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Schlock Mercenary

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AlphaDelta

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Schlock Mercenary (First Strip/Recommended Start)

Schlock Mercenary is a comedic space opera webcomic written by Howard Tayler. It's about technology and its ripples, the mysteries of the galaxy, and the ties that connect people. It's the source of the Seventy Maxims for Maximally Effective Mercenaries, including the wonderful Maxim 14. It is, in my humble opinion, one of the best webcomics and one of the best works of science fiction this side of the year 2000.

In honor of Schlock Mercenary hitting Book 20, and reaching the start of the end, here's a new thread for Schlock Mercenary discussion.

Maxim 14: "Mad Science" means never stopping to ask "what's the worst thing that could happen?"
 
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2019-06-16 — Book 20 Prologue: Back to the Beginning
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    • Sunday 16 June 2019
    Okay, so the title is Sergeant in Motion. The obvious reference is pointed out in the subtitle: "Maxim 2: A sergeant in motion outranks a lieutenant who doesn't know what's going on."

    This, to me, implies that one theme will be decisive action. There is no time for thinking or prolonged science, only for acting, and Schlock is a key player here, as the most notable one with the correct stripes.

    The Prologue itself is called "Time for a Brief History". This brings to mind Hawking's A Brief History of Time, and the big bang implies that we're looking at cosmology.
     
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    • I'm interested to see how Taylor brings this in to a landing.

    Schlock Mercenary has, I think, gotten past its prime. I'm still reading it every day, but it drifts around a lot playing with high-concept sci-fi and not really telling very coherent stories any more. Or, when it does tell a coherent story, there's no reason for that story to involve any of the characters we've been following for years.

    Like, the universe there has pretty much gone all-in on the idea that superhuman AIs are common and better at any quantifiable task than anybody who is not a superhuman AI, plus you can make a software copy of anyone who is not already a superhuman AI and treat it like it's the same person. But then, what are a small group of wisecracking mercenaries doing? What problem can they solve that wouldn't already be fixed by their superhuman AI best friends? You either shrink it down to stuff that matters personally to them, but not to anybody else, which Taylor has been reluctant to do, or you pretty much just have them sitting around telling jokes while Petey fixes things, as we've seen a lot.
     
    Phigment said:
    Like, the universe there has pretty much gone all-in on the idea that superhuman AIs are common and better at any quantifiable task than anybody who is not a superhuman AI, plus you can make a software copy of anyone who is not already a superhuman AI and treat it like it's the same person. But then, what are a small group of wisecracking mercenaries doing? What problem can they solve that wouldn't already be fixed by their superhuman AI best friends? You either shrink it down to stuff that matters personally to them, but not to anybody else, which Taylor has been reluctant to do, or you pretty much just have them sitting around telling jokes while Petey fixes things, as we've seen a lot.
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    This is a theme that Tayler is exploring.

    Take, for instance, the end of Random Access Memorabilia, and the start of Broken Wind. The Toughs end up quitting retirement because they need something to do. Perhaps they didn't handle it in the most effective way, but they did handle it.

    What's interesting to me is the All-Star and the galactic escape ships. What do they do inside? There's obviously the engineers (including the strategic engineers).

    Thurl found a purpose as the Speaker to the Dead. Kevyn will continue to science with Elf. I seriously doubt the universe heads towards, say, mass-simulation. Still, the deathless utopian frontier must be explored.
     
    The mention of ripples certainly suggests that we're going to get some Dark Matter Entity lore - and hopefully find out what the heck is up with them being so hostile to regular matter-based life.
     
    2019-06-18 — Universe-chan's Explosive Debut!
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    • Tuesday 18 June 2019

    PenCray-Phoenix said:
    The mention of ripples certainly suggests that we're going to get some Dark Matter Entity lore - and hopefully find out what the heck is up with them being so hostile to regular matter-based life.
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    DaME-chan just wants a hug :(

    In all seriousness, I'm now very suspicious as to why Howard's suddenly anthropomorphized the universe.

    Woo! First migrant!
    I swear, I'm going to get rid of the delay on these threadmarks... probably around Saturday, when I'm (hopefully) not getting dragged around.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Hello! I have moved over from the Nightstar Zoo.

    Phigment said:
    I'm interested to see how Taylor brings this in to a landing.

    Schlock Mercenary has, I think, gotten past its prime. I'm still reading it every day, but it drifts around a lot playing with high-concept sci-fi and not really telling very coherent stories any more. Or, when it does tell a coherent story, there's no reason for that story to involve any of the characters we've been following for years.

    Like, the universe there has pretty much gone all-in on the idea that superhuman AIs are common and better at any quantifiable task than anybody who is not a superhuman AI, plus you can make a software copy of anyone who is not already a superhuman AI and treat it like it's the same person. But then, what are a small group of wisecracking mercenaries doing? What problem can they solve that wouldn't already be fixed by their superhuman AI best friends? You either shrink it down to stuff that matters personally to them, but not to anybody else, which Taylor has been reluctant to do, or you pretty much just have them sitting around telling jokes while Petey fixes things, as we've seen a lot.
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    I think Taylor is aware of all these issues, and is looking to do a "reboot" of his storyline. I'm betting that is what is motivating him to "end" Schlock Mercenary: the current cast and premise no longer fits the universe he has created, and he wants to write stories that are more in the style of Ian Bank's Culture series.
     
    I'm pretty sure I know how Tagon and co. are going to kill the Andromeda Core Gun.
    Schlock's eye-tree is infested with one of the last batches of original-recipe unfettered Laz-R-Us nanites, holding Hob's mind. They're stealthy, self-replicating, and so adaptable they can't be stopped by much of anything but high-power gravy Wednesday 21 November 2007 or incineration with anti-tank weapons. Wednesday 28 March 2007 Back on Yoming, in book 9, consumption of an entire planetary biosphere was considered a plausible outcome if such nanites were left to run wild. They can infiltrate and soften armored composites, Friday 18 May 2012 given time to work. Thursday 31 May 2012 Yes, even the opaque stuff, and even if it's specifically designed to resist nanotech. Sunday 28 October 2007

    The fact that Hob's mind specifically is involved, as implied here Wednesday 18 April 2012 and here Sunday 31 March 2002 is significant because Hob is a demolitions guy. Not only does he know how to blow stuff up, he's got a memorable level of mastery and finesse with those skills: Saturday 18 May 2002 We've seen plenty of cases where wormhole tech is prone Saturday 25 May 2019 to catastrophic failure, Sunday 28 July 2002 and where gravity-manipulation at larger scales Thursday 17 June 2004 is increasingly sensitive to small imperfections Sunday 18 March 2012 and we know Long Guns require spinning stuff around at high speeds, which makes them even more difficult to safely manage, Monday 2 March 2015 so softening the right load-bearing components at the right time should be enough to let the target's own internal energies do the rest of the work. This also naturally lends itself to a climactic sequence where the Core Gun is just about to be fired again, targeting something Petey can't afford to replace, before being destroyed at the last moment.

    I am particularly confident in this speculation because "Hob personally being resurrected" is the only non-fourth-wall-breaking part of Monday 1 April 2002 which hasn't yet been retroactively established as true with certainty.
    If counting Book 20 as the last in the series means anything at all, it's a now-or-never occasion for wrapping up such a long-held loose end.
     
    This strip Friday 14 June 2002 is actually a much better reference for the idea of wormhole tech being inherently unstable than the one from a month and a half later, but I kinda want to leave the original post unedited for bragging-rights purposes.
     
    strange_person said:
    I'm pretty sure I know how Tagon and co. are going to kill the Andromeda Core Gun.
    Schlock's eye-tree is infested with one of the last batches of original-recipe unfettered Laz-R-Us nanites, holding Hob's mind. They're stealthy, self-replicating, and so adaptable they can't be stopped by much of anything but high-power gravy Wednesday 21 November 2007 or incineration with anti-tank weapons. Wednesday 28 March 2007 Back on Yoming, in book 9, consumption of an entire planetary biosphere was considered a plausible outcome if such nanites were left to run wild. They can infiltrate and soften armored composites, Friday 18 May 2012 given time to work. Thursday 31 May 2012 Yes, even the opaque stuff, and even if it's specifically designed to resist nanotech. Sunday 28 October 2007

    The fact that Hob's mind specifically is involved, as implied here Wednesday 18 April 2012 and here Sunday 31 March 2002 is significant because Hob is a demolitions guy. Not only does he know how to blow stuff up, he's got a memorable level of mastery and finesse with those skills: Saturday 18 May 2002 We've seen plenty of cases where wormhole tech is prone Saturday 25 May 2019 to catastrophic failure, Sunday 28 July 2002 and where gravity-manipulation at larger scales Thursday 17 June 2004 is increasingly sensitive to small imperfections Sunday 18 March 2012 and we know Long Guns require spinning stuff around at high speeds, which makes them even more difficult to safely manage, Monday 2 March 2015 so softening the right load-bearing components at the right time should be enough to let the target's own internal energies do the rest of the work. This also naturally lends itself to a climactic sequence where the Core Gun is just about to be fired again, targeting something Petey can't afford to replace, before being destroyed at the last moment.

    I am particularly confident in this speculation because "Hob personally being resurrected" is the only non-fourth-wall-breaking part of Monday 1 April 2002 which hasn't yet been retroactively established as true with certainty.
    If counting Book 20 as the last in the series means anything at all, it's a now-or-never occasion for wrapping up such a long-held loose end.
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    I've personally been holding out for the comic to make good on the threat of Schlock himself. He's literally grey-(ish) goo, and we've established that he can both gain energy from and gain mass from long-chain carbon. My thought is that we're going to see him start to do what he did against the xenomorph-a-likes way, way, way back in the early days of the comic, and just, you know, not stop.
     
    Phigment said:
    I'm interested to see how Taylor brings this in to a landing.

    Schlock Mercenary has, I think, gotten past its prime. I'm still reading it every day, but it drifts around a lot playing with high-concept sci-fi and not really telling very coherent stories any more. Or, when it does tell a coherent story, there's no reason for that story to involve any of the characters we've been following for years.

    Like, the universe there has pretty much gone all-in on the idea that superhuman AIs are common and better at any quantifiable task than anybody who is not a superhuman AI, plus you can make a software copy of anyone who is not already a superhuman AI and treat it like it's the same person. But then, what are a small group of wisecracking mercenaries doing? What problem can they solve that wouldn't already be fixed by their superhuman AI best friends? You either shrink it down to stuff that matters personally to them, but not to anybody else, which Taylor has been reluctant to do, or you pretty much just have them sitting around telling jokes while Petey fixes things, as we've seen a lot.
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    Yeah I stopped reading after Petey told the Mercenaries to their face basically just that, they are no longer compatible with the story's genre. And honestly the more the story's genre shifts the less the prior worldbuilding makes sense... the Schlockverse should've been run by immortal uplifts and superintelligent AIs well prior to canon starting.
     
    The F'Sherl-Ganni gatekeepers make a whole lot less sense now, with recent discoveries.

    Like, if it's possible to copy a person's mind into a computer and run it as a simulation, why were they making physical duplicates of all those people for millenia to torture information out of? Just for funsies?
     
    Phigment said:
    The F'Sherl-Ganni gatekeepers make a whole lot less sense now, with recent discoveries.

    Like, if it's possible to copy a person's mind into a computer and run it as a simulation, why were they making physical duplicates of all those people for millenia to torture information out of? Just for funsies?
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    The Gatekeepers might not have had the technology? Isn't the implication that this sort of things is very new, at least on the level that makes it practical enmass? Disregarding the older civilizations who had the tech but weren't on the galactic scene in a way that this was known of course.
     
    So, to bring this discussion full circle over to here: Is this where we want to live going forward? One megathread? Or can we spread across several threads, even getting a sub-sub-fora in which to inhabit?

    [EDIT]
    And are threadmarks and other formatting features something that comes with time?
    [/EDIT]
     
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    I do find the Hob idea compelling, for what it's worth.

    evileeyore said:
    So, to bring this discussion full circle over to here: Is this where we want to live going forward? One megathread? Or can we spread across several threads, even getting a sub-sub-fora in which to inhabit?

    [EDIT]
    And are threadmarks and other formatting features something that comes with time?
    [/EDIT]
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    Welcome!

    I was planning on doing daily discussion prompt threadmarks, to avoid thread spam.

    Unfortunately, RL hit harder than expected, and I do not have the energy most days at update time to post.

    If someone makes a post roughly following the format I laid out, I'll threadmark it, with a witty label of your choice.

    LINK

    COMMENTARY ON DAILY STRIP
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    <Double post with responses to other posts>
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