https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=141.101.99.228&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T07:03:10ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:977:_Map_Projections&diff=58721Talk:977: Map Projections2014-01-27T11:37:20Z<p>141.101.99.228: </p>
<hr />
<div>I have a Plate Carrée hanging on my wall myself. Never failed me yet. '''[[User:Davidy22|<span title="I want you."><u><font color="purple" size="2px">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><sup><font color="indigo" size="1px">22</font></sup></span>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:05, 2 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Dymaxion is clearly the best. There's nothing like a map made out of an unfolded d20. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 19:43, 23 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Makes you wonder what if a dodecahedron had been used instead of an icosahedron. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 18:02, 17 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Peirce Quincuncial has 4 non-conformal points, but not the 4 corners, which are the south pole, but instead are the 4 midpoints of the sides. These are on the equator and seem to be 90 degrees apart.--DrMath 06:30, 30 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
In actual fact, the Waterman butterfly map used a truncated octahedron based upon the mathematics of close packing of spheres and is not at all based upon any of CaHill's work/math. <br />
-- steve waterman {{unsigned ip|65.92.20.61}}<br />
: I love Peirce Quincuncial, yet I slept throughout that "Inception". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.228|141.101.99.228]] 11:36, 27 January 2014 (UTC)</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:977:_Map_Projections&diff=58720Talk:977: Map Projections2014-01-27T11:36:55Z<p>141.101.99.228: </p>
<hr />
<div>I have a Plate Carrée hanging on my wall myself. Never failed me yet. '''[[User:Davidy22|<span title="I want you."><u><font color="purple" size="2px">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><sup><font color="indigo" size="1px">22</font></sup></span>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:05, 2 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Dymaxion is clearly the best. There's nothing like a map made out of an unfolded d20. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 19:43, 23 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Makes you wonder what if a dodecahedron had been used instead of an icosahedron. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 18:02, 17 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Peirce Quincuncial has 4 non-conformal points, but not the 4 corners, which are the south pole, but instead are the 4 midpoints of the sides. These are on the equator and seem to be 90 degrees apart.--DrMath 06:30, 30 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
In actual fact, the Waterman butterfly map used a truncated octahedron based upon the mathematics of close packing of spheres and is not at all based upon any of CaHill's work/math. <br />
-- steve waterman {{unsigned ip|65.92.20.61}}<br />
: I love Peirce Quincunal, yet I slept throughout that "Inception". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.228|141.101.99.228]] 11:36, 27 January 2014 (UTC)</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=887:_Future_Timeline&diff=58634887: Future Timeline2014-01-26T05:35:36Z<p>141.101.99.228: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 887<br />
| date = April 18, 2011<br />
| title = Future Timeline<br />
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]<br />
| image = future timeline.png<br />
| titletext = Not shown: the approximately 30,000 identical, vaguely hysterical articles titled "WHITE PEOPLE IN [THE US/BRITAIN] TO BECOME MINORITY BY [YEAR]!", which came up for basically any year I put in.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|almost no elaboration}}<br />
This comic uses the same strategy as comic [[715: Numbers]], in which Randall uses Google to search for phrases and then charts the results. This one is charted as a timeline, whereas 715 was charted as line graphs.<br />
<br />
"2101 - War Was Beginning" is a reference to the opening narration of video game ''Zero Wing''; the same narration is famous for the internet meme "{{w|All your base are belong to us}}". As there are not any other out and out references in the comic, and the rest are actually results that you can find if you search using Randall's methods, we're pretty sure "War Was Beginning" came up when he googled 2101 as well.<br />
<br />
Another point of this comic is that certain event, e.g. "Social Security stops running surplus", are repeated multiple times. <br />
<br />
Also, certain bizarre events, like "Apoclypse occurs", or "Flying cars reach market", happen before rather plausible things, like "HTML 5 Finished".<br />
<br />
Certain events, like "Japan is a robot-only country", maybe related to a recurring theme in xkcd comics, including [[605: Extrapolating]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:<big>'''THE FUTURE'''</big><br />
:'''According to Google search results'''<br />
:Events for each year determined by the first page of Google search results for the phrases:<br />
:{|<br />
|-<br />
|<small>"By <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"In year"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"By the year <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"In the year <year>"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"Will * by the year <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"Will * in the year <year>"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"In <year>, * will"</small><br />
|<small>"By <year>, * will"</small><br />
|}<br />
<br />
:{|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" width="50px" valign="top"|2012<br />
|World population reaches 7 billion<br />
|-<br />
|Flying cars reach market<br />
|-<br />
|Canada cuts greenhouse emissions to 6% below 1990 levels as per Kyoto<br />
|-<br />
|Apocalypse occurs<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2013<br />
|National debt paid off through President Clinton's plans<br />
|-<br />
|Microchipping of all Americans begins<br />
|-<br />
|Homelessness ended in Massachusetts<br />
|-<br />
|Health care reform law repealed<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2014<br />
|US leaves Afghanistan<br />
|-<br />
|GNU/Linux becomes dominant OS<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2015<br />
|New Horizons reaches Pluto<br />
|-<br />
|Health care law causes hyperinflation<br />
|-<br />
|192 UN member nations achieve millennium development goals:<br />
*Extreme poverty and hunger eradicated<br />
*Universal primary education implemented<br />
*Women empowered, gender equality reached<br />
*Environmental stability ensured<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2016<br />
|Baby boomers begin turning 65<br />
|-<br />
|Android takes 38% of the smartphone market<br />
|-<br />
|Android takes 45% of the smartphone market<br />
|-<br />
|Windows Phone overtakes iOS in smartphones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2017<br />
|China completes unmanned Lunar sample-return mission<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|US budget balanced<br />
|-<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|Cosmetic surgery doubles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2018<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|Jesus returns to Earth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2019<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|Every baby has genes mapped at birth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2020<br />
|Solar power becomes cheaper than fossil fuels<br />
|-<br />
|Keyboards and mice become obsolete<br />
|-<br />
|New Tappan Zee bridge constructed<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2021<br />
|US debt reaches 97% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|US unemployment falls to 2.8%<br />
|-<br />
|Restored caliphate unifies Middle East<br />
|-<br />
|Lake Mead evaporates<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2022<br />
|Kilimanjaro snow-free<br />
|-<br />
|HTML 5 finished<br />
|-<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2023<br />
|Jesus returns to Earth (again)<br />
|-<br />
|US debt passes 100% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|All unprotected ancient forests gone from Pacific Northwest<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2024<br />
|Atlantis begins to reappear<br />
|-<br />
|Orangutans extinct in wild<br />
|-<br />
|China lands men and women on the moon<br />
|-<br />
|NASA sets up permanent moon base<br />
|-<br />
|Female professionals pass males in pay<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2025<br />
|World population reaches 8 billion<br />
|-<br />
|Two billion people face water shortages<br />
|-<br />
|62 MPG cars introduced<br />
|-<br />
|US power fades<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2026<br />
|Atlantis emerges completely<br />
|-<br />
|Rock Bands die out<br />
|-<br />
|US debt paid off<br />
|-<br />
|Car accidents cease<br />
|-<br />
|West coast falls into ocean<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2027<br />
|Japan introduces new fastest Maglev train<br />
|-<br />
|Lyndon Larouche-planned Mars colony is established<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2028<br />
|Tobacco outlawed<br />
|-<br />
|40% of coral reefs gone<br />
|-<br />
|US debt paid off<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2029<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|Computers pass the Turing test<br />
|-<br />
|Aging reversed<br />
|-<br />
|Wikipedia reaches 30 Million articles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2030<br />
|Half of Amazon rain forest lost to logging<br />
|-<br />
|Cancer deaths double from 2008 levels<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic ice-free in summer<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2031<br />
|Computers controlled by thought<br />
|-<br />
|Realtors replaced by technology<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2032<br />
|"Big One" hits San Francisco<br />
|-<br />
|US elects first married lesbian President<br />
|-<br />
|Entire world converted to Christianity<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2033<br />
|Kilimanjaro ice disappears<br />
|-<br />
|India becomes superpower<br />
|-<br />
|Europe reaches Mars<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2034<br />
|US diabetes cases double, treatment costs triple<br />
|-<br />
|US builds autonomous robot army<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2035<br />
|80% of America's energy comes from renewable sources<br />
|-<br />
|Himalayan glaciers down 80% in size<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic sea lane opens<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2036<br />
|80% of US has access to high-speed rail<br />
|-<br />
|Asteroid Apophis misses/hits Earth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2037<br />
|Arctic ice-free in September<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2038<br />
|32-bit timestamps roll over, causing Y2K-level chaos<br />
|-<br />
|"Big One" hits California<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2039<br />
|US population hits 400 Million<br />
|-<br />
|Severe heat waves become commonplace<br />
|-<br />
|Scientology becomes majority religion in US<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2040<br />
|Arctic summers ice-free<br />
|-<br />
|Nanotechnology makes humans immortal<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2041<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2042<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2043<br />
|World population passes 9 Billion<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2044<br />
|Mankind genetically engineered to be happy<br />
|-<br />
|Childhood obesity reaches 100%<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2045<br />
|Humans and machines merge<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2046<br />
|World's natural resources depleted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2047<br />
|World ruled by banks and corporations<br />
|-<br />
|Tobacco industry fails<br />
|-<br />
|US begins using autonomous attack drones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2048<br />
|Salt-water fish extinct from overfishing<br />
|-<br />
|Unisex bathing suits cover body from shoulder to ankle<br />
|-<br />
|Entire US population overweight<br />
|-<br />
|US begins using autonomous attack drones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2049<br />
|$1.000 computer exceeds computational ability of humanity<br />
|-<br />
|Singularity occurs<br />
|-<br />
|Fishing industry collapses<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2050<br />
|80% of Earth's population lives in urban centers<br />
|-<br />
|China controls space<br />
|-<br />
|Sex with robots possible<br />
|-<br />
|Cars banned from European cities<br />
|-<br />
|One million species extinct from climate change<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2051<br />
|Atmosphere escapes into space<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2052<br />
|Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending exceed total US revenue<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2053<br />
|US budget balanced<br />
|-<br />
|Majority of Americans in prison<br />
|-<br />
|Cars driven by dogs<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2054<br />
|Hunger becomes unimaginable global problem<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2055<br />
|Atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> doubled<br />
|-<br />
|Oil runs out<br />
|-<br />
|Copper, tin, lead, gold, and nickel all exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2056<br />
|RFID-tagged driverless cars<br />
|-<br />
|Robots given same rights as humans<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2057<br />
|150 Japanese settlers on Mars<br />
|-<br />
|Colorado River runs dry<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2058<br />
|Smoking ends in New Zealand<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2059<br />
|Humans have domesticated robots<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2060<br />
|Human race lives in peace<br />
|-<br />
|Extreme droughts across much of Earth<br />
|-<br />
|Global temperature rise reaches 4°C<br />
|-<br />
|Oil runs out again<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2061<br />
|Halley's comet returns<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2062<br />
|Uganda hosts World Cup<br />
|-<br />
|The Jetsons<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2063<br />
|First human clones reach adulthood<br />
|-<br />
|Population of Moon reaches 100,000<br />
|-<br />
|Population of Mars reaches 10,000<br />
|-<br />
|Spacecraft exceed speed of light<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2064<br />
|Clean Air Act finishes reducing haze in national parks to natural levels<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2065<br />
|Last coral reefs die out<br />
|-<br />
|Chernobyl cleanup complete<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2066<br />
|Cyprus achieves its goal<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2067<br />
|Americans live in domed cities and watch 3D TV<br />
|-<br />
|Redheads go extinct<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2068<br />
|Ozone hole over Antarctic finishes recovering<br />
|-<br />
|Lord Jesus rules Earth from throne in Jerusalem<br />
|-<br />
|Entire world population gay due to chemicals in the water<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2069<br />
|Public masturbation legalized<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2070<br />
|World population peaks<br />
|-<br />
|City-scale flooding disasters<br />
|-<br />
|60% of world's energy comes from renewable sources<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2071<br />
|Europe's temperatures rise by 3°C<br />
|-<br />
|World summer temperatures rise by 5°C<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2072<br />
|US retirement age is set to 75<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2073<br />
|Oceans do not rise one foot<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2074<br />
|Number of 100-year-olds reaches one million<br />
|-<br />
|Supertyphoons hit Japan<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2075<br />
|US retirement age set to 69<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2076<br />
|Average scientific paper has more than 24 authors<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2077<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2078<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2079<br />
|US debt reaches 716% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|Lodgepole pines disappear from Northwest<br />
|-<br />
|Floods commonplace<br />
|-<br />
|Religion marginalized<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2080<br />
|Federal spending reaches 70% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|UK population doubles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2081<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2082<br />
|World population declines to one billion<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2083<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2084<br />
|Robot policemen introduced<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2085<br />
|US deficit reaches 62% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2086<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2087<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2088<br />
|Japan becomes all-robot country<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2089<br />
|World halts fossil fuel use<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2090<br />
|Global warming hits 7°C<br />
|-<br />
|Global warming hits 4°C<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2091<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2092<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2093<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2094<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2095<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2096<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2097<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2098<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2099<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="11" valign="top"|2100<br />
|Global warming around 5-7°C<br />
|-<br />
|Sea levels have risen by a meter or more<br />
|-<br />
|Joshua trees nearly extinct<br />
|-<br />
|Earth's climate resembles that of the Cretaceous<br />
|-<br />
|Germany tropical<br />
|-<br />
|Emperor penguins extinct<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic permafrost thaws<br />
|-<br />
|Rising seas flood coastal cities<br />
|-<br />
|Rain forests mostly gone due to climatic shifts<br />
|-<br />
|All coral reefs gone<br />
|-<br />
|Gillette introduces 14-bladed razor<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2101<br />
|WAR WAS BEGINNING<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=887:_Future_Timeline&diff=58633887: Future Timeline2014-01-26T05:34:49Z<p>141.101.99.228: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 887<br />
| date = April 18, 2011<br />
| title = Future Timeline<br />
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]<br />
| image = future timeline.png<br />
| titletext = Not shown: the approximately 30,000 identical, vaguely hysterical articles titled "WHITE PEOPLE IN [THE US/BRITAIN] TO BECOME MINORITY BY [YEAR]!", which came up for basically any year I put in.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|almost no elaboration}}<br />
This comic uses the same strategy as comic [[715: Numbers]], in which Randall uses Google to search for phrases and then charts the results. This one is charted as a timeline, whereas 715 was charted as line graphs.<br />
<br />
"2101 - War Was Beginning" is a reference to the opening narration of video game ''Zero Wing''; the same narration is famous for the internet meme "{{w|All your base are belong to us}}". As there are not any other out and out references in the comic, and the rest are actually results that you can find if you search using Randall's methods, we're pretty sure "War Was Beginning" came up when he googled 2101 as well.<br />
<br />
Another point of this comic is that certain event, e.g. "Social Security stops running surplus", are repeated multiple times. <br />
<br />
Also, certain bizarre events, like "Apoclypse occurs", or "Flying cars reach market", happen before rather plausible things, like "HTML 5 Finished".<br />
<br />
Certain events, like "Japan is a robot-only country", maybe related to a recurring theme in XKCD comics, including [[605: Extrapolating]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:<big>'''THE FUTURE'''</big><br />
:'''According to Google search results'''<br />
:Events for each year determined by the first page of Google search results for the phrases:<br />
:{|<br />
|-<br />
|<small>"By <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"In year"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"By the year <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"In the year <year>"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"Will * by the year <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"Will * in the year <year>"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"In <year>, * will"</small><br />
|<small>"By <year>, * will"</small><br />
|}<br />
<br />
:{|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" width="50px" valign="top"|2012<br />
|World population reaches 7 billion<br />
|-<br />
|Flying cars reach market<br />
|-<br />
|Canada cuts greenhouse emissions to 6% below 1990 levels as per Kyoto<br />
|-<br />
|Apocalypse occurs<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2013<br />
|National debt paid off through President Clinton's plans<br />
|-<br />
|Microchipping of all Americans begins<br />
|-<br />
|Homelessness ended in Massachusetts<br />
|-<br />
|Health care reform law repealed<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2014<br />
|US leaves Afghanistan<br />
|-<br />
|GNU/Linux becomes dominant OS<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2015<br />
|New Horizons reaches Pluto<br />
|-<br />
|Health care law causes hyperinflation<br />
|-<br />
|192 UN member nations achieve millennium development goals:<br />
*Extreme poverty and hunger eradicated<br />
*Universal primary education implemented<br />
*Women empowered, gender equality reached<br />
*Environmental stability ensured<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2016<br />
|Baby boomers begin turning 65<br />
|-<br />
|Android takes 38% of the smartphone market<br />
|-<br />
|Android takes 45% of the smartphone market<br />
|-<br />
|Windows Phone overtakes iOS in smartphones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2017<br />
|China completes unmanned Lunar sample-return mission<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|US budget balanced<br />
|-<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|Cosmetic surgery doubles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2018<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|Jesus returns to Earth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2019<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|Every baby has genes mapped at birth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2020<br />
|Solar power becomes cheaper than fossil fuels<br />
|-<br />
|Keyboards and mice become obsolete<br />
|-<br />
|New Tappan Zee bridge constructed<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2021<br />
|US debt reaches 97% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|US unemployment falls to 2.8%<br />
|-<br />
|Restored caliphate unifies Middle East<br />
|-<br />
|Lake Mead evaporates<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2022<br />
|Kilimanjaro snow-free<br />
|-<br />
|HTML 5 finished<br />
|-<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2023<br />
|Jesus returns to Earth (again)<br />
|-<br />
|US debt passes 100% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|All unprotected ancient forests gone from Pacific Northwest<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2024<br />
|Atlantis begins to reappear<br />
|-<br />
|Orangutans extinct in wild<br />
|-<br />
|China lands men and women on the moon<br />
|-<br />
|NASA sets up permanent moon base<br />
|-<br />
|Female professionals pass males in pay<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2025<br />
|World population reaches 8 billion<br />
|-<br />
|Two billion people face water shortages<br />
|-<br />
|62 MPG cars introduced<br />
|-<br />
|US power fades<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2026<br />
|Atlantis emerges completely<br />
|-<br />
|Rock Bands die out<br />
|-<br />
|US debt paid off<br />
|-<br />
|Car accidents cease<br />
|-<br />
|West coast falls into ocean<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2027<br />
|Japan introduces new fastest Maglev train<br />
|-<br />
|Lyndon Larouche-planned Mars colony is established<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2028<br />
|Tobacco outlawed<br />
|-<br />
|40% of coral reefs gone<br />
|-<br />
|US debt paid off<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2029<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|Computers pass the Turing test<br />
|-<br />
|Aging reversed<br />
|-<br />
|Wikipedia reaches 30 Million articles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2030<br />
|Half of Amazon rain forest lost to logging<br />
|-<br />
|Cancer deaths double from 2008 levels<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic ice-free in summer<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2031<br />
|Computers controlled by thought<br />
|-<br />
|Realtors replaced by technology<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2032<br />
|"Big One" hits San Francisco<br />
|-<br />
|US elects first married lesbian President<br />
|-<br />
|Entire world converted to Christianity<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2033<br />
|Kilimanjaro ice disappears<br />
|-<br />
|India becomes superpower<br />
|-<br />
|Europe reaches Mars<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2034<br />
|US diabetes cases double, treatment costs triple<br />
|-<br />
|US builds autonomous robot army<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2035<br />
|80% of America's energy comes from renewable sources<br />
|-<br />
|Himalayan glaciers down 80% in size<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic sea lane opens<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2036<br />
|80% of US has access to high-speed rail<br />
|-<br />
|Asteroid Apophis misses/hits Earth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2037<br />
|Arctic ice-free in September<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2038<br />
|32-bit timestamps roll over, causing Y2K-level chaos<br />
|-<br />
|"Big One" hits California<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2039<br />
|US population hits 400 Million<br />
|-<br />
|Severe heat waves become commonplace<br />
|-<br />
|Scientology becomes majority religion in US<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2040<br />
|Arctic summers ice-free<br />
|-<br />
|Nanotechnology makes humans immortal<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2041<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2042<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2043<br />
|World population passes 9 Billion<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2044<br />
|Mankind genetically engineered to be happy<br />
|-<br />
|Childhood obesity reaches 100%<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2045<br />
|Humans and machines merge<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2046<br />
|World's natural resources depleted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2047<br />
|World ruled by banks and corporations<br />
|-<br />
|Tobacco industry fails<br />
|-<br />
|US begins using autonomous attack drones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2048<br />
|Salt-water fish extinct from overfishing<br />
|-<br />
|Unisex bathing suits cover body from shoulder to ankle<br />
|-<br />
|Entire US population overweight<br />
|-<br />
|US begins using autonomous attack drones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2049<br />
|$1.000 computer exceeds computational ability of humanity<br />
|-<br />
|Singularity occurs<br />
|-<br />
|Fishing industry collapses<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2050<br />
|80% of Earth's population lives in urban centers<br />
|-<br />
|China controls space<br />
|-<br />
|Sex with robots possible<br />
|-<br />
|Cars banned from European cities<br />
|-<br />
|One million species extinct from climate change<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2051<br />
|Atmosphere escapes into space<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2052<br />
|Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending exceed total US revenue<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2053<br />
|US budget balanced<br />
|-<br />
|Majority of Americans in prison<br />
|-<br />
|Cars driven by dogs<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2054<br />
|Hunger becomes unimaginable global problem<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2055<br />
|Atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> doubled<br />
|-<br />
|Oil runs out<br />
|-<br />
|Copper, tin, lead, gold, and nickel all exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2056<br />
|RFID-tagged driverless cars<br />
|-<br />
|Robots given same rights as humans<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2057<br />
|150 Japanese settlers on Mars<br />
|-<br />
|Colorado River runs dry<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2058<br />
|Smoking ends in New Zealand<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2059<br />
|Humans have domesticated robots<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2060<br />
|Human race lives in peace<br />
|-<br />
|Extreme droughts across much of Earth<br />
|-<br />
|Global temperature rise reaches 4°C<br />
|-<br />
|Oil runs out again<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2061<br />
|Halley's comet returns<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2062<br />
|Uganda hosts World Cup<br />
|-<br />
|The Jetsons<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2063<br />
|First human clones reach adulthood<br />
|-<br />
|Population of Moon reaches 100,000<br />
|-<br />
|Population of Mars reaches 10,000<br />
|-<br />
|Spacecraft exceed speed of light<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2064<br />
|Clean Air Act finishes reducing haze in national parks to natural levels<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2065<br />
|Last coral reefs die out<br />
|-<br />
|Chernobyl cleanup complete<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2066<br />
|Cyprus achieves its goal<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2067<br />
|Americans live in domed cities and watch 3D TV<br />
|-<br />
|Redheads go extinct<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2068<br />
|Ozone hole over Antarctic finishes recovering<br />
|-<br />
|Lord Jesus rules Earth from throne in Jerusalem<br />
|-<br />
|Entire world population gay due to chemicals in the water<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2069<br />
|Public masturbation legalized<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2070<br />
|World population peaks<br />
|-<br />
|City-scale flooding disasters<br />
|-<br />
|60% of world's energy comes from renewable sources<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2071<br />
|Europe's temperatures rise by 3°C<br />
|-<br />
|World summer temperatures rise by 5°C<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2072<br />
|US retirement age is set to 75<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2073<br />
|Oceans do not rise one foot<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2074<br />
|Number of 100-year-olds reaches one million<br />
|-<br />
|Supertyphoons hit Japan<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2075<br />
|US retirement age set to 69<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2076<br />
|Average scientific paper has more than 24 authors<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2077<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2078<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2079<br />
|US debt reaches 716% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|Lodgepole pines disappear from Northwest<br />
|-<br />
|Floods commonplace<br />
|-<br />
|Religion marginalized<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2080<br />
|Federal spending reaches 70% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|UK population doubles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2081<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2082<br />
|World population declines to one billion<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2083<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2084<br />
|Robot policemen introduced<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2085<br />
|US deficit reaches 62% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2086<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2087<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2088<br />
|Japan becomes all-robot country<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2089<br />
|World halts fossil fuel use<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2090<br />
|Global warming hits 7°C<br />
|-<br />
|Global warming hits 4°C<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2091<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2092<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2093<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2094<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2095<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2096<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2097<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2098<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2099<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="11" valign="top"|2100<br />
|Global warming around 5-7°C<br />
|-<br />
|Sea levels have risen by a meter or more<br />
|-<br />
|Joshua trees nearly extinct<br />
|-<br />
|Earth's climate resembles that of the Cretaceous<br />
|-<br />
|Germany tropical<br />
|-<br />
|Emperor penguins extinct<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic permafrost thaws<br />
|-<br />
|Rising seas flood coastal cities<br />
|-<br />
|Rain forests mostly gone due to climatic shifts<br />
|-<br />
|All coral reefs gone<br />
|-<br />
|Gillette introduces 14-bladed razor<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2101<br />
|WAR WAS BEGINNING<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=887:_Future_Timeline&diff=58632887: Future Timeline2014-01-26T05:34:23Z<p>141.101.99.228: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 887<br />
| date = April 18, 2011<br />
| title = Future Timeline<br />
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]<br />
| image = future timeline.png<br />
| titletext = Not shown: the approximately 30,000 identical, vaguely hysterical articles titled "WHITE PEOPLE IN [THE US/BRITAIN] TO BECOME MINORITY BY [YEAR]!", which came up for basically any year I put in.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|almost no elaboration}}<br />
This comic uses the same strategy as comic [[715: Numbers]], in which Randall uses Google to search for phrases and then charts the results. This one is charted as a timeline, whereas 715 was charted as line graphs.<br />
<br />
"2101 - War Was Beginning" is a reference to the opening narration of video game ''Zero Wing''; the same narration is famous for the internet meme "{{w|All your base are belong to us}}". As there are not any other out and out references in the comic, and the rest are actually results that you can find if you search using Randall's methods, we're pretty sure "War Was Beginning" came up when he googled 2101 as well.<br />
<br />
Another point of this comic is that certain event, e.g. "Social Security stops running surplus", are repeated multiple times. <br />
<br />
Also, certain bizarre events, like "Apoclypse occurs", or "Flying cars reach market", happen before rather plausible things, like "HTML 5 Finished".<br />
<br />
Certain events, like "Japan is a robot-only country", maybe related to a recurring theme in XKCD comics, including [[Extrapolating]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:<big>'''THE FUTURE'''</big><br />
:'''According to Google search results'''<br />
:Events for each year determined by the first page of Google search results for the phrases:<br />
:{|<br />
|-<br />
|<small>"By <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"In year"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"By the year <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"In the year <year>"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"Will * by the year <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"Will * in the year <year>"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"In <year>, * will"</small><br />
|<small>"By <year>, * will"</small><br />
|}<br />
<br />
:{|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" width="50px" valign="top"|2012<br />
|World population reaches 7 billion<br />
|-<br />
|Flying cars reach market<br />
|-<br />
|Canada cuts greenhouse emissions to 6% below 1990 levels as per Kyoto<br />
|-<br />
|Apocalypse occurs<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2013<br />
|National debt paid off through President Clinton's plans<br />
|-<br />
|Microchipping of all Americans begins<br />
|-<br />
|Homelessness ended in Massachusetts<br />
|-<br />
|Health care reform law repealed<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2014<br />
|US leaves Afghanistan<br />
|-<br />
|GNU/Linux becomes dominant OS<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2015<br />
|New Horizons reaches Pluto<br />
|-<br />
|Health care law causes hyperinflation<br />
|-<br />
|192 UN member nations achieve millennium development goals:<br />
*Extreme poverty and hunger eradicated<br />
*Universal primary education implemented<br />
*Women empowered, gender equality reached<br />
*Environmental stability ensured<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2016<br />
|Baby boomers begin turning 65<br />
|-<br />
|Android takes 38% of the smartphone market<br />
|-<br />
|Android takes 45% of the smartphone market<br />
|-<br />
|Windows Phone overtakes iOS in smartphones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2017<br />
|China completes unmanned Lunar sample-return mission<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|US budget balanced<br />
|-<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|Cosmetic surgery doubles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2018<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|Jesus returns to Earth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2019<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|Every baby has genes mapped at birth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2020<br />
|Solar power becomes cheaper than fossil fuels<br />
|-<br />
|Keyboards and mice become obsolete<br />
|-<br />
|New Tappan Zee bridge constructed<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2021<br />
|US debt reaches 97% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|US unemployment falls to 2.8%<br />
|-<br />
|Restored caliphate unifies Middle East<br />
|-<br />
|Lake Mead evaporates<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2022<br />
|Kilimanjaro snow-free<br />
|-<br />
|HTML 5 finished<br />
|-<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2023<br />
|Jesus returns to Earth (again)<br />
|-<br />
|US debt passes 100% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|All unprotected ancient forests gone from Pacific Northwest<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2024<br />
|Atlantis begins to reappear<br />
|-<br />
|Orangutans extinct in wild<br />
|-<br />
|China lands men and women on the moon<br />
|-<br />
|NASA sets up permanent moon base<br />
|-<br />
|Female professionals pass males in pay<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2025<br />
|World population reaches 8 billion<br />
|-<br />
|Two billion people face water shortages<br />
|-<br />
|62 MPG cars introduced<br />
|-<br />
|US power fades<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2026<br />
|Atlantis emerges completely<br />
|-<br />
|Rock Bands die out<br />
|-<br />
|US debt paid off<br />
|-<br />
|Car accidents cease<br />
|-<br />
|West coast falls into ocean<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2027<br />
|Japan introduces new fastest Maglev train<br />
|-<br />
|Lyndon Larouche-planned Mars colony is established<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2028<br />
|Tobacco outlawed<br />
|-<br />
|40% of coral reefs gone<br />
|-<br />
|US debt paid off<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2029<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|Computers pass the Turing test<br />
|-<br />
|Aging reversed<br />
|-<br />
|Wikipedia reaches 30 Million articles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2030<br />
|Half of Amazon rain forest lost to logging<br />
|-<br />
|Cancer deaths double from 2008 levels<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic ice-free in summer<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2031<br />
|Computers controlled by thought<br />
|-<br />
|Realtors replaced by technology<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2032<br />
|"Big One" hits San Francisco<br />
|-<br />
|US elects first married lesbian President<br />
|-<br />
|Entire world converted to Christianity<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2033<br />
|Kilimanjaro ice disappears<br />
|-<br />
|India becomes superpower<br />
|-<br />
|Europe reaches Mars<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2034<br />
|US diabetes cases double, treatment costs triple<br />
|-<br />
|US builds autonomous robot army<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2035<br />
|80% of America's energy comes from renewable sources<br />
|-<br />
|Himalayan glaciers down 80% in size<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic sea lane opens<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2036<br />
|80% of US has access to high-speed rail<br />
|-<br />
|Asteroid Apophis misses/hits Earth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2037<br />
|Arctic ice-free in September<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2038<br />
|32-bit timestamps roll over, causing Y2K-level chaos<br />
|-<br />
|"Big One" hits California<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2039<br />
|US population hits 400 Million<br />
|-<br />
|Severe heat waves become commonplace<br />
|-<br />
|Scientology becomes majority religion in US<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2040<br />
|Arctic summers ice-free<br />
|-<br />
|Nanotechnology makes humans immortal<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2041<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2042<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2043<br />
|World population passes 9 Billion<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2044<br />
|Mankind genetically engineered to be happy<br />
|-<br />
|Childhood obesity reaches 100%<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2045<br />
|Humans and machines merge<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2046<br />
|World's natural resources depleted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2047<br />
|World ruled by banks and corporations<br />
|-<br />
|Tobacco industry fails<br />
|-<br />
|US begins using autonomous attack drones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2048<br />
|Salt-water fish extinct from overfishing<br />
|-<br />
|Unisex bathing suits cover body from shoulder to ankle<br />
|-<br />
|Entire US population overweight<br />
|-<br />
|US begins using autonomous attack drones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2049<br />
|$1.000 computer exceeds computational ability of humanity<br />
|-<br />
|Singularity occurs<br />
|-<br />
|Fishing industry collapses<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2050<br />
|80% of Earth's population lives in urban centers<br />
|-<br />
|China controls space<br />
|-<br />
|Sex with robots possible<br />
|-<br />
|Cars banned from European cities<br />
|-<br />
|One million species extinct from climate change<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2051<br />
|Atmosphere escapes into space<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2052<br />
|Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending exceed total US revenue<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2053<br />
|US budget balanced<br />
|-<br />
|Majority of Americans in prison<br />
|-<br />
|Cars driven by dogs<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2054<br />
|Hunger becomes unimaginable global problem<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2055<br />
|Atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> doubled<br />
|-<br />
|Oil runs out<br />
|-<br />
|Copper, tin, lead, gold, and nickel all exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2056<br />
|RFID-tagged driverless cars<br />
|-<br />
|Robots given same rights as humans<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2057<br />
|150 Japanese settlers on Mars<br />
|-<br />
|Colorado River runs dry<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2058<br />
|Smoking ends in New Zealand<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2059<br />
|Humans have domesticated robots<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2060<br />
|Human race lives in peace<br />
|-<br />
|Extreme droughts across much of Earth<br />
|-<br />
|Global temperature rise reaches 4°C<br />
|-<br />
|Oil runs out again<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2061<br />
|Halley's comet returns<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2062<br />
|Uganda hosts World Cup<br />
|-<br />
|The Jetsons<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2063<br />
|First human clones reach adulthood<br />
|-<br />
|Population of Moon reaches 100,000<br />
|-<br />
|Population of Mars reaches 10,000<br />
|-<br />
|Spacecraft exceed speed of light<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2064<br />
|Clean Air Act finishes reducing haze in national parks to natural levels<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2065<br />
|Last coral reefs die out<br />
|-<br />
|Chernobyl cleanup complete<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2066<br />
|Cyprus achieves its goal<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2067<br />
|Americans live in domed cities and watch 3D TV<br />
|-<br />
|Redheads go extinct<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2068<br />
|Ozone hole over Antarctic finishes recovering<br />
|-<br />
|Lord Jesus rules Earth from throne in Jerusalem<br />
|-<br />
|Entire world population gay due to chemicals in the water<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2069<br />
|Public masturbation legalized<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2070<br />
|World population peaks<br />
|-<br />
|City-scale flooding disasters<br />
|-<br />
|60% of world's energy comes from renewable sources<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2071<br />
|Europe's temperatures rise by 3°C<br />
|-<br />
|World summer temperatures rise by 5°C<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2072<br />
|US retirement age is set to 75<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2073<br />
|Oceans do not rise one foot<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2074<br />
|Number of 100-year-olds reaches one million<br />
|-<br />
|Supertyphoons hit Japan<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2075<br />
|US retirement age set to 69<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2076<br />
|Average scientific paper has more than 24 authors<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2077<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2078<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2079<br />
|US debt reaches 716% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|Lodgepole pines disappear from Northwest<br />
|-<br />
|Floods commonplace<br />
|-<br />
|Religion marginalized<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2080<br />
|Federal spending reaches 70% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|UK population doubles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2081<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2082<br />
|World population declines to one billion<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2083<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2084<br />
|Robot policemen introduced<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2085<br />
|US deficit reaches 62% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2086<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2087<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2088<br />
|Japan becomes all-robot country<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2089<br />
|World halts fossil fuel use<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2090<br />
|Global warming hits 7°C<br />
|-<br />
|Global warming hits 4°C<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2091<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2092<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2093<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2094<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2095<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2096<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2097<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2098<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2099<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="11" valign="top"|2100<br />
|Global warming around 5-7°C<br />
|-<br />
|Sea levels have risen by a meter or more<br />
|-<br />
|Joshua trees nearly extinct<br />
|-<br />
|Earth's climate resembles that of the Cretaceous<br />
|-<br />
|Germany tropical<br />
|-<br />
|Emperor penguins extinct<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic permafrost thaws<br />
|-<br />
|Rising seas flood coastal cities<br />
|-<br />
|Rain forests mostly gone due to climatic shifts<br />
|-<br />
|All coral reefs gone<br />
|-<br />
|Gillette introduces 14-bladed razor<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2101<br />
|WAR WAS BEGINNING<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=887:_Future_Timeline&diff=58631887: Future Timeline2014-01-26T05:32:50Z<p>141.101.99.228: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 887<br />
| date = April 18, 2011<br />
| title = Future Timeline<br />
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]<br />
| image = future timeline.png<br />
| titletext = Not shown: the approximately 30,000 identical, vaguely hysterical articles titled "WHITE PEOPLE IN [THE US/BRITAIN] TO BECOME MINORITY BY [YEAR]!", which came up for basically any year I put in.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|almost no elaboration}}<br />
This comic uses the same strategy as comic [[715: Numbers]], in which Randall uses Google to search for phrases and then charts the results. This one is charted as a timeline, whereas 715 was charted as line graphs.<br />
<br />
"2101 - War Was Beginning" is a reference to the opening narration of video game ''Zero Wing''; the same narration is famous for the internet meme "{{w|All your base are belong to us}}". As there are not any other out and out references in the comic, and the rest are actually results that you can find if you search using Randall's methods, we're pretty sure "War Was Beginning" came up when he googled 2101 as well.<br />
<br />
Another point of this comic is that certain event, e.g. "Social Security stops running surplus", are repeated multiple times. <br />
<br />
Also, certain bizarre events, like "Apoclypse occurs", or "Flying cars reach market", happen before rather plausible things, like "HTML 5 Finished".<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:<big>'''THE FUTURE'''</big><br />
:'''According to Google search results'''<br />
:Events for each year determined by the first page of Google search results for the phrases:<br />
:{|<br />
|-<br />
|<small>"By <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"In year"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"By the year <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"In the year <year>"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"Will * by the year <year>"</small><br />
|<small>"Will * in the year <year>"</small><br />
|-<br />
|<small>"In <year>, * will"</small><br />
|<small>"By <year>, * will"</small><br />
|}<br />
<br />
:{|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" width="50px" valign="top"|2012<br />
|World population reaches 7 billion<br />
|-<br />
|Flying cars reach market<br />
|-<br />
|Canada cuts greenhouse emissions to 6% below 1990 levels as per Kyoto<br />
|-<br />
|Apocalypse occurs<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2013<br />
|National debt paid off through President Clinton's plans<br />
|-<br />
|Microchipping of all Americans begins<br />
|-<br />
|Homelessness ended in Massachusetts<br />
|-<br />
|Health care reform law repealed<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2014<br />
|US leaves Afghanistan<br />
|-<br />
|GNU/Linux becomes dominant OS<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2015<br />
|New Horizons reaches Pluto<br />
|-<br />
|Health care law causes hyperinflation<br />
|-<br />
|192 UN member nations achieve millennium development goals:<br />
*Extreme poverty and hunger eradicated<br />
*Universal primary education implemented<br />
*Women empowered, gender equality reached<br />
*Environmental stability ensured<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2016<br />
|Baby boomers begin turning 65<br />
|-<br />
|Android takes 38% of the smartphone market<br />
|-<br />
|Android takes 45% of the smartphone market<br />
|-<br />
|Windows Phone overtakes iOS in smartphones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2017<br />
|China completes unmanned Lunar sample-return mission<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|US budget balanced<br />
|-<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|Cosmetic surgery doubles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2018<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|Jesus returns to Earth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2019<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|Every baby has genes mapped at birth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2020<br />
|Solar power becomes cheaper than fossil fuels<br />
|-<br />
|Keyboards and mice become obsolete<br />
|-<br />
|New Tappan Zee bridge constructed<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2021<br />
|US debt reaches 97% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|US unemployment falls to 2.8%<br />
|-<br />
|Restored caliphate unifies Middle East<br />
|-<br />
|Lake Mead evaporates<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2022<br />
|Kilimanjaro snow-free<br />
|-<br />
|HTML 5 finished<br />
|-<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2023<br />
|Jesus returns to Earth (again)<br />
|-<br />
|US debt passes 100% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|All unprotected ancient forests gone from Pacific Northwest<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2024<br />
|Atlantis begins to reappear<br />
|-<br />
|Orangutans extinct in wild<br />
|-<br />
|China lands men and women on the moon<br />
|-<br />
|NASA sets up permanent moon base<br />
|-<br />
|Female professionals pass males in pay<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2025<br />
|World population reaches 8 billion<br />
|-<br />
|Two billion people face water shortages<br />
|-<br />
|62 MPG cars introduced<br />
|-<br />
|US power fades<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2026<br />
|Atlantis emerges completely<br />
|-<br />
|Rock Bands die out<br />
|-<br />
|US debt paid off<br />
|-<br />
|Car accidents cease<br />
|-<br />
|West coast falls into ocean<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2027<br />
|Japan introduces new fastest Maglev train<br />
|-<br />
|Lyndon Larouche-planned Mars colony is established<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2028<br />
|Tobacco outlawed<br />
|-<br />
|40% of coral reefs gone<br />
|-<br />
|US debt paid off<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security stops running surplus<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2029<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|Computers pass the Turing test<br />
|-<br />
|Aging reversed<br />
|-<br />
|Wikipedia reaches 30 Million articles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2030<br />
|Half of Amazon rain forest lost to logging<br />
|-<br />
|Cancer deaths double from 2008 levels<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic ice-free in summer<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2031<br />
|Computers controlled by thought<br />
|-<br />
|Realtors replaced by technology<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2032<br />
|"Big One" hits San Francisco<br />
|-<br />
|US elects first married lesbian President<br />
|-<br />
|Entire world converted to Christianity<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2033<br />
|Kilimanjaro ice disappears<br />
|-<br />
|India becomes superpower<br />
|-<br />
|Europe reaches Mars<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2034<br />
|US diabetes cases double, treatment costs triple<br />
|-<br />
|US builds autonomous robot army<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2035<br />
|80% of America's energy comes from renewable sources<br />
|-<br />
|Himalayan glaciers down 80% in size<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic sea lane opens<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2036<br />
|80% of US has access to high-speed rail<br />
|-<br />
|Asteroid Apophis misses/hits Earth<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2037<br />
|Arctic ice-free in September<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2038<br />
|32-bit timestamps roll over, causing Y2K-level chaos<br />
|-<br />
|"Big One" hits California<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2039<br />
|US population hits 400 Million<br />
|-<br />
|Severe heat waves become commonplace<br />
|-<br />
|Scientology becomes majority religion in US<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2040<br />
|Arctic summers ice-free<br />
|-<br />
|Nanotechnology makes humans immortal<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2041<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2042<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2043<br />
|World population passes 9 Billion<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2044<br />
|Mankind genetically engineered to be happy<br />
|-<br />
|Childhood obesity reaches 100%<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2045<br />
|Humans and machines merge<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2046<br />
|World's natural resources depleted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2047<br />
|World ruled by banks and corporations<br />
|-<br />
|Tobacco industry fails<br />
|-<br />
|US begins using autonomous attack drones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2048<br />
|Salt-water fish extinct from overfishing<br />
|-<br />
|Unisex bathing suits cover body from shoulder to ankle<br />
|-<br />
|Entire US population overweight<br />
|-<br />
|US begins using autonomous attack drones<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2049<br />
|$1.000 computer exceeds computational ability of humanity<br />
|-<br />
|Singularity occurs<br />
|-<br />
|Fishing industry collapses<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2050<br />
|80% of Earth's population lives in urban centers<br />
|-<br />
|China controls space<br />
|-<br />
|Sex with robots possible<br />
|-<br />
|Cars banned from European cities<br />
|-<br />
|One million species extinct from climate change<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2051<br />
|Atmosphere escapes into space<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2052<br />
|Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending exceed total US revenue<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2053<br />
|US budget balanced<br />
|-<br />
|Majority of Americans in prison<br />
|-<br />
|Cars driven by dogs<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2054<br />
|Hunger becomes unimaginable global problem<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2055<br />
|Atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> doubled<br />
|-<br />
|Oil runs out<br />
|-<br />
|Copper, tin, lead, gold, and nickel all exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2056<br />
|RFID-tagged driverless cars<br />
|-<br />
|Robots given same rights as humans<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2057<br />
|150 Japanese settlers on Mars<br />
|-<br />
|Colorado River runs dry<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2058<br />
|Smoking ends in New Zealand<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2059<br />
|Humans have domesticated robots<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2060<br />
|Human race lives in peace<br />
|-<br />
|Extreme droughts across much of Earth<br />
|-<br />
|Global temperature rise reaches 4°C<br />
|-<br />
|Oil runs out again<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2061<br />
|Halley's comet returns<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2062<br />
|Uganda hosts World Cup<br />
|-<br />
|The Jetsons<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2063<br />
|First human clones reach adulthood<br />
|-<br />
|Population of Moon reaches 100,000<br />
|-<br />
|Population of Mars reaches 10,000<br />
|-<br />
|Spacecraft exceed speed of light<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2064<br />
|Clean Air Act finishes reducing haze in national parks to natural levels<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2065<br />
|Last coral reefs die out<br />
|-<br />
|Chernobyl cleanup complete<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2066<br />
|Cyprus achieves its goal<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2067<br />
|Americans live in domed cities and watch 3D TV<br />
|-<br />
|Redheads go extinct<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2068<br />
|Ozone hole over Antarctic finishes recovering<br />
|-<br />
|Lord Jesus rules Earth from throne in Jerusalem<br />
|-<br />
|Entire world population gay due to chemicals in the water<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2069<br />
|Public masturbation legalized<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2070<br />
|World population peaks<br />
|-<br />
|City-scale flooding disasters<br />
|-<br />
|60% of world's energy comes from renewable sources<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2071<br />
|Europe's temperatures rise by 3°C<br />
|-<br />
|World summer temperatures rise by 5°C<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2072<br />
|US retirement age is set to 75<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2073<br />
|Oceans do not rise one foot<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2074<br />
|Number of 100-year-olds reaches one million<br />
|-<br />
|Supertyphoons hit Japan<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2075<br />
|US retirement age set to 69<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2076<br />
|Average scientific paper has more than 24 authors<br />
|-<br />
|Social Security trust fund exhausted<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2077<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2078<br />
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2079<br />
|US debt reaches 716% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|Lodgepole pines disappear from Northwest<br />
|-<br />
|Floods commonplace<br />
|-<br />
|Religion marginalized<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2080<br />
|Federal spending reaches 70% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|UK population doubles<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2081<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2082<br />
|World population declines to one billion<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2083<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2084<br />
|Robot policemen introduced<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2085<br />
|US deficit reaches 62% of GDP<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2086<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2087<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2088<br />
|Japan becomes all-robot country<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2089<br />
|World halts fossil fuel use<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2090<br />
|Global warming hits 7°C<br />
|-<br />
|Global warming hits 4°C<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2091<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2092<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2093<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2094<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2095<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2096<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2097<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2098<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2099<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="11" valign="top"|2100<br />
|Global warming around 5-7°C<br />
|-<br />
|Sea levels have risen by a meter or more<br />
|-<br />
|Joshua trees nearly extinct<br />
|-<br />
|Earth's climate resembles that of the Cretaceous<br />
|-<br />
|Germany tropical<br />
|-<br />
|Emperor penguins extinct<br />
|-<br />
|Arctic permafrost thaws<br />
|-<br />
|Rising seas flood coastal cities<br />
|-<br />
|Rain forests mostly gone due to climatic shifts<br />
|-<br />
|All coral reefs gone<br />
|-<br />
|Gillette introduces 14-bladed razor<br />
|-<br />
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2101<br />
|WAR WAS BEGINNING<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1321:_Cold&diff=586301321: Cold2014-01-26T05:29:48Z<p>141.101.99.228: Undo revision 58618 by Dgbrt (talk) still incomplete, was referring to the comics in which megan/cueball avoid the truuth by saying "I definitely do not [stuff that they do]".</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1321<br />
| date = January 24, 2014<br />
| title = Cold<br />
| image = cold.png<br />
| titletext = 'You see the same pattern all over. Take Detroit--' 'Hold on. Why do you know all these statistics offhand?' 'Oh, um, no idea. I definitely spend my evenings hanging out with friends, and not curating a REALLY NEAT database of temperature statistics. Because, pshh, who would want to do that, right? Also, snowfall records.'<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete| needs some textual editing, the title text joke has been in many xkcd comics, need to be referred to}}<br />
<br />
The comic reacts to a simplified view of {{w|global warming}} by amateurs, including media, who fail to understand the difference between climate and weather. Short, random weather fluctuations like the {{w|Polar vortex}} are taken as examples or counter-examples of climate change and global warming. If you want real evidence for or against global warming, you need to look at global (not local) and long-term (not short-term) temperature trends.<br />
<br />
0 °F (Fahrenheit) is -17.8 °C (Celsius), which is ''brutally'' cold. The city of {{w|St. Louis}} is roughly at the same {{w|latitude}} as {{w|Lisbon}} (Portugal) and {{w|Beijing}} (China). But at Lisbon those low temperatures never do happen because of the {{w|Gulf Stream}}. If the Gulf Stream stops, which could happen due to changes in the global climate, the temperatures would drop in those regions.<br />
<br />
One dispute on global warming is whether humans are the main factor in this change. Alternatively it may be natural change, as happened in the past. The vast majority of scientists agree that the current global warming is anthropogenic (i.e. man-made).<br />
<br />
The title text suggests the reason why this occurs: gathering data about global warming is time-consuming and is the kind of stuff only a real nerd would do. Most people would rather hang out with friends, or at least spend their time with some more fun nerd activity.<br />
<br />
=== Previous comics referring global warming ===<br />
* [[164: Playing Devil's Advocate to Win]]<br />
* [[887: Future Timeline]] (partially)<br />
* [[1225: Ice Sheets]] (title text only)<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[It's cold, and Cueball and Black Hat are walking wearing knit caps. Cueball is shivering.]<br />
:Cueball: It's '''''brutal''''' out. So much for global warming, huh?<br />
:Black Hat: ''*sigh*'' This used to happen all the time.<br />
:Cueball: What?<br />
<br />
:[Shows a graph relating the number of days with lows below zero fahrenheit by year since 1970.]<br />
:Black Hat (off-screen): You're from St. Louis, right?<br />
:Black Hat: On average, it used to get below 0°F there a handful of days per year.<br />
:Black Hat: But you haven't had a day like that since the nineties.<br />
<br />
:[Black Hat has stopped walking.]<br />
:Black Hat: Then, in 2014, when the first polar vortex hit, it dipped below zero for two days. And everyone freaked out.<br />
<br />
:[They continue walking.]<br />
:Black Hat: Because what used to be normal; now feels too cold.<br />
:Cueball: It ''is'' too cold!<br />
<br />
:The Future:<br />
:[Cueball is pointing at a patch of ice.]<br />
:Cueball: Look at this—'''''ice!''''' In '''''St. Louis!''''' So much for global warming.<br />
:Off-screen: *sigh*<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1321:_Cold&diff=585301321: Cold2014-01-24T15:06:07Z<p>141.101.99.228: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1321<br />
| date = January 24, 2014<br />
| title = Cold<br />
| image = cold.png<br />
| titletext = 'You see the same pattern all over. Take Detroit--' 'Hold on. Why do you know all these statistics offhand?' 'Oh, um, no idea. I definitely spend my evenings hanging out with friends, and not curating a REALLY NEAT database of temperature statistics. Because, pshh, who would want to do that, right? Also, snowfall records.'<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete| needs some textual editing, the title text joke has been in many xkcd comics, need to be referred to}}<br />
<br />
The comics reacts to simplified view of {{w|global warming}} by amateurs (probably including media). Phenomenons like {{w|Polar vortex}} or even random changes are taken as example or counter-example of global warming, as if it would be much faster that it is. If you want real proofs of global warming, you need to look at global (not local) and long-term (not short-term) temperature changes.<br />
<br />
Title text suggest the reason WHY this occurs: getting the knowledge needed to actually know something about global warming is time-consuming and would be kind of stuff only real nerd would do. Normal people would rather hang out with friends, or at least spend their time with some more fun nerd activity, like playing computer games.<br />
<br />
=== Previous comics referring global warming ===<br />
* [[164: Playing Devil's Advocate to Win]]<br />
* [[887: Future Timeline]] (partially)<br />
* [[1225: Ice Sheets]] (title text only)<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
<br />
<!-- If he isn't black hat then r/Black Hat/Someone/g --><br />
<br />
:[It's cold. Cueball and Black Hat are walking wearing stocking caps.]<br />
:Cueball: It's '''brutal''' out. So much for global warming, huh?<br />
:Black Hat: ''*sigh*'' This used to happen all the time.<br />
:Cueball: What?<br />
:[Shows a graph relating the number of days with lows below zero fahrenheit by year since 1970]<br />
:You're from St. Louis, right?<br />
:On average, it used to get below 0°F there a handful of days per year.<br />
:But you haven't had a day like that since the nineties.<br />
:[Black Hat stops walking]<br />
:Black Hat: Then, in 2013, when the first polar vortex hit, it dipped below zero for two days.<br />
:And everyone freaked out.<br />
:[They continue walking]<br />
:Black Hat: Because what used to be normal now feels too cold.<br />
:Cueball: It ''is'' too cold!<br />
:The Future:<br />
:Cueball: Look at this - '''ice!''' in '''St. Louis!''' So much for global warming.<br />
:Someone outside the scene: *sigh*<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1318:_Actually&diff=579671318: Actually2014-01-17T13:06:40Z<p>141.101.99.228: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1318<br />
| date = January 17, 2014<br />
| title = Actually<br />
| image = actually.png<br />
| titletext = Protip: You can win every exchange just by being one level more precise than whoever talked last. Eventually, you'll defeat all conversational opponents and stand alone.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{Incomplete|The article seems plentiful in detail, but maybe things could get a little better structured.}}<br />
<br />
* The picture is designed to have us thinking about a planet (presumably Earth), such that when we read the first speaker's comment, we interpret it as "The Earth is flat", which was the earliest view of the planet. (The speaker does not explicitly state their subject, however, which leads to the comic's punchline.)<br />
* The second speaker explains that the Earth is actually a sphere, tracking the progression of knowledge of the Earth's shape.<br />
* The third speaker provides further detail on the shape, that rather than being spherical, the Earth is actually an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblate_spheroid oblate spheroid]. On Earth, this occurs because a rotating body tends to bulge at the equator (where the matter experiences greater centrifugal forces - analogous to experiencing more force at the outside of a round-a-bout rather than at the centre), and is known as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_bulge equatorial bulge].<br />
* A more accurate description is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGM96 Earth Gravitational Model 1996] which provided a detailed map of Earth's gravitational field. This therefore refines the oblate spheroid model even further.<br />
* The next speaker notes that this is still a very high level model of the planet (necessary because of the sizes involved) and that the true shape of the planet is given by the actual local topography (i.e., mountains, hills, valleys, etc.) which can be thought as overlaid on the planet wide models.<br />
* Changing tack, the remaining speaker notes that our planet sits in a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_relativity curved space-time], where our planet's gravity, as well as all other objects, bends the space and time around them. On the largest scale, this has the potential to lead to a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_of_the_universe curvature] of the four dimensional space-time of the universe, hence "universe that is curved". Such a universe can either be "open" or "closed", depending on how much mass and energy there is. In a "closed" universe, if you drew a large enough triangle in space, you would find that the angles did add up to more than 180 degrees (just like if it was drawn on the surface of a balloon - in this case, the angles would add up to more than 180 degrees).<ref>An example of closed geometry is spherical geometry, where the sum of the angles of a triangle is π < A + B + C < 3π http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_trigonometry</ref> In an "open" universe, the sum of the angles would be less than 180 degrees.<br />
* Finally, the first speaker comments again, and we now interpret this as referring not to the planet but to the universe itself - current observations suggest that the balance of matter and energy in the universe is such that the universe is, in fact, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_of_the_universe#Flat_universe flat] on the largest scales. (Whether this is coincidence or reflective of underlying laws is currently unknown.)<br />
* The arguments could continue around the circle, now referring to the universe. They aren't generally applicable but going round the circle a second time suggests that some similar truth may apply at the scale of the universe, which in turn is again embedded in something else (a kind of meta-universe). The circular layout of the comics invites to continue without end, a nice example of meta-humor.<br />
* The comic may be a reference to "[http://chem.tufts.edu/answersinscience/relativityofwrong.htm The Relativity of Wrong]," an essay by Isaac Asimov which uses the Earth's shape as a central example of the role of models in science.<br />
<br />
The pun of the title text lies in the ambiguity of the last sentence. "Eventually, you'll defeat all conversational opponents and stand alone" can literally be interpreted as 'winning' all the debates and standing alone as a sole champion, which would seem to be a flattering thing, but the other interpretation, arguably more likely to occur, suggests that the speaker is going to drive away all conversational partners by being an insufferable nitpick and end up alone, with no-one wanting to speak to them.<br />
<br />
<references /><br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
:[Six people are standing upon a white circle as if it were a miniature planet. Each person is facing the reader and says something to the person on their right. All texts are displayed as a near-continuous stream over their heads to form one circle that encloses the whole picture.]<br />
:[From topmost, going clockwise.]<br />
::Cueball: '''''Actually,''''' measurements suggest it's flat.<br />
::Ponytail: '''''Actually,''''' it's a sphere.<br />
::White Hat: '''''Actually,''''' it's an oblate spheroid.<br />
::Megan: '''''Actually,''''' it's a sphere defined by the EGM96 coefficients.<br />
::Hairy 1: '''''Actually,''''' it's that plus local topography.<br />
::Hairy 2: '''''Actually,''''' it's embedded in a universe that's curved.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1313:_Regex_Golf&diff=567621313: Regex Golf2014-01-06T19:40:25Z<p>141.101.99.228: /* Regular Expressions */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1313<br />
| date = January 6, 2014<br />
| title = Regex Golf<br />
| image = regex_golf.png<br />
| titletext = <nowiki>/bu|[rn]t|[coy]e|[mtg]a|j|iso|n[hl]|[ae]d|lev|sh|[lnd]i|[po]o|ls/ matches the last names of elected US presidents but not their opponents.</nowiki><br />
}}<br />
<br />
== Explanation ==<br />
<br />
This comic revolves around a set of increasingly complicated {{w|regular expressions}}, which are patterns used to search through text for blocks of text matching the pattern. There is a saying in professional programming that goes like this (see [[1171]]):<br />
<br />
: Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I'll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems.<br />
<br />
The comic exemplifies this as Megan's problems grow increasingly more convoluted - originally she was writing regex as a game, then moved on to automatically building regex on arbitrary lists of text, to searching through her files for code that appears to be a regex golf generator. At the end, Cueball quips that she now has "Infinite Problems" as a result of her efforts, tying back to the saying above.<br />
<br />
Code golf is a game where by programmers attempt to solve a problem using as few characters as possible, analogous to the number of golf shots it takes to reach the goal.<br />
<br />
=== Regular Expressions ===<br />
<br />
Regular expressions are a way to specify textual patterns. One can later search for the pattern inside a text string: if the pattern is found it's said that the pattern "matches" the string; if it's not found, it's said they do not match. The "Regex Golf" challenge is to make a regular expression that matches all of the strings in one group and none of the strings in another. As in "Code golf" the challenge is to find the shortest possible Regex that does this.<br />
<br />
The first regex Megan uses is /m | [tn]|b/, said to match Star Wars subtitles but not Star Trek. Subtitles are the secondary titles of the movies, after the "Star Trek: " or "Star Wars Episode N: ". For example, in "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" the subtitle is "The Phantom Menace".<br />
<br />
The forward slashes just mark the start and end of the regex. The | character means "or", so the regex matches any string that contains the patterns "m ", " [tn]" or "b" (including the spaces). The square brackets match one of the enclosed characters, meaning that " [tn]" matches either " t" or " n". The regex is apparently case-insensitive, because it wouldn't work otherwise.<br />
<br />
The Star Wars subtitles match the parts of the regex in the following way:<br />
* "The Phanto<u>m </u>Menace" is matched by "m ".<br />
* "Attack of<u> t</u>he Clones" is matched by " [tn]".<br />
* "Revenge of<u> t</u>he Sith" is matched by " [tn]".<br />
* "A<u> N</u>ew Hope" is matched by " [tn]".<br />
* "The Empire Strikes <u>B</u>ack" is matched by "b".<br />
* "Return of<u> t</u>he Jedi" is matched by " [tn]".<br />
Note that the animated film "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" is not included.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, none of the Star Trek subtitles contains an M followed by a space, a T or an N preceded by a space, or any B, so the regex does not match any of them. Note that in the original series all subtitles start with a "T" but it's the first character so it's not preceded by a space.<br />
<br />
Here is the list that Megan probably used:<br />
* Original series:<br />
** The Motion Picture<br />
** The Wrath of Khan<br />
** The Search For Spock<br />
** The Voyage Home<br />
** The Final Frontier<br />
** The Undiscovered Country<br />
* The Next Generation:<br />
** Generations<br />
** First Contact<br />
** Insurrection<br />
** Nemesis<br />
* Reboot series:<br />
** ''the one without a subtitle''<br />
** Into Darkness<br />
<br />
"Grepping" refers to using the Unix/Linux command line tool "grep", which is short for "Globally search a Regular Expression and Print", thus continuing to use regular expressions in search for the lost files.<br />
<br />
In the last panel "and beyond" Megan uses the regular expression "/(meta-)*regex golf/" to describe her problem. * means "zero or more" of the preceding character/group (parentheses group characters). So this regex matches "regex golf", "meta-regex golf", "meta-meta-regex golf", etc. In a way this is regex golf in itself, matching all levels of meta-regex golf while not matching anything else.<br />
<br />
In the title text there is a long regex that is the solution of another regex golf challenge: matching the last names of all elected US presidents but not their opponents. Note that the list of opponents include some people who were previously or later became presidents, so taken literally this is impossible. To make this work the list of opponents must exclude anyone who was also president. The regular expression itself works in a very similar way to the Star Wars/Trek one, including several different patterns separated by |. Each elected president matches one pattern while each opponent matches none.<br />
Here is a list of elected president and the patterns they match:<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
!President<br />
!Matched expression<br />
|-<br />
|George Wa'''sh'''ington<br />
|sh<br />
|-<br />
|John '''Ad'''ams<br />
|[ae]d<br />
|-<br />
|Thomas '''J'''efferson<br />
|j<br />
|-<br />
|James '''Ma'''dison<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|James Monr'''oe'''<br />
|[coy]e<br />
|-<br />
|John Quincy '''Ad'''ams<br />
|[ae]d<br />
|-<br />
|Andrew '''J'''ackson<br />
|j<br />
|-<br />
|Martin Van '''Bu'''ren<br />
|bu<br />
|-<br />
|William Henry Harr'''iso'''n<br />
|iso<br />
|-<br />
|James K. '''Po'''lk<br />
|[po]o<br />
|-<br />
|Zachary '''Ta'''ylor<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|Franklin Pier'''ce'''<br />
|[coy]e<br />
|-<br />
|James '''Bu'''chanan<br />
|bu<br />
|-<br />
|Abraham '''Li'''ncoln<br />
|[lnd]i<br />
|-<br />
|Andrew '''J'''ohnson<br />
|j<br />
|-<br />
|Ulysses S. Gra'''nt'''<br />
|[rn]t<br />
|-<br />
|Rutherford B. Ha'''ye'''s<br />
|[coy]e<br />
|-<br />
|James A. '''Ga'''rfield<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|Grover C'''lev'''eland<br />
|lev<br />
|-<br />
|Benjamin Harr'''iso'''n<br />
|iso<br />
|-<br />
|Grover C'''lev'''eland<br />
|lev<br />
|-<br />
|William McKi'''nl'''ey<br />
|n[hl]<br />
|-<br />
|Theodore R'''oo'''sevelt<br />
|[po]o<br />
|-<br />
|William Howard '''Ta'''ft<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|Woodrow Wi'''ls'''on<br />
|ls<br />
|-<br />
|Warren G. Har'''di'''ng<br />
|[lnd]i<br />
|-<br />
|Calvin Coo'''li'''dge<br />
|[lnd]i<br />
|-<br />
|Herbert H'''oo'''ver<br />
|[po]o<br />
|-<br />
|Franklin D. R'''oo'''sevelt<br />
|[po]o<br />
|-<br />
|Harry S. Tru'''ma'''n<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|Dwight D. Eise'''nh'''ower<br />
|n[hl]<br />
|-<br />
|John F. Kenn'''ed'''y<br />
|[ae]d<br />
|-<br />
|Lyndon B. '''J'''ohnson<br />
|j<br />
|-<br />
|Richard '''Ni'''xon<br />
|[lnd]i<br />
|-<br />
|Jimmy Ca'''rt'''er<br />
|[rn]t<br />
|-<br />
|Ronald Rea'''ga'''n<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|George H. W. '''Bu'''sh<br />
|bu<br />
|-<br />
|Bill Cli'''nt'''on<br />
|[rn]t<br />
|-<br />
|George W. '''Bu'''sh<br />
|bu<br />
|-<br />
|Barack Oba'''ma'''<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|}<br />
<br />
Note that some presidents are missing because they weren't elected but became presidents after the resignation/death of their formers.<br />
<br />
== Transcript ==<br />
:Regex golf:<br />
:[Megan is sitting at a laptop. Cueball is standing behind her.]<br />
:Megan: You try to match one group but not the other.<br />
:Megan: /m | [tn]|b/ matches ''Star Wars'' subtitles but not ''Star Trek''.<br />
:Cueball: Cool.<br />
<br />
:Meta-regex golf:<br />
:Megan: So I wrote a program that plays regex golf with arbitrary lists...<br />
:Cueball: Uh oh...<br />
<br />
:Meta-meta-regex golf:<br />
:Megan: ...But I lost my code, so I'm grepping for files that look like regex golf solvers.<br />
<br />
:...And beyond:<br />
:Megan: Really, this is all /(meta-)*regex golf/.<br />
:Cueball: Now you have ''infinite'' problems.<br />
:Megan: No, I had those already.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Computers]]</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1313:_Regex_Golf&diff=567421313: Regex Golf2014-01-06T14:23:35Z<p>141.101.99.228: /* Regular Expressions */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1313<br />
| date = January 6, 2014<br />
| title = Regex Golf<br />
| image = regex_golf.png<br />
| titletext = <nowiki>/bu|[rn]t|[coy]e|[mtg]a|j|iso|n[hl]|[ae]d|lev|sh|[lnd]i|[po]o|ls/ matches the last names of elected US presidents but not their opponents.</nowiki><br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic revolves around a set of increasingly complicated {{w|regular expressions}}, which are patterns used to search through text for blocks of text matching the pattern. There is a saying in professional programming that goes like this (see [[1171]]):<br />
:Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I'll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems.<br />
The comic exemplifies this as Megan's problems grow increasingly more convoluted - originally she was writing regex as a game, then moved on to automatically building regex on arbitrary lists of text, to searching through her files for code that appears to be a regex golf generator. At the end, Cueball quips that she now has "Infinite Problems" as a result of her efforts, tying back to the saying above.<br />
Code golf is a game where by programmings attempt to solve a problem using as few characters as possible, analogous to the number of golf shots took to reach the goal.<br />
<br />
===Regular Expressions===<br />
Regular expressions are a way for programmers to specify a textual pattern. You can later search for the pattern inside a text string - if the pattern is found it's said that the pattern "matches" the string, if it's not found it's said they do not match. The "Regex Golf" challenge is to make a regular expression that matches all of the strings in one group and none of the strings in another. As in "Code golf" the challenge is to find the shortest possible Regex that does this.<br />
The first regex Megan uses is /m | [tn]|b/, said to match Star Wars subtitles but not Star Trek. Subtitles are the secondary titles of the movies, after the "Star Trek: " or "Star Wars Episode N: ". For example, in "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" the subtitle is "The Phantom Menace".<br />
The forward slashed just mark the start and end of the regex. The | character means "or", so the regex matches any string that contains the patterns "m ", " [tn]" or "b" (including the spaces). The square brackets match one of the enclosed characters, meaning that " [tn]" matches either " t" or " n". The regex is appearently non case sensitive because it wouldn't work otherwise.<br />
The star wars subtitles match the parts of the regex in the following way:<br />
* "The Phanto<u>m </u>Menace" is matched by "m ".<br />
* "Attack of<u> t</u>he Clones" is matched by " [tn]".<br />
* "Revenge of<u> t</u>he Sith" is matched by " [tn]".<br />
* "A<u> N</u>ew Hope" is matched by " [tn]".<br />
* "The Empire Strikes <u>B</u>ack" is matched by "b".<br />
* "Return of<u> t</u>he Jedi" is matched by " [tn]".<br />
Note that the animated film "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" is not included.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, none of the Star Trek subtitles contains an M followed by a space, a T or an N preceded by a space, or any B, so the regex does not match any of them. Note that in the original series all subtitles start with a "T" but it's the first character so it's not preceded by a space. Here is the list that Megan probably used:<br />
* Original series:<br />
** The Motion Picture<br />
** The Wrath of Khan<br />
** The Search For Spock<br />
** The Voyage Home<br />
** The Final Frontier<br />
** The Undiscovered Country<br />
* The Next Generation:<br />
** Generations<br />
** First Contact<br />
** Insurrection<br />
** Nemesis<br />
* Reboot series:<br />
** - the one without a subtitle -<br />
** Into Darkness<br />
<br />
"Grepping" refers to using the Unix/Linux command line tool "grep", which is short for "Globally search a Regular Expression and Print", thus continuing to use regular expressions in search for the lost files.<br />
<br />
In the last panel "and beyond" Megan uses the regular expression "/(meta-)*regex golf/" to describe her problem. * means "zero or more" or the preceding character/group (parentheses group characters). So this regex matches "regex golf", "meta-regex golf", "meta-meta-regex golf" etc.. In a way this is regex golf in itself, matching all levels of meta-regex golf while not matching anything else.<br />
<br />
In the title text there is a long regex that is the solution of another regex golf challenge - matching the last names of all elected US presidents but not their opponents. Note that the list of opponents include some people who were previously or later became presidents, so taken literally this is impossible. To make this work the list of opponents must exclude anyone who was also president. The regular expression itself works in a very similar way to the Star Wars/Trek one, including several different patterns separated by |. Each elected president matches one pattern while each opponent matches none.<br />
Here is a list of elected president and the patterns they match:<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
!President<br />
!Matched expression<br />
|-<br />
|George Wa'''sh'''ington<br />
|sh<br />
|-<br />
|John '''Ad'''ams<br />
|[ae]d<br />
|-<br />
|Thomas '''J'''efferson<br />
|j<br />
|-<br />
|James '''Ma'''dison<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|James Monr'''oe'''<br />
|[coy]e<br />
|-<br />
|John Quincy '''Ad'''ams<br />
|[ae]d<br />
|-<br />
|Andrew '''J'''ackson<br />
|j<br />
|-<br />
|Martin Van '''Bu'''ren<br />
|bu<br />
|-<br />
|William Henry Harr'''iso'''n<br />
|iso<br />
|-<br />
|James K. '''Po'''lk<br />
|[po]o<br />
|-<br />
|Zachary '''Ta'''ylor<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|Franklin Pier'''ce'''<br />
|[coy]e<br />
|-<br />
|James '''Bu'''chanan<br />
|bu<br />
|-<br />
|Abraham '''Li'''ncoln<br />
|[lnd]i<br />
|-<br />
|Andrew '''J'''ohnson<br />
|j<br />
|-<br />
|Ulysses S. Gra'''nt'''<br />
|[rn]t<br />
|-<br />
|Rutherford B. Ha'''ye'''s<br />
|[coy]e<br />
|-<br />
|James A. '''Ga'''rfield<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|Chester A. A'''rt'''hur<br />
|[rn]t<br />
|-<br />
|Grover C'''lev'''eland<br />
|lev<br />
|-<br />
|Benjamin Harr'''iso'''n<br />
|iso<br />
|-<br />
|Grover C'''lev'''eland<br />
|lev<br />
|-<br />
|William McKi'''nl'''ey<br />
|n[hl]<br />
|-<br />
|Theodore R'''oo'''sevelt<br />
|[po]o<br />
|-<br />
|William Howard '''Ta'''ft<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|Woodrow Wi'''ls'''on<br />
|ls<br />
|-<br />
|Warren G. Har'''di'''ng<br />
|[lnd]i<br />
|-<br />
|Calvin Coo'''li'''dge<br />
|[lnd]i<br />
|-<br />
|Herbert H'''oo'''ver<br />
|[po]o<br />
|-<br />
|Franklin D. R'''oo'''sevelt<br />
|[po]o<br />
|-<br />
|Harry S. Tru'''ma'''n<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|Dwight D. Eise'''nh'''ower<br />
|n[hl]<br />
|-<br />
|John F. Kenn'''ed'''y<br />
|[ae]d<br />
|-<br />
|Lyndon B. '''J'''ohnson<br />
|j<br />
|-<br />
|Richard '''Ni'''xon<br />
|[lnd]i<br />
|-<br />
|Jimmy Ca'''rt'''er<br />
|[rn]t<br />
|-<br />
|Ronald Rea'''ga'''n<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|-<br />
|George H. W. '''Bu'''sh<br />
|bu<br />
|-<br />
|Bill Cli'''nt'''on<br />
|[rn]t<br />
|-<br />
|George W. '''Bu'''sh<br />
|bu<br />
|-<br />
|Barack Oba'''ma'''<br />
|[mtg]a<br />
|}<br />
<br />
Note that some presidents are missing because they weren't elected but became presidents after the resignation/death of their formers.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Regex golf:<br />
:[Megan is sitting at a laptop. Cueball is standing behind her.]<br />
:Megan: You try to match one group but not the other.<br />
:Megan: /m | [tn]|b/ matches ''Star Wars'' subtitles but not ''Star Trek''.<br />
:Cueball: Cool.<br />
<br />
:Meta-regex golf:<br />
:Megan: So I wrote a program that plays regex golf with arbitrary lists...<br />
:Cueball: Uh oh...<br />
<br />
:Meta-meta-regex golf:<br />
:Megan: ...But I lost my code, so I'm grepping for files that look like regex golf solvers.<br />
<br />
:...And beyond:<br />
:Megan: Really, this is all /(meta-)*regex golf/.<br />
:Cueball: Now you have ''infinite'' problems.<br />
:Megan: No, I had those already.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Computers]]</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1140:_Calendar_of_Meaningful_Dates&diff=562781140: Calendar of Meaningful Dates2013-12-31T20:10:06Z<p>141.101.99.228: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1140<br />
| date = November 28, 2012<br />
| title = Calendar of Meaningful Dates<br />
| image = calendar of meaningful dates.png<br />
| titletext = In months other than September, the 11th is mentioned substantially less often than any other date. It's been that way since long before 9/11 and I have no idea why.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The calendar used in the comic is the standard {{w|Gregorian calendar}} used by most of western civilization. The comic looks at the frequencies of which dates appear in English writings indexed in the {{w|Google Books Library Project}}, by using the {{w|Google Ngram Viewer}} ([http://books.google.com/ngrams link]).<br />
<br />
Some dates are more (or less) frequently mentioned because they have a special significance. For example:<br />
* January 1 is {{w|New Year's Day|New Year's Day}}.<br />
* February 14 is {{w|Valentine's Day}}.<br />
* February 29 only exists during {{w|Leap year|leap years}}.<br />
* March 15 is the {{w|Ides of March}}.<br />
* March 21 is considered the first day of {{w|Spring (season)|spring}}, by a common convention in the northern hemisphere. <br />
* April 15 is {{w|Tax Day|US Individual Income Tax return filing day}}.<br />
* May 1 is {{w|International Workers' Day|International Workers' Day}}, or {{w|May Day|May Day}}.<br />
* June 4 is the {{w|June Fourth Incident}}, or the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.<br />
* June 30 is the end of the {{w|Fiscal Year| fiscal year}} for most American states and local governments. <br />
* July 4 is {{w|Independence Day (United States)|US Independence Day}}.<br />
* September 11 is the date of the {{w|September 11 attacks|2001 terrorist attacks}} in New York City and Washington DC. It's the largest number by a big margin, most likely because unlike the other dates it has no special name, it's reffered to as "Septemter 11" almost exclusively. <br />
* December 7 is the date of the {{w|Attack on Pearl Harbor|1941 attack on Pearl Harbor}}.<br />
* December 25 is {{w|Christmas|Christmas}}.<br />
* December 31 is {{w|New Year's Eve|New Year's Eve}}.<br />
<br />
In addition, the first of each month is generally more mentioned than others, perhaps because such dates are markers of a new month and may be used as landmark dates or deadlines. Similarly, the final day of each month is commonly a deadline day. Other dates have correlations for which there doesn't appear to be any obvious reasons. (An example is noted in the title text.)<br />
<br />
The date mentioned in the sub-heading (October 17th) is Randall's birthday.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''Calendar of Meaningful Dates'''<br />
:Each date's size represents how often it is referred to by name (e.g. "October 17th") in English-language books since 2000<br />
:(Source: Google ngrams corpus)<br />
:[A regular Gregorian calendar laid out in a grid, with some numbers larger than others.]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1037:_Umwelt&diff=56237Talk:1037: Umwelt2013-12-30T22:26:33Z<p>141.101.99.228: </p>
<hr />
<div>Normally I understand xkcd. But this one hurts my head. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 20:35, 15 August 2012 (UTC)<br />
: I sorted all of them out. Phew!!! That was some work. The ones at the end have no appropriate picture in the image part. Atleast the hurricane one should be added. Please do so. [[User:TheOriginalSoni|TheOriginalSoni]] ([[User talk:TheOriginalSoni|talk]]) 11:09, 8 September 2012 (UTC)<br />
:: I live in one of Umwelt's "hurricane areas", and that's the one I see. How do we add it? [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 06:06, 30 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There is a fixed image used if your browser does not support javascript, which is missing. Additionally, the alt text varies at times. [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 20:16, 4 October 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I can't see any of them neither in Firefox nor in IE :( --[[User:Kronf|Kronf]] ([[User talk:Kronf|talk]]) 11:32, 13 October 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This has got to be one of my favourite xkcd's! That amount of ingenuity in one edition! [[User:D3KN0W|Dean]] ([[User talk:D3KN0W|talk]]) 22:33, 01 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There is now also a category page for Jurassic Park, but I'm not sure how to work that into the explanation. [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 09:04, 28 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I can't resist noting that Chrome is sadly mistaken in thinking that its puzzle piece links up to a corner piece - it would have to be an edge piece to do that. Firefox would never have that kind of issue... [[User:Natf|Natf]] ([[User talk:Natf|talk]])<br />
: Supposedly, if there were a puzzle with inner corners, such as one with a plus cut out of it, this could link up as shown. ... I wanna make a puzzle like that now. [[Special:Contributions/99.44.200.140|99.44.200.140]] 08:00, 1 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It would be difficult to compile, but I think this page would benefit from having the conditions along with the image (for instance, "Displays when running Netscape:") [[Special:Contributions/24.41.66.114|24.41.66.114]] 03:27, 6 September 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey, um, I think there is an Animaniacs reference. Namely, the question about hot dogs resembles Yakko's question to the Wally Llama except it dealt with packages of eight and packages of ten. (I forget which is which) {{unsigned ip|71.166.47.84}}<br />
<br />
I came here to seek informartion about how each strip was seen. Disappointed... Especially after seeing there is a hebrew one!?!?!?!? (number 29) Is it real? Because I assume it should be visible from Israel and I can't see it [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.228|141.101.99.228]] 22:26, 30 December 2013 (UTC)</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1002:_Game_AIs&diff=562351002: Game AIs2013-12-30T21:13:19Z<p>141.101.99.228: Removed irrelevant link (linked to a different game named ghost)</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1002<br />
| date = January 11, 2012<br />
| title = Game AIs<br />
| image = game_ais.png<br />
| imagesize = <br />
| titletext = The top computer champion at Seven Minutes in Heaven is a Honda-built Realdoll, but to date it has been unable to outperform the human Seven Minutes in Heaven champion, Ken Jennings.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
To understand the comic, you have to understand what the games are, so let's go (but first, the years in parenthesis in the comic are the year that the game was mastered by a computer):<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Tic Tac Toe|Tic-Tac-Toe}}''' (or '''Noughts and Crosses''' in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and the rest of the British Commonwealth countries), is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Nim}}''' is a mathematical game of strategy in which two players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps. On each turn, a player must remove at least one object, and may remove any number of objects provided they all come from the same heap.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Ghost (game)|Ghost}}''' is a spoken word game in which players take turns adding letters to a growing word fragment. The loser is the first person who completes a valid word or who creates a fragment that cannot be the start of a word.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Connect Four}}''' (or '''Captain's Mistress''', '''Four Up''', '''Plot Four''', '''Find Four''', '''Fourplay''', '''Four in a Row''', '''Four in a Line''') is a two-player game in which the players first choose a color and then take turns dropping their colored discs from the top into a seven-column, six-row vertically-suspended grid.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Gomoku}}''' (or '''Gobang''', '''Five in a Row''') is an abstract strategy board game. It is traditionally played with go pieces (black and white stones) on a go board (19x19 intersections); however, because once placed, pieces are not moved or removed from the board, gomoku may also be played as a paper and pencil game. This game is known in several countries under different names.<br />
: Black plays first, and players alternate in placing a stone of their color on an empty intersection. The winner is the first player to get an unbroken row of five stones horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Draughts|Checkers}}''' (in the United States, or '''draughts''' in the United Kingdom) is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Scrabble}}''' is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a gameboard marked with a 15-by-15 grid.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Counter-Strike|Counterstrike}}''' most likely refers to the popular multiplayer shooter video game about terrorists and counter-terrorists. Counter-Strike is notorious for the large variety of cheating tools that have been made for it; a computer would have essentially perfect accuracy and reflexes, essentially making it the {{w|aimbot}} from hell. It is theoretically possible for a skilled player to beat an AI, but it would be ''extremely'' difficult to do so.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Beer pong}}''' (or '''Beirut''') is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end.<br />
:[http://hacknmod.com/hack/beer-pong-robot-precision-air-pressure/ Here's the video] of the University of Illinois robot mentioned in the comic.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Reversi}}''' (marketed by Pressman under the trade name '''Othello''') is a board game involving abstract strategy and played by two players on a board with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of distinct pieces for each side. Pieces typically are disks with a light and a dark face, each face belonging to one player. The player's goal is to have a majority of their colored pieces showing at the end of the game, turning over as many of their opponent's pieces as possible.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Chess}}''' is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns, each of these types of pieces moving differently.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Jeopardy|Jeopardy!}}''' is an American quiz show featuring trivia in history, literature, the arts, pop culture, science, sports, geography, wordplay, and more. The show has a unique answer-and-question format in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form.<br />
: Ken Jennings, mentioned in the title text, is a famous Jeopardy champion who was beaten by {{w|Watson (computer)|Watson}}, an IBM computer.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Starcraft}}''' is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game. The game revolves around three species fighting for dominance in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector: the Terrans, humans exiled from Earth skilled at adapting to any situation; the Zerg, a race of insectoid aliens in pursuit of genetic perfection, obsessed with assimilating other races; and the Protoss, a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities, attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophical way of living from the Zerg. Even average Starcraft players can defeat the default AIs included in the games, mostly by abusing scripting (and also because commercial video game AI is designed to be eventually beatable), but since the game is essentially based on correct timings and counters, it is likely possible to program a computer that could compete at a top level. <br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Poker}}''' is a family of card games involving betting and individualistic play whereby the winner is determined by the ranks and combinations of their cards, some of which remain hidden until the end of the game.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Arimaa}}''' is a two-player abstract strategy board game that can be played using the same equipment as chess. Arimaa was designed to be more difficult for artificial intelligences to play than chess. Arimaa was invented by Omar Syed, an Indian American computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. Syed was inspired by Garry Kasparov's defeat at the hands of the chess computer Deep Blue to design a new game which could be played with a standard chess set, would be difficult for computers to play well, but would have rules simple enough for his then four-year-old son Aamir to understand.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Go (game)|Go}}''' is an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. The game is played by two players who alternately place black and white stones on the vacant intersections (called "points") of a grid of 19×19 lines (beginners often play on smaller 9×9 and 13×13 boards). The object of the game is to use one's stones to surround a larger portion of the board than the opponent.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Snakes and Ladders}}''' (or '''Chutes and Ladders''') is an ancient Indian {{w|race game}}, where the moves are decided entirely by die rolls. A number of tiles are connected by pictures of ladders and snakes (or chutes) which makes the game piece jump forward or backward, respectively. Since the game is decided by pure chance, it occupies the limbo where a computer will always be ''exactly'' as likely to win as a human.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Mao (game)|Mao}}''' (or '''Mau''') is a card game of the Shedding family, in which the aim is to get rid of all of the cards in hand without breaking certain unspoken rules. The game is from a subset of the Stops family, and is similar in structure to the card game Uno or Crazy Eights.<br />
: The game forbids its players from explaining the rules, and new players are often told only "the only rule you may be told is this one." The ultimate goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all the cards in their hand.<br />
<br />
* '''{{w|Seven Minutes in Heaven}}''' is a teenagers' party game first recorded as being played in Cincinnati in the early 1950s. Two people are selected to go into a closet or other dark enclosed space and do whatever they like for seven minutes. Sexual activities are allowed; however kissing and making out are more common.<br />
<br />
And finally<br />
* '''{{w|Calvinball}}''' is a reference to the comic strip {{w|Calvin and Hobbes}} by {{w|Bill Watterson}}.<br />
: Calvinball is a game played by Calvin and Hobbes as a rebellion against organized team sports; according to Hobbes, "No sport is less organized than Calvinball!" Calvinball was first introduced to the readers at the end of a 1990 storyline involving Calvin reluctantly joining recess baseball. It quickly became a staple of the comic afterwards.<br />
: The only hint at the true creation of the game ironically comes from the last Calvinball strip, in which a game of football quickly devolves into a game of Calvinball. Calvin remarks that "sooner or later, all our games turn into Calvinball," suggesting a similar scenario that directly led to the creation of the sport. Calvin and Hobbes usually play by themselves, although in one storyline Rosalyn (Calvin's baby-sitter) plays in return for Calvin doing his homework, and plays very well once she realizes that the rules are made up on the spot.<br />
: The only consistent rule states that Calvinball may never be played with the same rules twice. Scoring is also arbitrary, with Hobbes at times reporting scores of "Q to 12" and "oogy to boogy." The only recognizable sports Calvinball resembles are the ones it emulates (i.e., a cross between croquet, polo, badminton, capture the flag, and volleyball.)<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
Difficulty of Various Games for Computers<br />
<br />
[A diagram. The left column describes various levels of skill for the most capable computers in decreasing performance against humans. The right side lists games in each particular section, in increasing game difficulty. There are labels denoting the hard and easy ends of the diagram.]<br />
<br />
Easy<br />
{| border="1"<br />
| rowspan="6" | Solved - Computers can play perfectly<br />
| rowspan="4" | Solved for all possible positions<br />
| Tic-Tac-Toe<br />
|-<br />
| NIM<br />
|-<br />
| Ghost(1989)<br />
|-<br />
| Connect Four(1995)<br />
|-<br />
| rowspan="2" | Solved for starting positions<br />
| Gomoku<br />
|-<br />
| Checkers(2007)<br />
|-<br />
| rowspan="6" colspan="2" | Computers can beat top humans<br />
| Scrabble<br />
|-<br />
| CounterStrike<br />
|-<br />
| Beer Pong (UIUC robot)<br />
|-<br />
| Reversi<br />
|-<br />
| Chess <br />
* February 10, 1996 - First win by computer against top human<br />
* November 21, 2005 - Last win by human against top computer<br />
|-<br />
| Jeopardy<br />
|-<br />
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers still lose to top humans<br />
(but focused R&D could change this)<br />
| Starcraft<br />
|-<br />
| Poker<br />
|-<br />
| Arimaa<br />
|-<br />
| Go<br />
|-<br />
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers may ''never'' outplay humans<br />
| Snakes and Ladders<br />
|-<br />
| Mao<br />
|-<br />
| Seven Minutes in Heaven<br />
|-<br />
| Calvinball<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
Hard<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Calvin and Hobbes]]<br />
[[Category:Video games]]</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:665:_Prudence&diff=55934Talk:665: Prudence2013-12-25T19:14:11Z<p>141.101.99.228: Edit to sign</p>
<hr />
<div>Anyone else reminded of the MALP from Stargate? Portal to another world, the probe is similar in design, etc [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.228|141.101.99.228]] 19:14, 25 December 2013 (UTC)</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:665:_Prudence&diff=55933Talk:665: Prudence2013-12-25T19:13:22Z<p>141.101.99.228: Created page with "Anyone else reminded of the MALP from Stargate? Portal to another world, the probe is similar in design, etc"</p>
<hr />
<div>Anyone else reminded of the MALP from Stargate? Portal to another world, the probe is similar in design, etc</div>141.101.99.228https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:292:_goto&diff=55577Talk:292: goto2013-12-19T19:46:53Z<p>141.101.99.228: </p>
<hr />
<div>Note that the concept of ''goto being harmful'' fortunately is weaning a little. <br />
Jumping forwards in code to the end where error handling is implemented is actually in wider use now; including many locations in the Linux kernel. [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 09:53, 9 September 2012 (UTC)<br />
:Actually, ''goto'' has been used quite with some frequency in low-level code in C programming over the years, so it's not altogether surprising that it is used in the Linux kernel, or any other tight bit of code. Given the "advance" of programming languages, I wouldn't say that there's been any weaning, except off of the concept of an unstructured goto in more recent languages. Admittedly, there's a schism between the low-level (that is, near-to-assembly) coders who more readily use ''goto'' because in the end, that's what the compiler reduces code branching down to, and developers using higher-level languages (that is, more highly abstracted, more removed from ''1 statement ~ 1 machine instruction'' languages) avoiding such because alternative structures abound, making ''goto'' somewhat unnecessary. There has been a bit of a dogmatic approach to teaching various languages, as in "thou shalt not use ''goto'' lest thou produce monsterous, unmaintainable code!" applied that many if not most developers observe; the humor in the panel is that this dogma is manifested in the appearance of a literal monster (a velociraptor, no less...) -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 05:08, 11 September 2012 (UTC)<br />
::From an historical perspective, in the 80's, back when BASIC was the norm for developing proggies on home computers, because code blocks (begin...end, { ... }, etc.) were nonexistent, one had the option of two keywords: GOTO and GOSUB. In the case of branching beyond code that wasn't executed, many programmers abused GOTO even beyond the necessity of its use. This was a fairly hot topic in home-computing magazines at the time, again with BASIC in mind, and it appears that developers using C, [Turbo] Pascal and the like, having hangups about BASIC, emitted serious frowns at the idea of using GOTO at all. But for quick jumps that avoid having to tab forward entire blocks of code, GOTO (case notwithstanding) certainly has my support. [[User:Thokling|Thokling]] ([[User talk:Thokling|talk]]) 16:05, 20 September 2013 (UTC)<br />
:"Jumping forwards in code to the end where error handling is implemented is actually in wider use now [...]" try-catch-finally? Syntactically not a goto but the effect can be similar. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.47|108.162.219.47]] 17:58, 22 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Yeah, in most high-level languages exception handeling is preffered to goto. But some lower-level languages like C don't have that construct. Note that exception handling allows to go straight from inside a function to the error-handling code outside the function, which is an advantage over C-style error handling which usually require you to check the return value of every function in case you got a specialized "error code". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.228|141.101.99.228]] 19:46, 19 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
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"Velociraptors are a running joke..." Ha, I get it [[Special:Contributions/79.169.177.15|79.169.177.15]] 13:06, 9 October 2013 (UTC)</div>141.101.99.228