Comment:

To be clear, yes, we're still in real time, Lee and Zoa just changed clothes and the lights in the bedroom are comfortably dimmed. Lee changed clothes because they'd been sweating and their pant legs were damp and crusty (and because, when you're constantly dissatisfied with your appearance and don't have to worry about laundry, why not change your clothes multiple times per day?). Zoa changed clothes because it has access to Lee's wardrobe now, and wanted to try out a different look.

We've stayed away from our comic's main protagonists for entirely too long (although, again, it's only been 29 minutes). Let's get back to the main plot, shall we?

Transcript:

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0414– 2167/07/07/12:19 - Rosenthal College, Delta building, classroom 0109
JB: Well, like I told you, Mezzer Paratta, we’re not going to be talking about “AI rights” or anything “controversial” in my class.
HA: Other than what we just did.
JB: Other than that, yes. If you’d like to discuss the subject in any kind of detail, there are no shortage of venues for education and debate.
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CP: R-r-right. Sorry.
JB: It’s okay, I’m sure I’ll have to remind all of the students at one point or another during this class. It’s a natural topic for discussion to veer into. Heck, I’m going off of a pre-written lesson plan, and I still find myself falling into talking about it.
CP: Well, like you said, a lot of early AI development anthropomorphized their p-product and relied on users developing emotional c-c-connections. These Groks are definitely using colloquial and p-personal language. Comparisons to things like the slave trade are… are unavoidable.
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JB: Modern life relies on modern computing, and if we treated every taxi or cleaner like an employee, both our economy and our society would be untenable. There’s a reason that anti-impersonation laws are so stringently enforced, and why we’re all trained from early childhood not to treat AIs like people or get too emotionally attached to them.
JB: Who knows what kind of societal damage would be unleashed, if someone with a poor enough grasp on social interaction ever encountered a robot that presented like an attractive and persuasive human?
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[Lee Caldavera's apartment, bedroom]
LC: ...but this is what I’m saying! If more people could have philosophical conversations with AIs like Zoa, they’d see that modern AIs are more than capable of grappling with deep concepts like existentialism in a meaningful way! And isn’t that what being a person is all about?
Doc: I would caution you against defining personhood by one’s mastery of a subject you have been studying for a grand total of two days, Lee.
Zoa: Also, I really don’t want to have to go door to door selling existentialism lectures, it’s hard enough getting people to pay for blowjobs...
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