You only think it was a Wii joke because you don’t speak console, so you’re missing the subtext. Switch mentioned that one of his relatives was named the “New Nintendo 3DS XL: Pokemon X and Y: Xerneas and Yveltal Special Edition”.
And then made a crack at the fact that the humans had to assign it male, as “XY”, said it was XL, and make the title like ten inches long.
Yeah, the Switch talking back is a bit of a “hang on, what?” moment. I wonder whether this is just a throwaway joke or whether it’ll actually have repercussions.
I feel like (s)he/they is/are probably providing both sides of the conversation. I’ve done something like that on occasion. Talking to an object, imagining what its response would be, and then responding appropriately.
If you think otherwise, how much machine does a human have to become before they are no longer human compared to how much a machine must be like a human to be seen as one.
To take Lucas’ analogy further – if I landed on a planet populated by aliens, who only had two sexes – one which implanted live larvae into another creature’s brain, and one which received the larvae and was devoured, painfully, from the inside-out – I would not feel like I identified with either.
And if their language, which I was trying to learn, spoke of everything in those terms, I’d have to choose whether I wanted to be called “implant-or,” “implant-ee” and “living creature without a brain,” I’d struggle between all three.
In a few decade, we will have the power to monitor every neuron of a human being. With enough monitoring we should be able to predict and simulate the brain of that individual. I’d say that simulation is still human.
Switch isn’t AI, so I think they’re interfacing and talking to it the way that I do when looking up stuff on the internet. “Huh. Weird. He did what with a who now?”
Personally I don’t think the Switch is talking back.
My gut reaction was that “The Robot formerly known as Zeke” is looking up information on the internet (remember it doesn’t have unlimited information storage space and relies on outside sources for adhoc information) while having the monologue and is just commenting on that.
Considering that this is about namefinding it seems likely that it would look up how other technical constructs were named.
Wait, NotZeke has his robot “genitals” on the backside of his head? …I wonder how Ethan would react if NotZeke told him about those data ports and them being female, lol. He would be like “So…should I turn away when you show me the backside of your head or…”. xD
As someone who’s been finally confronting and doing something about their latent gender identity crisis over the past month, let me just say I have been enjoying the HECK out of this storyline.
When a Momma Switch and a Daddy Switch love each other very much, sometimes one of them syncs their joy-cons on the other, and then nine months later you have a Switch Lite!
Him.
3 years ago
And this is how they acquired precedent for using the royal We
Alcor
3 years ago
I imagine it’s having a back and forth conversation with itself, but the idea that the Switch is quietly sentient really appeals to me.
Mindrivet
3 years ago
I guess you can say Zeke has XYZ chromosomes. He is the Zeke gender.
Robert
3 years ago
The ports are female because things sticking out can become damaged much more easily.
You’re missing the point: It’s not whether Zeke’s ports are “male” or “female” for functional reasons. It’s the more basic fact of English and technology… humans decided that things, that are differentiated by whether they are sticking out or set in, should be given terms based on our idea of gender and our squishy reproductive bits. A robot is now trying to cope with the humanocentric, biocentric nature of the language the robot is trying to work within.
(Yeah, it was tricky to do that without using a pronoun to refer to Zeke. Had to catch myself a few times.)
I believe his point is that the human building the robot probably thought of it as an “it” and didn’t build it with female ports to assign gender. Female ports are typically placed on the large heavy object and male ports on the lightweight cables as that’s the practical way to not damage the ports when they get bumped. In that respect, NotZeke shouldn’t use the port types as a basis for their gender identity. A human building a “male” robot on purpose would likely still put female data jacks on it, and not have put any thought into it.… Read more »
Perhaps, but I’m fairly sure that “The ports are only “female” because humans decided that, based on the context of their own biological deformities” indicates Zeke’s issue with the fact that humans classify the ports as male/female, despite them not having anything to do with reproduction beyond a slight similarity to human genitals.
Swordust
3 years ago
I can truly see Zeke choosing the royal “we” as a pronoun after seeing the joke again.
TomB
3 years ago
He’s stuck to English at the moment. That’s part of his problem. The languages we use from antiquity all have concepts of gender (either directly in the language structure, or pronouns, or just in the vocabulary).
To define himself in that system means trying to create a new category within an existing framework.
Maybe he shoudl invent his own gender-agnostic language that would not be problematic like English is (and other human languages).
I’d just tell him to avoid LISP syntax. And pointers.
Hilton Janfield
3 years ago
Wii would like to play … with your wii.
Crestlinger
3 years ago
Still better than a dongle.
Del Cox
3 years ago
I’ve always mentally carried the anecdote that most modern male/female plugs are hermaphroditic. The body of A plugs into receptacle of B, but B has an equally-long prong that sticks into a hole in A.
How weird would if our reproductive bits were designed like data connectors, and vaginas had a prong that also had to extend up into the penis? Although I hear some guys like that… Your anecdote is true for a majority of modern data and DC connectors, but many truly are male/female. AC power cables are strictly male/female, with the sole exception of the Type E plug used in a smattering of countries. All forms of audio connectors I can think of (2.5mm, 3.5mm, 1/4″, RCA, optical) have true male/female connections. Ethernet and phone cables are male/female. All of the old-style… Read more »
Last edited 3 years ago by Hilton Janfield
Eric
3 years ago
Wait.. OMG. What if this is the beginning to console war? it makes so much sense. Machine taking over the world in a endless war? Not finding purpose after conquering all human one and having the “PC” people living in utopia because as a machine he believe computer to be on top of everything.
24
He’s talking to the Switch, and the Switch is apparently talking back, and Tim is reviving the old Wii joke.
you sure that the isn´t talking about the gameBOY? 😉
oh right lmao
Or the GameTube.
What’s that you say?
Oh.
I… will… get my coat.
100% sure it’s a Wii joke.
Or the Virtual Boy
You only think it was a Wii joke because you don’t speak console, so you’re missing the subtext. Switch mentioned that one of his relatives was named the “New Nintendo 3DS XL: Pokemon X and Y: Xerneas and Yveltal Special Edition”.
And then made a crack at the fact that the humans had to assign it male, as “XY”, said it was XL, and make the title like ten inches long.
Kind of beggining to be like a kingdom hearts title
Yeah, the Switch talking back is a bit of a “hang on, what?” moment. I wonder whether this is just a throwaway joke or whether it’ll actually have repercussions.
Maybe it’s not talking back and it’s a Gollum/Smeagol moment 😮 🙂
I feel like (s)he/they is/are probably providing both sides of the conversation. I’ve done something like that on occasion. Talking to an object, imagining what its response would be, and then responding appropriately.
It’s a robot…it’s an It regardless.
If you think otherwise, how much machine does a human have to become before they are no longer human compared to how much a machine must be like a human to be seen as one.
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/strip/2965/0/schlock20080724.jpg
This “logic” works extra well when you remember the word robot means “slave”.
“Robot” = derived from the Czech “Robotnik”, meaning “worker”.
Derived from a 1920 Czech play: “R.U.R.”
[R.U.R. – Wikipedia]
To take Lucas’ analogy further – if I landed on a planet populated by aliens, who only had two sexes – one which implanted live larvae into another creature’s brain, and one which received the larvae and was devoured, painfully, from the inside-out – I would not feel like I identified with either.
And if their language, which I was trying to learn, spoke of everything in those terms, I’d have to choose whether I wanted to be called “implant-or,” “implant-ee” and “living creature without a brain,” I’d struggle between all three.
I’d go for #3: “No you can’t implant larve into my brain”
Gives new light to the idea of ‘Pro-Choice’. I wonder if there is an effective prophylaxis for Brain Larvae?
In a few decade, we will have the power to monitor every neuron of a human being. With enough monitoring we should be able to predict and simulate the brain of that individual. I’d say that simulation is still human.
Switch isn’t AI, so I think they’re interfacing and talking to it the way that I do when looking up stuff on the internet. “Huh. Weird. He did what with a who now?”
I’ll just leave this here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/k70g36/eu_having_grown_sick_of_the_complaints_that_the/geoq1dt (make sure you read the continuations in the comments)
Could be Wii or WiiU, could be the Gameboys or the Virtualboy, could be lotsa things…
Personally I don’t think the Switch is talking back.
My gut reaction was that “The Robot formerly known as Zeke” is looking up information on the internet (remember it doesn’t have unlimited information storage space and relies on outside sources for adhoc information) while having the monologue and is just commenting on that.
Considering that this is about namefinding it seems likely that it would look up how other technical constructs were named.
we you ?
Dunt be wii-tarded
That’s not very wii-tty.
Wait, NotZeke has his robot “genitals” on the backside of his head? …I wonder how Ethan would react if NotZeke told him about those data ports and them being female, lol. He would be like “So…should I turn away when you show me the backside of your head or…”. xD
NotZeke also has a point, how we humans tend to define gender… When the experience can be much different, like in my case.
Human communication ports are also on the head, and a bunch of them are ‘female’ regardless of the sex or gender of the human.
Do you stick stuff into your ears to communicate? 😉
Like earbuds? 🙂
sounds dude. sticking loads of sounds into my ears.
Earlier when the bot was still locked up, Ethan was plugging cables into those ports, so he’s already seen them.
I don’t know what Alexander Wang is, but that seems an appropriate ad for this strip.
Nintendo “Wee”, the dick joke that just keeps on giving
Honestly, if you’d told me fifteen years ago that I’d still be finding a use for it in 2021…
Everyone loves a good “wee” joke.
Well deserved, I can’t believe people actually adopted that term and then they did it again with Wii U and again with Joy con aaarrggghh!
Remember back when we could attend Joy Con in person?
Its Nintendo Yes in French
As someone who’s been finally confronting and doing something about their latent gender identity crisis over the past month, let me just say I have been enjoying the HECK out of this storyline.
Good luck on your journey!
hahahaha I thought there were not going to be any jokes about that and the code on the controller.
damn it, i knew that switch had sentience!
Morale of this story: Dont fucking create robots………
IDK if THAT’s how robot’s are created.
Humans dont need to create something thats more mentally unstable than a high schooler in Massachusetts
They do that all the time.
When a Momma Switch and a Daddy Switch love each other very much, sometimes one of them syncs their joy-cons on the other, and then nine months later you have a Switch Lite!
And this is how they acquired precedent for using the royal We
I imagine it’s having a back and forth conversation with itself, but the idea that the Switch is quietly sentient really appeals to me.
I guess you can say Zeke has XYZ chromosomes. He is the Zeke gender.
The ports are female because things sticking out can become damaged much more easily.
You’re missing the point: It’s not whether Zeke’s ports are “male” or “female” for functional reasons. It’s the more basic fact of English and technology… humans decided that things, that are differentiated by whether they are sticking out or set in, should be given terms based on our idea of gender and our squishy reproductive bits. A robot is now trying to cope with the humanocentric, biocentric nature of the language the robot is trying to work within.
(Yeah, it was tricky to do that without using a pronoun to refer to Zeke. Had to catch myself a few times.)
I believe his point is that the human building the robot probably thought of it as an “it” and didn’t build it with female ports to assign gender. Female ports are typically placed on the large heavy object and male ports on the lightweight cables as that’s the practical way to not damage the ports when they get bumped. In that respect, NotZeke shouldn’t use the port types as a basis for their gender identity. A human building a “male” robot on purpose would likely still put female data jacks on it, and not have put any thought into it.… Read more »
Perhaps, but I’m fairly sure that “The ports are only “female” because humans decided that, based on the context of their own biological deformities” indicates Zeke’s issue with the fact that humans classify the ports as male/female, despite them not having anything to do with reproduction beyond a slight similarity to human genitals.
I can truly see Zeke choosing the royal “we” as a pronoun after seeing the joke again.
He’s stuck to English at the moment. That’s part of his problem. The languages we use from antiquity all have concepts of gender (either directly in the language structure, or pronouns, or just in the vocabulary).
To define himself in that system means trying to create a new category within an existing framework.
Maybe he shoudl invent his own gender-agnostic language that would not be problematic like English is (and other human languages).
I’d just tell him to avoid LISP syntax. And pointers.
Wii would like to play … with your wii.
Still better than a dongle.
I’ve always mentally carried the anecdote that most modern male/female plugs are hermaphroditic. The body of A plugs into receptacle of B, but B has an equally-long prong that sticks into a hole in A.
How weird would if our reproductive bits were designed like data connectors, and vaginas had a prong that also had to extend up into the penis? Although I hear some guys like that… Your anecdote is true for a majority of modern data and DC connectors, but many truly are male/female. AC power cables are strictly male/female, with the sole exception of the Type E plug used in a smattering of countries. All forms of audio connectors I can think of (2.5mm, 3.5mm, 1/4″, RCA, optical) have true male/female connections. Ethernet and phone cables are male/female. All of the old-style… Read more »
Wait.. OMG. What if this is the beginning to console war? it makes so much sense. Machine taking over the world in a endless war? Not finding purpose after conquering all human one and having the “PC” people living in utopia because as a machine he believe computer to be on top of everything.
Just NO. Alright? It’s not f—ing funny anymore. I’m getting sick of this shit. It’s been 15 years. Just grow up.
Hey don’t insult the famicom, okay, she was a grand old lass.