695: Spirit

2015-03-27T17:24:29Z

108.162.221.205: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number =695
| date =January 29, 2010
| title =Spirit
| image =spirit.png
| titletext =On January 26th, 2274 Mars days into the mission, NASA declared Spirit a 'stationary research station' expected to stay operational for several more months until the dust buildup on its solar panels forces a final shutdown.
}}
==Explanation==
{{w|Anthropomorphism}} is attribution of distinctly human characteristics to animals or non-living things. We make parallels between ourselves and objects, to the point where some people even jocularly worry about hurting the feelings of, say, an automobile. We call ships "she". We see human faces in objects like the arrangement of lights on the front of a car.

The {{w|Spirit rover|''Spirit'' Mars rover}}, like many high-functioning robots in real-life and fiction, shares many physical similarities with a human being or animal. It has a head, eyes, neck, body, legs, feet, arms and a hand. And it strikingly resembles sentient robots from fiction, such as Johnny 5 from ''{{w|Short Circuit (1986 film)|Short Circuit}}'', or {{w|WALL-E}} from the film with the same name.

Thus, this comic explores what the ''Spirit'' rover's life would be like if it were sentient. The rover was never intended to return to Earth, and lasted 5 1/4 active years on the Martian surface, far exceeding its expected mission duration of 90 Martian days. A sentient robot might assume that after her initially planned 90 {{w|Timekeeping on Mars|Martian day}} mission was over, she'd get to return home. So, though this heartbreakingly did not happen, ''Spirit'', possibly in a pun on her name, keeps her hopes alive as she continues analyzing rock after rock for ''years.''

It would be cruelty of the absolute worst kind to create an intelligence with such feelings, and then abandon it on an uninhabited planet with no intention of ''ever'' bringing it home. So one is rather heartened that the ''Spirit'' rover ''is,'' in fact, just a programmed machine, and we explained to it very carefully that it was embarking on a one-way trip.

It is worth pointing out that ''Opportunity'', the rover's twin, has been even more wildly successful and remains operational.

The title text has an apparent miscount: January 26, 2010, is more like sol (Martian day) 2156 by JPL's [http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_spiritAll_2010.html#sol2151 mission status site], not 2274.

Final contact was on sol 2210 (March 22, 2010).

==Transcript==
:[The ''Spirit'' rover is on the surface of Mars.]
:''Spirit'' (thinking): 89 days to go!

:Day 88 of 90
:''Spirit'' (thinking): Two days until I go home!

:Day 91 of 90
:''Spirit'' (thinking): ?

:Day 103 of 90
:''Spirit'' (thinking): Maybe I didn't do a good enough job.

:Day 127 of 90
:''Spirit'' (thinking): Maybe if I do a good enough job, they'll let me come home.

:Day 857 of 90
:''Spirit'' (thinking): I thought I analyzed that rock really well.
:''Spirit'' (thinking): It's okay, I'll do the next one better.

:Day 1293 of 90
:''Spirit'' (thinking): Sandstorm. Power dying.
:''Spirit'' (thinking): But a good rover would keep going. A good rover like they wanted.

:Day 1944 of 90
:''Spirit'' (thinking): Oh no.
:''whirrrr''
:''Spirit'' (thinking): I'm stuck.
:''whirrrr''

:''Spirit'' (thinking): Did I do a good job?
:''Spirit'' (thinking): Do I get to come home?
:''Spirit'' (thinking): Guys?

:[''Spirit'' rests in the middle of a vast Martian landscape.]

==Trivia==
*In a blog post Randall mentioned an [http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/02/08/android-bug-reports-songs-rovers/ Blog post mentioning alternative version of this comic].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:1440: Geese

2014-10-30T20:42:18Z

108.162.221.205: Another proposal

The mere idea of geese spontaneously exploding mid-flight makes me giggle like a madman. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.26|108.162.216.26]] 12:03, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
: 108.162.216.26, you're twisted. ... and now i can't stop thinking about it... and giggling. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 16:27, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
: Wasn't it a goose going supernova that caused the Tunguska event? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.146|199.27.128.146]] 16:40, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

Time Dilation? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.185|173.245.56.185]] 09:16, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

The explanation should point out that the comic is referring to the common misconception that there is a high chance that a visible star is already dead. The facts are explained but the context is missing. This misconception was also mentioned in a what-if, but I cant find it right now.
The Milky Way is 120kly in diameter and most visible stars are much closer. With a lifetime of at least a couple millions of years the probability for a random star being dead is way below 1%. Given that there are 5000 stars visible to the naked eye (under best viewing conditions), this means that statistically there are maybe 5 stars in the entire night sky that are dead already. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.215|108.162.231.215]] 09:10, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
: "With a lifetime of at least a couple millions of years" True only for the most massive stars. The average star in the Milky Way is around half a solar mass and will last around 50 billion years. So the probability of one of the 5000 stars visible to the naked eye having died in the last 1000 years is even smaller than "way below 1%". [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.146|199.27.128.146]] 16:45, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
::: I first read the above as "... stars naked to the visible eye ...". --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 23:32, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
:: Although you are overstating things a bit, because more massive stars are more likely to be naked eye visible. According to Wikipedia today, no M-class stars are naked eye visible at all. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.142|173.245.52.142]] 18:00, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
::Almost all stars have a lifetime of at least a couple milions of years. However, some stars have lifetimes that extend on for billions of years after those few million. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 23:08, 29 October 2014 (UTC) Mulan15262

I think this relates to a previous XKCD 1342: Ancient Stars (http://xkcd.com/1342/) where he makes the same joke of how stars may not necessarily be that far away. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.206|173.245.54.206]] 17:22, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

No! The moving V of the geese is reminiscent of a light cone! I think that's what triggered Megan's absurdist fantasy. And indeed, we're seeing the geese as they were in the past. By about a microsecond. If enough readers agree I think this belongs in the explanation. [[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 20:49, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
: The light cone thing is important I think. I read the whole discussion in the comic as a play on the concept of abosolute time vs relativity. And I found it hilarious with that interpretation. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.220|108.162.249.220]] 21:38, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

But Goose *is* dead. You fly jets long enough, something like this happens. [[User:DivePeak|DivePeak]] ([[User talk:DivePeak|talk]]) 21:07, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

There is an obscure linkage between wild geese and stars: http://www.connectingthreads.com/tutorials/Stars-Flying_Geese_Variable_Stars__D12.html {{unsigned ip|‎173.245.52.180}}

I think this comic is extremely simple at heart and it is an example of a comedic style called transference. This style was first widely popularized by the 1950s BBC radio broadcasts of The Goon Show and it was immediately adopted by Beyond The Fringe, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and The Firesign Theater, and countless others. In this style one takes two different seemingly unrelated systems or regimes of action or behavior, finds a superficial resemblance, and then transfers the behavior of one regime into that of the other no matter how absurd the result. Megan sees a flock of geese flying by and the moving V shape sparks in her mind the idea of a light cone. The idea of a light cone sparks the ideas of space and astrophysics. This is the superficial resemblance. She then transfers the knowledge she has of astrophysics to the behavior of the formation of geese flying above and draws the most extreme and absurd conclusions she can imagine. As one can see, this style is hallmarked by an extreme dedication to an unsupportable premise and is best played as absolutely deadpan and utterly serious and is driven by a tight focus on details. Megan displays this unreasonable dedication to a preposterous premise through to the last line. I think this comic is nothing more than that. No time dilation no relativity required. Just the knowledge of both behaviors and the superficial resemblance! (By the way, I've been a big fan of The Goon Show since they first were broadcast in the US during the 60s. Wikipedia has a page on them and there is web site playing everyt remaining recording of theirs that is known to exist. It's here http://goons.fabcat.org/ and I highly recommend it!) [[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 10:02, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

If they are viewing the geese at night, then the actual light that reflected off the geese is centuries old. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.205|108.162.221.205]] 20:42, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

695: Spirit

Talk:1440: Geese