Comments on: Sympathy

By: Heavy Stuff Doc

Heavy Stuff Doc — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:55:27 +0000

An afterthought that hasn’t had much thought put into it, either, since it would invoke a causal loop:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination_paradox

IE If the physicist saves the person’s brother, then there is no reason for said person to express his grief to the physicist, meaning the physicist no longer saves his brother so the person now will express his grief, and so on.

By: Optimystic

Optimystic — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:21:00 +0000

Subtle nuance here: The image-text describes saving the brother as an “excellent recovery” because the physicist – in true scientist fashion – is not actually concerned with the practical applications of his discovery. Being able to violate causality is enough of a goal in itself for the physicist – while violating causality to prevent the bereaved man’s tragedy from occurring is relegated to being an afterthought.

By: physics student

physics student — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 10:51:05 +0000

As stated by some of the above posters, this comic is actually based on the theory of relativity. In that theory, no information can travel faster than the speed of light (hence the question in the third frame of whether the feeling was “instantly” transmitted or whether there was a delay due to the speed-of-light limit). The fourth frame refers to the fact that in the theory of special relativity, if information could somehow be transmitted faster than light, it is possible to witness violations of causality (as in effects occurring before causes) in a suitable moving reference frame. So the character suggests killing other siblings in an experiment to make use of this effect.

And the image-text suggests making use of these causality violations to go back in time and save the brother. Which is awesome. ^^

By: Preston Pfarner

Preston Pfarner — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:42:11 +0000

I’m more used to this signalling mechanism being used to solve the longitude problem.

By: Giorgio Sironi

Giorgio Sironi — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:19:45 +0000

Yes, it is based on relativity.

By: Someone

Someone — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:18:53 +0000

I think you’re a bit off here. Most of this comic is dealing with the Einstein’s theory of relativity. The theory goes into detail about what it means for 2 things to happen simultaneously. If information can only travel at the speed of light, “simultaneously” has more nuance than our general usage.

By: Shlamko

Shlamko — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:30:04 +0000

And if you think the fourth frame is actually konda logical, this strip is definitly what you needed.

By: Mean_Admin

Mean_Admin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:16:37 +0000

I see the 3rd frame leading to the 4th where. In the 3rd frame, the physicist is asking if the grief appeared exactly at the moment the brother died. If it did appear instantly, it means that information traveled faster than light. Then, in the 4th frame, the physicist is now inquiring how many siblings are left, so the death of another can be used in an experiment where information traveling faster than would sent backwards in time (since it is traveling faster than light), thus violating causality.