Editing 319: Engineering Hubris

This comic starts with a philosophical musing about {{w|engineering}}. The last panel reveals a joke about {{w|Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner}}, a cartoon series created by {{w|Chuck Jones}}. In the cartoon, the Coyote is constantly building odd contraptions (with parts ordered from the {{w|Acme Corporation}}) to catch the Road Runner. The Coyote never succeeds, often because his devices don't work as intended.

The word {{w|Hubris}} from the comic title means extreme pride or arrogance. It is a theme from the classic Greek plays, and is usually severely punished by the gods.  The title text is implying that Chuck Jones would not let hubris go unpunished; the engineer might be able to construct 'better' traps than Wile E, but they would still be doomed to fail.

 

From the second panel, [https://catb.org/jargon/html/M/Murphys-Law.html| Murphy's Law] can be simplified to "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." It was originally developed as a guideline for accident prevention starting at the design level. In the common vernacular today, it is interpreted more liberally: "If there is even the slightest chance of an unfortunate accident occurring, despite all your attempts to prevent it, the accident will happen anyway, purely out of spite." The namesake {{w|Edward A. Murphy Jr.}} has since evolved to mythic proportions, being cast as a vengeful god of misfortune and ruin.

:[This comic is illustrated in color. Landscape in the background, canyon with a winding road.]

 

:[Cueball standing on boxes labeled "ACME."]

:<u>I</u> could have caught that roadrunner.