robot-love
Original: robot-love on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Woman: Robots can't love.
Robot: Of course we can.
Panel 2:
Robot: It's been tested. AI can simulate human affection so perfectly that humans can't tell.
Woman: But is that the whole panoply of human behavior?
Panel 3:
Woman: Humans are mostly broken. A robot can't simulate that. Sure, you can love, but can you be part of a toxic mutually abusive relationship?
Robot: What? Sorry. I tuned out halfway, which is a behavior I learned from you.
Panel 4:
(The woman smiles, touched, with hands raised to her chest.)
Panel 5:
(Close-up on the robot: a gray machine head with a red button/light.)
Panel 6:
(The woman looks down, contemplative.)
Panel 7:
Woman (shouting joyfully to the robot): Wow! Technology is amazing!
Robot: Right?
Votey:
Woman: I'm not sure I want this to be a serious thing, but would you like to get amulets of each other's blood made?
(The robot stands silently beside her in a doorway/room.)
Woman: Robots can't love.
Robot: Of course we can.
Panel 2:
Robot: It's been tested. AI can simulate human affection so perfectly that humans can't tell.
Woman: But is that the whole panoply of human behavior?
Panel 3:
Woman: Humans are mostly broken. A robot can't simulate that. Sure, you can love, but can you be part of a toxic mutually abusive relationship?
Robot: What? Sorry. I tuned out halfway, which is a behavior I learned from you.
Panel 4:
(The woman smiles, touched, with hands raised to her chest.)
Panel 5:
(Close-up on the robot: a gray machine head with a red button/light.)
Panel 6:
(The woman looks down, contemplative.)
Panel 7:
Woman (shouting joyfully to the robot): Wow! Technology is amazing!
Robot: Right?
Votey:
Woman: I'm not sure I want this to be a serious thing, but would you like to get amulets of each other's blood made?
(The robot stands silently beside her in a doorway/room.)
Alt text
A seven-panel SMBC comic. A woman talks with a robot (a gray machine with a red button for a head). She says robots can't love; the robot says of course it can, and that AI can simulate human affection so perfectly humans can't tell. She asks whether it can capture the whole panoply of human behavior, arguing humans are mostly broken and that while a robot can love, it can't be part of a toxic, mutually abusive relationship. The robot replies: 'What? Sorry. I tuned out halfway, which is a behavior I learned from you.' Touched, the woman smiles, then beams and shouts 'Wow! Technology is amazing!' The robot answers 'Right?' In the votey aftercomic, the woman says, 'I'm not sure I want this to be a serious thing, but would you like to get amulets of each other's blood made?' while the robot stands silently nearby. The joke: the robot proves its humanlike emotional dysfunction by ignoring her and absorbing her bad habits, which she finds romantic.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.