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Post by clementine on Aug 22, 2009 5:41:56 GMT
Oh dear god, neither of you have traveled the highways of the southern US, have you? It's a terrifying picture of "someone's creative idea gone REALLY REALLY RIDICULOUSLY WRONG." I grew up in Florida, and stand by my statement. But then, down there it's just sand. Even the Green is Brown. Oh, where in Florida? But yeah, I live farther up, in Tennessee. It's... greener. As in, once you get out of the city you start to wonder when the kudzu's going to grow over the highway and into your engine. Although Georgia is the absolute worst.
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Post by pepoluan on Aug 22, 2009 7:57:43 GMT
This is a guy who passive-aggressively gets the last word NOT by outward conflict, but by subtle, almost indetectable slight. He wants to pretend that he's affecting the memory of Young, but without actually overtly doing so. In short, he is a coward. He never had the courage to do anything outwardly. That is why he hides his fantasies deep underground and buries them deep in the code of his bovine creations. Reynardine is such a psychoanalyst. My respect to him grows greater and greater everyday.
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Post by fidodo on Aug 22, 2009 11:48:30 GMT
Hmm, why are people saying animals are stupid? They definitely have emotions and can dislike things. I'm guessing that cow robots are as smart as cows so I'd say that their reaction to the monument would be that of a dog that's scared of place they got hurt at or something.
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Post by Robo Alchemist on Aug 22, 2009 12:52:46 GMT
Animals do have thought, just when compared to human thoughts they have very basic looking structure to their minds. they don't have the same connections to different things that we humans do. this is not to say that they could, just that they don't because they don't really have purpose to or care to make connections. so that's another likely theory, if not just a good thing to note for the big picture, that the laser cows could be built to be "afraid" of the monument like you said, and thus have a subtle effect on Diego's hatred for Young. if it is a true hatred. I don't know, I keep forgetting what it is exactly
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Post by Mishmash on Aug 22, 2009 12:56:23 GMT
Applying real world logic is silly eh? Weren't you trying to figure out the exact size of the Court and how it would fit into Great Britain using the height of the Power Station tower the other day?
I think Diego probably did build those Cows, or a model they are based on, because they are quite ornate looking with lots of smaller parts, as opposed to the recent court robots who built themselves and look very simple.
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Post by Casey on Aug 22, 2009 16:19:43 GMT
Applying real world logic is silly eh? Weren't you trying to figure out the exact size of the Court and how it would fit into Great Britain using the height of the Power Station tower the other day? Maybe you should actually go read that thread and see what I said there before attempting to make a clever jab at me.
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Post by Jiminiminy on Aug 22, 2009 17:05:28 GMT
Robots & Logic Just because this is a work of fiction doesn't mean that logic has no place in it. In just about every situation thus far, the workings have, no matter how strange or unorthodox, held true to realistic laws and the base facts of what makes things able to happen. I have made my observations, stating why I think that I am correct, and have followed up with previous events and assumptions to support this.
Anyhow, yesterday I was thinking. While I still don't really think that the entire structure is Diego's design, the pieces and coding necessary to create such a thing likely are. If most, if not all, of the robots have at least some sort of influence of Diego's work, it is very probable that they all have their base code in common, ie: How to move, how to speak, and perhaps Diego's passive-aggressive tendencies towards Sir Young.
Math And on the subject of the size of the court, I forgot to post this during the discussion, but mathematically, I worked out at least how far the horizon would be from their position, and as a result, the minimum size of the Court. I didn't count exactly how many storeys were on the tower, but I figured they were on the roof of about a 100 meter tall building, thirty four or so tall. From that height, the horizon would be at a distance of thirty-six kilometers, and since the station was on the horizon, it'd be between 35-37 km away. The beam shot went over the horizon in the opposite direction, which would be a distance of 72km, if it were flat. Considering that there were buildings in the way, which I estimated to be at least five storeys, ten at most, based on which structure in question. From their height(~35m at most), the horizon would be 21.3 km. If a person were standing on the top of one of them, and was looking at the tower everyone else was on, only to see the very tip-top, it'd be a distance of 57km for the light to travel. By this estimate (I know there's a lot of estimates, this is a comic after all.), if the court were a circle, with the very tall building in the exact center, we can say that the radius would be close to 57km (Actually be 57.3862418km), and the diameter being ~114km.
A lot of estimates, I know, but at least is gives a somewhat realistic number to the previously unknown size of the court.
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Post by Casey on Aug 22, 2009 17:30:13 GMT
Hehe, maybe -you- should go read that thread and see what I said there too! (Because I already did all the math and stuff.)
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Post by Jiminiminy on Aug 22, 2009 18:45:34 GMT
Ah, so you did. I probably should have posted then, I had it all worked out and typed around the same time as King Mir's post.
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Post by Mylian on Aug 22, 2009 19:05:44 GMT
I grew up in Florida, and stand by my statement. But then, down there it's just sand. Even the Green is Brown. Oh, where in Florida? But yeah, I live farther up, in Tennessee. It's... greener. As in, once you get out of the city you start to wonder when the kudzu's going to grow over the highway and into your engine. Although Georgia is the absolute worst. Central Florida. Orlando, Cape Canaveral, et cetera. Closest I've gotten to Tennessee was a flight connection in Memphis, and I never left the airport, so that doesn't count. I'm in Ohio now. Hmm, why are people saying animals are stupid? They definitely have emotions and can dislike things. I'm guessing that cow robots are as smart as cows so I'd say that their reaction to the monument would be that of a dog that's scared of place they got hurt at or something. People are saying cows are dumb, and they are. I wouldn't compare their level of awareness to that of a dog myself. But I think the actual major mistake many here seem to be making is comparing the intelligence of the Laser Cows to real cows. I mean, look at the war horses. Even they are somewhat stylized renditions of the equine model. Now look at the Laser Cows. The creator of these things has gone to great pains to make these things look, act, and visually feel equal to a regular cow to a casual observer, and in a place like Gunnerkrigg Court that should immediately send up red flags that these are not actually cowlike at all. It's excessively inconspicuous.
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Post by pepoluan on Aug 23, 2009 5:48:25 GMT
If we are talking about war horses, it is not suprising to make them ornate.
But cows... They are so un-glorious why would they have to be over-the-top ornate?
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Post by fuzzyone on Aug 23, 2009 14:53:51 GMT
Maybe whoever made them had the same feelin about cows as Paz. A deep love for them, enough to call them 'Cute'. I've never seen a cute cow. Not even a calf.
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Post by Mylian on Aug 24, 2009 4:51:54 GMT
They wouldn't be necessarily ornate. But slightly stylized would be expected. Most likely along more utilitarian lines.
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Post by Jiminiminy on Aug 24, 2009 5:00:30 GMT
If they were going for utilitarianism, why make a large robot like that? Why not just have dozens of Boxbots rolling around breaking the grass if it gets too long? Except for their terribleness, it'd probably be more economical. I assume it takes less energy to run one of them than a sizey laser cow.
That is to say, the design of the cow was probably along the 'go nuts' path of invention.
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Post by Mylian on Aug 24, 2009 5:25:52 GMT
Another point in favor of being suspicious of the laser cows. So far, most of the robots we've seen which have an identified purpose have been adapted to their tasks without such excess.
Plus, all of said robots have presumably descended from Diego's designs. If we're assuming the cows are also Diego's, then they should share that design sensibility. If the cows are Diego's, then they probably have lasers for more than just cutting grass.
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Post by Casey on Aug 24, 2009 5:36:39 GMT
Dude. Maybe Tom just thought laser cows were cool and thought the irony would get some laughs.
There are plenty of things worthy of debate and speculation in this comic; are you sure that whether or not laser cows fit into a normative utilitarian design schema paradigm sensibility gobbledygook whatever is really worth it?
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Post by Mylian on Aug 24, 2009 8:24:22 GMT
What I'm sure of is that the laser cows are highly suspicious.
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Post by warrl on Aug 24, 2009 23:03:16 GMT
Actually, the first robot park-tenders used ordinary lawnmower blades. In order to prevent damage to the blades, someone told the robots to stay a few feet away from the monument.
Later, the robots were upgraded to use lasers (and given cow bodies). But nobody thought to change their instructions about the monument.
And by now, everyone assumes there's a good (but forgotten) reason why the laser cows don't go near the monument.
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Post by bluemotion on Aug 25, 2009 1:22:22 GMT
Actually, the first robot park-tenders used ordinary lawnmower blades. In order to prevent damage to the blades, someone told the robots to stay a few feet away from the monument. Later, the robots were upgraded to use lasers (and given cow bodies). But nobody thought to change their instructions about the monument. And by now, everyone assumes there's a good (but forgotten) reason why the laser cows don't go near the monument. Whaaaat you're crazy, that's way too sensible.
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Post by mudmaniac on Aug 25, 2009 1:50:30 GMT
Actually, the first robot park-tenders used ordinary lawnmower blades. In order to prevent damage to the blades, someone told the robots to stay a few feet away from the monument. Later, the robots were upgraded to use lasers (and given cow bodies). But nobody thought to change their instructions about the monument. And by now, everyone assumes there's a good (but forgotten) reason why the laser cows don't go near the monument. Perhaps Occam's Razor would be of help in this situation.
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Post by Jiminiminy on Aug 25, 2009 1:52:13 GMT
Actually, the first robot park-tenders used ordinary lawnmower blades. In order to prevent damage to the blades, someone told the robots to stay a few feet away from the monument. Later, the robots were upgraded to use lasers (and given cow bodies). But nobody thought to change their instructions about the monument. And by now, everyone assumes there's a good (but forgotten) reason why the laser cows don't go near the monument. Perhaps Occam's Razor would be of help in this situation. I don't think that Occam's Razor actually applies in this situation, as there is no redundancy in explanations.
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Post by Mezzaphor on Aug 25, 2009 2:52:25 GMT
Actually, the first robot park-tenders used ordinary lawnmower blades. In order to prevent damage to the blades, someone told the robots to stay a few feet away from the monument. Later, the robots were upgraded to use lasers (and given cow bodies). But nobody thought to change their instructions about the monument. And by now, everyone assumes there's a good (but forgotten) reason why the laser cows don't go near the monument. Perhaps Occam's Razor would be of help in this situation. Yes! The first lawnmower cow robots were cutting the grass with Occam's Razor. It all makes sense now.
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