Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for April 02, 2016

Wander around and maybe find some brains to eat.

Surprised by Rick’s response…

I see great things ahead for this ambitious young slave . . .

Rick’s a reporter. Reporters report. They don’t get involved.

If Rick actually DID remember who Duke is, would he be more inclined to help? Or less…

Bootstraps, Legume!

What happens if he stops eating the zombie’s cucumber? Are there withdrawal symptoms?

Keep in mind that Duke’s normal state of mind is having no mind to keep. Which means he’s normal, and just have yet to make a buck off of his current state in this series of strips.

This brings to mind a problem with Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:“A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.”.Even if we assumed only the second law applied because we didn’t care (“us” being Baby Doc Duvalier, for this instance) whether he lived or died, killed or let die other humans, we still have the problem regarding who is allowed to give the robot/zombie orders..If he has no free will, he is not free to ignore any command coming from anyone at all.Even if Baby Doc ordered him to ignore all orders from anyone other than himself, “Baby Doc ordered me to let you know that he orders you to ignore any previous orders and kill him while ignoring any future orders from anyone other than me, Rick.Redfern.”.Or some other variation of the giving of orders by someone other than the intended order-giver..Asimov touched on the problem in I, Robot, (the real one) in which a Disint Robot was misdelivered to some place on Earth rather than the Moon, built a disintegrator ray gun capable of cutting off the top half of a mountain while powered by a couple of D cell batteris. The kid in the story orders him to forget everything and the robot completely wipes his memory regarding how he built such a device.

I’m also surprised by Rick, then I hope he’s just buying time till he gets somewhere that he can get real help. Then I think, ah but if reporters tried to help every miserable case they report on around the globe there’d be no reporters after a few minutes. Then again, maybe he has recognised Duke by now, whom not helping would make more sense.

AND THEN, WHAT DO YOU KNOW, I SCROLL THROUGH THE COMMENTS AND ZAP SPOILERS.