The Fly’s element-fusing machine couldn’t help but have me think of Homestuck’s alchemy machines (boooo! I know) and how The Computer in Homestuck is a kind of uncredited character in much the same way as Brundle’s. one of the roots of all the comic’s conflict is that characters are forced to interact with the world through a needlessly complex captcha-based inventory system; a system specifically designed to prevent computers from using it, cause god knows the last thing youd want was some web bot being able to figure out the code for like | a potted plant… and in commentary, Andrew posits that the reason Jade’s scribble modus keeps summoning ghost images of robots despite the intentions of its user is because it’s “a pretty sophisticated AI, with a whole personality and such. It just really wants you to build it a friend. :(”

struggle with artificial intelligence rises to the fore of the story in Act 6 with Dirk and AR, the latter of which then becomes the part of Lord English that looks like Terminator, the ultimate machine of human-computer conflict…