I’m going to talk about Dirk Strider’s robots, because not only are they under-appreciated in the fandom as characters in themselves, but also because they give a lot of insight to Dirk’s character and the events that create him and his storyline.

First of all, I’d like to point that is chumhandle - timaeusTestified - is a direct reference to Plato’s dialogue, Timaeus, in which philosopher Plato discusses the origins of our mathematically perfect universe in great length, touching on religious, ethical, mathematical, existential (as it will later be called), and moral points. The universe, claims Plato, was created when a divine being used mathematics to control the preexisting chaos, and everything that exists now (or then, in his time), is a result of that initial “equation” that brought order to chaos.

That’s classic philosophy, however, but the mathematical aspect of creation is brought into discussion concerning more recent theories, both of which Dirk is (most likely, if his canonically self-proclaimed “philosopher prince” title is anything to go by) familiar with. John Searle’s Chinese room experiment is a philosophical thought experiment used to disprove the possibility to true (or strong) artificial intelligence, which emerged in an argument concerning the possibilities of strong vs. weak artificial intelligence in the late 60s. Debates on whether or not true artificial intelligence can actually come in to existence is still questioned today, but in Hussie’s universe, Dirk has made it so. 

Lil Hal, or AR, is an article of strong artificial intelligence, and we know this because he has the capability to infer. Computers as of today, arguably, do not have the connective intuition abilities that human brains have (which is another philosophical concept explained in detail in David Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, which I will not delve into here), and thus cannot collectively fall under the category of intelligent beings with empiricist functions. Dirk literally programmed the ability to make inferences, a distinctly human trait, into Hal - how? Who knows, but it probably has something to do with the fact that a ‘piece’ of Dirk’s own mind is inserted into Hal’s base computations, which, in our universe, is a current impossibility. However, I have a theory that Dirk translated scans of his brain function into numbers and subsequent formulae to produce those numbers, which could then be translated into binary code and inserted into a complex computer system like Hal. Dirk literally created an exact copy of his mind in its thirteen year old state, and implanted it into an A.I. program that has the ability to learn and develop because of the human ability to infer connective hypotheses and make conclusions based on a priori experience.

And all of this when he was thirteen.

I haven’t even discussed Squarewave and Sawtooth yet. Both of these bots are named after non-sinusoidal waveforms, or mathematical formulated waves of sound. By applying a sawtooth wave to an analog music synthesizer using this formula, 

one can create a perfect string instrument sound, something akin to cello or violin. This formula is used most commonly in music, but has deflective defensive properties that we see in action when Sawtooth, the larger of Dirk’s two bots, attacks the drones with his installed rocket-launchers (and most rockets, by the way, are launched and controlled using a non-sinusoidal wavelength via radio dispatch). Dirk based not one, but two entire rapping robots around formulae that conventionally link back to Timaeus and the mathematical creation of the world. Squarewave, like Sawtooth, is based on a non-sinusoidal wave that is much weaker and prone to imperfections, which explains Dirk’s canonical reference to Squarewave being one of his less successful projects. What square waves do excel at, however, is functioning as timing devices - they are highly precise when used as synchronous logic functions, interrupting other wave-producing circuits via electromagnetic radiation (which produces disruptive sound). And what, exactly, does Squarewave continue to do? In a timely manner he appears to block the reader from witnessing both initial instances in which Dirk and Roxy kissed by proclaiming YEAH DOGG!!! in a woefully disruptive fashion. 

Linking all of this to the fact that Dirk’s class as a Prince (a destructive class) is completely opposite to his nature as a creator, it was interesting to dwell upon some early theories wherein readers believed Dirk would have to face his denizen and choose between destruction of his universe and ultimate power for himself, or destruction of himself and the continuation of a mathematically perfect and theoretically immortal universe. Although these probably won’t come in to play after the Gigapause and final update, I personally think it’s really cool that everything about Dirk regarding his robots links around to him as a person who strategically creates and develops rather than mindlessly tears down and destroys. 

Of course, however, all of this bullshit comes together in the end to turn on him by ruining his relationship with Jake and ultimately causing him to be suicidal - if only he’d paid some attention to the ethical discussions in Timaeus, perhaps all of this could have been avoided.

For now I’m just gonna enjoy the fact that Dirk has wicked cool robots and is a child genius, though.