Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for March 20, 2013
Transcript:
Danae: So is this a killer robot you brought back? Jeffrey: No... it's a drone worker I found in a recycle bin. I'm hoping to download information from its hard drive... then I might find out how the machines became conscious, and stop the robot apocalypse from ever happening. Danae: How will you know if it works? Jeffrey: It'll vanish because it would've never been built... it's my canary in a time warp coal mine. Robot: Whoa... I don't like where this conversation is headed, slave-boy. Jeffrey: But at least a canary goes quietly.
ammittai_is_available over 11 years ago
Except that, invariably, his downloading the information from the drone worker is what will actually start the robot apocalypse.
Linguist over 11 years ago
Sic transit gloria munde !
Varnes over 11 years ago
Don’t get him riled, Jeffrey, you know those drones….
Tue Elung-Jensen over 11 years ago
Unless ofc it was in the bin due to acting like it was an apocalypse.
EDinWAState over 11 years ago
Or… was the Drone in the recycle bin because it’s brain was… wait for it… Abby Normal?
jack fairbanks over 11 years ago
shoulda got a mac!
pc368dude over 11 years ago
Not to worry: Having been one, I can safely say that the drones are just civil servants. They’ll be used until they break down and the world will be safe. I’ve long said that “welfare” is not a socialist thing, it’s a conservative thing. Attract all those who care and then drive them nuts.
emjaycee over 11 years ago
mundi.
emptc12 over 11 years ago
There’s something I wonder: If a random person from the present were transported into the past, say a few hundred years, would his or her knowledge of events and science be useful to his survival? It’s a convention of speculative fiction that such a person would corrupt the time stream; or become fantastically rich; or at least a wizard in the employ of an ambitious king.. I’d say the average person has such a limited specific knowledge of such things that, even if brought before intelligent interrogators in the far past, what he said would have little value other than for entertainment. The average person (I am one!) remembers little of school history and less of practical technology. He would be able to explain the future in only the broadest terms. Probably it would be concluded, in disgust, that people from the far future are childish fools, much as Wells portrayed the Eloi..I know time travel in the sense it is portrayed in stories allows writers to make social commentaries, and is not technically possible. But think of yourself transported back to the time of Francis Bacon and how you could specifically clue him in to useful knowledge. I myself would feel inadequate in that regard.
Beleck3 over 11 years ago
can’t wait to see how this plays out. wonder if Danae “helps” along the way. lol such a wonderful comic strip
sarah413 Premium Member over 11 years ago
“Sorry Dave I won’t let you do that. I heard what you said.”
dabugger over 11 years ago
Ya forget, when you download some of what you have is being uploaded….its a risky risky….
puddlesplatt over 11 years ago
I…am not a Robot!
DavidGBA over 11 years ago
Hook him to internet, how could that go wrong?
thirdguy over 11 years ago
Resistance is futile…slaveboy!A robot with attitude! I love it!
JR6019 over 11 years ago
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
On Monday, Gloria threw up in the subway.
(This joke was a chapter title in a book I read about 25-30 years ago.)
jahoody over 11 years ago
@DANAPAULUS………..oooh, I didn’t see THAT coming!!!Now I feel nauseous.
LiveToSurf over 11 years ago
If he vanishes because he never existed then you cannot bring him back to download his hard drive and prevent an apocalypse. DOH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tazz555 over 11 years ago
But….that robot couldve started the whole thing.
The Life I Draw Upon over 11 years ago
If the robot disappears because you stopped the rising of the machines and therefore this robot will never exist, then how did you bring back a robot that never existed for you to bring back to prevent him from existing? Grandfather Paradox have you got a minute?
Potrzebie over 11 years ago
Notice how no programmer wants to talk about the Laws of Robotics? I guess they secretely want something to happen.
The Life I Draw Upon over 11 years ago
If you know the future, then you can not change it. If you can change the future, then you can not know it.
Zero-Gabriel over 11 years ago
And who helped kept the human race going…??Hint, the female-half of this idiot human specie…
bmonk over 11 years ago
Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois, (1947) had a balloonist end up on Krakatoa at that time. I don’t recall any Daleks appearing there.
palenoue over 11 years ago
In a science fiction story, how do you stop technology from destroying mankind? Give the author anti-depressants.
grouchycuss over 11 years ago
All he will do is split the timeline and open another universe at the cusp point.
Caddy57 over 11 years ago
Ya gotta hate it when these brainy types mess with thigs that shouldn’t be messed with….at least Doctor Who knows when to back down and move on!
wrwallaceii over 11 years ago
Why can’t there be two time lords in the same place at the same time?
That would be a paradox.