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Post by Señor Goose on Dec 26, 2013 0:38:57 GMT
This charred little wing is the first of us to die a proper death. His name is Robert Paulson. His name is Robert Paulson. |
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Post by Daedalus on Dec 26, 2013 1:37:06 GMT
In other news... sinister. Robot has always been a little off. My read is that his prophesying pre-dates meeting Annie and Kat and was the reason he was in the box when Annie found him the first time. I wonder if we will learn more about his history. I'd like to know where the extra part came from. Seems like a good candidate for why he's "a little off". I always took that as distinguishing his CPU from that of chips in our universe. On the other hand, you make an interesting point, because she obviously would have interaction with CPUs from the Gunnerverse before and wouldn't think it was odd if it's common issue among gunnerbots. |
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Post by TBeholder on Dec 26, 2013 2:06:11 GMT
I'd like to know where the extra part came from. Seems like a good candidate for why he's "a little off". What "extra part"? S13 had something other Seraphs don't? Of course, that reopens the question: What are the Tic-Tocs? . Mythical ornithonics.  |
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Post by GK Sierra on Dec 26, 2013 2:11:54 GMT
Older than the Court itself, eh?
I can see where all this time-travel speculation is coming from now...
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Post by goldenknots on Dec 26, 2013 3:11:58 GMT
I'd like to know where the extra part came from. Seems like a good candidate for why he's "a little off". What "extra part"? S13 had something other Seraphs don't? It would seem that it was at least unusual enough that Kat wondered about it. That was page 220, where Kat and Annie (who has just stolen liberated S13 from the hoosegow were getting ready to plug the (his?) chip into an I/O breadboard to see if it worked. There is a blue piggy-back piece on the back of what otherwise appears to be a normal chip. |
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Post by Elysium on Dec 26, 2013 5:20:28 GMT
If Kat sees Annie being rescued by Tic-Tocs, then obviously there's no reason for her to go back and create the Tic-Tocs. They were already there. Even if she learns later that it seems she was present in the past and created the Tic-Tocs, there's still no actual reason for her to go back and do it. It already happened. (Usually in stories all this is handwaved with coincidences and character ignorance.) In Yoko Tsuno, the iconic character learns that she appeared in the past, so she makes that trip in order for this event involving her to really have happened. And knowing how things work in GKC, I wouldn't be surprised if the tic tocs were involved in some sort of retroactive stuff. |
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Post by SilverbackRon on Dec 26, 2013 6:40:06 GMT
I'd like to know where the extra part came from. Seems like a good candidate for why he's "a little off". I always took that as distinguishing his CPU from that of chips in our universe. On the other hand, you make an interesting point, because she obviously would have interaction with CPUs from the Gunnerverse before and wouldn't think it was odd if it's common issue among gunnerbots. Yes, I think this is very interesting. The "blue part" seen on S13's chip clearly is an unknown to Kat. And we can safely assume she is familiar with standard court robots. However, perhaps this is something special to the Seraph models. As far as we know, the form a somewhat secretive society amongst the robots, AND they are also representative of Diego himself. Do all S models have this blue chip? Or just our one friend? Then again, this could be one of those plot elements that Tom inserted long long ago and doesn't plan to every directly address it. |
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fishtie
Full Member
...I've learned to be amazed first and ask questions later.
Posts: 114
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Post by fishtie on Dec 26, 2013 7:29:54 GMT
Alternate interpretation: Robots already have a concept of death, many have died before. The thing to focus on here is that this was the first to die a proper death. What is so proper about a death burned away right at the beginning of life? Probably not much, but if we look at purpose... The purpose of the wing is purely one of science; of proof of concept that then can be used on a larger scale. In all the time since the first court robots, the generations of robots producing there own efficient but simplified designs, this is the first one to live and die with the single purpose of improving the design of robots universally. Simply put; a 'proper death' is one that is for the improvement of one's own kind. ...and this is the first robot to have done so. |
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Post by Gotolei on Dec 26, 2013 7:34:33 GMT
Perhaps some of the ideas from the whole stem cell debate can apply to this?
As in, "if it has the potential to be alive, it should be treated as alive" (or whatever the wording is)?
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Post by sapientcoffee on Dec 26, 2013 7:57:41 GMT
Alternate interpretation: Robots already have a concept of death, many have died before. The thing to focus on here is that this was the first to die a proper death. What is so proper about a death burned away right at the beginning of life? Probably not much, but if we look at purpose... The purpose of the wing is purely one of science; of proof of concept that then can be used on a larger scale. In all the time since the first court robots, the generations of robots producing there own efficient but simplified designs, this is the first one to live and die with the single purpose of improving the design of robots universally. Simply put; a 'proper death' is one that is for the improvement of one's own kind. ...and this is the first robot to have done so. I like what fronzel said: The old robots just have broken parts that could be repaired. Kat of course did exactly that for one of them, only to break him again by his request. She could choose to repair him again. You can't uncook flesh; the wing-thing is gone for good. That's real death. It could very well be that what Robot/the seraphs desire is to be able to die unfixably. |
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Post by bluevitriol on Dec 26, 2013 12:17:30 GMT
Robot becomes the first bio-organic robot of the court, dies horribly as a martyr, his belief makes Kat eligible for godhood, and our Robot becomes the Psychopomp for ALL other robots so he can carry on his belief in Kat forever.
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Post by Toloc on Dec 26, 2013 13:23:47 GMT
I like what fronzel said: The old robots just have broken parts that could be repaired. Kat of course did exactly that for one of them, only to break him again by his request. She could choose to repair him again. You can't uncook flesh; the wing-thing is gone for good. That's real death. It could very well be that what Robot/the seraphs desire is to be able to die unfixably. That is what confuses me. The wing is just a part, like his mechanical arm. The only thing that matters to for the bots is their CPU. Robots original body was destroyed, his CPU survived, it could just continue on where it had last lost power. The wing was an new advanced design approach, but its destruction is by itself no different from when Parley cut Robot in half. Yes, it consisted of living cells, but that doesn't make it anymore "alive" then, say, a fresh blood sample. |
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Post by Elysium on Dec 26, 2013 15:07:47 GMT
Yes, it consisted of living cells, but that doesn't make it anymore "alive" then, say, a fresh blood sample. But a fresh blood sample itself is more "alive" than a microprocessor That wing was "a part" but it was a part made (possibly) of multiple synthetic cells, which is important for the robots |
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Post by Deepbluediver on Dec 26, 2013 15:29:33 GMT
Oh, I see where this is going. Looks like Gunnerkrigg Court will end up being a Terminator prequel.  |
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Post by Per on Dec 26, 2013 16:17:24 GMT
In Yoko Tsuno, the iconic character learns that she appeared in the past, so she makes that trip in order for this event involving her to really have happened. I assume the story doesn't really go into the possibility of YT shrugging and not making the trip in order to make it happen since it evidently already happened anyway so why bother? It's been many years since I read any Yoko Tsuno so I have no recollection of plot specifics. |
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Post by Elysium on Dec 26, 2013 16:32:24 GMT
since it evidently already happened anyway so why bother? That's because it already happened that she must do the trip, she must visit the past in order to preserve the present, because the present she's in is the result or the past she visited, and if she doesn't it's unknow but the lore supports the fact that future can indeed be modified YT has a lot of fun with that: in the Clestial ba rge, thre's a legend that the funeral urn of the empress has still her heart beating, turns out it's sort of true because when Yoko visited this era (6th century), she put a voice recorder with the beatings of her heart in the urn to keep the superstitious folk away. |
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Post by goldenknots on Dec 26, 2013 20:12:00 GMT
However, perhaps this is something special to the Seraph models. As far as we know, the form a somewhat secretive society amongst the robots, AND they are also representative of Diego himself. Do all S models have this blue chip? Or just our one friend? We need to get another Seraph and dismantle it, for reference. Kat: This will hurt you more than it does me. Seraph: For science! |
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Post by keef on Dec 26, 2013 20:39:18 GMT
Robot becomes the first bio-organic robot of the court, dies horribly as a martyr, his belief makes Kat eligible for godhood, and our Robot becomes the Psychopomp for ALL other robots so he can carry on his belief in Kat forever. Damn, now you spoilt it all, I might as well stop reading the comic.  |
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Post by warrl on Dec 26, 2013 20:44:18 GMT
We need to get another Seraph and dismantle it, for reference. Kat: This will hurt you more than it does me. Seraph: For science! Considering how easy it was for Kat to put Robot's chip in the original-model seraph body, and then remove it again, I doubt it would be difficult for her to take a quick look at the processor chip of a new-model seraph (or pretty much any other model). Asking permission might be slightly awkward but the robots probably wouldn't notice the awkwardness - and if they did notice, they probably wouldn't understand. |
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Post by polioman on Dec 26, 2013 20:52:14 GMT
My concern is whether they see this as a good thing (progressing to next stage of life/evolution)or a bad thing as Kat has created a way for them to die. Before they were essentially immortal. Very much seems to me that they approve of it. They see it as Kat bringing them closer to humanity and being real, organic life. Maybe Kat's bio-robots will get their own psychopomps when they die. But yeah, Robot's phrasing in the last panel makes me think they see it as a good thing. |
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Post by Nnelg on Dec 27, 2013 0:14:26 GMT
Finally, back to something I'm interested in. Skimming the earlier thread, half-asleep while doing it, I noticed someone brought up the old theory on Kat time-travel retroactively creating the Tick-Tocks. Well, something else occurred to me... What if Robot is the time-traveler? He could have traveled to the past to see the mythical Angel which uplifted the robot race. It would explain how he knew it would happen ahead of time. The religion he's preaching is merely the one he was raised with. And that "extra part" could be his real CPU, whereas the rest of the chip is merely an adapter allowing him to interface with "ancient" technology. Or maybe it's the other way around, and the extra part is an ethericly-powered "Oracle" module...
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Post by SilverbackRon on Dec 27, 2013 1:24:22 GMT
However, perhaps this is something special to the Seraph models. As far as we know, the form a somewhat secretive society amongst the robots, AND they are also representative of Diego himself. Do all S models have this blue chip? Or just our one friend? We need to get another Seraph and dismantle it, for reference. Kat: This will hurt you more than it does me. Seraph: For science! |
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Post by Señor Goose on Dec 27, 2013 3:50:04 GMT
My concern is whether they see this as a good thing (progressing to next stage of life/evolution)or a bad thing as Kat has created a way for them to die. Before they were essentially immortal. Very much seems to me that they approve of it. They see it as Kat bringing them closer to humanity and being real, organic life. Maybe Kat's bio-robots will get their own psychopomps when they die. But yeah, Robot's phrasing in the last panel makes me think they see it as a good thing. He almost acts like it's a step forward: in order to have died, it must have lived. |
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