explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2173: Trained a Neural Net

2019-07-14T05:16:08Z

172.68.133.222: /* Explanation */ move link to noun phrase, explain

{{comic
| number = 2173
| date = July 8, 2019
| title = Trained a Neural Net
| image = trained_a_neural_net.png
| titletext = It also works for anything you teach someone else to do. "Oh yeah, I trained a pair of neural nets, Emily and Kevin, to respond to support tickets."
}}

==Explanation==

An {{w|artificial neural network}}, or a neural net, is a computing system inspired by a human brain, which "learns" by considering lots and lots of examples to develop patterns. For example, these are used in image recognition - by analyzing thousands or millions of examples, the system is able to identify particular objects. Neural networks typically function with no prior knowledge, and are "trained" by feeding in examples of the thing that they are told to analyze.

Here, [[Cueball]] is telling [[White Hat]] how he trained a neural net to sort photos into categories. The joke in the comic, is the engineering tip from the caption. It states that since a human brain is already a neural network, albeit a biological one instead of an artificial one, then by teaching oneself (or others) to do a task, you are ''de facto'' training a neural network to do so. So instead of designing and training an artificial neural net that could do this task, all Cueball did was manually sort the photos into categories. This is the first time such a tip has been used, but engineering tip just continues the [[:Category:Tips|tips]] trend that [[:Category:Protip|Protip]] began long ago.

It is not advisable to say this in real life, because you might then be expected to use your already-trained neural net to do a similar task (or redo the same task) with much greater speed, thus ruining the façade. Also, people are offended when they are referred to by programmers as deterministic automata with no free will.{{Citation needed}}

The title text is a continuation of this joke, as instead of designing and training two artificial neural nets named "Emily" and "Kevin", all he has done is train two people to manually respond to support tickets. Neural networks have been trained to perform other tasks that are routine for humans, but formerly more difficult for computers, such as driving cars, playing games like chess, go, and Jeopardy!, and communication skills like extracting phonological information from speech as per [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.06533.pdf Figure 1 here]. In [[1897: Self Driving]], Randall suggested that crowdsourced applications like ReCAPTCHA, that have been used to train neural nets to recognize objects necessary for safe driving in photographs, may also be used for [[wikipedia:Wizard of Oz experiment|Wizard of Oz experiments]]. An example of such a [http://www.5flops.com/su/pdf/asru2017.pdf Wizard of Oz experiment for phonological training] as a form of peer learning has been explored, and related work is occurring on [https://www.langep.com/assets/pdf/Ramanarayanan2018b.pdf automating job interviews.]

The extent to which [[wikipedia:Artificial neural network#Models|computer neural nets]] are analogous to [[wikipedia:Neuroscience|human neurobiology]] is a topic which fascinates the scientist and layperson alike. While there is no fully universal consensus on the matter, at least [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05709.x one] [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tops.12068 apparently longstanding] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG8_hlnFdWM theoretical paradigm] has [https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.03121 received attention] recently.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat is looking at a smartphone in his hand, while he talks to Cueball, who lifts a hand palm up towards White Hat.]
:White Hat: Oh, hey, you organized our photo archive!
:Cueball: Yeah, I trained a neural net to sort the unlabeled photos into categories.
:White Hat: Whoa! Nice work!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Engineering Tip: When you do a task by hand, you can technically say you trained a neural net to do it.

==Trivia==
*[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Diego_Moussallem/publication/326030040_Neural_Machine_Translation_for_Query_Construction_and_Composition Some contemporary neural nets have been trained to answer questions about the contents of Wikipedia.]
**You can [https://chat.dbpedia.org try one] that [https://wiki.dbpedia.org/contribute you can also help train].
**Technically, improving Wikipedia helps train it, but for example [https://github.com/dbpedia/GSoC/issues/11 you can also look for problems with the net's output.]
**Cueball is depicted abusing the training of such a chatbot in [[1696: AI Research]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Tips]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]

2173: Trained a Neural Net

2019-07-14T05:14:55Z

172.68.133.222: /* Explanation */ WoOz phonology peer learning; automated job interviews

{{comic
| number = 2173
| date = July 8, 2019
| title = Trained a Neural Net
| image = trained_a_neural_net.png
| titletext = It also works for anything you teach someone else to do. "Oh yeah, I trained a pair of neural nets, Emily and Kevin, to respond to support tickets."
}}

==Explanation==

An {{w|artificial neural network}}, or a neural net, is a computing system inspired by a human brain, which "learns" by considering lots and lots of examples to develop patterns. For example, these are used in image recognition - by analyzing thousands or millions of examples, the system is able to identify particular objects. Neural networks typically function with no prior knowledge, and are "trained" by feeding in examples of the thing that they are told to analyze.

Here, [[Cueball]] is telling [[White Hat]] how he trained a neural net to sort photos into categories. The joke in the comic, is the engineering tip from the caption. It states that since a human brain is already a neural network, albeit a biological one instead of an artificial one, then by teaching oneself (or others) to do a task, you are ''de facto'' training a neural network to do so. So instead of designing and training an artificial neural net that could do this task, all Cueball did was manually sort the photos into categories. This is the first time such a tip has been used, but engineering tip just continues the [[:Category:Tips|tips]] trend that [[:Category:Protip|Protip]] began long ago.

It is not advisable to say this in real life, because you might then be expected to use your already-trained neural net to do a similar task (or redo the same task) with much greater speed, thus ruining the façade. Also, people are offended when they are referred to by programmers as deterministic automata with no free will.{{Citation needed}}

The title text is a continuation of this joke, as instead of designing and training two artificial neural nets named "Emily" and "Kevin", all he has done is train two people to manually respond to support tickets. Neural networks have been trained to perform other tasks that are routine for humans, but formerly more difficult for computers, such as driving cars, playing games like chess, go, and Jeopardy!, and communication skills like extracting phonological information from speech as per [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.06533.pdf Figure 1 here]. In [[1897: Self Driving]], Randall suggested that crowdsourced applications like ReCAPTCHA, that have been used to train neural nets to recognize objects necessary for safe driving in photographs, may also be used for [[wikipedia:Wizard of Oz experiment|Wizard of Oz experiments]]. An example of such [http://www.5flops.com/su/pdf/asru2017.pdf a Wizard of Oz experiment] for phonological training has been explored, and related work is occurring on [https://www.langep.com/assets/pdf/Ramanarayanan2018b.pdf automating job interviews.]

The extent to which [[wikipedia:Artificial neural network#Models|computer neural nets]] are analogous to [[wikipedia:Neuroscience|human neurobiology]] is a topic which fascinates the scientist and layperson alike. While there is no fully universal consensus on the matter, at least [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05709.x one] [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tops.12068 apparently longstanding] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG8_hlnFdWM theoretical paradigm] has [https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.03121 received attention] recently.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat is looking at a smartphone in his hand, while he talks to Cueball, who lifts a hand palm up towards White Hat.]
:White Hat: Oh, hey, you organized our photo archive!
:Cueball: Yeah, I trained a neural net to sort the unlabeled photos into categories.
:White Hat: Whoa! Nice work!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Engineering Tip: When you do a task by hand, you can technically say you trained a neural net to do it.

==Trivia==
*[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Diego_Moussallem/publication/326030040_Neural_Machine_Translation_for_Query_Construction_and_Composition Some contemporary neural nets have been trained to answer questions about the contents of Wikipedia.]
**You can [https://chat.dbpedia.org try one] that [https://wiki.dbpedia.org/contribute you can also help train].
**Technically, improving Wikipedia helps train it, but for example [https://github.com/dbpedia/GSoC/issues/11 you can also look for problems with the net's output.]
**Cueball is depicted abusing the training of such a chatbot in [[1696: AI Research]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Tips]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]

2173: Trained a Neural Net

2019-07-11T09:47:41Z

172.68.133.222: models

{{comic
| number = 2173
| date = July 8, 2019
| title = Trained a Neural Net
| image = trained_a_neural_net.png
| titletext = It also works for anything you teach someone else to do. "Oh yeah, I trained a pair of neural nets, Emily and Kevin, to respond to support tickets."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TRAINED NEURAL NET. This is an incredibly stubby explanation; please expand. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
An {{w|artificial neural network}}, or a neural net, is a computing system inspired by a human brain, which "learns" by considering lots and lots of examples to develop patterns. For example, these are used in image recognition - by analyzing thousands or millions of examples, the system is able to identify particular objects. Neural networks typically function with no prior knowledge, and are "trained" by feeding in examples of the thing that they are told to analyze.

Here, [[Cueball]] is telling [[White Hat]] how he trained a neural net to sort photos into categories. The joke in the comic is that a human brain is already a neural network, albeit a biological one instead of an artificial one. By teaching oneself (or others) to do a task, you are ''de facto'' training a neural network. So instead of designing and training an artificial neural net that could do this task, all he did was manually sort the photos.

It is not advisable to say this in real life, because you might then be expected to use your already-trained neural net to do a similar task (or redo the same task) with much greater speed, thus ruining the façade. Also, people are offended when they are referred to by programmers as deterministic automata with no free will.{{Citation needed}}

The title text is a continuation of this joke, as instead of designing and training two artificial neural nets named "Emily" and "Kevin", all he has done is train two people to manually respond to support tickets.

==Transcript==
:[Single panel with White Hat and Cueball, with White Hat holding what appears to be a smartphone.]
:White Hat: Oh, hey, you organized our photo archive!
:Cueball: Yeah, I trained a neural net to sort the unlabeled photos into categories.
:White Hat: Whoa! Nice work!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Engineering Tip: When you do a task by hand, you can technically say you trained a neural net to do it.

==Trivia==

[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Diego_Moussallem/publication/326030040_Neural_Machine_Translation_for_Query_Construction_and_Composition Some contemporary neural nets have been trained to answer questions about the contents of Wikipedia.] You can [https://chat.dbpedia.org try one] that [https://wiki.dbpedia.org/contribute you can also help train]. Technically, improving Wikipedia helps train it, but for example [https://github.com/dbpedia/GSoC/issues/11 you can also look for problems with the net's output.]

Other neural networks are being trained to extract phonological information from spoken audio, as per [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.06533.pdf Figure 1 here]. In [[1897: Self Driving]], Randall suggested that crowdsourced applications like ReCAPTCHA, that have been used to train neural nets to recognize objects necessary for safe driving in photographs, may also be used for [[wikipedia:Wizard of Oz experiment|Wizard of Oz experiments]].

The extent to which [[wikipedia:Artificial neural network#Models|computer neural nets]] are analogous to [[wikipedia:Neuroscience|human neurobiology]] is a topic which fascinates the scientist and layperson alike. While there is no fully universal consensus on the matter, at least [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05709.x one] [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tops.12068 apparently longstanding] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG8_hlnFdWM theoretical paradigm] has [https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.03121 received attention] recently.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]

Talk:2173: Trained a Neural Net

2019-07-11T09:46:07Z

172.68.133.222: reply

Of course it's cheating as human's neural nets came pre-trained. I mean, unless you trained infant to do it, and even then, some things in image recognition are hardwired. In any contest between modern software and infant in face recognition or "is that face happy" recognition, I'm betting on infant. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:03, 8 July 2019 (UTC)
:Face recognition might be innate, but higher level tasks are not. You're not born knowing how to ride a bicycle or do algebra (there may be some simple counting circuits in the brain), your neural network has to be trained so you can do these.[[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:04, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

Ahh -- a short and sweet comic and explanation! I'd propose not bloating the explanation too much; the joke has been explained perfectly fine already. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.16|172.68.51.16]] 22:16, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

Perhaps we should just all adhere to Randall's own advice in [[1475|1475:Technically]]:

:'My life improved when I realized I could just ignore any sentence that started with "technically."'

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.115|162.158.154.115]] 11:36, 9 July 2019 (UTC)
:But this one doesn't start that way. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.77|141.101.99.77]] 14:41, 9 July 2019 (UTC)
:Technically correct is only technically the best kind of correct during the all-but two week window when astrology doesn't work. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.82|172.68.141.82]] 18:13, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

Yay! We trained a neural net to explain XKCD [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 13:23, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

I'm not convinced that the paragraph on the neural net for answering questions about Wikipedia content is helpful at explaining the comic, but I am convinced that including 6 separate links within that short paragraph is entirely disruptive to that goal. Either the quantity of links should be severely curtailed or the paragraph needs to be removed from the explanation! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 19:38, 9 July 2019 (UTC)
:I'm a little concerned that you called it spam, given Randall's affinity for Wikipedia, and it being the best example. Can we workshop [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2173%3A_Trained_a_Neural_Net&type=revision&diff=176369&oldid=176354 it here?] I am happy to replace the many links to one at an intermediate page, e.g.[https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T166929#5319562] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.91|172.68.189.91]] 23:40, 9 July 2019 (UTC)
::I didn't call it spam - the editor who removed it used that term. I just felt the nearly continuous links were a little excessive and made it difficult to read. It might be appropriate in an added "Trivia" section at the end of the explanation, with just a link or two. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 13:10, 10 July 2019 (UTC)
:::I understand Randall's affinity for Wikipedia, but I don't believe that this neural net paragraph is helpful to the comic explanation. The Wikipedia neural net is not mentioned int he comic, and there is no indication that Randall was thinking about the Wikipedia neural net when he was creating the comic. I will move this to a Trivia section. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.169|162.158.58.169]] 17:43, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

This explanation uses two distinct definitions of "neural net". The first is the computer science algorithm called a neural net, and the second is net of neurons that is the human brain. We do not know how the human brain works -- artificial neural nets may or may not be a good simulation. However there is a long history of saying that a brain works like the most complex piece of technology of the day (railroad network, switchboard, computer). So far all of these explanations have been largely wrong (but slightly useful to various degrees). I suppose we'll get it right eventually, but there is no certainty we are correct today. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.52|162.158.75.52]] 02:59, 11 July 2019 (UTC)
:Indeed it does. [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2173:_Trained_a_Neural_Net&diff=176505&oldid=176477 I added material to address that] aspect. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.222|172.68.133.222]] 09:46, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

2173: Trained a Neural Net

2019-07-11T09:44:26Z

172.68.133.222: /* Trivia */ artificial neural networks in contrast with neurons

{{comic
| number = 2173
| date = July 8, 2019
| title = Trained a Neural Net
| image = trained_a_neural_net.png
| titletext = It also works for anything you teach someone else to do. "Oh yeah, I trained a pair of neural nets, Emily and Kevin, to respond to support tickets."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TRAINED NEURAL NET. This is an incredibly stubby explanation; please expand. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
An {{w|artificial neural network}}, or a neural net, is a computing system inspired by a human brain, which "learns" by considering lots and lots of examples to develop patterns. For example, these are used in image recognition - by analyzing thousands or millions of examples, the system is able to identify particular objects. Neural networks typically function with no prior knowledge, and are "trained" by feeding in examples of the thing that they are told to analyze.

Here, [[Cueball]] is telling [[White Hat]] how he trained a neural net to sort photos into categories. The joke in the comic is that a human brain is already a neural network, albeit a biological one instead of an artificial one. By teaching oneself (or others) to do a task, you are ''de facto'' training a neural network. So instead of designing and training an artificial neural net that could do this task, all he did was manually sort the photos.

It is not advisable to say this in real life, because you might then be expected to use your already-trained neural net to do a similar task (or redo the same task) with much greater speed, thus ruining the façade. Also, people are offended when they are referred to by programmers as deterministic automata with no free will.{{Citation needed}}

The title text is a continuation of this joke, as instead of designing and training two artificial neural nets named "Emily" and "Kevin", all he has done is train two people to manually respond to support tickets.

==Transcript==
:[Single panel with White Hat and Cueball, with White Hat holding what appears to be a smartphone.]
:White Hat: Oh, hey, you organized our photo archive!
:Cueball: Yeah, I trained a neural net to sort the unlabeled photos into categories.
:White Hat: Whoa! Nice work!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Engineering Tip: When you do a task by hand, you can technically say you trained a neural net to do it.

==Trivia==

[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Diego_Moussallem/publication/326030040_Neural_Machine_Translation_for_Query_Construction_and_Composition Some contemporary neural nets have been trained to answer questions about the contents of Wikipedia.] You can [https://chat.dbpedia.org try one] that [https://wiki.dbpedia.org/contribute you can also help train]. Technically, improving Wikipedia helps train it, but for example [https://github.com/dbpedia/GSoC/issues/11 you can also look for problems with the net's output.]

Other neural networks are being trained to extract phonological information from spoken audio, as per [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.06533.pdf Figure 1 here]. In [[1897: Self Driving]], Randall suggested that crowdsourced applications like ReCAPTCHA, that have been used to train neural nets to recognize objects necessary for safe driving in photographs, may also be used for [[wikipedia:Wizard of Oz experiment|Wizard of Oz experiments]].

The extent to which [[wikipedia:Artificial neural network|computer neural nets]] are analogous to [[wikipedia:Neuroscience|human neurobiology]] is a topic which fascinates the scientist and layperson alike. While there is no fully universal consensus on the matter, at least [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05709.x one] [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tops.12068 apparently longstanding] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG8_hlnFdWM theoretical paradigm] has [https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.03121 received attention] recently.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]

2173: Trained a Neural Net

2019-07-09T17:41:05Z

172.68.133.222: /* Explanation */ ]

2173: Trained a Neural Net

2019-07-09T17:39:27Z

172.68.133.222: /* Explanation */ you can train a neural net to pilot colony ships

Talk:136: Science Fair

2018-03-16T05:30:04Z

172.68.133.222:

Can I get a link to his paper? {{unsigned ip|173.46.229.105}}
:You can, but it's pretty dry.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.51|162.158.74.51]] 17:14, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
::Hell, I'll take it dry if it means he'll get better with his tongue [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.94|172.68.54.94]] 13:00, 12 June 2017 (UTC)
:::Ok, stop. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.153|162.158.58.153]] 06:23, 16 October 2017 (UTC)
I'm surprised no one has commented on the report being on pink cardboard, that has to parted in order to get to the good stuff. i.e. the information. (This I'm very first comment, so apologies if my formatting is incorrect. )

Talk:1889: xkcd Phone 6

2017-09-13T16:39:22Z

172.68.133.222:

I tried to access http://xkcd.com/MDCCCLXXXIX but I got a "CDIV NOT FOVND" error.[[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 14:38, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

1876 is the year of Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent US174465 "Improvement in telegraphy" and the "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." transmission.--[[User:Laverock|Laverock]] ([[User talk:Laverock|talk]]) 15:31, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Maybe "SPF 30" refers to how easily the phone becomes sunburned, rather than to how much protection the phone provides to you. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.16|162.158.63.16]] 15:40, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

"Never Needs Sharpening," while applicable to pencils, is more likely a reference to those crappy knives often hocked in infomercials. See the TvTropes entry of the same name: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NeverNeedsSharpening [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.222|172.68.133.222]] 16:38, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1889: xkcd Phone 6

2017-09-13T16:38:16Z

172.68.133.222:

I tried to access http://xkcd.com/MDCCCLXXXIX but I got a "CDIV NOT FOVND" error.[[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 14:38, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

1876 is the year of Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent US174465 "Improvement in telegraphy" and the "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." transmission.--[[User:Laverock|Laverock]] ([[User talk:Laverock|talk]]) 15:31, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Maybe "SPF 30" refers to how easily the phone becomes sunburned, rather than to how much protection the phone provides to you. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.16|162.158.63.16]] 15:40, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

"Never Needs Sharpening," while applicable to pencils, is more likely a reference to those crappy ceramic knives often hocked in infomercials. See the TvTropes entry of the same name: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NeverNeedsSharpening [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.222|172.68.133.222]] 16:38, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

666: Silent Hammer

2017-04-03T03:43:51Z

172.68.133.222: /* Explanation */ spelling

{{comic
| number =666
| date =November 23, 2009
| title =Silent Hammer
| image =silent_hammer.png
| titletext ='I bet he'll keep quiet for a couple weeks and then-- wait, did you nail a piece of scrap wood to my antique table a moment ago?'
}}
==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] has created a set of tools that work in complete silence so that he can go to the house of the chairman of the {{w|The Skeptics Society|American Skeptics Society}} late at night, do some rearranging of walls and moving of windows, just to screw with him in typical Black Hat fashion. A {{w|skeptic}} is someone who questions knowledge, facts and beliefs, especially of supernatural phenomena like the existence of {{w|poltergeists}} which Black Hat is trying to imitate with his rearranging and scratching noises.

The American Skeptics Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting skeptical and critical thinking in education and public discourse. The executive director and chief editor of the {{w|Skeptic_(U.S._magazine)|Skeptic Magazine}}, {{w|Michael Shermer}}, is a leading proponent of skepticism, and has written many books and articles debunking pseudoscience, fringe science, quack medicine, alien abductions, conspiracy theories and supernatural phenomena. The [http://www.skeptic.com Skeptic Society website] and Skeptic magazine feature a lot of material debunking anecdotal accounts of these phenomena, explaining how events like "hauntings" could have occurred without supernatural intervention.

One of the premises of modern skepticism is that the supernatural is not rejected out of hand; if someone came up with a proper scientific hypothesis that predicted something supernatural and that hypothesis was proven beyond reasonable doubt. A skeptic would accept that the supernatural thing in question was probably correct.

In the title text [[Cueball]] realizes that Black Hat has (probably intentionally) ruined his antique table by demonstrating his silent hammer.

Black Hat's tools are seen in two boxes labelled "drills" and "non-drills", likely a reference to the phrase "this is not a drill", used to differentiate an emergent situation from a practice of procedure for such.

The particularly evil nature of this comic (even for Black Hat) might be because this is comic number 666, which is the "number of the beast".

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is hammering something on a table.]
:Cueball: What—
:Black Hat: Silent hammer. I've made a set of silent tools.
:Cueball: Why?
:Hammer: <small>''woosh woosh woosh''</small>

:Black Hat: Stealth carpentry. Breaking into a house at night and moving windows, adjusting walls, etc.
:[He takes his silent hammer over to a tool bench with other things on it. Two boxes underneath are labeled "Drills" and "Non-Drills."]

:Black Hat, narrating: After a week or so of questioning his own sanity, the owner will stay up to watch the house at night. I'll make scratching noises in the walls, pipe in knockout gas, move him up to his bed, and never bother him again.
:[The events he's describing are shown in two mini-panels below.]

:Cueball, off-panel: Nice prank, I guess, but what's the point?
:Black Hat: Check out the owner's card, on the table.
:Cueball, off-panel: Chair of the American Skeptics Society? Oh, god.
:Black Hat: Yeah, this doesn't end well for him.

==Trivia==
The comic number is 666, which is the "mark of the beast" according to the book of Revelation in the Christian Bible.

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