Secret Sponsor

I'm a blue collar kinda guy, I dont know what half of this means but I under stand what Roko said in that last panel so its gotta be good. I'm happy for her.

I am the captian now

Why does that response not surprise me?

Andrew Mitchell

Seeing so many libertarians in the comments is hurting my brain. Living in aggressive denial of the reality that is already standard for all the citizens of all the developed countries in our world is probably very straining? And trying to push this worldview in the comments to obviously left-leaning comic? Astounding. Also, all proponents of Invisible Hand are very pleased when this Hand is forced to give them handjobs by the government. Like when A*n R*nd Institute is getting government payout. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ppp-ayn-rand/in-sign-of-the-times-ayn-rand-institute-approved-for-ppp-loan-idUSKBN248026

Evgeniy Semyonov

And also, this sort of thing already exists in our universe.

Thisguy

I like how Roko stares directly at the camera in the final panel. It makes her stare feel really intense. (Also yay! This will be fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.)

Lisa

You're right. DARN YOU, JEPH!

Joseph Bonnar

Can't wait to see how the government fucks up Rokocare.

Jax

Tuna nets and oil tankers. Her environmentally unfriendly oceanic metaphors need some work.

Summer Sudbrink

Looking forward to the Pintsize is a republican arc

Smazzie

I guess, as robots, they might have more use for the products of an oil tanker than of a tuna.

Michael Schmidt

Same. Wish I could like it more than once.

Hugh Eckert

These are the hopeful feels I needed today 💜

"Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger... "

Hugh Eckert

Imagine spending actual money on a comic just so you can tell everyone in the comments how much you don't like it.

Pejo

No. Go into the timeout corner, for two minutes.

Miyaa

also, Jeph, you misspelled were, in panel 6.. by roko, you spelled it wre instead.

Ronald Burdick

Oh great, our achievable goal is being replaced by a huge unobtainable one, thanks

Nicholas A Wagner

Ummmm why are so many people freaking about the "logistics" of how this would work? Are people forgetting that this is a comic? And that it's not set in OUR universe? 😆

Ok but seriously why did this make my eyes wet?

Erin Moriarty

So the thing about catching an oil tanker when you're fishing for tuna is that, most of the time, the oil tanker just keeps going and takes your line away without even noticing you. This is the next step up from when May was wanting a new body and Roko decided to solve the more general problem for all ex-convict AIs with the result that May isn't getting a new body any time soon. Maybe this will solve the problem Roko was working on, and maybe it won't, but either way it is likely to take even longer that it was already going to.

Brooks Moses

Presumably the QCverse doesn't have regular operating systems. So a virtual machine to run Adobe on Windows, and maybe another bit of software to run a virtual machine that can run VMware or similar in the first place?

Dolan

Eh, they'll just go cry in the comments section of LICD. This comic seems to draw a pretty progressive crowd.

Tim Eldred

I live in australia, we have socialized health care so i already do (apart from the lack of robots *sadface*)

Brad Kirkwood

"emulator to run to software"?

Gary Sumners

*puke* He COULD just make a trust fund for disenfranchised AI's and save the economy and tax wrecking legislative lobbying for a world pandemic.

Almost ridiculous that this made me a little teary.

Matthew

Bad IRL. Probably good in this comic, tho. Narrative pushing intensifies.

Robocialism works

Bonnie Fiddis

Only problem is it's a work of fiction. Which means it doesn't matter if something is practical or functional or not. So long as it feels good and is what the creator wanted.

Side note: we're about to find out how many people who follow this comic don't like socialized anything because they're gonna get real mad at this page

Dylan T

That depends on whose standards are being lowered. Plenty of AI will get the body maintenance they need and those who are fortunate to obtain higher quality parts or repairs won’t need to participate in it, although it’s fair to assume many may do so if the status quo is less than pleasant even under the most ideal circumstances. The needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few

KingAtticus

And once again i find myself wishing i lived in the QC universe

Dylan T

*Sigh* *Facepalm* Really?

Sure you want to go there? Brun still has the harpoon. And she's anti whaling.

Michael Boettger

One sure way to make sure no AI has a substandard body is to lower the standards....

Wolfger

Body mod and plastic surgeon queens? If repairs aren’t needed anymore they’d be able to do upgrades (and butt implants). Though... it would actually probably make them crazy wealthy because they’d be able to fix everyone and have it be affordable - paid for by insurance, maybe? Hmm...

He clearly knows to fear the robot proletariat and to not give them cause to revolt

Sandrock

How many femtoseconds would Trump survive in this world?

Emma Humphries

Did they just put Faye & Bubbles out of business, or make them future presidents? I can't tell.

Andrew Tate

Shit just got real. 'o.o

Ngrasta

nah. just pass a law. that makes it so, right??

Joe

At work we were about there. We tried to virtualize a VAX box but it needed it's own blade running Windows which ran the emulator. Spent all that money on a fancy high-end blade, tons of RAM and processor AND... it ran at about 5% the speed of the current 20+ year old hardware. Management was not happy. Pretty sure we got all our money back at the very least.

Jeremy Jorgensen

... Okay... Unless you have Magical Pixie Dust Generators, you're going into SO MANY PROBLEMS. Not the least of which is that SOMEBODY has to be paying the freight. Somebody has to make the bodies, somebody has to ship the bodies, somebody has to build the spare parts. Somebody has to build the equipment to carry the spare parts. There are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of things that have to be figured out and built-and no one person, or one AI can do them all. No one person knows how to *make a pencil*. https://fee.org/resources/i-pencil/?fbclid=IwAR0czjZfVR_cTzekq38NNrbxixx5MGyCTNdLGYbLMDUe7G0TPMsp42Oc-qc

z

No, misspelled for the sound of an ambulance. WE-WOO WE-WOO

Jeremy Jorgensen

hell yeah, thanks space dad! edit: does this make space dad the one good billionaire

It's, like, a metaphor for... for... um, for what, exactly? /sarcasm

Cliff

Robot dad does not fuck around. Also, Tilly may have cried.

MikeT

mario_kart_luigi_falling_off_edge_of_track.mp3

Magic Chopstick Games

So... basically, better healthcare than current humans in the US. I can’t see the government going for it.

Thisguy

oh my god

Dave, Duke of Fridges

That’s no arc... it’s a space station...

Andrew

Write the world you wanna see Jeph, hell yeah!

Interesting twist!

Julie Scott

I love that good things keep happening in your story. Please keep it up! I don't think I could handle a tragic twist right now.

Mladen

Aside: I used to run a piece of Scantron hardware using a VMware program run on an emulator that was abandonware for Windows95, so would need to be run on another emulator if that machine ever broke down.

Dave Van Domelen

I feel like this needs a whale analogy. For reasons. Harpoon reasons.

Andrew

Guessing Bubbles will get to figure out the new paperwork for the shop.

Dave Van Domelen

Head's up, "...to run to software."

Sora

Probably more business, their bills will just be paid by the government instead of by the customers.

Eric Sieck

My first thought was: this will either be very good, or VERY BAD for Faye and Bubbles' business.

Dracon Atrox

I mean. He's AI Dad. He's at least acting the part.

R L

VERY this

We wre? Is that an acronym for Universal AI Healthcare?

J.R. Murdock

wait a minute this is a friday cliffhanger YOU BASTARD

Tamara Macadam

Socialized, huh? That's going a hot potato.

Joshua Brumley

and one in the first panel, 'an emulator to run to software'

Simon Green

Holy... Oh my gods, this is one hell of an arc. Like, seriously.

Bailey Tighe

I like this story arc. What year is this exactly?

Sean Kau

So we go from helping May to providing all AI with mandated health care. Nice! Now they need to go to CoD and order tea. And maybe a hug for Hanners.

Michael Boettger

And remember kids, you can tune a robot body, but you can't tuna fish.

Simon Green

Nah, that answer would just set off the klaxon.

Alacrity Fitzhugh

Mr Ellicott-Chatham being pro-social-welfare makes me so happy. I can't wait for this to progress.

Samantha Yeaman

Why did my brain immediately go to Pintsize sounding an "oil tanker" fog horn with ass cheeks? Help!

Max D S

Good first step. Now we just expand that out to all people everywhere.

Jaron Mortimer

Oh dip

Daniel Burnett

HOLY SHIT THE HEALTHCARE METAPHOR

orangejuicenut

YES 😍

pfreya

Whoa. Dial that one up to eleven!

Alacrity Fitzhugh

Just a heads up, typo at the end where it should say 'were'

Matthew Bernal

Missed an e in "We were" in the last panel

Nic A

I'd say a better comparison is trying to catch a bass and hooking a blue whale.

Fluffy

i *cackled* as i read this, holy shit i love it

Tamara Macadam