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| Simulation |
 Title text: No matter what I initially open Universe Sandbox to do, I always end up just mashing planets together like a small child making toys kiss. |
Explanation
Some people have speculated that Earth is actually a simulation, and we are living inside it. Universe Sandbox is a game that simulates the orbital paths of different planets, and the player can, as referenced in the comic, smash asteroids into Earth in this game. The comic plays on the meaning of "simulation". While most people think of a futuristic VR simulation (like the one in The Matrix) we’re trapped in, Randall speculates that any "higher beings" that could simulate Earth would be doing so in Universe Sandbox. Because most players will eventually resort to hitting Earth with asteroids, and Earth is not getting hit by obscene amounts of asteroids (at this time), this proves that Earth cannot be a simulation. Because if it were, the ones running the simulation can not have resisted this method of continually disturbing or even destroying the Earth with asteroids.
The title text describes Randall playing Universe Sandbox, comparing it with his behavior when he was little. To children (and also some adults, and especially particle physicists), smashing things together is immensely satisfying, so Randall inevitably would decide to just smash all the planets together for his enjoyment.
Transcript
- [A graph showing "Cataclysmic asteroid impact rate" on the Y-axis, with an unlabeled X-axis. The Y-axis is labeled "Rare" at the bottom, with an arrow pointing up towards "Constant" at the top. A point on the graph, horizontally aligned with "Rare", is labeled "Earth". A box with whiskers is positioned slightly below "Constant", with a whisker above "Constant", and is labeled "Earth in the average install of Universe Sandbox". The box is directly above the point.]
- [Caption below the panel:]
- Evidence that we don't live in a simulation
This Week's Explanation for Improvement
As part of the Explanation Improvement Project, each week the community selects one older, stagnant, or otherwise neglected explanation to expand and polish together. This week's pick is comic 301: Limerick, you can help us by editing its explanation!
To get involved with the project, you can also nominate an explanation that you think should be improved, or vote on current nominations!
| Limerick |
 Title text: Fun game: try to post a YouTube comment so stupid that people realize you must be joking. (Hint: this is impossible) |
Explanation
|
Welcome to This Week's Explanation for Improvement! Anyone is encouraged to help explain comic 301: Limerick; click here to get started! If you are new to wiki editing, you can read our editing FAQ for guidance. Here are some suggestions for improving this explanation: .svg){kind=icon} Explain the title text about idiotic YouTube comments. This was also covered in comic 202: YouTube.
.svg){kind=icon} Why do the upvoted sarcastic comments make Cueball spiteful?
.svg){kind=icon} This comic's number (#301) is a reference to YouTube views getting stuck at 301. Learn what caused this bug and help explain it!
.svg){kind=icon} Make the explanation of a limerick more understandable.
.svg){kind=icon} The reference to Poe's law is interesting, expand on it.
.svg){kind=icon} Slashdot is no longer relevant after almost 20 years. Explain what it was and its eventual downfall (see Slashdot on Wikipedia)
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A limerick is a well-known type of poem that is usually humorous or bawdy. A limerick is five lines long and has the rhyme scheme AABBA; the first, second, and fifth lines share one rhyme, while the third and fourth lines share another rhyme. The third and fourth lines are also usually shorter. Limericks, like the one written in this comic, primarily feature amphibrachic (◡–◡) trimeters, but they can also include anapestic trimeters (◡◡–), as well. Almost anyone can instantly recognize a limerick after hearing the first line.[citation needed]
In poetry, a foot is a pattern unit of stressed (–) and unstressed (◡) syllables in a line. A meter measures the amount of feet per line. In this case, an 'anapestic trimeter' is a line of three anapests, where an 'anapest' is a foot that consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable.
Slashdot is one of the oldest forum and social news websites focused on science and technology. It was launched in 1997 and is still active to this day, although with much deterioration and little activity. The decline of Slashdot may have been caused by the lack of newer updates, and the rise of newer competitors, like Reddit and Hacker News.
In Slashdot, each article submitted by a user has a threaded comments section where other users can discuss the article. On many comments sections of forum websites, the user base can vote comments using an upvote/downvote system, however in Slashdot, only moderators have this privilege. Slashdot moderators are drawn from the pool of registered users based on their good amount of karma. They are also given 'moderation points', where each point is spent on voting a comment. All users have at least one chance to be a moderator, but they have a limited time to be one, with a limit of three days.
A moderator can also choose to cast a predefined descriptor for their upvote/downvote towards a comment. For example, instead of a simple +1, a comment may be voted "+1 (Funny)". Similarly, instead of -1, a comment may be voted "-1 (Off-topic)". Comments have a maximum positive score of five; a comment voted "+5 (Insightful)" means it was upvoted at least five times and has a plurality of 'Insightful' votes.
Cueball's limerick states that he does not like Slashdot any more because his sarcastic comments are being treated as insightful by its moderators. The line "the iconoclastic / keep modding to plus five (Insightful)" state that the moderators strongly oppose the views of Cueball, but since they misinterpret his sarcasm as sincere, they translate his criticisms as insightful opinions that reinforce their own, which would warrant an upvote. This would frustrate Cueball if his goal was to mock the behavior of Slashdotters.
This is an example of Poe's law, which is an Internet adage that states that a sarcastic expression without clarification can be mistaken by readers as sincere. This can be especially true if the expression mocks extreme beliefs and the readers who mistake it share those same beliefs; you can't mock the extremists without looking like an extremist yourself.
A scansion for this poem (in the macron and breve notation) is as follows:
| Line (w/ highlighted stress) | Scansion | Term |
|---|---|---|
| I used to find Slashdot delightful | ◡–◡ ◡–◡ ◡–◡ | amphibrachic trimeter |
| but my feelings of late are more spiteful; | ◡◡–◡ ◡–◡ ◡–◡ | amphibrachic trimeter with a "pickup" (or brachycatalectic amphibrachic tetrameter scanning as ◡ ◡–◡ ◡–◡ ◡–◡) |
| my comments sarcastic | ◡–◡ ◡–◡ | amphibrachic dimeter |
| the iconoclastic | ◡–◡ ◡–◡ | amphibrachic dimeter |
| keep modding to plus five (Insightful) | ◡–◡ ◡–◡ ◡–◡ | amphibrachic trimeter |
The title text refers to the notoriously awful comments on YouTube, many of which are so idiotic that they're interpreted as jokes.
301, the number of this comic, is also a number often associated with YouTube. At the time this comic was published, view counts on YouTube videos would often freeze at 301, as YouTube would switch between view-counting algorithms when the number of views exceeded 300. Therefore, the comic number itself may be a reference to the title text.
Transcript
- [Cueball sits at a computer, typing.]
- Cueball (typing): I used to find Slashdot delightful,
- Cueball (typing): but my feelings of late are more spiteful;
- Cueball (typing): my comments sarcastic
- Cueball (typing): the iconoclastic
- Cueball (typing): keep modding to plus five (Insightful).
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