Tentative Negotiations

Hm, went back to Alice Grove, and tumblr took down part of it: <a href="http://www.alicegrove.com/page/24" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">link</a>

William Burns

What, no, Jeph has never reused any character art from AG to QC or vice versa.

Griffon

Spooky bots eyes in the last panel remind me of Alice's eyes from near the end of Alice Grove...

<a href="https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2070" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2070</a>

Laura-Kathleen Redman

Could Spookybot be the Gary that sent the email to everyone? Gary anagrams to Gray and Spookybot is Gray.

Laura-Kathleen Redman

Someone mentioned that possibility not long ago - maybe on yesterday's comic.

awgiedawgie

Especially when Pintsize sucked up so much of the horniness...

Captain Button

There have been over 9000 lookups

Trigon Manthree

They might NOT do 'horny.' It is in no way a given, but since they have chosen a non-binary identification, it's always possible that they ALSO identify as asexual or non-sexual (not always precisely the same thing). You can be interested in people and want to form bonds with them (friendship and even more) without wanting to be sexual. I would think that would be especially possible for an AI/android/robot (in this world, there seem to be distinctions?) I find it especially interesting that AIs can make the choice to be humanoid or not, and to CHANGE during the course of their lives from one to the other... or back. The option seems to be partly dependent on job choice, on funds, and on how they originated. But there is choice also. And the role that humans play in socializing these AIs is also fascinating. I wonder how the more industrial AIs are socialized, right at the beginning, ... it seems as though they partly choose, at some early point, these roles or jobs to pay for their launch into the world and earn their chassis? But at some point, having paid their dues, so to speak, they then have the option to retire and go on to a new stage of their lives? I LOVE the world-building in this comic, and it's one of my favorite stories of how AIs might appear and integrate with human society...

Kerin Schiesser

My prediction is that when Emily’s laptop was displaying eldritch symbols and being creepy, it was Spookybot clawing their way into existence.

Brian

I'd suggest waiting until Spookybot signals they are romantically interested in Roko. Seeing them bring her a bag full of premium bread products would certainly be a good clue.

I will go out on a limb here and say they probably do horny.

Bagge

Methinks Spookybot is asking for another wedgie.

Ack

Usually friends actually know each other's names before exchanging contact info, so is Spookybot actually their name? (Has anyone actually referred to them as that in-comic? I don't recall) Do they even HAVE a name? I could imagine them not feeling they needed one until now, or maybe they have many individual names but not one for the whole collective? Do they horny?? I have so many questions

Fart Captor

Also, is it just me, or is Spookybot becoming more feminine in appearance since their earlier ones? Of course, it could just be the multiple bodies... some could plausibly be different in various ways. Of course Spooky was always sort of Androgynous... Back to the original point, in their earlier appearances, They seemed taller and slimmer in build.

Churchill (formerly TeaBear)

Of course Roko doesn't know... But fortunately WE know that Spookybot merely let Corpse Witch know what the consequences of NOT confessing would be.

Churchill (formerly TeaBear)

"Night on a Bald Mountain" from Fantasia?

Noise

Is Spookybot in any way related to the email/message that everyone in the world got about how it was watching? I would assume that even if it's a different AI, Spookybot is on a similar level and at least aware of the other AI that sent that message.

Tinwhisker

Also, puissance. "Pwee-sance?" "Pus-ance?" "Puss-ance?" Some other pronunciation? An "sh" sound?

Summer Sudbrink

Charm is in the red viper eye of the beholder.

Summer Sudbrink

Prediction: Spookybot is actually a giant sentient loaf of bread that was created when Wonder Bread tried to integrate an AI into their baking process and things went awry. Roko and Spookybread are soul mates and will fall in love and live happily ever after.

Turing Eret

Love the last panel! :D

Wonder if we'll ever get the spookybot backstory. I'm hoping for ALIENS

Smazzie

Hehe, Corspe Witch actually sounds better then Corpse Witch.

I don’t think there’s any inconsistency in wanting to no longer participate in the abuse of police power and also not condoning vigilantism.

Jon Guyer

Couldn’t get the driver to compile

Jon Guyer

In panel 3 it looks like Roko is scowling at the word balloons. ;D

Gary Walker

Interesting though: Roko states that laws exist for a reason, but she left her job literally because she considered current law enforcing system bad/inefficient. This debate can be much more complicated than she thinks now. It's somewhere around superhero/vigilante or even libertarian/socialist debate. Looking forward to it.

Evgeniy Semyonov

If that were the case, they would require internet access to communicate. While they <i>can</i> communicate via internet - like at the AI cafe Pintsize likes to visit - many of them seem to have more advanced tech built in.

awgiedawgie

From that last panel, I'd say Spookybot is catching on fast to this whole "just fuckin' with you" business.

awgiedawgie

Goddamn it, Jeph. I didn't think it was possible... But I LOVE Spookybot. GDI.

Morgan McCauley

I'm not sure 007 is exactly a 'normal' person, and while Q may have had the odd joke at Bond's expense, I never felt like he was fucking with him all that much, really.

Dilemma01

I showed the last panel to my girlfriend (who has never read a single QC comic no matter how highly I recommend it) and she immediately said “well that’s spooky”.

Brian

You're considering it, because you are a good person, and Spookybot is making a conscience effort to make friends.

Shawn K. Younkin

Panel 3 Roko is fantastically annoyed. Panel 6 Spookybot would make a most excellent avatar.

Everett Bradshaw

Spookybot is basically just Q. Immensely powerful, but kind of fascinated with one particular normal person, and also their entire life is focused on fucking with that person.

It's like spookybot tried to learn friendship from watching Faye, and missed all the parts that actually makes it work.

Bagge

Kawaii desu

Dylan T

I love them.

Mordaeus

For the next 2 days, Google and Merriam-Webster will wonder why lookups of the word "puissance" have spiked. Hahaha

Cliff

So. When are they dating?

Stoodmuffin

I was gonna assume they use some kind of futuristic messaging/ VOIP software to communicate over the internet. Like Discord or something

Thomas Halpin

I know at least a few use phones, and Bubs has a phone in her hand.

Brian

<a href="https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3413" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3413</a> and the strip immediately following it. They don't show the moment of the arrest, but they do show Spookybot intimidating Corpse Witch into coming quietly.

Diptych

Jeph is just preparing so the webcomic can continue to have a cast after The End Of The Age Of Man. Pintsize gave us a countdown for it, but I can't find that guest strip right now.

Captain Button

It even looks like Roko's rolling her eyes *at* Spookybot's speech box. Genius!

Hugh Eckert

If she was trying for kawaii, she overshot. The effect is disturbingly snakelike. Reminds me of this Tanith Lee story: <a href="https://itservices.cas.unt.edu/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://itservices.cas.unt.edu/</a>~hargrove/tail.html

Hugh Eckert

How *do* the AIs/robots communicate remotely with each other? We never see that. I'm sure direct thought-to-thought contact would be too uncomfortably direct for the same reasons Spoopy gave.

Clifton Royston

That appears to say "Corspe" rather than "Corpse" FYI. :)

I'm glad to see that Roko shares my anger (expressed at the time) concerning torture.

Chas Simmons

My guess is that, Spookybot, in the vulnerability of seeking friendship, is probably in less in control of things than usual.

Ami

I have difficulty reconciling “Child, if we wanted to hurt her, there would be nothing you could do” with receiving a wedgie. Of course, Hanners changed drastically from her first appearance.

Matt Grayson

Link to Corpse Witch turning herself in, please?

Amanda Miller

Spookybot helped her prepare, she passed with an A+++. Mind, it did things to her that, well... I won't mention.

Because a distributed superhuman AI groupmind somehow doesn't have access to SMS...

Captain Button

I imagine Spookybots everywhere walking with discomfort.

Afunnythinghappedtome

Are those Marygold's Anime Eyes?

Captain Button

Whatever happened to Clare and her stress over finals?

Terry Parry

Oh man... Spookybot as a regular character? I am... tepidly excited? “Hey, remember when Questionabot Content featured a cast of meatbags with problems?" "Yeah but they were no longer interesting once they got their shit figured out so hooray for Robo-Problems!"

Boter Bug

spookybot confirmed super nerd

Spooky Bot in final panel is Mogwai post Gremlin transformation pre-eating your intestines with a fork. BUT IT'S SO CUTE

That last panel makes me want to have a Spooky Bot pet.

Called it. This is gonna be a HELL of a fun ride

R L

So is Spookybot like... the living embodiment of the AI Singularity..?

Kyle Jenkins

Spookybot’s eyes in the last panel scare me. YOU HAVE SCARED ME, JACQUES.

Populuxe

Your newsletter has a subscriber!

jeff fearnow

Roko’s eye roll reaction in panel 3 is amazing and so on point with Spookybot’s pretentious banter.

ducksauz

Spookybot in that last frame is so intensely me that I want to frame it.

Asher Rose Fox

Cause sexy eyes

Kyle Major

oooookay that last frame creeps me out

Gary Huntress

I would like to point out that the wedgie implies that spooky has an ass crack. I'm not sure I want to contemplate why. (Totally lying, it is literally all I want to contemplate right now.)

Gary Walker

Loneliness is a hell of a tug.

William Burns

Why not both?

Gary Walker

So does Spookybot use they/them pronouns because they're a hive mind or because they don't identify as particular gender? I would have to guess that it's the former because as far as I know most gender neutral people still use "I/me" and not "we/us", but I'm not at all sure

JD

I love everything about this already.

Shawn K. Younkin

Spooko or Rocky. Basispook. Spoolisk. Sprooko.

Christian Ullrich

Who are you and what have you done with Spookybot?

Matt Grayson

We're this close to a semi-charmed tea break. I ship it.

Max D S

That last panel cements my love for Spookybot.

Val

I love how you can REALLY notice their snek eyes in that last panel.

Mike de Jong

That last panel is like out of a Diseny movie.

Scott Vogel

Is this the beginning of a ship? Should I christen it?

Andrea Andrew

Anime Spookybot is the most creepy Spookybot. Thanks, Jeph. I’m not going to sleep now.

Miyaa

So cute! Immensely charming indeed

Brian