Ahh, the heady days of the Commodore 64 and its 1541 disk drive, where a poorly engineered head mechanism resulted in a sound not unlike dropping a television remote into a blender whenever I loaded up ‘Impossible Mission’.
I’m another who totally missed it. Pax, you’re showing your age, which apparently is about the same as mine – I was 14 when I got my C64 too. My memories of working with the old TRS-80 Model 1 a couple of years later are more clear.
I suspect it too. Just for the purpose of covering all bases, what are non-superpower ways Ron could be successful?
1. Chance – As the robot carnie said. It can happen. However, would a normal person resorting to chance behave like Ron did, blithely choosing to gamble their winnings further?
2. Technology – X-ray ability in his glasses, a handheld computer tracking the carnie’s hand, etc.
3. (Anything else?)
Since his FISS abilities before were actually just a holdover from his father, and not actually his powers, maybe he trained up his actual senses to use them. So his reaction time, and kinetic vision weren’t affected, much, when he got depowered.
“1. Chance – As the robot carnie said. It can happen. However, would a normal person resorting to chance behave like Ron did, blithely choosing to gamble their winnings further?”
Sadly, yes. Casinos and racetracks are wealthy in large part because people often don’t know when to stop.
Assuming there’s not more tests that were off-panel to conserve space, there’s also the speed of the answer. He doesn’t hem and haw and act like he’s trying to guess it or work it out from psychology. He just points right at it and says “That one”. So that could also be a factor the robot is taking into account.
Well, there’s also the fact that precognition was foreshadowed in the last strip, which would lend some weight to that being the power in question. In any case, it’s going to be interesting to see what Ron ends up doing… although I’ll honestly be a bit sad for him if he doesn’t end up being able to fly again.
Close. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm. It doesn’t specify physical harm, though — as even Asimov’s stories pointed out, *any* form of injury, physical, emotional, financial, etc., counts for purposes of the law. (In one story, they made a robot empathic — it seized when, in order to avoid causing emotional harm, it told everyone what they wanted to hear, leading to a massive emotional pileup, and thus injury.) Thus, making the game too hard to win counts as “injury” for the purpose of the law.
And as Wanderer and Lex mentioned, there are many things which may constitute “harm”. So many, in fact, that (especially when factored in with what constitutes “Human”) that I am sure that any self-contained robot that can reliably implement the Three Laws in real-time is necessarily sapient, and therefore the Three Laws themselves violate the Thirteenth Amendment. ^_^
/end rant
A strict reading of the first law that harms someone with the shell game? Unikely. I wonder if he’s justifying small harm gambling with zeroth law of protecting humanity for/from supers…
I am currently thinking that the trick with the knock em out id that they all welded together and to the table, but that seems way to simple a trick, also rather boring as then it just becomes brute strength to win. Same for if the robot can move fast to place its hand between the bottles and the ball fast.
also I wonder if there is a forcefield or something to detect is a kid with speed powers is not just jumping over and knocking them down and jumping back again right after throwing the ball.
(or it could be able to change the mass of the ball in flight making it unable to knock the bottles down, man there are so many possibilities)
Welded (needs super strength). Super-heavy bottles (needs super strength). Variable gravity and/or EM fields to give targeting difficulties (needs super dexterity / precog). Displacement illusions (needs super senses). Restacking bottles (needs super speed to finish before restacking). Many other possibilities.
Spacial discontinuity/folding? With the inside of the booth and the outside being in different places at once, the transition time might introduce a targeting error. Or there might be a hologram effect layered over the fold, meaning you would literally be aiming at something you couldn’t see accurately.
I want to see Prospero use his ping pong gun, fail, and then Angela use her backpack throwing arm to win Prospero a stuffed toy. Or them both winning and then swapping toys.
So, the carny-bot runs on Commodore hardware? Interesting.
Oh, my, GODS … I didn’t even pick up on that “,8,1” bit until your post.
Talk about a stroll down amnesia lane … my first computer was a C64 … I was all of fourteen … dang, that was a looooong time ago. 😀
Hah!
You’re right!
I didn’t pick up on that either!
Ahh, the heady days of the Commodore 64 and its 1541 disk drive, where a poorly engineered head mechanism resulted in a sound not unlike dropping a television remote into a blender whenever I loaded up ‘Impossible Mission’.
I’m another who totally missed it. Pax, you’re showing your age, which apparently is about the same as mine – I was 14 when I got my C64 too. My memories of working with the old TRS-80 Model 1 a couple of years later are more clear.
Yay! Angie! And Prospero! Though I’m not sure what happened between the final and penultimate panels.
What happened is that we switched what we were looking at.
Angela and Prospero! ^_^ Long time, no see.
Who’s willing to translate Prospero, though….?
Might we be seeing Ron’s new power in effect….?
I suspect it too. Just for the purpose of covering all bases, what are non-superpower ways Ron could be successful?
1. Chance – As the robot carnie said. It can happen. However, would a normal person resorting to chance behave like Ron did, blithely choosing to gamble their winnings further?
2. Technology – X-ray ability in his glasses, a handheld computer tracking the carnie’s hand, etc.
3. (Anything else?)
Ability to slow time around him so he can keep track easier?
Non-superpower. We’re trying to eliminate the possibility Ron’s powers haven’t surfaced yet.
ESP?
And this is to pad my comment so that it is not too short.
Same comment as to Legbreaker’s. If you’re not a metahuman, how could you win in a game like this?
Or he’s really smart or good at following fast moving objects…?
3. The carnie is cheating in Ron’s favor.
That’s not my preferred answer, but it’s not something I feel can be ruled out.
Since his FISS abilities before were actually just a holdover from his father, and not actually his powers, maybe he trained up his actual senses to use them. So his reaction time, and kinetic vision weren’t affected, much, when he got depowered.
“1. Chance – As the robot carnie said. It can happen. However, would a normal person resorting to chance behave like Ron did, blithely choosing to gamble their winnings further?”
Sadly, yes. Casinos and racetracks are wealthy in large part because people often don’t know when to stop.
Luck power? Probability manipulation like Domino or Black Cat?
On the one hand, so far that’s only 1 in 16; on the other hand, this is a story… on the balance, you are probably right.
Assuming there’s not more tests that were off-panel to conserve space, there’s also the speed of the answer. He doesn’t hem and haw and act like he’s trying to guess it or work it out from psychology. He just points right at it and says “That one”. So that could also be a factor the robot is taking into account.
Either that or Angela figured out the way to win is to reprogram all the carnibots
Well, there’s also the fact that precognition was foreshadowed in the last strip, which would lend some weight to that being the power in question. In any case, it’s going to be interesting to see what Ron ends up doing… although I’ll honestly be a bit sad for him if he doesn’t end up being able to fly again.
Disappointed? Me too…
It certainly sounds like they’re having a good time. 🙂
Uhm guys? Isn’t the first law of robotics no robot may harm or allow a human to come to harm?
I was wondering if anyone would comment on that. XD
Tyler may want to step back if the Robot is going to start creating sonic Booms with its cup moving.
Oh, never mind I missed that he was breaking out the extra cups.
Close. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm. It doesn’t specify physical harm, though — as even Asimov’s stories pointed out, *any* form of injury, physical, emotional, financial, etc., counts for purposes of the law. (In one story, they made a robot empathic — it seized when, in order to avoid causing emotional harm, it told everyone what they wanted to hear, leading to a massive emotional pileup, and thus injury.) Thus, making the game too hard to win counts as “injury” for the purpose of the law.
“Liar” that’s The story You mentioned.
Thank you! 🙂 It had been a long time since I last read it.
Yes, but he gave them a disclaimer, so it’s all good.
And as Wanderer and Lex mentioned, there are many things which may constitute “harm”. So many, in fact, that (especially when factored in with what constitutes “Human”) that I am sure that any self-contained robot that can reliably implement the Three Laws in real-time is necessarily sapient, and therefore the Three Laws themselves violate the Thirteenth Amendment. ^_^
/end rant
A strict reading of the first law that harms someone with the shell game? Unikely. I wonder if he’s justifying small harm gambling with zeroth law of protecting humanity for/from supers…
Of course Angela and Prospero would be here. Who else would want to come to a slumber party where there are robots and cool devices.
I am currently thinking that the trick with the knock em out id that they all welded together and to the table, but that seems way to simple a trick, also rather boring as then it just becomes brute strength to win. Same for if the robot can move fast to place its hand between the bottles and the ball fast.
also I wonder if there is a forcefield or something to detect is a kid with speed powers is not just jumping over and knocking them down and jumping back again right after throwing the ball.
(or it could be able to change the mass of the ball in flight making it unable to knock the bottles down, man there are so many possibilities)
Welded (needs super strength). Super-heavy bottles (needs super strength). Variable gravity and/or EM fields to give targeting difficulties (needs super dexterity / precog). Displacement illusions (needs super senses). Restacking bottles (needs super speed to finish before restacking). Many other possibilities.
Spacial discontinuity/folding? With the inside of the booth and the outside being in different places at once, the transition time might introduce a targeting error. Or there might be a hologram effect layered over the fold, meaning you would literally be aiming at something you couldn’t see accurately.
I want to see Prospero use his ping pong gun, fail, and then Angela use her backpack throwing arm to win Prospero a stuffed toy. Or them both winning and then swapping toys.
Or the always popular pick up the robot running the game and throw him at the bottles to knock them down.