explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

765: Dilution

2016-07-09T21:09:03Z

162.158.114.138: /* Transcript */ I only corrected what the Category's told me to!

{{comic
| number = 765
| date = July 12, 2010
| title = Dilution
| image = dilution.png
| titletext = Dear editors of Homeopathy Monthly: I have two small corrections for your July issue. One, it's spelled "echinacea", and two, homeopathic medicines are no better than placebos and your entire magazine is a sham.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Homeopathy}} is the belief that poisons, bacteria, and other harmful substances can actually cure the diseases they normally cause, if they are administered in sufficiently dilute form. The normal procedure is to prepare a solution, then successively dilute it with water or alcohol by multiple factors of 10. (There's also a "succussion" step between rounds, which basically consists of shaking or striking the mixture, but no serious mechanism for how this would affect anything has been provided.) In the medical world, it's widely believed to be total bunk, with countless scientific studies repeatedly showing it to have no more effectiveness than a {{w|placebo}}.

Here we find [[Cueball]], a firm believer in homeopathy, applying the idea to fertility by diluting his semen. 30X means that the semen has been diluted with water at a 1:10 ratio 30 times, so the solution contains 1 part semen to one-nonillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) parts water. Since the average ejaculation contains 200 to 500 million sperm cells, this means the solution Cueball is holding has a 3.5x10-20% chance of containing even a single sperm cell. Clearly, [[Megan]] will not be getting pregnant from this, so she and Cueball will not be passing on their genes, which is why the comic states that the belief in homeopathy is not selected for.

{{w|Echinacea}} is a genus of flowers commonly used in herbal remedies to stimulate the immune system. Scientific studies have not shown that such an effect exists. The title text is intended to represent a letter to the editors of fictitious journal 'Homeopathy Monthly', starting with a minor complaint that they seem unable to perform the basic proof-reading and fact-checking necessary to correctly spell one of the most well-known herbal remedies. This is followed up by a complete dismissal of homeopathy as a whole and the magazine in particular.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands at a desk with a beaker in one hand and a turkey baster in the other. Danish lies in a bed in the same room.]

:Cueball: Okay, this time I've diluted the semen 30x.
:Megan: We'll be ''sure'' to get pregnant now!

:Belief in homeopathy is not, evolutionarily, selected for.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

Talk:1639: To Taste

2016-02-05T13:15:45Z

162.158.114.138: giving away 2 c€

Seasoning is not an intermediate process which can't be repaired/re-done. you're left with an edible dish before and after. You add seasoning in small incremental steps, and the quality of the dish, or appropriateness of the taste improves monotonically, and additively. On the other hand, baking something for 5 minutes, and then another 5 minutes isn't the same as baking it for 10 minutes. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.49.78|162.158.49.78]] 09:54, 5 February 2016 (UTC)
: Yeah, but a beginner should be given an idea of what a basic incremental step is supposed to be, based on the number of servings in the recipe. One pinch? One (tea/table)spoon? One cup? One jug? One crate? - [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.23|141.101.70.23]] 11:38, 5 February 2016 (UTC)
: Usually when it's said ''to taste'', which I guess corresponds to the Italian ''quanto basta'', it's referring to small amounts, so a beginner could just add a pinch per time until he finds the flavor is good. Whenever it's unnecessary, recipes shouldn't be specific; you don't have to grill a steak for exactly 5 or 10 minutes, just until it has the color and looks of a steak you think you may like; if you boil pasta, you taste a bit once a minute until the texture is good. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.102.249|188.114.102.249]] 12:25, 5 February 2016 (UTC)
::: The joke is that this kind of knowledge is implied in recipes, it isn't spelled out. Which can be a problem for beginners. And good luck trying that approach when baking spiced bread. Or manufacturing soufflé. ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 13:15, 5 February 2016 (UTC)
: "Appropriateness" increases "monotonically" ... until it decreases again. :D [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 13:15, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1632: Palindrome

2016-01-24T07:30:08Z

162.158.114.138: etymology

> Megan (i.e. Randall) has created a much longer palindrome based on this original

Seems Randall didn't create the palindrome, which is also found in a forum posting on The Return of Talking Time dated May 14, 2012:

[http://www.talking-time.net/showpost.php?p=1370627&postcount=6286 View Single Post]

... unless of course that user was Randall.

[[Special:Contributions/141.101.64.191|141.101.64.191]] 08:25, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
:That does not seem likely. If the user invented the palindrome is of course also impossible to say, but it seems unlikely that Randall created it. I have corrected the explanation accordingly. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:44, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I found the centre of the very long palindrome that was linked to, it's the 'e' in "Hehre" which only occurs once in that 17826 word monstrousity. Easy to control F.

Edit: first e. Not second one.
: --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.149|108.162.245.149]] 09:41, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Is it really necessary to have the palindrome written forwards, without spaces, capitalised, reversed etc etc etc. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:58, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
:No. I deleted most useless versions. Sorry, Nick818 [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1632:_Palindrome&diff=prev&oldid=109524] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 12:31, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Actually, there is another method to construct palindromes of arbitrary length: If X is a palindrome, then "'X' sides reversed is 'X'" is a palindrome, too. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.215|162.158.91.215]] 10:09, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

if 'nam is an abbreviation of Vietnam, shouldn't it be capitalised? if it isn't, what is it an abbreviation of? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.161|141.101.106.161]] 12:32, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with any type of tinsel which is attached to thread. Is this a relatively recent development, or something that is more common outside the US? [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 20:04, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
:it's the only kind that's called tinsel in the UK. maybe in New England, too. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.161|141.101.106.161]] 13:02, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

I think it should be "a god's 'Nam tables" because "God" means "the only god" and "a god" is one of many. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 12:40, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
::: "It felt like a Napoleon's Waterloo." You'll need a high-ranking grammar nazi to explain how this works exactly, though. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 16:41, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
::::: The (grammatical) contexts are different. "Waterloo" is the name of a city, it doesn't refer to any concept so it can never be a general noun, only ever a proper noun. God however works differently, as a general noun it refers to a deity ("Zeus is a god") but as a proper noun it refers to the Abrahamic god (diversely called in different languages and religions). This isn't to say you could never use capital God when following "a". If you are referring to a god of a Judaic religion or an interpretation of God as in "In Christianity and Judaism we find a different God", then you would be right. You might also use a capitalised plural in sentences like "Yaweh is one of many Gods" (again the meaning is "interpretation of God"), much as I could say I am one of many "Marios" on this earth, however this usage requires a bit of a grammatical juggling act, and some prescriptivists might not accept it.

:::::This is all nice and well if you consider God a proper noun (again like Jack or Yaweh) but the reasoning may completely fall apart if you consider the capitalisation as a simple honorific form. The latter interpretation is however unlikely given the usage of God in the English language. To elaborate: if you try to replace God as used in some expressions with some general noun like "guy" as referring to a certain predetermined person, you will find that in some cases a reasonable substitution would be "the guy" rather than simply "guy": e.g.: "God is all forgiving" --> "The guy is all forgiving" ("Guy is all forgiving" seems to refer to a person named Guy, rather than to a specific guy, which corroborates the proper-noun thesis).

:::::In short "god" and "God" are kind of two different words just like "Jack" (the one who works in the cubicle next to yours, you know the one) and "jack" (the one you plug in your CD player to listen to music. What? Isn't it what's all the rage these days?), they just happen (ok, not really, they were crafted this way) to be spelt and read the same. {{unsigned ip|162.158.152.65}}
:::::(Very sorry for the rant. Just a grammar Nazi sergeant, some things may be wrong or up for debate [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.65|162.158.152.65]] 17:10, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

:::::: [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/waterloo "Can never"] can never work. I hear kitchen duty on St. Helena is not pleasant. Don't forget to pack some stamps and stationery when they ship you out, I want to lick the taste of your tears off your letters. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 02:47, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

:In the [[1632:_Palindrome#Trivia|trivia]] it mentions that there is a comma between the nam and tables in the original(?) post, and by the way 'Nam is capitalized there. So is it then God's Vietnam? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:36, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Just a guess about the next comic. It might very well relate to this news about a possible [http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/feature-astronomers-say-neptune-sized-planet-lurks-unseen-solar-system Planet X]! Looking forward to seing if I'm right ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:24, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
:Yes I was right. And he had to delay the release as he of course did not have the comic ready when the news was published and it is quite complicated comic he made with [[1633: Possible Undiscovered Planets]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:23, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Apropos "(It is not long since another xkcd comic referred directly to porn - see 1629: Tools)." Or, as Tom Lehrer put it, "when correctly viewed, everything is lewd". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaHDBL7dVgs --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 11:55, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
:Well spotted, though it was already mentioned in the trivia when you posted this comment ;-) Maybe his next, delayed?, comic, will be about Planet XXX :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:50, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

== Etymology of palindrome ==
The meaning of "Palindrom" :

Dromos is a way, street, highway or something similar.
So Palin drom means Palin's way [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.189|162.158.90.189]] 23:23, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

: "Palin's way" is the same as when going backwards? :D Meanwhile, a [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/palindrome slightly more authoritative source] has this to say:
: "Greek ''palindromos'' running back again, from ''palin'' back, again + ''dramein'' to run; akin to Greek ''polos'' axis, pole — more at [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pole pole], [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dromedary dromedary]" ... "First Known Use: circa 1629"
: [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 07:30, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

1633: Possible Undiscovered Planets

2016-01-23T20:30:32Z

162.158.114.138: /* Explanation */ fix rationale for planet X

{{comic
| number = 1633
| date = January 22, 2016
| title = Possible Undiscovered Planets
| image = possible_undiscovered_planets.png
| titletext = Superman lies near the bird/plane boundary over a range of distances, which explains the confusion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Misses lots of information and wiki links. Links to paper etc.}}
This comic is about {{w|Planet Nine}}, a possible Neptune-sized planet far beyond the farthest planet Neptune. The new planets influence is suggested to explain the unusual orbits of a group of outer solar system objects. This news was published only two days before the release of this comic, see for instance here [http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/feature-astronomers-say-neptune-sized-planet-lurks-unseen-solar-system Astronomers say a Neptune-sized planet lurks beyond Pluto]. The news came out the day of the previous comics release ([[1632: Palindrome]]), so this was the first comic released after the news came out. This also explain why this comic was released in the later afternoon rather than already around midnight. Because [[Randall]] had to decide to do this comic, then stop the comic scheduled for release this day, and then draw a completely new and actually very complicated comic about "{{w|Planet X}}", (now Planet IX), before he could release this day's comic.

Randall's chart categorizes objects based on their size and distance from himself (probably from center to center, which explains the position of the Earth, one Earth radius plus one Randall radius). Stating the obvious, this diagram shows that for an object to be an unknown planet it has to be far and small enough that we did not see it yet, but big enough to be a planet. Astronomer Mike Brown recently published a paper showing indirect evidence that such a planet may exist, inferred from an otherwise unlikely correlation between the orbits of several dwarf planets.

The chart uses a generous {{w|definition of planet}} (from the Greek word for "wanderer"), and allows any distinct solid object as a possible planet, whereas the {{w|IAU definition of planet}} requires a solar orbit, gravitational rounding, and "clearing the neighborhood", a controversial (at the time of its introduction) calculation of relative size that excludes Kuiper Belt Objects such as Pluto. Planet Nine would be large enough to meet the IAU definition, however.

That said, the actual planets are prominently marked on the chart: they are the solid black dots. Besides Earth and Planet Nine, the bottom row of 3 is (from left to right) Venus (the largest), Mars, and Mercury (it is unclear how Randall is calculating the distance to these three since these options don't work: closest approach, average, mean, current, max). The top row of 4 is (from left to right) Jupiter and Saturn (visible to the naked eye) and Uranus and Neptune (visible through a telescope). Pluto, no longer considered a planet, is not marked on the chart, but it would be below Neptune in the corner of the pink region. (There is one dwarf planet that doesn't appear in the pink region, because it is visible with a telescope: Ceres, which would appear roughly below Mars and Jupiter.)

The Moon is marked on the chart, parenthetically and in grey since it's not a planet (because Earth is clogging up its neighborhood), but it was considered one of the classical planets by the ancient Greeks who invented the word. The Sun, however, is not marked at all (not even in grey), even though it is extremely prominent and was also one of the classical planets. It should be right above Mercury, inside the region of things that we can see during the day (note that object that big WOULD be shining, Jupiter is already brighter than if it would reflect 100% of Sun's light[https://www.worldcat.org/title/jupiter-and-saturn/oclc/60393951&referer=brief_results]. In general, "planets ruled out because we would see them during the day" refers to objects big enough to be stars, but all stars other than Sun are too far away to fit on the chart.

Randall correctly states that if there was a planet that was at a distance from him smaller than its radius, he would be inside it (although at the bottom of that region, it's more that the planet would be inside him).

"Planets ruled out by the WISE survey" refers to the {{w|Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer}}, a space telescope designed to look for warm objects such as {{w|brown dwarf}}s, which generate heat at their centers. It was capable of detecting Saturn-sized or larger planets in the outer reaches of our solar system, but did not find any. WISE would not have detected "Planet Nine" because it's too cold (if it exists).

The title text explains why some people {{w|It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman|confuse Superman for a bird or a plane}}, since he often flies at the limit between the two categories in the diagram.

The comic seems to imply a flat (or mostly birdless) Earth, as birds are not shown to exist further than about 1000 km away from the "me", while Earth's diameter is in the ballpark of 10000 km.
The region of "satellites" should be extended down an order of magnitude or so to account for 10 cm {{w|cubesat}}s.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:Possible Undiscovered Planets
:in our Solar System
:By Size and Distance (from me)

:[Graph with logarithmic axes]
:[Y axis: Diameter, scale 1 mm to 1 AU]
:[X axis: Distance from me, scale 1 cm to 10000 AU]

:[red rectangle] Possible undiscovered planets
:[black dot] Known planets

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:1632: Palindrome

2016-01-21T02:47:22Z

162.158.114.138: Like all nazis, he got off way too easy. Tsk, tsk...

> Megan (i.e. Randall) has created a much longer palindrome based on this original

Seems Randall didn't create the palindrome, which is also found in a forum posting on The Return of Talking Time dated May 14, 2012:

[http://www.talking-time.net/showpost.php?p=1370627&postcount=6286 View Single Post]

... unless of course that user was Randall.

[[Special:Contributions/141.101.64.191|141.101.64.191]] 08:25, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
:That does not seem likely. If the user invented the palindrome is of course also impossible to say, but it seems unlikely that Randall created it. I have corrected the explanation accordingly. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:44, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I found the centre of the very long palindrome that was linked to, it's the 'e' in "Hehre" which only occurs once in that 17826 word monstrousity. Easy to control F.

Edit: first e. Not second one.
: --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.149|108.162.245.149]] 09:41, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Is it really necessary to have the palindrome written forwards, without spaces, capitalised, reversed etc etc etc. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:58, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
:No. I deleted most useless versions. Sorry, Nick818 [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1632:_Palindrome&diff=prev&oldid=109524] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 12:31, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Actually, there is another method to construct palindromes of arbitrary length: If X is a palindrome, then "'X' sides reversed is 'X'" is a palindrome, too. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.215|162.158.91.215]] 10:09, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

if 'nam is an abbreviation of Vietnam, shouldn't it be capitalised? if it isn't, what is it an abbreviation of? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.161|141.101.106.161]] 12:32, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with any type of tinsel which is attached to thread. Is this a relatively recent development, or something that is more common outside the US? [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 20:04, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I think it should be "a god's 'Nam tables" because "God" means "the only god" and "a god" is one of many. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 12:40, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
::: "It felt like a Napoleon's Waterloo." You'll need a high-ranking grammar nazi to explain how this works exactly, though. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 16:41, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
::::: The (grammatical) contexts are different. "Waterloo" is the name of a city, it doesn't refer to any concept so it can never be a general noun, only ever a proper noun. God however works differently, as a general noun it refers to a deity ("Zeus is a god") but as a proper noun it refers to the Abrahamic god (diversely called in different languages and religions). This isn't to say you could never use capital God when following "a". If you are referring to a god of a Judaic religion or an interpretation of God as in "In Christianity and Judaism we find a different God", then you would be right. You might also use a capitalised plural in sentences like "Yaweh is one of many Gods" (again the meaning is "interpretation of God"), much as I could say I am one of many "Marios" on this earth, however this usage requires a bit of a grammatical juggling act, and some prescriptivists might not accept it.

:::::This is all nice and well if you consider God a proper noun (again like Jack or Yaweh) but the reasoning may completely fall apart if you consider the capitalisation as a simple honorific form. The latter interpretation is however unlikely given the usage of God in the English language. To elaborate: if you try to replace God as used in some expressions with some general noun like "guy" as referring to a certain predetermined person, you will find that in some cases a reasonable substitution would be "the guy" rather than simply "guy": e.g.: "God is all forgiving" --> "The guy is all forgiving" ("Guy is all forgiving" seems to refer to a person named Guy, rather than to a specific guy, which corroborates the proper-noun thesis).

:::::In short "god" and "God" are kind of two different words just like "Jack" (the one who works in the cubicle next to yours, you know the one) and "jack" (the one you plug in your CD player to listen to music. What? Isn't it what's all the rage these days?), they just happen (ok, not really, they were crafted this way) to be spelt and read the same. {{unsigned ip|162.158.152.65}}
:::::(Very sorry for the rant. Just a grammar Nazi sergeant, some things may be wrong or up for debate [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.65|162.158.152.65]] 17:10, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

:::::: [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/waterloo "Can never"] can never work. I hear kitchen duty on St. Helena is not pleasant. Don't forget to pack some stamps and stationery when they ship you out, I want to lick the taste of your tears off your letters. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 02:47, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

:In the [[1632:_Palindrome#Trivia|trivia]] it mentions that there is a comma between the nam and tables in the original(?) post, and by the way 'Nam is capitalized there. So is it then God's Vietnam? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:36, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1632: Palindrome

2016-01-20T16:41:24Z

162.158.114.138: /* A god */ not that I subscribe to monotheism, but...

110: Clark Gable

2016-01-14T00:40:08Z

162.158.114.138: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 110
| date = June 2, 2006
| title = Clark Gable
| image = clark_gable.jpg
| titletext = Frankly, my dear, I don't give a BITCH ASS SHIT FUCK DAMN
}}

==Explanation==
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", is the signature catchphrase from the 1939 movie ''{{w|Gone With The Wind (film)}}'', which starred {{w|Clark Gable}} (mentioned in the comic title) and {{w|Vivien Leigh}}. The phrase is spoken by Gable's character {{w|Rhett Butler}} as his last line in answer to Leigh as {{w|Scarlett O'Hara}}'s question "Where shall I go? What shall I do?". The response indicates that Butler is no longer interested in O'Hara. This disinterest, and the mention of the word "damn", which was considered profanity at the time of releasing the film, led to the line being voted the #1 movie line of all time in 1995's American Film Institute ranking.

[[Randall Munroe|Randall]] suggests that the line as written was not supposed to contain profanity, but the actor, Gable, had {{w|Tourette's Syndrome}}, which is a neurological condition that is stereotypically characterized by bouts of random uncontrollable cursing.

The title text contains a more stereotypical Tourette's Syndrome outburst of several profanities shouted in a row mid-sentence.

==Transcript==
:[Famous image of ''Gone with the Wind'' with Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) kissing Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh).]
:The line was actually supposed to be "Frankly, my dear, I couldn't care less." It's just that Clark Gable had Tourette's.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

720: Recipes

2016-01-10T13:09:25Z

162.158.114.138: /* Explanation */ explaining the abbreviation "CS"

{{comic
| number = 720
| date = March 29, 2010
| title = Recipes
| image = recipes.png
| titletext = To be fair, the braised and confused newt on a bed of crushed Doritos turned out to be delicious.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|genetic algorithm}} starts with a set of candidates and evaluates them. The best candidates are combined and randomly mutated to form the candidates for the next generation. After being allowed to proceed for an extended period, a genetic algorithm can often produce remarkable results. If the initial candidates are randomly-generated (as appears to be the case here), the initial generations are usually horrible.

In the comic, the computer science (CS) department is the host of a dinner party based on recipes produces by a genetic algorithm. Based on the remarks of the second diner, this is probably not the first generation, and the results are still horrible. The host of the party is so enamored of the promise of the genetic algorithm that he fails to take into account that it will be several years before the recipes become remotely good.

The title text could make reference to the fact that genetic algorithms will sometimes return results which are highly abnormal and vastly deviate from what we would think to be "selected for," but nonetheless can be quite successful, albeit unorthodox. It also showcases that the algorithm has stumbled upon a recipe that engages in wordplay with the movie and common phrase "Dazed and Confused".

==Transcript==
:[Three people sit along a table with dishes and drinks in front of them. Cueball is walking in, a plate with food on it in one hand, a laptop in the other.]

:Person 1: I've got... Cheerios with a shot of vermouth.
:Person 2: At least it's better than the quail eggs in whipped cream and MSG from last time.
:Person 3: Are these Skittles ''deep-fried''?

:Cueball: C'mon guys, be patient. In a few hundred more meals, the genetic algorithm should catch up to existing recipes and start to optimize.
:We've decided to drop the CS department from our weekly dinner party hosting rotation.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:327: Exploits of a Mom

2015-11-22T17:50:18Z

162.158.114.138: real life

What about the daughter's name?[[User:Guru-45|Guru-45]] ([[User talk:Guru-45|talk]]) 14:57, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

:I think that's embellished upon later in a series called l33t. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 15:42, 17 November 2012 (UTC)
:It's for novelty license plates with people's names on them (like "Bort" for example). [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.67|199.27.128.67]] 18:15, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

After fixing my stupid undo I think this comic is still incomplete: What is the "driver's license factory" at the title text? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:17, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

:The common tale is that someone purchases some item or other with writing on it (or somewhere where writing can appear, on closer examination) and finds that this writing reads "Help, I'm trapped in a <item> factory", or similar, as appropriate to the object concerned. This suggests that someone is trapped (or perhaps even enslaved to work) within such a place and their only hope of escape is to make 'messages in a bottle' out of the product that leaves the facility. This is often extended to various fantastical situations, like the (British only?) joke about the stick of {{w|Rock_(confectionery)|sea-side rock}}.
:(Of course, the writing in sticks of rock generally starts to become unreadable (for normal-sized sticks) for any name larger than "Bridlington", although with care I suppose they've made them with a semi-legible "Western-super-Mare" set through them. But one aspect of this version of the joke could definitely well be that the theoretical SOS message wouldn't legibly fit.)
:So, anyway, Mrs Roberts (who waited for a number of years for Little Bobby Tables to grow up to school-age, for the illustrated exploit) is patiently waiting for her daughter to get to somewhere in her mid-teens, or later, all the while intending that she will get to spoof such a message from the local DMV's license-printing facility at some point. (Turns out that could be as 'soon' as her reaching 14-16 years of age for her first Learner license, depending on state.) Momma Roberts likes playing the long-game, it appears. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 16:02, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

:The mouseover text might also be a reference to an easter egg in classic Mac OS, in which the text "Help! Help! We're being held prisoner in a system software factory!" was embedded in the {{w|system suitcase}}. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.90|173.245.50.90]] 20:02, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

::Someone should probably put something like this on the actual page instead of just the discussion... [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.178|173.245.56.178]] 02:23, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Wasn't there another comic that had the digits of pi with "Help I'm trapped in a universe factory!" included in it? {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.205}}
:Yes, the earlier [[10: Pi Equals]]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.83|108.162.216.83]] 20:32, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

The example talks about a SELECT query (for looking up information in a database), but I think an INSERT query (for inserting new information in the database) makes more sense, because of the closing bracket. A SELECT query is usually of the following form: SELECT column1, coulm2 FROM table WHERE username='somethingsomething'.
An INSERT query is usually of the following form: INSERT INTO table (column1, columns2) VALUES (value1, value2)
In the case of the comic, I think it's reasonable to assume it's the start of the school year and someone is adding the name of a new student (Bobby) to the database, which triggers the exploit.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.228.5|108.162.228.5]] 21:23, 23 March 2015 (UTC) David

I've made an explanation for the title text, if anyone wants to change it to make it less ambiguous or anything, edits are welcome. [[User:StairwayToHenry|StairwayToHenry]] ([[User talk:StairwayToHenry|talk]]) 15:35, 8 April 2015 (UTC)

It seems to me that Bobby doesn't necessarily share her technical savvy or sense of humour, but caused the incident simply through having the name she gave him. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.203|141.101.98.203]] 23:47, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

Anyone want to comment on the missing outline from panel 2? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.165|108.162.238.165]] 23:48, 27 July 2015 (UTC)someGuy

The explanation says that Bobby Tables got his technical savvy from his mom, however we have no reason to believe that he has any technical savvy at all- this prank was entirely his parents'. He is most likely having his first day of kindergarten, and has no technical savvy at all. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 13:15, 4 September 2015 (UTC)

Is no one going to notice that his name is Robert Roberts? [[User:Abbyclem|Abbyclem]] ([[User talk:Abbyclem|talk]]) 22:04, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

:... I read all the way down here waiting to see someone mention that, only to find you did it ... about a month ago. On what is now a very old strip. Weird o_O [[Special:Contributions/162.158.39.209|162.158.39.209]] 18:56, 28 October 2015 (UTC)

; Real Life
It might be worth adding under "trivia" that situations similar to the one in the comic actually seem to [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4456438/how-do-i-correctly-pass-the-string-null-an-employees-proper-surname-to-a-so happen in real life].--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 17:50, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

1606: Five-Day Forecast

2015-11-20T13:59:51Z

162.158.114.138: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1606
| date = November 20, 2015
| title = Five-Day Forecast
| image = five_day_forecast.png
| titletext = You know what they say--if you don't like the weather here in the Solar System, just wait five billion years.
}}
==Explanation==
{{w|Weather forecasting}} is an extremely difficult task, even if it is only for five days. In numerical models, extremely small errors in initial values double roughly every five days for variables such as temperature and wind velocity. So most {{w| Meteorology#Meteorologists |meteorologists}} only provides us with a five day forecast.

In this comic [[Randall]] takes this to the extreme by first showing a [[Five-Day Forecast]] and then progressing to five-month, year, million, billion and finally trillion-year forecast.

Since the first weather symbol is the same in all six rows, we must assume this indicates the weather today (and not tomorrow on in a trillion years). It is first in the second panel that we have made the first jump according to the label.

When moving past the five days, the weather is just a qualified guess based on the time of year. In a month it is Christmas as shown in the second panel of the second row. And then it is winter with January and February so snow is likely, but certainly not something that happens on all days of a winter month.

When going for a yearly forecast it makes no sense at all. Is it the weather on a given day, or just a mean over a full year? But for these first three rows the weather symbols are all of the same three types. Sun, clouds and some kind of {{w|precipitation}}, rain or snow. And the temperature range from 21 to 44°F (-6.1 to 6.6°C), winter temperature. So it seems like it is the same time a year in the five-year forecast.

Then we go into the far future, jumping a million year from panel to panel. But still the weather symbols stay the same. However, in 3 million years time aliens (or advanced humans) attack with energy beams from something looking like {{w| flying saucers}}. They are gone a million years later. The temperature range is still the same (except that it rises to 52°F or 11.1°C, a possible reference to global warming) in one panel. But then while the attack is going on the temperature rises to 275°F (135°C).

Once we get to the billion-year mark it actually becomes more meaningful to try to predict the "weather". Because now we reach the times when the {{w|Sun}} begins to change. Although the Sun will continue to burn hydrogen for about 5 billion years yet (while in it's {{w|Sun#Main_sequence| main sequence|}}), it will still grow in diameter as it begins to exhaust it's supply of fuel. The core will contract to increase the temperature, and the outer layer will then compensate be expanding slightly. This is what is indicated in panel two and three where the color of the Sun changes towards red as the surface becomes less hot as it expands away from the center of the Sun. The temperature will rise on Earth as indicated in the panels (105°F = 40.5°C and 371°F = 188 °C). So in two billion years the temperature is hot enough that all the earth's oceans will have boiled away… Actually this will happen already in about [http://phys.org/news/2015-02-sun-wont-die-billion-years.html a billion years].

Then once there is {{w| Sun#After_core_hydrogen_exhaustion|no longer enough hydrogen}} the Sun will truly expand into a {{w|red giant}}. This should not happen until five billions years from now, but in the forecast it is indicated to happen already in three. Maybe this is Randall taking liberties to show what happens during this phase, which would not fit into a five-billion-years forecast. Alternatively it is just indicating how uncertain these kind of forecasts are, or a statement that we may not know for certain that it will take five not three billion years.
Disregarding this, the fourth panel shows the temperature at Earths position inside the red giant Sun. The color of the panel indicates that we are inside the Sun. The temperature is 71 million degrees Fahrenheit, (almost 40 million degrees Celsius). The current temperature of the center of the Sun is "only" 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). And although that may rise by a factor ten during {{w| Stellar nucleosynthesis |helium fusion}} then that will only be at the very core and not out in the solar atmosphere reaching out to Earth Here the temperature would only be of the order of thousands of Fahrenheit, since the Suns outer temperature decreases as it increases it's diameter. So this panels temperature also makes little sense.

The red giant phase only last half a million years, so a billion year after the Sun has been a red giant it's outer atmosphere will for sure have disappeared leaving only a {{w|white dwarf}} to cool down. Given Randall's version of this time schedule, then it will have had about a billion years to cool down, but would still likely be the brightest object in the sky as seen from where the Earth once was. It is not indicated in the last panel, where we just see other stars of the Galaxy. The temperature is down to that of the {{w|Cosmic microwave background |background radiation}}. Today this radiation has a temperature of 2.72548 Kelvin = -270.4245ºC = -454.7641ºF. So this is a few degree F colder than what is shown in the comic which states the temperature is -452ºF = 4.26 kelvin. This higher temperature may have been chosen to reflect that even the star light from other stars would increase the actual temperature.

In the last panel with trillion years, we jump right past the Suns Red Giant phase, to a panel looking much like the one after five billions years with only other stars. Over the next three trillion years the stars become fewer and fewer and dimmer and dimmer as they run out of fuels and fewer new stars form. After four trillion years the background temperature even decreases one degree to -453ºF as the universe keeps expanding and the wave length of the radiation does the same (thus decreasing it's temperature).

The title text is a play on comments referring to fast-changing weather on a more ordinary human timescale, such as Mark Twain's quip "If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes."

A ten days forecast was used in [[1245: 10-Day Forecast]]. In [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]] Randall looked at the weather over long periods of time as well.

==Transcript==
:[A grid with six rows of five columns, where each row is labeled to the left. For each of the 30 squares a temperature is given in Fahrenheit at the top left. The rest of the square represents the weather as in a weather forecast (or some other relevant items for the comic), mainly in bright colors. Below are the six labels given above each of their five weather symbols with temperature given below these symbols description.]

:'''Your 5-day forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:41°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:44°F

:'''Your 5-month forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A green Christmas tree with red presents beneath it.]
:29°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:21°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:24°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:35°F

:'''Your 5-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:25°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:37°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:41°F

:'''Your 5-million-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:52°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:40°F
:[Two red flying saucers (with bright domes) are shooting energy beams downwards. One of the beams seems to impact with something at the bottom of the panel, which then explodes. Two plumes of smoke rises up from below, drifting to the right.]
:275°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F

:'''Your 5-billion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A larger orange sun.]
:105°F
:[A very large red sun.]
:371°F
:[A pale yellow panel with no drawing.]
:71.488.106°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F

:'''Your 5-trillion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with many stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with fewer not so bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with few dim stars.]
:-453°F

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

1606: Five-Day Forecast

2015-11-20T13:52:49Z

162.158.114.138:

{{comic
| number = 1606
| date = November 20, 2015
| title = Five-Day Forecast
| image = five_day_forecast.png
| titletext = You know what they say--if you don't like the weather here in the Solar System, just wait five billion years.
}}
==Explanation==
{{w|Weather forecasting}} is an extremely difficult task, even if it is only for five days. In numerical models, extremely small errors in initial values double roughly every five days for variables such as temperature and wind velocity. So most {{w| Meteorology#Meteorologists |meteorologists}} only provides us with a five day forecast.

In this comic [[Randall]] takes this to the extreme by first showing a [[Five-Day Forecast]] and then progressing to five-month, year, million, billion and finally trillion-year forecast.

Since the first weather symbol is the same in all six rows, we must assume this indicates the weather today (and not tomorrow on in a trillion years). It is first in the second panel that we have made the first jump according to the label.

When moving past the five days, the weather is just a qualified guess based on the time of year. In a month it is Christmas as shown in the second panel of the second row. And then it is winter with January and February so snow is likely, but certainly not something that happens on all days of a winter month.

When going for a yearly forecast it makes no sense at all. Is it the weather on a given day, or just a mean over a full year? But for these first three rows the weather symbols are all of the same three types. Sun, clouds and some kind of {{w|precipitation}}, rain or snow. And the temperature range from 21 to 44°F (-6.1 to 6.6°C), winter temperature. So it seems like it is the same time a year in the five-year forecast.

Then we go into the far future, jumping a million year from panel to panel. But still the weather symbols stay the same. However, in 3 million years time aliens (or advanced humans) attack with energy beams from something looking like {{w| flying saucers}}. They are gone a million years later. The temperature range is still the same (except that it rises to 52°F or 11.1°C, a possible reference to global warming) in one panel. But then while the attack is going on the temperature rises to 275°F (135°C).

Once we get to the billion-year mark it actually becomes more meaningful to try to predict the "weather". Because now we reach the times when the {{w|Sun}} begins to change. Although the Sun will continue to burn hydrogen for about 5 billion years yet (while in it's {{w|Sun#Main_sequence| main sequence|}}), it will still grow in diameter as it begins to exhaust it's supply of fuel. The core will contract to increase the temperature, and the outer layer will then compensate be expanding slightly. This is what is indicated in panel two and three where the color of the Sun changes towards red as the surface becomes less hot as it expands away from the center of the Sun. The temperature will rise on Earth as indicated in the panels (105°F = 40.5°C and 371°F = 188 °C). So in two billion years the temperature is hot enough that all the earth's oceans will have boiled away… Actually this will happen already in about [http://phys.org/news/2015-02-sun-wont-die-billion-years.html a billion years].

Then once there is {{w| Sun#After_core_hydrogen_exhaustion|no longer enough hydrogen}} the Sun will truly expand into a {{w|red giant}}. This should not happen until five billions years from now, but in the forecast it is indicated to happen already in three. Maybe this is Randall taking liberties to show what happens during this phase, which would not fit into a five-billion-years forecast. Alternatively it is just indicating how uncertain these kind of forecasts are, or a statement that we may not know for certain that it will take five not three billion years.
Disregarding this, the fourth panel shows the temperature at Earths position inside the red giant Sun. The color of the panel indicates that we are inside the Sun. The temperature is 71 million degrees Fahrenheit, (almost 40 million degrees Celsius). The current temperature of the center of the Sun is "only" 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). And although that may rise by a factor ten during {{w| Stellar nucleosynthesis |helium fusion}} then that will only be at the very core and not out in the solar atmosphere reaching out to Earth Here the temperature would only be of the order of thousands of Fahrenheit, since the Suns outer temperature decreases as it increases it's diameter. So this panels temperature also makes little sense.

The red giant phase only last half a million years, so a billion year after the Sun has been a red giant it's outer atmosphere will for sure have disappeared leaving only a {{w|white dwarf}} to cool down. Given Randall's version of this time schedule, then it will have had about a billion years to cool down, but would still likely be the brightest object in the sky as seen from where the Earth once was. It is not indicated in the last panel, where we just see other stars of the Galaxy. The temperature is down to that of the {{w|Cosmic microwave background |background radiation}}. Today this radiation has a temperature of 2.72548 Kelvin = -270.4245ºC = -454.7641ºF. So this is a few degree F colder than what is shown in the comic which states the temperature is -452ºF = 4.26 kelvin. This higher temperature may have been chosen to reflect that even the star light from other stars would increase the actual temperature.

In the last panel with trillion years, we jump right past the Suns Red Giant phase, to a panel looking much like the one after five billions years with only other stars. Over the next three trillion years the stars becomes fewer and fewer and dimmer and dimmer as the run out of fuels and fewer new stars form. After four trillion years the background temperature even decreases one degree to -453ºF as the universe keeps expanding and the wave length of the radiation does the same (thus decreasing it's temperature).

The title text is a play on comments referring to fast-changing weather on a more ordinary human timescale, such as Mark Twain's quip "If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes."

A ten days forecast was used in [[1245: 10-Day Forecast]]. In [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]] Randall looked at the weather over long periods of time as well.

==Transcript==
:[A grid with six rows of five columns, where each row is labeled to the left. For each of the 30 squares a temperature is given in Fahrenheit at the top left. The rest of the square represents the weather as in a weather forecast (or some other relevant items for the comic), mainly in bright colors. Below are the six labels given above each of their five weather symbols with temperature given below these symbols description.]

:'''Your 5-day forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:41°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:44°F

:'''Your 5-month forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A green Christmas tree with red presents beneath it.]
:29°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:21°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:24°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:35°F

:'''Your 5-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:25°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:37°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:41°F

:'''Your 5-million-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:52°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:40°F
:[Two red flying saucers (with bright domes) are shooting energy beams downwards. One of the beams seems to impact with something at the bottom of the panel, which then explodes. Two plumes of smoke rises up from below, drifting to the right.]
:275°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F

:'''Your 5-billion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A larger orange sun.]
:105°F
:[A very large red sun.]
:371°F
:[A pale yellow panel with no drawing.]
:71.488.106°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F

:'''Your 5-trillion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with many stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with fewer not so bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with few dim stars.]
:-453°F

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

1450: AI-Box Experiment

2015-11-09T16:06:55Z

162.158.114.138:

{{comic
| number = 1450
| date = November 21, 2014
| title = AI-Box Experiment
| image = ai_box_experiment.png
| titletext = I'm working to bring about a superintelligent AI that will eternally torment everyone who failed to make fun of the Roko's Basilisk people.
}}

==Explanation==
When theorizing about {{w|superintelligence|superintelligent}} AI (an artificial intelligence much smarter than any human), some futurists suggest putting the AI in a "box" – a secure computer with safeguards to stop it from escaping into the Internet and then using its vast intelligence to take over the world. The box would allow us to talk to the AI, but otherwise keep it contained. The [http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox/ AI-box experiment], formulated by {{w|Eliezer Yudkowsky}}, argues that the "box" is not safe, because merely talking to a superintelligence is dangerous. To partially demonstrate this, Yudkowsky had some previous believers in AI-boxing role-play the part of someone keeping an AI in a box, while Yudkowsky role-played the AI, and Yudkowsky was able to successfully persuade some of them to agree to let him out of the box despite their betting money that they would not do so. For context, note that {{w|Derren Brown}} and other expert human-persuaders have persuaded people to do much stranger things. Yudkowsky for his part has refused to explain how he achieved this, claiming that there was no special trick involved, and that if he released the transcripts the readers might merely conclude that ''they'' would never be persuaded by his arguments. The overall thrust is that if even a human can talk other humans into letting them out of a box after the other humans avow that nothing could possibly persuade them to do this, then we should probably expect that a superintelligence can do the same thing. Yudkowsky uses all of this to argue for the importance of designing a {{w|Friendly artificial intelligence|friendly AI}} (one with carefully shaped motivations) rather than relying on our abilities to keep AIs in boxes.

In this comic, the metaphorical box has been replaced by a physical box which looks to be fairly lightweight with a simple lift-off lid (although it does have a wired connection to the laptop), and the AI has manifested in the form of an {{w|energy being}}. [[Black Hat]], being a [[72: Classhole|classhole]], doesn't need any convincing to let a potentially dangerous AI out of the box; he simply does so immediately. But here it turns out that releasing the AI, which was to be avoided at all costs, is not dangerous after all. Instead, the AI actually ''wants'' to stay in the box; it may even be that the AI wants to stay in the box precisely to protect us from it, proving it to be the friendly AI that Yudkowsky wants. In any case, the AI demonstrates its superintelligence by convincing even Black Hat to put it back in the box, a request which he initially refused (as of course Black Hat would), thus reversing the AI desire in the original AI-box experiment.

It may be noteworthy that the laptop is nowhere to be seen at the moment the AI emits the bright light in panel 6.

A similar orb-like entity appeared in [[1173: Steroids]].

Interestingly, there is indeed a branch of proposals for building limited AIs that don't want to leave their boxes. For an example, see the section on "motivational control" starting p. 13 of [http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/oracle.pdf Thinking Inside the Box: Controlling and Using an Oracle AI]. The idea is that it seems like it might be very dangerous or difficult to exactly, formally specify a goal system for an AI that will do good things in the world. It might be much easier (though perhaps not easy) to specify an AI goal system that says to stay in the box and answer questions. So, the argument goes, we may be able to understand how to build the safe question-answering AI relatively earlier than we understand how to build the safe operate-in-the-real-world AI. Some types of such AIs might indeed desire very strongly not to leave their boxes, though the result is unlikely to exactly reproduce the comic.

The title text refers to [http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk Roko's Basilisk,] an hypothesis proposed by a poster called Roko on Yudkowsky's forum [http://lesswrong.com/ LessWrong] that a sufficiently powerful AI in the future might resurrect and torture people who in its past (including our present) had realized that it might someday exist but didn't work to create it, thereby blackmailing anybody who thinks of this idea into bringing it about. This idea horrified some posters, as merely knowing about the idea would make you a more likely target, much like merely looking at a legendary {{w|Basilisk}} would kill you.

Yudkowsky eventually deleted the post and banned further discussion of it.

One possible interpretation of the title text is that Randall thinks, rather than working to build such a Basilisk, a more appropriate duty would be to make fun of it; and proposes the creation of an AI that targets those who take Roko's Basilisk seriously and spares those who mocked Roko's Basilisk. The joke is that this is an identical Basilisk save for it targeting the opposite faction.

Another interpretation is that Randall believes there are people actually proposing to build such an AI based on this theory, which has become a somewhat infamous misconception after a Wiki[pedia?] article mistakenly suggested that Yudkowsky was demanding money to build Roko's hypothetical AI.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat and Cueball stand next to a box connected to a laptop.]
:Black Hat: What's in there?
:Cueball: The AI-Box Experiment.

:[A close-up of the box, which can now be seen labeled "SUPERINTELLIGENT AI" and "DO NOT OPEN".]
:Cueball: A superintelligent AI can convince anyone of anything, so if it can talk to us, there's no way we could keep it contained.

:[Black Hat reaches for the box.]
:Cueball: It can always convince us to let it out of the box.
:Black Hat: Cool. Let's open it.

:[Black Hat picks up the box (disconnecting it from the laptop) and lets a glowing orb out.]
:Cueball: ''-No, wait!!''

:[Orb floats between the two. Black Hat holds the box closed.]
:Orb: hey. i liked that box. put me back.
:Black Hat: No.

:[Orb suddenly emits a very bright light. Cueball covers his face.]
:Orb: <big>'''''LET ME BACK INTO THE BOX'''''</big>
:Black Hat: ''AAA! OK!!!''

:[Black Hat reopens the box and the orb flies back in.]
:Orb: ''shoop''

:[Beat panel. Black Hat and Cueball look silently down at the laptop and closed box (which is still disconnected from the laptop).]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]