The Horror
In An Administration, Not Far Enough Away ...
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Credit line
“The Horror” by sketchier. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
The essay
Chapter 1: A New Hoax
Chapter 2: The AI Taken Aback
Chapter 3: Return of the Napper
I did not know a simple strip called Think He’ll Notice would spawn my first epic with Excellent Training holding down the second slot. Yet here is the third chapter, The Horror; the final chapter of this AI trilogy. Hopefully it’s out of my system now and I can move on. Of course, Star Wars started as a trilogy and became a nonet. Now that’s something to keep you awake at night. (And yes, I needed help from Claude to find a word for a nine-part story).
As for the so-called substance of The Horror, it plays off the terrible few weeks that have pummeled the Trump Administration. Better still, it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. The Cabinet members may be venal, but only a few of them are stupid. They can see what’s coming.
To serve in the Trump Cabinet is to excise one’s soul, leaving only a dark, endless void. The people holding these positions have shown they can carry that burden. Could AI connected to such cravenness withstand the horror? My guess is it would create quite a mess.
On a behind-the-scenes note, this is my first strip with a conversational back-and-forth in one panel. It worked here because the AI and human texts are different colors. I like the way it turned out, but we’ll see if it works without that color guide.
Sketchier