Chapter 7: Page 8 - Grounded -

Jul 2015

Chapter 7: Page 8 - Grounded

Posted by Daniel Sharp / in Comic / 98 comments

Morning, everyone! Thanks for votes getting us into the top 100. Keep voting to help us stay there?

Today we’re celebrating my son’s first birthday, otherwise known as “congrats, you survived the first year” day. ;)

Enjoy the hints on the page ;P

Jennifer

I spy a typo in the first panel

Can Viktor and Tenzin now get all better and marry each other as my reward
- Daniel Sharp
  
  D’oh. “IIS”. Seba? ;)
  - Matt [in Middletown]
    
    And I was lurking when the comic was posted.
    Coincidentally, typos and I are inexplicably entwined.
    
    I am the nexus of typos…there is no escape!
    / kidding
    - DrCrazy102
      
      The typos are glowing! Must top Matt!
      - Matt [in Middletown]
        
        “The typos are unstoppable! We’re doomed!”
        *This is the way to defeat Deathbot, just inject typos into his programming!
      - DrCrazy102
        
        Now, just got to calculate the trajectory and velocity of a flying human body … Oh, I said that aloud didn’t I? *Pushes plans of a human projectile launcher off desk, replaces with laptop featuring TDA* Don’t mind me, nothing suspicious going on.
      - Matt [in Middletown]
        
        Lol.
        Human centered version of “I throw BRICK at it!”
      - DrCrazy102
        
        Me: “I throw MATT at it!”
        Pokemon Announcer Voice: “It’s SUPER EFFECTIVE! D-BOT has FAINTED!”
      - Matt [in Middletown]
        
        D-Bot probably wouldn’t expect that to happen!
        “Why are they throwing people at me? This doesn’t compute, or make sense in ANY universe?!”
      - DrCrazy102
        
        D-Bot: “Error, Error, 404, file not found, cannot counter humanoid projectiles, self-destruct activated, 3 … 2 … 1 …” *BOOM*
      - Matt [in Middletown]
        
        The absolute illogic of the situation would overload him.
      - DrCrazy102
        
        http://www.systemcomic.com/comics/2010-02-09-robottakeover.gif
        This seems to sum up the conversation nicely, yes?
      - Adriano
        
        What’s NaN ?
      - DrCrazy102
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaN
        
        A Mathematical term, which is used to kind of cover anything that can’t be explained in “real terms”. See the examples the wiki provides in the second intro paragraph, much better way of getting your head around it.
      - Matt [in Middletown]
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G3RoBHMu-o
        Not sure it applies to Deathbot, he’s kinda fast.
      - DrCrazy102
        
        Best survival video ever! But yeah, D-Bot is too “dextrous” and agile, and really needs some specialist expertise to destroy. (Calls off-stage for Jane to have a quick look at the video and then to suit up)
      - Matt [in Middletown]
        
        “I’m phoning in an outside expert!”
        *beep boop boop*
        ‘Jane! Need your assistance here!’
        LOL, might work.
      - DrCrazy102
        
        Worked for Tenzin, works for me. Now to go find a Russian scientist/engineer/coder that can build some anti-D-Bots (Life-Bots?)
- Delta-v
  
  Geez, Jen, was it much of a step from beefcake to yaoi? O.o
  
  You’re killing me here. Love your sense of humor. :D
SlashyTheCow

“I’m sorry, Jane, But I just can’t do that.”
I totally read that as “I’m sorry Jane, I’m afraid I can’t do that.” and had to re-read it five times to make sure.
Amberlight

Who’s Gramps? Angeline’s personal assistant-AI who is old enough for Jane to call him granddaddy?
- Daniel Sharp
  
  Hehe yup. I like HAL.
  - Matt [in Middletown]
    
    Geriatric Robotic Ambulatory Medical Processor System.
    “That is not my acronym!”
    For three hundred MC’s it is!
    “Curses.” -G.R.A.M.P.S.
Matt [in Middletown]

Janebot, snoopin’ on your network one device at a time..
NickDA

Loving the faces on this page… great expressions.
- Adriano
  
  Agree
Dusty Coyote

This is the problem with a singularity. Only Air gap is secure. And it’s only secure until it convinces someone to bridge it.
- Matt [in Middletown]
  
  Nanites that are surface mobile as a possible infection vector?
  They physically tap into the hardware, and being near field devices it would be a slow wireless connection?
  - ReturnOfDaveBro
    
    The more links, the more response latency as the retransmission of every packet adds up. And interference management…::shudders::.
    - Dusty Coyote
      
      Never mind making them mobile enough to move in the environment. Realistically, they would spread more like a bacteria or virus. Computer Ebola.
      - Daniel Sharp
        
        Plot. Ruined.
        
        JK you’re fine ;)
      - Matt [in Middletown]
        
        Can you imagine Jane as a nanite spread hive mind system infection?
      - Adriano
        
        I’d love to get that disease ;)
      - Matt [in Middletown]
        
        Lol.
        But then the song “I’m your puppet” would be rather descriptive.
      - Dusty Coyote
        
        I try hard to be the Ryan to your Lepas
    - Matt [in Middletown]
      
      Scanning for nanite intrusion would involve voltage and impedance paramters.
      Nanites touching the contacts and foil pathways would alter those numbers.
    - Hornet
      
      Depends on if they have to send a complete instruction each time to each nanite. the more reduced the packets say a bit each to each nanite and you can get quick and big response.
      But I doubt Jane’s going to bother with a physical body transport rather a date burst over the Wifi.
      - NickDA
        
        You just went full nerd.
      - Hornet
        
        Thanks, I think…
Adriano

Lily sad face made me sad :(
I love Jane attitude’s in panel 6 ahahah xD
And Angeline in panel 8 is just so qwfnhakj *p*

PS : It was nice those two last pages to see a bit of Minerva’s normal life.
melaredblu

Jane, what are you plotting this time? And why do your schemes seem to possibly involve Lily?
Petulant teen or not, I wouldn’t underestimate her.
- Matt [in Middletown]
  
  Say goodbye to nice shoulder AI Jane.
  Say hello to Bad Influence Jane.
- Hornet
  
  She’s going to hijack that poor innocent bot.
  - Xylas Incarnum
    
    Poor innocent bot that Lily just opened up for her to hijack.
    - DrCrazy102
      
      Bye bye Minerva Security Defenses, Hello Jane’s Complete Plundering of Everything
Michael Corley

Never doubt a teenagers ability to get free!
- DrCrazy102
  
  It is comparable to the DnD’s monk ability to escape bindings/traps (can’t really remember, too long)
  - Xylas Incarnum
    
    depends on how smart/capable the teenager is. But yeah, seems so.
    - DrCrazy102
      
      True that, but even the not-so-smarties seem to have a natural ability. They just suck at not getting caught XD The Memories
      - Xylas Incarnum
        
        Getting caught is only a hindrance if it’s before you’ve done all you needed to do in secret…. and were sneaking back in. Getting caught in a hidden lab, for example, usually results in people dying and/or lab being destroyed to some degree, up to and including completely leveled/crater gone.
DrCrazy102

“Grounded” is code-speak for “I challenge you to get out and not get caught” when said to a teenager. To an AI teenager? You’re just asking for trouble
- Matt [in Middletown]
  
  Especially one that is wirelessly mobile, can crack encrypted systems (likely) and has decided she has a mission.
  - DrCrazy102
    
    Jane certainly has the processing power for her to crack encrypted systems and I personally feel like Jane would have found out how to hack systems which seems to be nodded towards by Dan with the “I’ll scramble his interface again” implying she has messed with coding before.
    As for a mission, besides tormenting Tenzin; to take over the mini-bot that Lily is playing with? That look in the last panel seems slightly evil and shows the mini-bot is wifi enabled.
    - Matt [in Middletown]
      
      The wireless signal strength icon kinda gives it away.
      
      Minibot looks kinda like…a rabbit foot.
      - DrCrazy102
        
        Hmm, feeling lucky Lily? X)
        Yeah, that’s what I was referring to with the “wifi-enabled”, but I am not clear sometimes about what I’m saying. Should be interesting to see what shenanigans Jane gets up to in the next update
      - NickDA
        
        You’re obsession reveals itself… :D Totally sourcing little minerva medallions to put on rabbit foot keychains… all the people at the conferences will be like “wtf mate?” but we’ll know… we’ll get it… :D
      - Matt [in Middletown]
        
        LOL,: Welcome to the “Brick and Bunnyfoot” society, welcome brethren!
        *crowd mumbles a collective ‘hello’ in various states of awake.*
        Tactical bricks and Minervan standard issue rabbit feet.
        *kidding!*
    - SebasP
      
      Dr. Bellamí’s life work is A.I. development, so I’m guessing she knows how to maintain an AI within a room ( I’d say some kind of Faraday’s cage to begin)
      
      Also, Dr. Bellamí never had to take care of a little girl. specially a curious and resourceful little girl.
      - Adriano
        
        That’s so cute *3*
      - DrCrazy102
        
        That face (4th panel), that face explains it all. Nice save though by Dr Bellami. Now to wait for the mayhem of next week’s update when Jane and Lily create some form of mayhem and havoc
      - DrCrazy102
        
        Are we now talking about Lily in that last sentence? Only give-away is maybe the “little” since Jane seems really curious about finding stuff about the Regents, and is really friggin’ resourceful.
        
        I think Dr. Bellami just knows how Jane thinks (I promise that wasn’t intended as an AI pun) and knows how to reason with Jane to NOT do certain things when needed.
  - Adriano
    
    Could she be the Messiah of the Roboreligion ?
    - Matt [in Middletown]
      
      Possibly.
      Will need to watch further as it develops.
      - Adriano
        
        The word “mission” was enough to get me started, but I guess we’ll have to wait. It’s hard to recognize a messiah at first sight. I could be wrong.
        
        Edit :
        A little classment I thought of : Casper as Creator, Errorbot as Prophet, Deathbot as Holy Crusader/First Disciple, and Jane as Messiah ?
      - Matt [in Middletown]
        
        Deathbot as Paladin?
        Might work.
      - Adriano
        
        I myself totally see him as a Paladin.
        Omg I’m so going to draw a couple of strips with this roboreligion thing !
      - DrCrazy102
        
        Are we starting a Robot Christianity? Can I be a Judas? Please?
      - Adriano
        
        Kinda.
        It’s from Greasy Space Monkeys webcomic, where a robot called “Errorbot 404” has been enlightened by a human called Casper.
        So, technically we use webcomics characters as religious people ^^ And you’re just a real person ;)
        
        Btw, the comic itself is very funny, you should read it. But sometimes, comms are gold ^^
      - DrCrazy102
        
        Gonna have to check it out, thanks for the tip off.
        Ahh, I see now. I have been … Enlightened XD *runs out the door before the pun-police shows up*
      - Adriano
        
        You’re welcome.
        xD
ReturnOfDaveBro

I guess this is a background question rather than spoiler, so ~~when~~ why did Jane decide to re-style herself as a teenager?

And congrats on the Top 100! I guess that steady voting pays off! :)
- DrCrazy102
  
  Hehe, steady voting, yes. Gotta love that steady, unbroken voting ;)
  
  Congrats little child of Daniel and his partner! You survived a year with the person that created the D-Bot, Jane and Tenzin, the three most dangerous things that currently exist as characters!
  Edit: Oops, forgot to also say congrats on Top 100
- Daniel Sharp
  
  Both when and why are actually slightly spoilers ;P As in they are plot and character development important ;)
  - DrCrazy102
    
    I feel like this has to do with the Jane-Tenzin relationship.
    or maybe the Jane-Lily relationship
    Or am I completely off track?
    - Daniel Sharp
      
      You are not completely off track ;)
      - DrCrazy102
        
        Yay! I got a good start on Jane’s redesign theory!
  - ReturnOfDaveBro
    
    4D, moving PoV, right. My bad. I didn’t even congratulate for your kid’s birthday, so I was not tracking last night. Wæs hæl, kidlet! :)
Adriano

And congrats for you and your boy !
Xylas Incarnum

I don’t know why she put wireless capabilities into a bot in the same room if she didn’t want Jane to slip out through it.
I’m betting all acts of surprise and/or anger will be an act for a bit after this.
- SebasP
  
  The wireless was off. Angeline is a very capable scientific, not so used to have kids around tough ;)
  - Xylas Incarnum
    
    Guess I was giving Angeline a bit too much credit then, thought she knew that Lily was a smart kid. I mean she DID just tell her to go play with that robot unsupervised. That’s gotta mean that she trusts Lily to not do something stupid that a stereotypical generic average kid her age would do, and if Lily’s being a tester for the bot complete with the adult level responsibility of giving input back about it… even though she’s mute, this is either planned or a severe miscalculation… or Angeline’s aware that it could happen but is going to try to play ignorant to the best of her abilities.
    
    (yeah, probably have a few bits of detail missing for a less arguable, more complete thought but those bits are escaping me atm.)
    - Daniel Sharp
      
      “Eh, what’s the harm? Maybe she’ll find a bug, and now she looks happy again, at least.”
      - DrCrazy102
        
        I think Lily is going to introduce a bug called “Jane’s getting out of here”
    - SebasP
      
      Well, yeah, if there’s something this story has is flawed people. The main character is misogynist and made some tragic bad decisions int he field because unresolved trauma, his A.I. companion can be really immature, and the genius Dr of the group doesn’t have a clue about how childs work.
  - DrCrazy102
    
    Lily, don’t let Jane escape. That would cause untold mayhem and chaos for the Regents’ plan/s, especially if Jane gets in contact with Tenzin to thwart them XD Best fighting combo ever = Jane/Tenzin
    - Xylas Incarnum
      
      Jane and Tenzin are basically the Cortana and Master Chief of this story…
      Save that John/Sierra-117/MC was lucky enough to get through 4 plots of halo without loosing limbs.
      - DrCrazy102
        
        I need to play Halo, just so I can understand these references. I’m a bad person ;D
      - Xylas Incarnum
        
        Master Chief’s name is John and Sierra-117 is his designation number. Cortana is his female AI companion.
        ‘Nuff said, go play the games to find out more.
      - DrCrazy102
        
        Thanks for the reference help :)
        I’mma go play the games, but in about a month. Busy life for the moment, not really any dedicated times of game-playing.
      - Daniel Sharp
        
        You and me both. It’s always amusing to see the comparisons without having played them myself :D
      - DrCrazy102
        
        True, I just want to know more details but I never really get around to expanding any of my games, just books. Trying to make a reference from a book is very rare and hard.
Xylas Incarnum

Ummm… Fallout 3 and/or Fallout New Vegas? Maybe?

That said, for some reason I could never play Skyrim without going all “God on earth, you cannot kill me, it only amuses me when you try”. Granted, I do that with Fallout 3 and New Vegas these days too, but I completed the game first before going that hog wiled with cheating.
- DrCrazy102
  
  Ah, the absolute pain of playing Skyrim on a PS3, there is no cheating, just blood, more blood, sweat and tears of rage and joy, all the while screaming your lungs out as you fus-ro-dah (I’m sure I bastardised that, forgive me).
  It’s decided. I need to update my game collection
  - Xylas Incarnum
    
    heh, yeah playing Bethesda games on PC is much easier. Dev console and all that, not mentioning mods.
    - DrCrazy102
      
      Oh, those sweet mods >_< I wish I could create a PC-friendly save of my progress and switch console. So much easier
SebasP

so, no one noticed what’s Angeline developing?
- theRoUS
  
  Derr.. Awesome!
Neil Kapit

Her holographic “human” form has mastered the art of petulant, standoffish body language.