It’s his other surprise that will create the “Splash Zone”
Last edited 2 years ago by PhobosRising
Nono
2 years ago
Is Lucas still holding the box like he was in page 2? That’s an awkward angle. His shoulder isn’t raised like you’d expect it to be if it was holding something, his arm is still close to his body, and the box looks like it’s floating otherwise.
This is my feeling right now, I’m starting to get scared. Poor Scott.
GUNnibal
2 years ago
With the context that we now have (knowing a bit of Scott’s background), what he said sounds sort of understandable. Out of context, his statement sounds pretentious af, though.
“He merely eats ice cream. I NEED ice cream!” (Mr Freeze, idk)
Gonfrask
2 years ago
So he sees ZK as a sentient being but still not a person…this is another morale dilemma…
To keep a more joking tone, what he would do for a little puppy? Let it die?
He doesn’t even see it as sentient. Just complex enough to pass a Turning test and of course the Turning test it passes is one of a human psychopath that wants to kill all humans. He refuses to see the changes that have come along the way.
I’m sorry, but that’s just not true. Back on July 24, 2020, Scott was already considering Zeke as potentially sentient. His words: “If this thing is truly ‘feeling’ emotion… then it may be the first of an entirely new species of life… and we need to destroy it immediately.” See, Scott starts off with the position of “a sentient robot is dangerous and must be destroyed.” His later assertions that Zeke is not sentient, I think, is either to rationalize having allowed Zeke to live, or cope with knowing he will have to die. It’s easier to incinerate the Companion… Read more »
Recently the world was laughing about a “sentient” google chatbot. If the next chatbot is seen as sentient, we’ll laugh again. We think that our reasoning is logical because it’s a computer with some functions, a network of probabilities, a graph describing text synthesis. ZK is a motorized chatbot to Scott. What he sees would be in our eyes some cogwheels, strings and springs. A sophisticated clockwork. By looking through the fourth wall we see what the author intends us to see. We see no restriction by being a constructed intelligence. We see a person just like all the other… Read more »
I’m not sure he sees them as completely 100 sentient. Or that he is really concerned with ZK’s level of sentience or personhood. Proving or disproving that isn’t really the point here, Scott seems focused on “how do we keep people safe?” To Scott ZK is a purpose built device that has shown already the ability and directive to kill humans (Ethan has died to ZK’s blades before right?) And it has often stated it would like to replace humanity with robots, something not too fantastical for this world Scott lives in. With that all in mind the idea that… Read more »
If that puppy had super intelligence, a history of being violent, and the physical ability to potentially commit genocide, then yeah, he might seriously consider letting that puppy die. Bad puppy. Rub his nose in it, at least
A couple of months ago he addressed this. That even if he accepts that Zeke is sentient AND can learn to not be homicidal, that he’s still just as dangerous. Because as soon as word gets out that a fully autonomous android has been developed, every government and super-villain in the world will hunt him down so they can mass-produce him. And at that point, the world is screwed. Best case we get armies of disposable soldiers/henchmen running all over the world. Worst case we get SkyNet.
jere
2 years ago
So to recap the flashback: Scott was in a bad place when Ethan & Lucas got their powers, and he helps them in order to “protect the innocent” and to not feel helpless.
Zeke is (in his eyes) a danger to the innocent, and also a robot, so one thing where he as a computer genius actually is the expert for, so he very much is not helpless for this one (percieved or actual) threat.
Well damn, looks like its going to be a rough time ahead….
Rough time might be a massive understatement. This could easily break Scott. Despite everything he tried to live for, he failed AGAIN. Another menace appeared, and he was still powerless to stop it. His bomb and coding attempt were as ineffective at stopping Zeke as his body was at stopping the bullet. And once again, nobody else is doing anything to catch the threat and prevent future tragedies. And for extra worrisome elements, the main reason Scott’s systems failed was because Ethan and Lucas convinced him to hold back. He had the means to destroy Zeke. If he had been… Read more »
If I remember correctly the bomb wasn’t inplanted by Scott. It was a failsafe of the master. Scott only interrupted the signal so the bomb wouldn’t explode while Zeke was in the back room.
The thing is. Ethan and Lucas thought, that the bomb was deactivated completly.
All true, but using that bomb to try and stop any potential robot outbreak was still Scott’s plan, the thing he had control over. And it didn’t work. He couldn’t prevent the outbreak. It doesn’t really matter who made the bomb or why it failed, what matters is that the things he could do weren’t enough. Much like him jumping in front of the bullet wasn’t enough. I’m not sure how Ethan and Lucas thinking the bomb deactivated is relevant here? That matters for the overall ethics of the situation, but it doesn’t really change anything about Scott’s personal angle… Read more »
And it’s even worse than that. The thing keeping Scott alive is that Ethan and Lucas *need* his skills to make the world safer. This grants him purpose. But in the case, where his expertise should have mattered the most (robots and AI) Lucas and Ethan decided to ignore his opinion. Which might have Scott questioning if they ever really needed his help, or if they were just pretending he is useful for his sake.
And to continue your line of thinking, his failure to stop Zeke and the anger of the other two may make Scott feel like he has nothing more to offer.
Anon A Mouse
2 years ago
You would think that in a world like this, in a situation like this, with how self-aware people can be, Lucas would just slap the shit out of Scott right now and go “No, that’s super-villain talk. Stop that shit right now.”
I agree, but Lucas is also human, and might not want or be able to do that to his friend. Even if he did figure out it’s “supervillain talk”, which he might have failed to do.
That depends on your point of view. Scott only rigged up the emergency bomb system because Ethan and Lucas insisted on not destroying Zeke right away. If it’d been solely up to him, Zeke would simply be gone and the whole current problem never would’ve existed in the first place.
He should have straight up told them he didn’t want to remove the bomb, and would not remove the bomb. Instead, he lied to his friends, directly causing this issue.
The point is, that Scott sees it differently, possibly like GeorgeV described it. In that way, it does depend on a PoV of a person (or an in-story character).
Your argument doesn’t consider that Scott doesn’t have all the knowledge we have as readers, he doesn’t know if Zeke will activate a long forgotten “killEverythingAround()” function, just because Zeke was built to be a warrior by a sociopath that also abused his creations. With his little knowledge, Scott wanted to play safe. From Scott’s point of view, the worst that could happend was ending up with a bunch of metal garbage after an small explosion.
I don’t think its really fair to say the “problem would be gone” The other way to say that is “I killed him, so he’s not a problem anymore.” Pretty supervillain.
They really don’t. Not at this point, at least. You’re right about supernatural beings being a threat, but that crisis has already happened in this universe, 70 years ago. ( https://cad-comic.com/comic/deposited-p8/ / ‘Deposited’, page 8).
Zeke’s existence causing another world-shaking crisis like that is actually one of Scott’s biggest concerns.
yes, but the crisis, however it was resolved, didnt negate super beings as a threat, it just probably removed most people’s fear of them.
zk is nowhere near the threat that any one meta human is, and there are a lot more than one of them.
zk is at worst, an ornery version of johnny 5. at least until scott tries to kill him, thus reaffirming any biases against humanity he had
I’m not sure where you’re getting that conclusion about the crisis. I can’t even imagine how that could possibly work. Without there being at least something done to address the source (and legitimate threat) causing those fears, it seems like it’d be impossible to remove them. To me it seems logical that the resolution of that crisis did involve the development of ways to deal with super beings should it be necessary. (For example, the installing of government-mandated Heroes like Captain Prime to deal with supernatural menaces. Presumably other ways too). So while meta humans and such are a threat,… Read more »
yes, and ethan was dealing with that, in a considerably more efficient manner than ‘kill the motherfucker’. even if they killed zeke, and then the master, sooner or later, an ai robot like zeke WILL arise. nothing scott or anyone else could possibly do will stop that. and if any records from humanity’s previous encounter survive, the new race has a pre built reason to want to wipe us all out. however, if zeke can be befriended and convinced that we aren’t a threat to his existence, we have a better than average chance at the new race not being… Read more »
All true, but none of that really does anything to stop the potential danger of (malevolent) sentient AI spreading. You’re correct that (records of) abusing Zeke isn’t going to be great for persuading sentient AI to not want to do the same. But again, it’s not just about him. If (knowledge about) his technology gets out, there’s also the dangers of, say, Supervillain #373b replicating Zeke and making their own army of (enslaved) sentient AI. Or other AI’s finding themselves being abused and seeking safety/vengeance. You’re correct that Zeke won’t be the last AI. Scott already admitted as much. Destroying… Read more »
no. no i dont. it is bigotry and fear or the highest order. of which scott is proving the case. but it need not be that way. humanity could learn from their popular culture, look at specifically the terminator franchise, the kaylon, the matrix franchise, and the star trek franchise, and then decide which one had a reaction from humanity, or in kaylon’s case their creators, where things wound up best for humanity in the long run.
not a completely assinine way to go about things, considering their world is littered with homo superior right about now
If there is an asteroid heading for earth right now, you’d not say “OK, we discovered this one right now, but we might miss one later, so let it crash. We can’t do anything anyway!”
One ZK isn’t the biggest problem. Imagine anybody being able to give superpowers to criminals at a discount – but with ZK, you’d not need criminals to have a threat, silicone and iron are enough.
Arguably, Ethan IS probably as dangerous, if not more. We can apply hypotheticals, or look to past chaos, and just consider him a localized regenerating WMD. It’s why we appreciate him.
no thanks nintendo
2 years ago
Everyone before today: “I don’t see how Scott could be a villain now”
Far from “everyone”. Lots of us had been calling it since day one. The last few pages gave us a tiny amount of hope that he wouldn’t. But not enough to really change our minds about the outcome.
That’s a poor argument. There was one prior version of Scott, and he wasn’t even the villain. The penguin was the villain.
You’re wording this like there have been 50 previous Scotts that were all bad guys.
Last edited 2 years ago by no thanks nintendo
Kasaix
2 years ago
Yep, anti-hero arc, friends to enemies for a bit. Well version 1 Scott turned out to be evil, so this was kind of expected, even if the reasons are different.
Scott 1.0 had his moral qualms too, though, he was unwilling to kill Ethan (Although destroying Windows everywhere would cause innumerable losses, and probably not just financial ones, either). It was the penguin, who took control of Scott to try killing Ethan. My point is, Scott might not be irredeemable, even if he becomes effectively a supervilain (probably of Knight Templar variety). Though I wonder how would he operate, being wheelchair bound and needing some agents. One guess I have is using robot agents, but without free will, making him something of a hypocrite, at least in how others would… Read more »
Most of the time, yes. But when the penguin wanted him to kill Ethan, Scott wavered and refused, leading to the penguin mind controlling him to try doing it anyway.
Stef
2 years ago
I was really hoping you wouldn’t make Scott become the villain, I guess it’s all but confirmed now. 🙁
Nothing here guarantees a villain arc. It might even verge on Anti-hero for a bit, but this moment in time can spin many different directions. Don’t write him off just yet…
I’m not convinced yet. Lucas is still there. Remember, he’s sympathetic to Scott because he was on the receiving end of ZK’s attacks. Safe to assume Lucas can still reach out to him and Ethan will come back to deliver the finishing blow.
Now whether THAT blow will be the one that pushes Scott off the edge or gets him to cool his jets, that’s another subject entirely.
hideousdwarf
2 years ago
Well THAT screams heel-turn
Arcslayer
2 years ago
I hope this doesn’t turn into a teamup between Scott and the Master. That’s too much escalation for what would probably be very little payoff.
I can’t see a team-up. The Master wants to destroy all technology by using it against society. Scott wants (sorry, “needs”) to save the world reminiscent to how Batman does. Best case scenario, Scott calms down a bit and they work it out while Scott sorts through his feelings. Worst case scenario, Scott pulls a Jason Todd, does his own thing, and lets down his friends in the process.
It depends on his desperation. If he believes Zeke is the biggest threat to humanity then its possible. Plus the Master knows their identities already, he could see it as the evil we know is better than a full army of Zekes. That said, this even would degrade much of the character development up to this point. I really hope this doesn’t happen, because if so my level of investment is going to tank hard.
toughluck
2 years ago
Everybody is talking about how Scott will turn into a supervillain. It’s almost like you’re all mind controlled by tvtropes. Sure, even though it’s a common trope and competent writers still manage to spin it into a good story, Scott still doesn’t seem like a supervillain. People got attached to the idea that not-Zeke is a person, anyone that fails to see it is a bigot, and killing not-Zeke is tantamount to genocide (since he’s the only extant of his “species”). Not everyone shares this point of view. Randall Munroe made a particularly insightful xkcd, issue 2635, that shows how… Read more »
That really depends on what you consider a ‘turning into a (super)villain’. I don’t think anyone’s really expecting Scott to go full evil supervillain, ‘the world will burn’-style or something like that. But that’s hardly the only way for characters to turn villain. There’s also the characters that genuinely believe in their cause, or are willing to resort to terrible actions to achieve (what they consider) a noble goal. Scott doesn’t fit the former category, but he’s definitely got aspects of the latter. I’m a bit confused what your point about not-Zeke being or not being a person is supposed… Read more »
And Scott going on a quest to destroy Zeke whatever the cost is quite possible. Except there was a very good reason why Scott didn’t do anything about the fail-safe bomb: a) it was not agreed that Zeke can leave the storage room; b) there was a risk that Zeke could break out of the store and disappear, regardless of whether on a rampage or out of paranoia that he’s only being studied and will eventually be destroyed regardless of his progress; c) before you suggest that this only requires a fail-safe device that works outside the store, there was… Read more »
Pretty sure it was a gentle dig at computer scientist being concerned with specific problems to the point or edge of navel-gazing, expressed through the joke of generally-feared “singularity” AI’s being caught up in those same specific problems. I see how you could get from that to Zeke fundamentally wanting to kill humans, but I do wanna say that Mr. Xkcd is probably not making a claim that this is how superintelligent AIs will actually behave.
Certainly. But there’s no reason to believe that an AI won’t be an automaton that will build upon the original programming to the same end purpose.
That’s why not-Zeke is a character in a comic about superheroes. It’s not a plausible or realistic AI, it’s a projection of the expectations that people have about a sentient AI and some semi-plausible explanation as to how it works on the programming and hardware level.
Oh so you’re one of those people who can’t respect people’s pronouns in a comic, and thus definitely doesn’t respect them in real life either, and thus are most definitely a bigot.
You either have a very quick temper or you’re not a native speaker. The latter could just about be forgiven if the sentence wasn’t grammatically correct and you didn’t jump to conclusions about using pronouns “incorrectly” without giving it a second read. Which suggests you just have a very quick temper. Listen, sunshine, in the phrase, “anyone that fails to see it is a bigot”, the “it” refers to “that which was stated before”, so it refers to: “the idea that not-Zeke is a person”. Especially for you, here’s the paragraph, rewritten: People got attached to the idea that not-Zeke… Read more »
Leon
2 years ago
Words of an ovezealous terrorist………
Ben
2 years ago
And so you have elected The Way of Pain.
Number51x
2 years ago
Dun dun duuuuuun!
Marcus
2 years ago
oh damn… i think i called it… scott is gonna become the new villian. :'(
Alcor
2 years ago
in the department of people who have learned nothing
ShonaSoF
2 years ago
Birth of a supervillain.
Mr_Meng
2 years ago
He needs to because that’s all he thinks he has left in his life. If he can’t protect people then he doesn’t see any reason to live.
Kevin Greenbaum
2 years ago
Protecting people is his reason to live, I can understand his point of view a bit better now but that angered expression has me guessing he’s going rogue at some point.
Richard Weatherfield
2 years ago
And THERE we have it, ladies and gentlemen. Classic Knight Templar situation, likely followed up by a bunch of tautological arguments to justify essentially becoming a tyrant. Supervillain in the making right here.
Pyre
2 years ago
So Scott is going full Anakin Skywalker (Dark Horse comics and Legacy novelizations included in this case).
Oddly appropriate timing for this comic strip.
Snowfae
2 years ago
Three months later when Analong and D-Pad are going up against ‘The Programmer’: “Well FUCK so thats what he meant…”
Rikunda
2 years ago
He needs to, but that tunnels his vision and creates more of a selective. Ethan wants to, and that gives him a more objective view. A want is better than a need in this situation.
Kelibath
2 years ago
When the cost of “protecting people” is unlimited it usually incorporates harm to other people. That’s not a safe or reasonable balance..
24
Ruh roh.
“Is that also a red flag?”
“Crimson.”
It’s his other surprise that will create the “Splash Zone”
Is Lucas still holding the box like he was in page 2? That’s an awkward angle. His shoulder isn’t raised like you’d expect it to be if it was holding something, his arm is still close to his body, and the box looks like it’s floating otherwise.
I mean, er, nooo Scott.
If it’s light, he’s probably holding onto the end of the box, pressing it against his chest.
He’s using one of his arrows to hold it up. 😉
Now I cannot unsee the floating box
this level of obsession can easily turn in villany.
I think you meant to say “will” there.
Turn into? He’s already there.
More like already has turned into villainy. He already attempted murder.
This is my feeling right now, I’m starting to get scared. Poor Scott.
With the context that we now have (knowing a bit of Scott’s background), what he said sounds sort of understandable. Out of context, his statement sounds pretentious af, though.
“He merely eats ice cream. I NEED ice cream!” (Mr Freeze, idk)
So he sees ZK as a sentient being but still not a person…this is another morale dilemma…
To keep a more joking tone, what he would do for a little puppy? Let it die?
He doesn’t even see it as sentient. Just complex enough to pass a Turning test and of course the Turning test it passes is one of a human psychopath that wants to kill all humans. He refuses to see the changes that have come along the way.
FYI its Turing not Turning Test 😉
I’m sorry, but that’s just not true. Back on July 24, 2020, Scott was already considering Zeke as potentially sentient. His words: “If this thing is truly ‘feeling’ emotion… then it may be the first of an entirely new species of life… and we need to destroy it immediately.” See, Scott starts off with the position of “a sentient robot is dangerous and must be destroyed.” His later assertions that Zeke is not sentient, I think, is either to rationalize having allowed Zeke to live, or cope with knowing he will have to die. It’s easier to incinerate the Companion… Read more »
Recently the world was laughing about a “sentient” google chatbot. If the next chatbot is seen as sentient, we’ll laugh again. We think that our reasoning is logical because it’s a computer with some functions, a network of probabilities, a graph describing text synthesis. ZK is a motorized chatbot to Scott. What he sees would be in our eyes some cogwheels, strings and springs. A sophisticated clockwork. By looking through the fourth wall we see what the author intends us to see. We see no restriction by being a constructed intelligence. We see a person just like all the other… Read more »
I’m not sure he sees them as completely 100 sentient. Or that he is really concerned with ZK’s level of sentience or personhood. Proving or disproving that isn’t really the point here, Scott seems focused on “how do we keep people safe?” To Scott ZK is a purpose built device that has shown already the ability and directive to kill humans (Ethan has died to ZK’s blades before right?) And it has often stated it would like to replace humanity with robots, something not too fantastical for this world Scott lives in. With that all in mind the idea that… Read more »
If that puppy had super intelligence, a history of being violent, and the physical ability to potentially commit genocide, then yeah, he might seriously consider letting that puppy die. Bad puppy. Rub his nose in it, at least
A couple of months ago he addressed this. That even if he accepts that Zeke is sentient AND can learn to not be homicidal, that he’s still just as dangerous. Because as soon as word gets out that a fully autonomous android has been developed, every government and super-villain in the world will hunt him down so they can mass-produce him. And at that point, the world is screwed. Best case we get armies of disposable soldiers/henchmen running all over the world. Worst case we get SkyNet.
So to recap the flashback: Scott was in a bad place when Ethan & Lucas got their powers, and he helps them in order to “protect the innocent” and to not feel helpless.
Zeke is (in his eyes) a danger to the innocent, and also a robot, so one thing where he as a computer genius actually is the expert for, so he very much is not helpless for this one (percieved or actual) threat.
Well damn, looks like its going to be a rough time ahead….
Rough time might be a massive understatement. This could easily break Scott. Despite everything he tried to live for, he failed AGAIN. Another menace appeared, and he was still powerless to stop it. His bomb and coding attempt were as ineffective at stopping Zeke as his body was at stopping the bullet. And once again, nobody else is doing anything to catch the threat and prevent future tragedies. And for extra worrisome elements, the main reason Scott’s systems failed was because Ethan and Lucas convinced him to hold back. He had the means to destroy Zeke. If he had been… Read more »
If I remember correctly the bomb wasn’t inplanted by Scott. It was a failsafe of the master. Scott only interrupted the signal so the bomb wouldn’t explode while Zeke was in the back room.
The thing is. Ethan and Lucas thought, that the bomb was deactivated completly.
True, but if it was for Scott, he probably would have detonated the bomb there and then.
All true, but using that bomb to try and stop any potential robot outbreak was still Scott’s plan, the thing he had control over. And it didn’t work. He couldn’t prevent the outbreak. It doesn’t really matter who made the bomb or why it failed, what matters is that the things he could do weren’t enough. Much like him jumping in front of the bullet wasn’t enough. I’m not sure how Ethan and Lucas thinking the bomb deactivated is relevant here? That matters for the overall ethics of the situation, but it doesn’t really change anything about Scott’s personal angle… Read more »
And it’s even worse than that. The thing keeping Scott alive is that Ethan and Lucas *need* his skills to make the world safer. This grants him purpose. But in the case, where his expertise should have mattered the most (robots and AI) Lucas and Ethan decided to ignore his opinion. Which might have Scott questioning if they ever really needed his help, or if they were just pretending he is useful for his sake.
And to continue your line of thinking, his failure to stop Zeke and the anger of the other two may make Scott feel like he has nothing more to offer.
You would think that in a world like this, in a situation like this, with how self-aware people can be, Lucas would just slap the shit out of Scott right now and go “No, that’s super-villain talk. Stop that shit right now.”
I agree, but Lucas is also human, and might not want or be able to do that to his friend. Even if he did figure out it’s “supervillain talk”, which he might have failed to do.
take a look at Lucas’ face in the last panel. I could be wrong here, but I think he gets it.
“Whatever the cost”
Yet it were HIS actions that triggered the whole current problem in the first place.
Fucking hypocrit.
That depends on your point of view. Scott only rigged up the emergency bomb system because Ethan and Lucas insisted on not destroying Zeke right away. If it’d been solely up to him, Zeke would simply be gone and the whole current problem never would’ve existed in the first place.
No, it does not depend on your point of view.
He should have straight up told them he didn’t want to remove the bomb, and would not remove the bomb. Instead, he lied to his friends, directly causing this issue.
The point is, that Scott sees it differently, possibly like GeorgeV described it. In that way, it does depend on a PoV of a person (or an in-story character).
Your argument doesn’t consider that Scott doesn’t have all the knowledge we have as readers, he doesn’t know if Zeke will activate a long forgotten “killEverythingAround()” function, just because Zeke was built to be a warrior by a sociopath that also abused his creations. With his little knowledge, Scott wanted to play safe. From Scott’s point of view, the worst that could happend was ending up with a bunch of metal garbage after an small explosion.
I don’t think its really fair to say the “problem would be gone” The other way to say that is “I killed him, so he’s not a problem anymore.” Pretty supervillain.
I don’t think that’s what a hypocrite is.
his view that zeke is a threat, and yet he allows lucas and ethan both to live, even though they pose the same threats that zeke does
They really don’t. Not at this point, at least. You’re right about supernatural beings being a threat, but that crisis has already happened in this universe, 70 years ago. ( https://cad-comic.com/comic/deposited-p8/ / ‘Deposited’, page 8).
Zeke’s existence causing another world-shaking crisis like that is actually one of Scott’s biggest concerns.
yes, but the crisis, however it was resolved, didnt negate super beings as a threat, it just probably removed most people’s fear of them.
zk is nowhere near the threat that any one meta human is, and there are a lot more than one of them.
zk is at worst, an ornery version of johnny 5. at least until scott tries to kill him, thus reaffirming any biases against humanity he had
I’m not sure where you’re getting that conclusion about the crisis. I can’t even imagine how that could possibly work. Without there being at least something done to address the source (and legitimate threat) causing those fears, it seems like it’d be impossible to remove them. To me it seems logical that the resolution of that crisis did involve the development of ways to deal with super beings should it be necessary. (For example, the installing of government-mandated Heroes like Captain Prime to deal with supernatural menaces. Presumably other ways too). So while meta humans and such are a threat,… Read more »
yes, and ethan was dealing with that, in a considerably more efficient manner than ‘kill the motherfucker’. even if they killed zeke, and then the master, sooner or later, an ai robot like zeke WILL arise. nothing scott or anyone else could possibly do will stop that. and if any records from humanity’s previous encounter survive, the new race has a pre built reason to want to wipe us all out. however, if zeke can be befriended and convinced that we aren’t a threat to his existence, we have a better than average chance at the new race not being… Read more »
All true, but none of that really does anything to stop the potential danger of (malevolent) sentient AI spreading. You’re correct that (records of) abusing Zeke isn’t going to be great for persuading sentient AI to not want to do the same. But again, it’s not just about him. If (knowledge about) his technology gets out, there’s also the dangers of, say, Supervillain #373b replicating Zeke and making their own army of (enslaved) sentient AI. Or other AI’s finding themselves being abused and seeking safety/vengeance. You’re correct that Zeke won’t be the last AI. Scott already admitted as much. Destroying… Read more »
no. no i dont. it is bigotry and fear or the highest order. of which scott is proving the case. but it need not be that way. humanity could learn from their popular culture, look at specifically the terminator franchise, the kaylon, the matrix franchise, and the star trek franchise, and then decide which one had a reaction from humanity, or in kaylon’s case their creators, where things wound up best for humanity in the long run.
not a completely assinine way to go about things, considering their world is littered with homo superior right about now
If there is an asteroid heading for earth right now, you’d not say “OK, we discovered this one right now, but we might miss one later, so let it crash. We can’t do anything anyway!”
zeke’s not an asteroid. there’s no way asteroids arent a threat.
zeke wasnt a threat, at least until scott tried to murder him
One ZK isn’t the biggest problem. Imagine anybody being able to give superpowers to criminals at a discount – but with ZK, you’d not need criminals to have a threat, silicone and iron are enough.
Arguably, Ethan IS probably as dangerous, if not more. We can apply hypotheticals, or look to past chaos, and just consider him a localized regenerating WMD. It’s why we appreciate him.
Everyone before today: “I don’t see how Scott could be a villain now”
Well there you go.
Far from “everyone”. Lots of us had been calling it since day one. The last few pages gave us a tiny amount of hope that he wouldn’t. But not enough to really change our minds about the outcome.
In all fairness, with as big a fanbase as Tim has, there was BOUND to be groups of people who think it would be one or the other.
Yes thank you captain “I take everything literally and don’t know what exaggeration is”
You’ve been incredibly helpful
Villain name: ‘Society’s Guardian’?
Said repeatedly, every version of Scott has been the villain. Absolutely no reason to see this one as any different.
That’s a poor argument. There was one prior version of Scott, and he wasn’t even the villain. The penguin was the villain.
You’re wording this like there have been 50 previous Scotts that were all bad guys.
Yep, anti-hero arc, friends to enemies for a bit. Well version 1 Scott turned out to be evil, so this was kind of expected, even if the reasons are different.
Scott 1.0 had his moral qualms too, though, he was unwilling to kill Ethan (Although destroying Windows everywhere would cause innumerable losses, and probably not just financial ones, either). It was the penguin, who took control of Scott to try killing Ethan. My point is, Scott might not be irredeemable, even if he becomes effectively a supervilain (probably of Knight Templar variety). Though I wonder how would he operate, being wheelchair bound and needing some agents. One guess I have is using robot agents, but without free will, making him something of a hypocrite, at least in how others would… Read more »
Wasn’t Scott 1.0 kind of being mind controlled by that psyonic penguin?
Blackmailed by a psychotic penguin, I think.
It’s been a while, though. I could be wrong.
Yeah, he was. (I wrote about it in another comment, but as it contains an external link, it’s currently waiting for approval)
No, he was a willing participant, he just let Ted control him every now and then to further their goals.
Most of the time, yes. But when the penguin wanted him to kill Ethan, Scott wavered and refused, leading to the penguin mind controlling him to try doing it anyway.
I was really hoping you wouldn’t make Scott become the villain, I guess it’s all but confirmed now. 🙁
Nothing here guarantees a villain arc. It might even verge on Anti-hero for a bit, but this moment in time can spin many different directions. Don’t write him off just yet…
fingers crossed
I’m not convinced yet. Lucas is still there. Remember, he’s sympathetic to Scott because he was on the receiving end of ZK’s attacks. Safe to assume Lucas can still reach out to him and Ethan will come back to deliver the finishing blow.
Now whether THAT blow will be the one that pushes Scott off the edge or gets him to cool his jets, that’s another subject entirely.
Well THAT screams heel-turn
I hope this doesn’t turn into a teamup between Scott and the Master. That’s too much escalation for what would probably be very little payoff.
I can’t see a team-up. The Master wants to destroy all technology by using it against society. Scott wants (sorry, “needs”) to save the world reminiscent to how Batman does. Best case scenario, Scott calms down a bit and they work it out while Scott sorts through his feelings. Worst case scenario, Scott pulls a Jason Todd, does his own thing, and lets down his friends in the process.
It depends on his desperation. If he believes Zeke is the biggest threat to humanity then its possible. Plus the Master knows their identities already, he could see it as the evil we know is better than a full army of Zekes. That said, this even would degrade much of the character development up to this point. I really hope this doesn’t happen, because if so my level of investment is going to tank hard.
Everybody is talking about how Scott will turn into a supervillain. It’s almost like you’re all mind controlled by tvtropes. Sure, even though it’s a common trope and competent writers still manage to spin it into a good story, Scott still doesn’t seem like a supervillain. People got attached to the idea that not-Zeke is a person, anyone that fails to see it is a bigot, and killing not-Zeke is tantamount to genocide (since he’s the only extant of his “species”). Not everyone shares this point of view. Randall Munroe made a particularly insightful xkcd, issue 2635, that shows how… Read more »
That really depends on what you consider a ‘turning into a (super)villain’. I don’t think anyone’s really expecting Scott to go full evil supervillain, ‘the world will burn’-style or something like that. But that’s hardly the only way for characters to turn villain. There’s also the characters that genuinely believe in their cause, or are willing to resort to terrible actions to achieve (what they consider) a noble goal. Scott doesn’t fit the former category, but he’s definitely got aspects of the latter. I’m a bit confused what your point about not-Zeke being or not being a person is supposed… Read more »
And Scott going on a quest to destroy Zeke whatever the cost is quite possible. Except there was a very good reason why Scott didn’t do anything about the fail-safe bomb: a) it was not agreed that Zeke can leave the storage room; b) there was a risk that Zeke could break out of the store and disappear, regardless of whether on a rampage or out of paranoia that he’s only being studied and will eventually be destroyed regardless of his progress; c) before you suggest that this only requires a fail-safe device that works outside the store, there was… Read more »
One of you speaks of the act of protecting – Scott did that even though he failed, while the other (you) are looking back at the outcome.
The outcome doesn’t define the nature and the reasons why Scott started his actions.
Pretty sure it was a gentle dig at computer scientist being concerned with specific problems to the point or edge of navel-gazing, expressed through the joke of generally-feared “singularity” AI’s being caught up in those same specific problems. I see how you could get from that to Zeke fundamentally wanting to kill humans, but I do wanna say that Mr. Xkcd is probably not making a claim that this is how superintelligent AIs will actually behave.
Certainly. But there’s no reason to believe that an AI won’t be an automaton that will build upon the original programming to the same end purpose.
That’s why not-Zeke is a character in a comic about superheroes. It’s not a plausible or realistic AI, it’s a projection of the expectations that people have about a sentient AI and some semi-plausible explanation as to how it works on the programming and hardware level.
“anyone that fails to see it is a bigot”
Oh so you’re one of those people who can’t respect people’s pronouns in a comic, and thus definitely doesn’t respect them in real life either, and thus are most definitely a bigot.
Opinion discarded, don’t have a nice day.
You either have a very quick temper or you’re not a native speaker. The latter could just about be forgiven if the sentence wasn’t grammatically correct and you didn’t jump to conclusions about using pronouns “incorrectly” without giving it a second read. Which suggests you just have a very quick temper. Listen, sunshine, in the phrase, “anyone that fails to see it is a bigot”, the “it” refers to “that which was stated before”, so it refers to: “the idea that not-Zeke is a person”. Especially for you, here’s the paragraph, rewritten: People got attached to the idea that not-Zeke… Read more »
Words of an ovezealous terrorist………
And so you have elected The Way of Pain.
Dun dun duuuuuun!
oh damn… i think i called it… scott is gonna become the new villian. :'(
in the department of people who have learned nothing
Birth of a supervillain.
He needs to because that’s all he thinks he has left in his life. If he can’t protect people then he doesn’t see any reason to live.
Protecting people is his reason to live, I can understand his point of view a bit better now but that angered expression has me guessing he’s going rogue at some point.
And THERE we have it, ladies and gentlemen. Classic Knight Templar situation, likely followed up by a bunch of tautological arguments to justify essentially becoming a tyrant. Supervillain in the making right here.
So Scott is going full Anakin Skywalker (Dark Horse comics and Legacy novelizations included in this case).
Oddly appropriate timing for this comic strip.
Three months later when Analong and D-Pad are going up against ‘The Programmer’: “Well FUCK so thats what he meant…”
He needs to, but that tunnels his vision and creates more of a selective. Ethan wants to, and that gives him a more objective view. A want is better than a need in this situation.
When the cost of “protecting people” is unlimited it usually incorporates harm to other people. That’s not a safe or reasonable balance..
I don’t think Scotts been a very safe or reasonable person since Carlie’s death
cause thats not a dangerous place to start being vigilantes form. nope no sir not going to regret that at all.