Tragedy

Ursula didn't do much with AIs or robots.

"James Tiptree, Jr." (Alice Bradley Sheldon)

Nelson

Yes

Chris Arnold

When your pants fall down In the middle of the town It's Tragedy!

Nick Hodgson

or did he choose a first name, second name kind of name? Is he Arthur Nelson? There is a mildly famous politician named that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_E._Nelson Perhaps Arthur/Nelson picked a name reflecting a mildly successful bureaucrat on purpose? :D

Kerin Schiesser

Wait, is his name Arthur or Nelson?

Jared Cyr

Except when the person 'they' refers to doesn't want 'they' - then it's problematic

Cleo Schmitz

Waitwaitwait...so Beepatrice is in charge?

Marc Ducharme

Or a very robust focaccia.

Barry Callahan

Claire Excluding Radical Feminist. (Yeah, I know what the T stands for, but I thought I'd try to short circuit any questions on why Jeph might care.)

Some Ed

That was already answered a negative, if I'm not mistaken. Although, depending on how that all went down, there could be an open question of 'should you?'

Some Ed

If you didn't call the author she, I would have put money down on it being Asimov

Wild Card

TERF? Terribly entertaining ribald freelancer?

Zach Elwyn

She's not going to leave Beeps in the lurch, don't worry :)

Stephen Wells

Yeah. Good writer who made a lot of people happy...but kind of spoils it by being a shit show of a human being.

Chris Crowther

Nice Beetlejuice reference.

DrummerGeek

Nah, JK Rowling is an outspoken TERF, I can't imagine Jeph is in a great hurry to reference her!

Blakey

Except in the QC Universe, Harry is an AI.

Jax

But Jo is very much alive and she writes fantasy, not sci-fi.

OldGoat

Andre Alice Norton would qualify.

OldGoat

Better if it was JK Rowling, Roku would be sitting on, like, quadrillions of dollars by now.

Zach Elwyn

W h a t ?

Kriss Pang

I'm pretty sure the author is Ursula K. LeGuin. She passed away a few weeks ago or something. :(

I'm fond of a lot of Jeph's cute ladies, but damn if there isn't something special about Roko's combination of passion and vulnerability.,

Mark

In Roko's case, Sweetheart. I've given up any pretense I wouldn't enjoy curling up with her and a loaf of seedless rye.

Isaac Asimov

Dean Reilly

To be a garden statue seems nice

Bagge

Oh, good call. I was bracing myself for a Dr. Susan Calvin joke.

Stephen Wells

The characters seem to use "she" routinely, and "they" is never problematic.

Stephen Wells

"Actually the ship is fine but the crew have mostly deserted and you can be captain now." :)

Stephen Wells

The girls(?) outfits are really cute. How does one refer to an AI that has assumed a female persona.?

Philip D Jones

I feel like there's a missing "a" in front of wealthy in Beep's speech bubble in the first panel.

David D.

Ursula Le Guin

Áine Yore

I can't help but wonder if Roko is about to go to a outdoor sculpture park and Have Words With Someone™.

Elf Sternberg

The AI is now a talking statue of Marcel Marceau. I wonder who the human was.

Summer Sudbrink

Someone please hug Beeps.

Jason Rock

Arthur Nelson?

MercuryBuddha

When did he change his name from Nelson? https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3954

Raphael Bressel

Zero Oversight was my first thought...

Chuck Dee

And thus Roko learns she can take command of a sleeping battleship

fizzlefist

Arthur Nelson. ;)

Churchill (formerly TeaBear)

still confused, is his name arthur or nelson?

Brad Kirkwood

Why couldn't the AI have decided to become a toaster? That would have been helpful for poor Roko.

Joseph Bonnar

Nice work if you can get it.

William Cole

Reminds me of the time Martin and Pintsize got into it, and Pintsize declared he now understood all of their lyrics... 😂

William Karr

There is no shame in not being successful in a position for which one has no training, aptitude, or desire.

Sleepy John

Being a garden sculpture sounds nice actually.

drone r0m-3

This seems to be an underlying assumption, but Roko should stay. Stomping out in a huff would be dramatic, but if she didn't repent and return it would be a huge disappointment.

"Oh, did I mention the ship is sinking?"

Joseph

To be fair to Beeps she didn't give Roko the packet because the printer wasn't working.

Gary Walker

Good ideas. Note that Beeps said "hemorrhaging volunteers", not money, so maybe there's a decent amount left?

Andrew Mitchell

Okay, what we haven't mentioned yet is, if the funding is still intact, Roko will be in charge of some sort of organization with money and ZERO OVERSIGHT. I love this idea.

Ted Van Roekel

Slight typo: "estate of A wealthy..."

Depending on how much money is left, this could be a huge opportunity for furthering AI rights. Beeps said "hemorrhaging volunteers", not money, so it will be interesting to see where Roko takes this.

Andrew Mitchell

Tragedy When the feeling's gone and you can't go on It's tragedy

Captain Button

I want to work there. I want to work with Roko, Beepatrice, Winslow and Arthur. And I want to have a job where I’m doing actual good.

Populuxe

Beeps tried so hard, and got so far.... but in the end, does it really even matter?

Joel Bateman

The real question SHOULD be how many fines they owe for all of the reporting they haven't done to the government. :P

Richard Riley

I think, funding-wise, this is a job for Yayy.

Czarzhan

Now that we know where the money is coming from, Roko can start to find another rich person (maybe Hannerlore’s parents?) to help support them and be a de-facto board of directors to give them guidance and an initial financial support.

Miyaa

The real question is how much funding do they have left. If they still have plenty of funding left, with Roko in charge, they can easily turn things back around.

JD

So, Roko needs to look at their finances and look to long term prospects. Maybe Robot-Grandpa can help out. This may be a way to get him more engaged with the world at large.

Michael Boettger

D- do you report to the garden sculpture?

Isaac Rivers

Best. Job. Ever!

Matt Grayson

Well, now that Roko is here, they're about to get a LOT more productive, because she means business. I'm almost scared to see what she'll accomplish, but excited, mostly.

Samantha Yeaman

Poor Beeps :/

Alexander W Couzens

baby :(

Tamara Macadam