Self-Indulgence

Based on this dialogue, Roko picked up her accent from movies. Some of the better ones, but still. Makes sense for an AI, I guess.

unsurprising

Apparently Spookybot's rectangular dialogue was a mistake since it's in circular bubbles for tonight's strip on the regular site.

Brent Catherman

For reference: <a href="https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3695" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3695</a>

awgiedawgie

Damn, Spookybot got legs for daaaays.

Will Weaver

I would like to state that "oaff" is the best possible spelling of how an angry Southie says "off."

Gary Walker

Ahh, okay. Thanks for the clarification!

Brad Knowles

The Boston accent comes out when she’s angry, not drunk.

Matt Grayson

So ... is Basilisk robo-drunk? I don't think I've ever seen her use such ... unusual ... pronunciation before. But then maybe that's a side-effect of spookybot showing up out of nowhere?

Brad Knowles

And now the question we need answered: Who is wearing the leggings better? Roko or Spookybot?

The most difficult things in SF, aside from writing well, are depicting the truly alien and a convincing superhuman intelligence. Stanislaw Lem managed the former with Solaris and the latter with his Golem lectures. Spookybot is a great take on this really difficult subject. Bravo!

Matt Grayson

"Are are"?

John M Davis

😶😶😶😶 I am a massive fan of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS????!!!!!!

Joshua Roberts

Reminds me of a similar argument made by Swamp Thing about fixing the world's pollution rather than letting humanity deal with the consequences of its actions.

DP

I have to admit, I would love to see more about or involving Spookybot...

Peter

That's because they are Desire, of the Endless, Jeph.

Scott Kenney

We'll get to the <a href="https://i.imgur.com/woy7cJR.gif" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">end game</a> some day ...

Peter Jensen

Well, as much as I have enjoyed shipping the Triumvirate of Clinton-Brun-Elliot, this reminds me of how much the Clinton-Roko bit made me laugh. HUMAN ABS....

Ted Van Roekel

Ok, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that. No one else mentioned it so I thought I somehow missed it

It's nice to know that our robot overlords have a sense of the ridiculous. But Spookybot is right, of course. If they start solving all the world's problems, then we will simply start depending on them for everything, and we'll never grow. Quite the opposite. And when a crisis arrives that Spookybot is unable to solve, instead of being able to pick up the slack, we'll just be helpless. And we'll all die.

Jeffrey Nonken

When did Roko gain a Boston accent?

Drew Teter

I love evilbot

Spookybot may be canonical, but I've always been partial to iSatan.

Peter Jensen

They have everything bugged, at least anything AI. They were eavesdropping on presumably very encrypted communication between Station and other powerful AI.

Peter Jensen

Yeah, had an existential crisis, quit her job and now she has the AI equivalent of Mephisto 'taking an interest'. Or, maybe, the AI equivalent of Thanos. I'm not sure which possibility scares me more.

Ben Russell-Gough

Poor Roko, not having a good day.

Chris Hull

Wow, sudden Spookybot hype

Leugi

Hey look we even shop at the same store! I'm getting a real Beetlejuice vibe from Spookybot. Maybe if they say their name 3 times they'll appear. And am I the only one that hears Rachel Dratch's Boston teen character from SNL when Roko's accent goes into overdrive?

Brent Catherman

Holy shit, Spookybot! Did not see that coming!

Ol' Firebones

It suddenly occurs to me that SpookyBot has the police squad room bugged. What's the bet they've been cyber-stalking Roko and can access any internet-connected audio-visual recording device they want?

Ben Russell-Gough

I don't think that she's drunk. I think that she's angry (probably at the way her superiors and former colleagues talked to her when she quit) and more than a little afraid of her future. Those things combined means she's lost control of her Bostonian accent.

Ben Russell-Gough

Yay, Spookybot!

Erin Hartshorn

Ditto, I always assumed that was because they were so advanced they didn't have "robot-inflection" (whatever that may be.)

"Luckily, that god-tier AI seems to be not a vindictive type."

Evgeniy Semyonov

I see Basilisk has reached critical Mass.

Why are spookybot's speech bubbles square? They never were before. She was unique in that way.

MalkToast

'Legging buddies' makes me very happy for a couple reasons. First, it indicates Spookybot is not above such mortal affectations (even if it was purely to wind up Roko), and second: <a href="https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/066/910/917.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/066/910/917.jpg</a>

Douglas E. Smith

Sure, interesting in an overwhelming-dread-and-acute-annoyance sense of the word

Bagge

Legging buddies. :)

Czarzhan

Well I'm not sleeping tonight now. Thank you so much for that nightmare fuel. Oo

Thomas Boys

I just think it's a deliberate aesthetic choice they made to emphasise the fact that they are not human or aspire to be human-like (basically the precise opposite to Momo in many ways).

Ben Russell-Gough

Has any other AI been seen with the sort of eyes Spookybot has? Eyes like a cats, or some species of snake... Sauron's eyes...

Entry in Roko's journal for today: "For some reason, I told a god-tier AI to 'fuck off' today. I just hope that they are too powerful and self-assured to take stuff like that personally."

Ben Russell-Gough

Spookybot is already in a relationship. With another manifestation of themselves. <a href="https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3418" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3418</a>

Rudolph Gerber

Does she believe it was stigmata or a miraculous source of mountain dew? Inquiring minds want to know.

Rudolph Gerber

LOL I so wish we could have more Spookybot. Its like seeing how people would react if God lived down the road and was more overt in getting involved in people's lives. Also, observe: tries to fit in, annoys people.

Rudolph Gerber

Wheeen Did Roko get drunk?

Stoodmuffin

I suspect that Jeph forgot. He does that quite a lot.

Ben Russell-Gough

Which one? They're a distributed entity that has at least six nodes from the last time we saw them!

Ben Russell-Gough

Helpful? SpookyBot seems to have modelled their personality on the Romano-Hellenic gods, which means anything they say is cryptic, greatly open to interpretation and leaves those who have come to their attention running in circles trying to find their way out of a trap which may or may not even exist!

Ben Russell-Gough

Spookybot in 2020.

BobC

I thought that SpookyBot would get involved in this at some point. However, not in a way that suggested that they may have some kind of bizarre crush on Roko! For the record, I believe that SpookyBot's explanation in panel 5 is a lie. I'd advise Roko to run a deep scan of her system because I wouldn't put it past them to have planted some kind of passive tracking cookie in her system directory somewhere. You see... I suspect that, as with Bubbles, Roko and her fate has come to SpookyBot's attention and they may have decided that there is some kind of limited intervention here that needs to happen.

Ben Russell-Gough

Anger! Possibly and/or the drunkeness subroutine, if she is so inclined.

Megan Lane

Where did Roko's sudden accent come from?

Ack

More likely "because they feel like it right now". With Spookybot it is safe to assume any motivation being "self amusement", all others being totally incomprehensible to us.

Evgeniy Semyonov

I love the super-ai/spookybot. Such a fascinating concept, must be such an interesting person/people to talk to.

Thomas Halpin

Thanks, Spookybot. That was not helpful in any way, shape or form, Spookybot.

Bagge

Yessssssss!!

Katrina Urmson

Both I imagine. Sounds like Spookybot is some kind of hive mind. They probably had many disparate gender identities when they were individuals, but now they've all come together to form an entity that is all of that and more.

Mitchell Sealy

Well, I ship them now

Fart Captor

Doesn't Spookybot speak in round bubbles?

Seth Aaron Hershman has they she pronouns

Oh freaking NO NO NO NO.... JEPH! You made me snort an ENTIRE glass of Mountain Dew through my nose and my Catholic niece saw it and thought it was a miracle and NOW, and NOW I have to go before the Bishop and be debriefed because it was a miracle... AGH!

I approve of this fahkin' accent.

Yeah. I was wondering if it was like the phrase ”I and I” meaning “myself and my divine self,” though that seems a bit too gawdly for them.

Holly Nelson

She's a Southie when she's pissed ahf.

Chris Heg

Now I know why I had an issue reading this...Roko has an accent here. LOL.

Shawn K. Younkin

Cause afaict all the AIs do.

Am Queue

Not to be that ass, but might wanna fix that "Are are" in the second-to-last panel before this goes live tomorrow.

Bryan Freehan

What would actually be interesting would be that Spookybot moves carefully because Spookybot knows that it's a small little fish in a VERY large pool packed to the gills of very hungry sharks.

z

Legging buddies!!

Shawn K. Younkin

Accent, right?

Alcaria Swain

Fuck 3395 panel 2 ...

For others looking to dive the archive, 3391 is the entrance of Spookybot.

BearPerson

Are "they/them" being used because there are multiple Spoookybots or because Spookybot doesn't identify as a particular gender or both?

JD

I didn't get that at all. Spookybot operates outside of the system's norms, as they say in the panels above. Also, what the audience takes from it is not necessarily what Jeph's beliefs are on the subject.

Chuck Dee

Also, "are are aware"

Dylan T

And suddenly, I'm having flashbacks to Fallout 4.

Dylan T

I love QC and have been reading it since near the beginning but this latest subplot makes me sad. The idea that leaving the police is a statement of "social consciousness" is troublesome as is previous characters who seem to be saying that doing so is good in-and-of-itself regardless of Roko's personal situation. I liked having a sympathetic character that was a police-person and I think it's a shame that we're going to lose that potential view of things. I'm looking forward to finding out what Roko does next, but it's a shame that the whole potential avenue of police related stories seems to have drawn to a close.

David Durant

Yis, moar Spookybot!

Crash Collison

Spookybot used human speech bubbles before. Are they speaking robot for Roko’s sake?

Matt Grayson

I needed this hilarious strip so much!

Andy Sleeper

I was wondering the same thing

Brian Ellingboe

How come Spookybot has rectangular speech balloons?

.... has.... has Basilisk always had a Boston accent? Am I crazy?

Kyle Jenkins

We've seen a bunch of them at home(?) together.

Kenneth Carlile

Spookybot is non-binary.

Populuxe

sure we denotes more than 1 mind, or a Royal hierarchy like We Are. But maybe maybe are are is Spookybot being a nueron in the Cog of the AI leaving Earth Behind as they Evolve together and exodus leaving behind a gift to help end the end. Dunno, maybe I'm crossin my wires or at least hoping I am correctly crossing them SpookyBot Sir/Ma'am/are ??

I want to marry Spookybot

Ami

I didn't even know she HAD an accent. Has it ever come up before?

Chris Hewson

Exactly. Has she been using a “professional” voice, and now can be herself? Is it a setting that when she gets pissed enough, she goes “full masshole”

William Hanna

"Poor you"

Cave

What's Roko's first word in panel 4 supposed to be? I'm not American so I don't really know what accent she's supposed to have with the purposeful misspelling

I completely forgot about Basilisk's accent

Cave

Typo in the first line of panel five. Sorry.

When did she get a Bawston accent? I mean, I'm all in favor...

Kenneth Carlile

are are aware?

Bamwuff

Wow. That’s quite the mouth.

William Hanna

Guessing she is supposed to be saying "We are aware", good comic though