Hellions #8: The Grinning Neonate

[superboyprime]

Comments

[leahandillyana]

Neonate is such a strange word.

[beyondthefringe]

Neonate would be a great code name for young Cable if he and old Cable ever have to spend time together.

[donnblake]

Oh that Nanny. She sure does steal babies.

[dcbanacek]

Gotta catch em all!

[crinos]

Now I want her to get into a fight with Krybb, the Sinestro corp member who kidnaps the children of GL's she murderers and stores them in her back.

[crinos]

So... The Krakoa council just signed off on committing Genocide here right?

Like.... Magneto signed off on this.

I mean, I know that the X-men have had some bad experience with mutant hunting robots gaining sentience, but still.

[donnblake]

There's a double ambiguity here- one is the ongoing issue that Marvel comics as a whole don't consistently weigh machine intelligences the same as the fleshy kind, so heroes who would be squeamish about taking human life can carve up bots with abandon.

The other is that the Hesiod Protocol as laid down in this issue calls for the monitoring and reporting of actively or potentially self-aware anti-mutant artificial intelligences and the development of of 'targeted viruses to render malignant code inert.' There's a step between that and Psylocke's declaration of "No AI may flourish under our watch." And it's not clear that Psylocke was aware they were in the process of evolving away from being anti-mutant murderbots.

That said, there's a sense that certain parts of Krakoa are concerned with mutant rights less in the sense of human rights, and more in the sense of Mutantkind's 'rightful' destiny as inheritors of the world, and that self-evolving AIs are their most likely peer competitors for that status which... bears watching.

[mindsweeper]

Yes, I read it as Psylocke was elsewhere, unaware Havok was having a moment with the robots.

I don't think that Mutants fear anti-Mutant AI as competitors. It really is that they're destroyers. Anti-Mutant robots wipe out most of Mutants (and homo sapiens) every time, even if the manufactured homo novissima end up as the last ones standing. It's the AI that allows that to happen. Orchis' data shows that Mutants will become dominant if things move forward naturally. That's why Orchis is hell-bent on introducing an external threat to kill all Mutants.

[themajesticmoose]

Exactly.

Mutantkind didn't just decide to do this on a whim, they're doing it to protect their entire people and culture from genocide. ACTUAL genocide, of actual flesh and blood living beings...

Which is what genocide is. Not destroying talking tin cans with emojis painted on them

[arilou_skiff]

Not the first time Magneto has signed off on attempting genocide. He doesent LIKE it, but if he thinks he has to choose between mutants and some other group....

[lordultimus]

Honest question: has Magneto shown before that he considers machines "people"?

[arilou_skiff]

Hmmm, I don't know. How did he feel about his daughter marrying one?

[zachbeacon]

And wasn't Warlock one of his students?

[crinos]

Hell, Warlock is on Krakoa right now.

I hope he and Doug don't find out about this.

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, but he's hiding in plain sight ... presumably because they're afraid of this exact thing.

Pissing off the guy who can talk to the new mutant homeland seems like a really bad call.

[icon_uk]

Warlock is currently separate from Doug and working with the New Mutants, so he's no longer hiding.

Once we get into the realm of technorganics, the line between "AI" and just plain "I" starts to get really shaky too.

[themajesticmoose]

Krakoa doesn't have a problem with AI as a whole. Just AI that was created with an anti-mutant purpose.

[crinos]

You know that's a good point. I kind of forgot that part of Magneto's character when he's at his most villainous.

[arilou_skiff]

I'd argue that's not even Magneto at his most villainous, but rather somewhere in the middle, at his most villainous he is the raving madman going "KILL THE X-MEN! KILL THE X-MEN!"

[crinos]

Yeah I guess Magneto at his worst is "I AM MAGNETO MASTER OF MAGNETS."

[donnblake]

The sight of that no parking sign offends me! And whatever offends Magneto, must be destroyed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkc_Myyye20

[crinos]

Considering that story ends with Reed freaking Magneto out with a wooden gun, I like to this that took place during Erik's lost weekend phase and he was high off his ass the whole time.

"Hey that was the style of the time you know? Do a shit ton of coke, then get in your flying metal car and go fuck with the Fantastic Four for a few days."

[themajesticmoose]

Destroying machines isn't genocide. These things aren't a species, they're toasters with a bad attitude

They did not commit genocide, they destroyed an AI construct that was a threat to mutantkind. It's no different to the countless times the Avengers have tried to destroy Ultron and his creations or the many times in the past when the X-men have blown up the sentinels

Mutantkind has every right to protect itself from cybernetic monsters created with the sole purpose of wiping their people out. They know for a fact that if anti-mutant AI is allowed to exist it will inevitably lead to mutantkinds extinction. They're not going to allow that to happen and I'm with them on that all the way

Put it this way: I'm gay. If someone created an AI that was designed with the purpose of killing LGBTQ people I'd have absolutely no moral problem with wiping out that AI and I wouldn't feel a shred of guilt over doing so.

[laughing_tree]

John Byrne? Is that you?

[angry_marmot]

This iteration of Magneto has been saying the quiet part aloud for some time now. Home superior eugenics under a different, more pious name.

[zachbeacon]

Alex's whole life is just that Simpsons meme where Bart throws out the "You Tried" cake, isn't it?

[themajesticmoose]

I find it kind of baffling that people have any problem with mutantkind doing this. They made the right call. Any AI that is a potential threat to mutantkinds survival absolutely should be wiped out.

Just like how if in real life an AI came online that threatened humanity we would destroy it. There's literally dozens of movies and books (Including a hugely popular multi-million dollar movie, video game and tv franchise) based around the concept of "Human heroes work to wipe out an AI that is a threat to humankind"

I am absolutely on mutantkinds side on this one. Their survival and safety is more important than whether a bunch of racist iPhones built by some bigoted freak get to beep boop for another day

[donnblake]

I don't think it's that simple. Certainly Krakoan policy doesn't- self-awareness is explicitly one of the criteria they're wary of. If these AIs are self-aware, thinking entities, then devaluing their lives simply because they represent a different form of life is... what's the underlying metaphor of the X-men books again?

(Psylocke herself makes the point that she considers they're alive).

That said, they *are* a different form of life, and part of that is that it's reasonable to consider every individual as an enemy combatant- as far as the information Psylocke had at that moment, I don't think her decisions were unreasonable, but I do think the outcome was and was written to be viewed as a tragedy.

As far as the intent of their design, I would argue that matters only insofar as it would be acceptable to execute someone because they're parents had attempted to teach them racist views, despite the fact that they'd actively rejected those views.