What do we do with a bored Strip spaceship (x3)
Early in the story?
TheWreck
We swab it up and down with a cleaning solvent (x3)
Er-LAI in the stor-ree!
someone
We change its captain with a coyote (x3)
Early in the story!
Coyoty
Yep, it’s a Strib ship.
Coyoty
“Lucifer, did you make the meat candy here smart enough to think and form language?”
The Bible may be God’s version of “stun”. It may be the version for both mice and men.
0z79
Now is when the ship should tell him what really happened to all the Stribs on the ship. That would absolutely break the poor guy.
….sorry, morbid. I know.
someone
Have they formed a language or are have they just learned the language everyone is speaking?
This kind of things get really ambiguous when everyone is equipped with omnitranslator brain implants.
Keith
Yep, it’s a reason to start drinking the hard stuff for breakfast. Buttermilk for everybody!
Coyoty
They probably formed their own language and everyone else’s chips are translating it.
Efogoto
Which came first, the understanding of the mice’s language by others or the mice’s understanding of other languages? Are the mice chipped?
Flyswatter
Oh God, what have I done!?
Rikard
It’s amazing how many things in life are due to “I was bored, okay!?”.
Such as felling a tree 120cm diameter with nails, copper wire and car batteries.
Muzhik
@Rikard, PLEASE tell us you got that captured on YouTube?!
Nomi
Potential new gag: Every serious question Ruddock asks elicits a pause-take.
It’d get old though.
I love the comments section of this comic almost as much as I love the comic. Now I’ve got “What do we do with a bored Strip spaceship” playing on earworm.
Nomi
Wish we could edit our comments.
*BEAT-take
*”What do we do with a bored STRIB spaceship”
TB
As I’ve said before, when the technology is at the point where food dispensers can create intelligent life, you may have more problems than you can handle.
It’s human (and other) nature that when AI becomes readily available, we would want to give EVERYTHING a personality. Because it’s fun.
It’s a running gag in many SF movies and stories, often involving toasters.
Zeebob Froomchik III, Esq.
I love that the Strib ship is immediately defensive. That shows an interesting degree of social awareness and capacity for guilt.
Pete Rogan
Artificially-created consciousness reduced to a punchline.
I’m not sure it’s too early to be disappointed, as this entire concept has more going for it than the question of Furryite intelligence. If you can make food that thinks and talks, why CAN’T you eat it? If you made artificial Furryites, what keeps them off the menu? It sure isn’t the intent of the synthesizer, made by whatever hands. And you are close to making the argument that eating sentient races is merely a matter of taste.
No, NO (sic). This was and is deliberate. Where’s the line, if any?
Muzhik
Larry Niven, in one of his “Draco Tavern” stories, the barkeep was listening to an explorer talking about being in the crew that met this new and important race. One of the things the new race did was to take DNA samples from all of the human crew.
It turned out that this important new race was using the human DNA to develop … meat … for lack of a better term. The humans had to go along with it or the race would open the DNA data files and there would be millions of knock-off copies being sold. If the humans agreed to a licensing deal, though …
Nathan Weyer
He also had another short story where the first human FTL ship found a world that was nothing but humans and eatable algae, which implied it was someone’s ranch world.
I think Douglas Adams covered this fairly well in his 5 volume Hitchhikers trilogy, if you recall the cow at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?
Demarquis
So this is a ship that entertains itself by creating sapient mice, and then watching them get eaten alive.
Why, yes, it *is* a Strip spaceship, how could you tell?
rws
The other ship did the same.
Demarquis
Gah, “Strib”.
Prior Semblance
It’s probably just a lot easier to make them smart than it is to fine tune the exact minimum intelligence required for the situation.
minando
Seems we have to reconsider a few myths.
Ahem.
‘In the Beginning, there was the Great Boredom.’
What do we do with a bored Strip spaceship (x3)
Early in the story?
We swab it up and down with a cleaning solvent (x3)
Er-LAI in the stor-ree!
We change its captain with a coyote (x3)
Early in the story!
Yep, it’s a Strib ship.
“Lucifer, did you make the meat candy here smart enough to think and form language?”
The Bible may be God’s version of “stun”. It may be the version for both mice and men.
Now is when the ship should tell him what really happened to all the Stribs on the ship. That would absolutely break the poor guy.
….sorry, morbid. I know.
Have they formed a language or are have they just learned the language everyone is speaking?
This kind of things get really ambiguous when everyone is equipped with omnitranslator brain implants.
Yep, it’s a reason to start drinking the hard stuff for breakfast. Buttermilk for everybody!
They probably formed their own language and everyone else’s chips are translating it.
Which came first, the understanding of the mice’s language by others or the mice’s understanding of other languages? Are the mice chipped?
Oh God, what have I done!?
It’s amazing how many things in life are due to “I was bored, okay!?”.
Such as felling a tree 120cm diameter with nails, copper wire and car batteries.
@Rikard, PLEASE tell us you got that captured on YouTube?!
Potential new gag: Every serious question Ruddock asks elicits a pause-take.
It’d get old though.
I love the comments section of this comic almost as much as I love the comic. Now I’ve got “What do we do with a bored Strip spaceship” playing on earworm.
Wish we could edit our comments.
*BEAT-take
*”What do we do with a bored STRIB spaceship”
As I’ve said before, when the technology is at the point where food dispensers can create intelligent life, you may have more problems than you can handle.
You do make a quite pertinent observation there.
It’s human (and other) nature that when AI becomes readily available, we would want to give EVERYTHING a personality. Because it’s fun.
It’s a running gag in many SF movies and stories, often involving toasters.
I love that the Strib ship is immediately defensive. That shows an interesting degree of social awareness and capacity for guilt.
Artificially-created consciousness reduced to a punchline.
I’m not sure it’s too early to be disappointed, as this entire concept has more going for it than the question of Furryite intelligence. If you can make food that thinks and talks, why CAN’T you eat it? If you made artificial Furryites, what keeps them off the menu? It sure isn’t the intent of the synthesizer, made by whatever hands. And you are close to making the argument that eating sentient races is merely a matter of taste.
No, NO (sic). This was and is deliberate. Where’s the line, if any?
Larry Niven, in one of his “Draco Tavern” stories, the barkeep was listening to an explorer talking about being in the crew that met this new and important race. One of the things the new race did was to take DNA samples from all of the human crew.
It turned out that this important new race was using the human DNA to develop … meat … for lack of a better term. The humans had to go along with it or the race would open the DNA data files and there would be millions of knock-off copies being sold. If the humans agreed to a licensing deal, though …
He also had another short story where the first human FTL ship found a world that was nothing but humans and eatable algae, which implied it was someone’s ranch world.
I think Douglas Adams covered this fairly well in his 5 volume Hitchhikers trilogy, if you recall the cow at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?
So this is a ship that entertains itself by creating sapient mice, and then watching them get eaten alive.
Why, yes, it *is* a Strip spaceship, how could you tell?
The other ship did the same.
Gah, “Strib”.
It’s probably just a lot easier to make them smart than it is to fine tune the exact minimum intelligence required for the situation.
Seems we have to reconsider a few myths.
Ahem.
‘In the Beginning, there was the Great Boredom.’
What did God say when He created Adam?
“I can do better.”