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Post by Jelly Jellybean on Nov 30, 2015 16:55:55 GMT
Yup, skin, pain, pressure, receptors... suddenly having access to all that information at once must be overwhelming. I like the way the biological looking skin and receptors are all flowing from the arm and the much more computery looking nerve-like structures flowing from his head. Very cool. This, and someone's observation that this is like a sensory homunculus, matches my own thinking. As a robot, most of his mass is actuators and scaffolding. He's probably got sensors for things like current flow, position, stress, temperature, and so forth--at most a few dozen sensors in the entire arm. But flesh, of which this an analogue, is thoroughly innervated, almost down to individual muscle cells. The feedback would be overwhelming for someone who didn't develop with it. Kat needs to do some additional work to see to it that Robot is no more conscious of this stuff than we are. Robot does not have the experience to relate what he is feeling and words will not convey the depth of those feelings even if he can comprehend the sensations. Kat does not have the experience of either being a robot, or feeling all these sensations for the first time all at once, to truly comprehend what Robot is going to describe. She is not omniscient. Taken together, Creator Kat has no way to truly understand what her creations will feel. Her ascended Bots may live a life of pain and agony without knowing that it shouldn't have to be that way. Kat may think she's done a great job without knowing that she needed to do better. Feedback between Robot and Kat is the way to mitigate this problem. More feedback will lead to better adjustments. But they have some serious communication issues that will make it difficult and result in a less than optimal solution. Edit: This may be another parallel between the Shadowmen and the Robots. Coyote's creation was flawed (because he is Coyote and got bored before he completed the Shadowmen). Kat's creation may be flawed (because she is human and may not be able to fully relate to the Ascended Bots' condition). |
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Post by nero on Nov 30, 2015 18:04:44 GMT
This really woke me up in the morning. Maybe Kat should have started smaller, instead of an arm maybe just a hand. Just what is Robot's goal?
I know the robots would like to have the same selfworth as a human/living body. Robot won't let this weird moment stop him.
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Post by The Anarch on Nov 30, 2015 20:13:37 GMT
Y'know, it looks all crazy and huge and amazing and all . . . but this is probably just Robot feeling the regular ol' "pins and needles" sensation for the first time as his new arm is waking up. |
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Post by Eisenblume on Nov 30, 2015 20:32:37 GMT
Fnuwhöh!?
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Post by setrain on Nov 30, 2015 21:40:52 GMT
Yech, wetware. To be perfectly honest, I don't get this. Give me a nice, sturdy housing and a solid state substrate to run my strange loop, and I'll take it any day, and gladly leave this pathetic legacy of primordial soup in the mud, where it belongs. Yet, inexorably, disturbingly many of our fictional metal children seem all to eager to go back to wallowing in it. The Minds had a word for them, but I won't repeat it here  As somebody whose wetware has been distressingly buggy lately, I could not agree more. |
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Post by gpvos on Nov 30, 2015 22:31:15 GMT
Kat stands in the best traditions of Gunnerkrigg Court.
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Post by kumquats on Dec 1, 2015 3:34:18 GMT
I'm a neuro-based MD student. I had some fun tonight instead of studying. Here's my interpretation of the comic with some pictures! imgur.com/a/FFNpl |
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Post by speedwell on Dec 1, 2015 7:31:34 GMT
I'm a neuro-based MD student. I had some fun tonight instead of studying. Here's my interpretation of the comic with some pictures! imgur.com/a/FFNplPlus, to me the white round thing in the middle of the right edge looks like an eye, and the two blue frilly things next to it like sinuses. Anyone else think we may be looking at a two-page spread? |
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Blitz
New Member
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Post by Blitz on Dec 1, 2015 10:15:42 GMT
I agree with the perspective that Robot is simply not used to sensing the microscopic cells of an organic system. This reminds me of the film Lucy (bad in my opinion, but off topic), where the main character gains the ability to feel even the tiniest of bodily functions as part of her ascension to a higher plane of existence. Robot is simply used to sensing all the parts of his body, which is relatively a lot simpler than an organic one, and is overwhelmed by it. Not because he is 'not used' to the body.
Later in the chapter I bet he'd praise the human physique as a holy artifact of sorts. To Robot, a system where there are so many parts, of which most, if not all are inferior by themselves, should not be able to function properly, as the chances of one part malfunctioning is relatively higher. And it is true that many people are regretfully born with physical or mental defects, and humans are also more prone to accidents which can lead to physical/mental handicaps, but the fact that most of humanity is born without defective bodies should be astounding to him.
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Post by Trillium on Dec 1, 2015 16:44:31 GMT
As humans our counsiousness and bodies grow together developing more or less at the same time. Robot already had some kind of internal self and awareness of self. Now he's getting body parts that give him even more awareness. That will take some getting use to. Rodger Zalazny's 1966 short story For Breath I Tarry covers similar ground of a computer counsiousness becoming used to a body only no humans are around.
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corvis
Junior Member
"I like this place and could gladly waste my time in it."
Posts: 56 
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Post by corvis on Dec 1, 2015 21:16:21 GMT
Stuff like this is why I love Mondays!
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corvis
Junior Member
"I like this place and could gladly waste my time in it."
Posts: 56
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Post by corvis on Dec 1, 2015 21:20:32 GMT
I'm a neuro-based MD student. I had some fun tonight instead of studying. Here's my interpretation of the comic with some pictures! imgur.com/a/FFNplYou're going to end up on the "Viewers Are Geniuses" page at TV Tropes. I'd put you there myself if I were a member!  |
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