Day 12 of the government shutdown. I have seldom left my home except to forage. My dogs were at first surprised at seeing me all day, but they have now accepted me as one of their own. I am throwing handwritten messages into the Midwestern wind; perhaps one of them will be discovered by another survivor. Perhaps that person will be my friend, or at least give me a job. The sun continues to move across the sky, though for what reason I could not say.
↓ Transcript
Caera: Immortal.
Lola: Yes, the new hormone system can be a rush. Don't let it go to your head. I brought you a present. I heard you preferred the dao sword, but the jian was easier for our boys in the prototype shop.
Caera: It's perfect.
Lola: That oil on the blade is GM neurotoxin. There's a reservoir in the hilt. One touch of that blade will kill any normal person. It's harmless to Genocide Men, of course.
Caera: That's all right. When next I meet Jacob Doe, I'll carve the flesh from his bones.
Lola: Hmmn. You shouldn't judge Jacob too harshly. We wouldn't have gotten through the 21st century without men like him.
Lola: Yes, the new hormone system can be a rush. Don't let it go to your head. I brought you a present. I heard you preferred the dao sword, but the jian was easier for our boys in the prototype shop.
Caera: It's perfect.
Lola: That oil on the blade is GM neurotoxin. There's a reservoir in the hilt. One touch of that blade will kill any normal person. It's harmless to Genocide Men, of course.
Caera: That's all right. When next I meet Jacob Doe, I'll carve the flesh from his bones.
Lola: Hmmn. You shouldn't judge Jacob too harshly. We wouldn't have gotten through the 21st century without men like him.
Reading your entry, I can see the tumbleweeds rolling through the streets…
For a person from Europe it’s quite strange what’s happening in the USA right now. It’s like a banana republic!
I knew it. Blank eyes. Sigh. Perhaps I can learn to live with them.
Dont worry, like Jacob, the shut down…ahem, slimdown is for the good of humanity! Either that or a trillion trillion dinars for a loaf of bread…(the eurabian mindset)
Huh, my bet was that the eyes become “blank” as atrocities are committed.
James, remember that we’re getting a new artist soon. I’ve seen Michael’s first pages with Caera, and I love how he draws her.
I like how you drew her in this page. 🙂
Immortality – The obsession of world leaders in every canon’s universe? First impressions from reading this comic is that an worldwide authoritarian state (hegemony, technically?) finally gains almost full control of the population. I wasn’t shocked that in order to prevent rogue inventors (‘hackers’ used in this story) from killing 100’s of millions, the GM faction inevitably killed billions. Not only that, but in a Shield of Time-style manner, they prevent an entire possible future by killing off GM mutants. 😉 Hmm, first GM=Genocide man, second GM=Genetically-modified. I see what you did there!
BTW: This comic reminds me of Antibunny. Both are what some would call ‘dark’ or ‘cr**sack world’. It’s hard for someone in it not to be dragged into the moral hazard or be obliterated by those that already have.
‘Crapsack world’ is a term that’s hard to define because it’s so subjective. If you’re a normal human being, the world of Genocide Man isn’t so bad. No overpopulation, no wars, no food shortages, great medical technology. It’s only if you’re genetically abnormal (or standing in the same city as someone who is) that you have problems. 🙂
“Meet the new Joey…same as the old Joey…”
only easier on the eyes.
“We’re sending you after a genocide man with a weapon that kills anybody BUT him.” Deep thinkers, this bunch?
Remus, Oh, I’m not fanatical about the eyes. But I had to say something. Looking forward to your new artist’s expression.
Sonja: The shutdown is just the first step in the resolution of a domestic problem. p.s. there’s more than one definition for ‘domestic.’
That diary entry has some artistic value to it, Remus. I like it, if not its reason to be.
Ah! The “eyes”…
Little Orphan Annie:
“The Bad Guys…they NEVER take a vacation, do they, Daddy Warbuck?”
http://i.imgur.com/whoXwdN.jpg
“Never! And THAT’S the Reason OUR side can’t afford to relax for even a MINUTE!!!”
It was pretty crapsack for the countries that had a GM die within their borders, hehe. Of course, that kind of mess happens IRL as well when you have such humungous powers in one small group. Think of the accident with lithium ‘dosing’ of H-bombs. Gee, whoever would have thought that lithium would be ever-so-happy to donate a ‘few’ extra energetic particles to the system? Of course, they had the excuse that it was the first generation after just inventing the heavy-element nuclear bombs. Nowadays, even basic computer simulations would have shown just much more powerful it was, and we wouldn’t have accidentally ruined those people’s homes. I wonder when the comic will get to the problem of MADD with … well don’t want to spoil it in case the author goes that route. Strangelove this ain’t, so never know. 😉
To be honest, I was thinking more along the lines of living through the Russian reprisals in Germany or something like that. Also, during the German occupation a few years earlier, it was ironically enough the other French that you had to worry about. O_o The example of people getting hands cut off for having the nerve to vote, is another disturbing one from real life.
OK, so words for people looking up more background on the concepts presented about the AI’s: diahuman hypohuman epihuman hyperhuman parahuman allohuman
Most references insist on the possibility of a singularity(or at least an overwhelming increase in the rate of change) but since someone bothered to define those words already, might as well have them in our vocabulary. I figure it’s kind of dry language to be in the actual comic, even for Sci-Fi. You could spend a year’s updates defining all the technical terms this comic covers. The story’s canon about super AI’s probably will prove to be not far off the mark, in the real world. However, AI’s that are just really, really good at playing chess or driving cars aren’t exactly beyond belief. A simple AI that only has one purpose would not suffer from the insanity/scaling issues. My worry is if someone finds a way to repurpose our own infrastructure against us. You don’t need sentience in order to sabotage a system from the inside.
Oh, funny/sad quote from the first result on those words: “the only thing we have to worry about is that there will be human idiots putting their AI idiots in charge of things they both don’t understand. “