explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1761: Blame

2020-07-27T00:39:23Z

172.68.38.44:

This comic is one of Randal's best EVER! It is a scathing and biting commentary on the current angst of a huge swath of liberal and progressive snowflakes.

The first panel sets the stage with a subtle but jarring inversion of the normal human response "bad thing happened >>> I feel sad" to the much more autocentric "I feel sad >>> bad things are happening" Worth a derisive snort in its own right, we can accept this little lapse since we are deluged with so many examples of such self interest from every direction today. Ignoring the little deviation ( never something one should do with xkcd) we accept the lead-in panel as simply saying "bad things are happening"

The second panel is a riff on the "something bad happened therefore someone is to blame" meme of modern Western society - examples such as blame the coffee supplier if one scalds oneself spilling hot coffee, blame the company that grinds up and sells powdered rock for any perceived negative effects of assiduously dusting said powdered rock over ever body orifice and breathing it for thirty years. This is a masterful set up! We now know where the joke is going! Cueball is going to come up with an absurd and funny scapegoat for the bad things happening in panel one! We are ready for the punchline....

But the punchline is not that at all! It is exquisite! The blame is on Cueball's Facebook friends! We hang in the moment of disbelief where our world view must be reset! Then it hits! We realize the the blame is not for "bad things happening" at all - we have been set up, had! The blame is for Cue ball's "Feeling sad"! It is not for all the harm, blood, guts, and gore that are really happening in the world but for the fact that something - his Facebook friends specifically, have caused him to think about these bad things, penetrating his safe bubble and making him sad.

That the "bad things" are more than likely simply the shocked and hurt feelings of Cueball's friends as a result of the recent 2016 election only heightens the joke. No real human suffering is usually openly discussed in the shallows of Facebook. We realize this and the satire is complete.

The mouse over text emphasizes the break from real issues to the relatively shallow feelings (being "scared") and even more shallow and petty response (yelling at them). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.118|108.162.242.118]] 19:42, 20 November 2016 (UTC)

You seem to lack the skill of introspection. It's not the "inversion of normal response" (bad things are happening because I feel sad), it's an observation that I feel sad and the investigation into why that is. [I feel sad. (Why is that?) Bad things are happening. (Why are they?) They must be someone's fault. But whose?] The punchline is that Cueball's conclusion that his Facebook friends are to blame indicates the state of intense frenzy on the site. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.18|172.68.46.18]] 18:43, 10 December 2016 (UTC)

It seems like he's talking about all of the bad things that have happened in 2016 so far making fun of Facebook posts that blame everyone for the things that are happening
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.119|173.245.52.119]] 05:21, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
: In particular the recent election[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.224|108.162.215.224]] 08:16, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
Is this a reference to the "echo chamber" issue raised in recent US election? I.e. blaming my friends on facebook for only sharing stories that reinforce my biases and thus my failure to be fully informed about why people who disagree with me do disagree and only blaming them for being dumb isn't a failing on *my* part, but on my friends' parts for only sharing echo-chamber-y material. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.87|108.162.237.87]] 10:03, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

I definitely think it's worth mentioning that this comic is, while written to be timeless, clearly a reaction to the election. (Randall has endorsed both Obama in 2008 and Clinton this year, and judging by #500, cares more than a little, so it's hard to conceive that this *wouldn't* be about the election.)

There are two types of Facebook activity that may be the target of this satire: 1) engaging in angry arguments with Facebook friends with *differing* political opinions, and 2) making numerous angry posts and comments against the other side, despite the fact that they’ll mainly be seen by *like-minded* people in your social media echo chamber. I expect that this comic is aimed at both: 1) the futility of internet arguments has been a topic before, while 2) the title text specifying “scared friends” clearly indicates like-minded people. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.54|162.158.89.54]] 10:22, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
: Just added the "friends who disagree" to it.
By focusing on blame he has cleverly shifted thinking to Q:"are your friends on Facebook to blame?" A:"probably not as they are almost all likely to have similar views to you" Q:"So why vent anger on Facebook to people who aren't to blame and you don't want to change?" A:"errrrrr...." {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.224}}

There are 3 references in my recent edit. If you go into the source code, you can see the links, but I lack the wikipedia knowledge to get them to properly link out. Help? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 14:13, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Couldn't it just be that it is usual for politicians to blame "the others" (countries, etc) to justify that things are not all good in the country, and then, proceed to threaten to do bad things (go to war, revoke treaties, etc) to appease the "country's inner sadness" (and, through this, get votes) ? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.61|173.245.48.61]] 14:53, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

My inclination was to take this as satirizing the number of people who have taken to Facebook to rant about an event that was clearly not the fault of one's immediate circle. However one feels about the election it's clear that spewing venom at anyone who happens to be in your Facebook list is unproductive at best and certainly isn't addressing any appreciable portion of the cause of these events. It seemed to be supported by taking the hover text as a continuation of the problem, suggesting that Cueball has devolved to seeking catharsis. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.132|162.158.74.132]] 17:00, 18 November 2016 (UTC)jrow
:Agreed, I took this comic to be a satirical attack on people who post all caps angry messages on Facebook. EX: "I can't believe all you people did this!" , when 90% of their friends probably agree with them (See "Echo Chambers" comments)- it's almost certainly in context of the election, as "Scared Friends" represents a great many Clinton voters very well right now. The clear interpretation to me is that people posting these angry Facebook rants are not going through normal, well-thought out processes.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.111|108.162.219.111]] 23:11, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

This explanation currently claims venting can reduce stress. I have heard that venting actually makes you angrier. (First Google hit appears to be a scientific paper: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/jbickfor/bushman2002.pdf ). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.182|108.162.215.182]] 20:53, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

The reference to yelling is obviously sarcasm. Nobody would really suggest the absurd idea that Randall really thinks yelling at friends is acceptable, so really what is being highlighted is that yelling at friends is NOT a good idea. The explanation text should not suggest that the idea is anything other than absurd. --[[User:Rotan|Rotan]] ([[User talk:Rotan|talk]]) 00:15, 19 November 2016 (UTC)

This could be a critique of the specific social media. The true meaning being expressed by what is not included: "My Friends on Facebook" as compared with all the other areas in which one would have friends, e.g. "My Friends at the Coffee Shop" or "My Friends at Work". It could also be intended for the reader to infer through abductive reasoning that the algorithms (user interface) of which facebook is composed may promote this type of behavior. {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.32}}[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.32|108.162.246.32]] 02:14, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

Why Facebook: http://arstechnica.com/staff/2016/11/its-time-to-get-rid-of-the-facebook-news-feed-because-its-not-news/ --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 12:35, 19 November 2016 (UTC)

I think Randall is trying to address all the Clinton supporters who said to their longtime social media friends, "If you voted for Trump, you're a sexist, racist piece of ****, and you should get out of my life forever," and other similar things, because there were a LOT of those people on social media, despite every liberal icon from Michael Moore to Bill Maher telling people to protest and to fight much harder than usual, but also respect the political process (IE, don't riot if there's no last minute electoral college switch). When Obama was in the White House, the the far-right Republicans did awful things governed by fear. Now with Trump, I hope the far-left Democrats don't do anything crazy ALSO governed by fear, because that will just lead to more white people becoming Republicans because they felt unwelcome by the Democrats. Just my opinion. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.252|108.162.210.252]] 19:27, 19 November 2016 (UTC)

It occurs to me that the joke is simply about relative perception. Before facebook the media was the primary source for most people to make political decisions. I have heard it repeated by the media that Trump "used" social media to influence voters. Ergo, similar to that of the gun argument "if guns did not exist, there would be less violent crime" I feel that Randall is making a simile by saying "if facebook did not exist, Trump would not have been elected" and, by extension, we would not know as much about the magnitude of bad happenings in the world. Therefore, the first contact cause of Randall's sadness both before and after the election is Facebook. However, there's a reason he chose to blame facebook users and not just facebook. If facebook users were more like him and generally promoted positive aspects of the world (or at least be more balanced), he theorises that everyone (including Randall) would be more likely to be upbeat and positive. This, of course presumes a number of things, the simplest of which is that the world would be better if things went the way Cueball wanted them to. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.104|162.158.178.104]]

So uhm, did whoever wrote the above explanation not understand the concept of sarcasm? Because this comic comes off as 100% sarcastic to me, and yet it's taking it very seriously. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.127|172.68.78.127]] 09:51, 20 November 2016 (UTC)

It's quite simple what it means, I'm not sure why people aren't getting it. Randall is trying to bring balance as currently everyone is lashing out against their own friends on facebook as a result of the anger of Hillary losing. He's being sarcastic to highlight the absurdity of the thought process that people blame their friends for the "bad things happening". I was quite peeved that he got political, but this comic undid a lot of my peevedness. I'm not sure who wrote the page here, but they clearly have no clue what this comic is about? --[[User:Drkaii|Drkaii]] ([[User talk:Drkaii|talk]]) 00:08, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

It is a bit odd that everyone thinks Randall went political and this is all about the election. I wonder how many more panels will be interpreted in this light before the wounds heal and people get back to work making their life and country work. {{unsigned ip|108.162.241.106}}

Explain XKCD's talk pages are an art form all their own. Whether Randall is commenting on the election in the comic or not (he probably is), this talk page managed to exactly recreate, like a time capsule, the frenzied insanity of the post-2016 election internet, on which the comic itself is (probably) commenting. The talk page on the comic with the actual endorsement is plenty dramatic, but this one is all the DNA of that week's petty insanity preserved in amber while discussing a comic discussing that week's petty insanity. A++++ would read again. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.44|172.68.38.44]] 00:39, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

1032: Networking

2020-07-26T01:44:40Z

172.68.38.44:

{{comic
| number = 1032
| date = March 21, 2012
| title = Networking
| image = networking.png
| titletext = Our company is agile and lean with a focus on the long tail. Ok, our company is actually a polecat I found in my backyard.
}}

==Explanation==
Networking, in business, is the act of expanding your group of contacts in order to help your career down the line. Here, in this comic, [[Beret Guy]] meets {{w|Chief Technology Officer}} (CTO, an executive level position overseeing development of new technologies) Connr Clark (perhaps a typo for "Connor" or perhaps a reference to common "Web 2.0" names like the businesses {{w|Flickr}}, {{w|Tumblr}}, etc.) and Beret Guy is as strange as he usually is: he introduces himself as a "business professional" rather than as someone with any kind of specific job, and then goes on to mention that he photocopied a burrito, which he presumably believes is the sort of thing business professionals do. He also has a business card; usually this would contain contact information, but his only says "This is my business card". He calls his briefcase, or suitcase, a "handlebox", and it is full of a quarter of a million dollars in cash. (The source of this money is not discussed in this comic, but in [[1493: Meeting]], Ponytail says it "keeps appearing, but we have no idea how or why.") Then Beret Guy proceeds to eat Connr's business card. Business cards are again mentioned in the title text of [[2277: Business Greetings]], also about one of Beret Guy's businesses. All of these things are not common behavior. {{Citation needed}}

"Networking" is often an over-hyped, empty affair. There are zillions of networking meetings of every description going on every day everywhere, and mostly people trade cards and continue to not make money. So that's the joke – Beret Guy does the networking {{w|schtick}}, badly, and yet is somehow making huge amounts of money at it.

The comic is also likely a joke on the idea that many people are excited about becoming a "business professional" who carries a briefcase, hands out business cards, and makes tons of money, without having an adequate plan for how to make those things happen, or possibly even knowing what their actual job would be. Beret Guy never says what he does, simply introducing himself as a "business professional," and explains his piles of cash with "I am a business grown-up who makes business profits!" In this world —and in people's dreams— when you "grow up" and start a business, money magically appears. Obviously, that's not how it works.{{Citation needed}}

The "Eusocial" in "Eusocial Media Ventures" is a reference to {{w|eusociality}}, the highest level of social cooperation found in the animal kingdom. Eusocial animals (termites being a common example) cooperate together to raise their young, have different generations living in the same colony, and have specialized individuals for reproductive and non-reproductive tasks.

The title text is a pun on three common business buzzwords: agile, lean and long-tail. An agile business is one that can change course quickly based on customer demands and the business environment. A lean business is one with minimal inventory or assets; nothing is idle or warehoused, so everything in active use or on the move. Long-tail describes the strategy of offering a large number of unique items with relatively small quantities sold of each – usually in addition to selling fewer popular items in large quantities. Netflix is a popular example of long-tail because they have (almost) every movie imaginable, including rare titles that only a few people would be interested in.

And of course, the pun here is one animal that is agile and lean with a long ''tail'' is a {{w|polecat}}.

Furthermore, although "agile" and "lean" do mean a quick, nimble, and efficient business, they also refer to specific practices, as in {{w|agile software development}}, {{w|lean manufacturing}} and {{w|lean Six Sigma}}. Many people think these terms have devolved to overused jargon. While agile development is supposed to be a highly structured method to get programmers to produce more working code quickly, when someone from the marketing department says "''agile''" it often means "''We don't know what we're supposed to be producing, so we'll just chuck some stuff together, and keep those bits that the customer says he likes. We'll then do it all over again until we've got something that he'll pay for.''" "''Lean''" is supposed to mean that a business keeps its costs as low as possible, employing one person to do marketing and PR, not really having a Human Resources department, etc. But, in practice it often becomes "''Keep as little stock as possible so that we don't have a lot of money tied up in it, and don't need a big warehouse; make stuff just before it is supposed to ship so that we don't have to store it either; make frequent prayers and virgin sacrifices to whatever gods we can find to ensure that nothing slips up anywhere along the line that our lawyers can't get us out of.''"

Obviously, Beret Guy's business plan, [[1021: Business Plan]], worked . See also [[1117: My Sky]].

==Transcript==
:[A man approaches Beret Guy at a party and they extend arms to shake hands. Beret Guy is holding a metal briefcase. Ponytail is a waitress in the background, carrying a tray with a wine glass on it.]
:Connr: I'm Connr Clark, CTO at Eusocial Media Ventures.
:Beret Guy: I'm a business professional! Earlier I photocopied a burrito!

:[Connr hands Beret Guy a business card. Beret Guy takes it and hands Connr another business card. Beret Guy has put his suitcase on the floor.]
:Connr: You should check us out! Here's my card.
:Beret Guy: Here's mine!
:Beret Guy: Networking!

:[Connr takes a closer look at the card, and Beret Guy holds up his case.]
:Connr: ...this just says "This is my business card!"
:Beret Guy: Do you like it? I have more in my handlebox.

:[Beret Guy puts his case on a table and opens it to reveal it is full of cash. Connr looks on in shock.]
:Connr: Uh, that's ok, I think I'll—
:Beret Guy: Here, have ten of them!
:Connr: —holy shit that thing is full of ''cash!''

:[Connr raises his arms in excitement. Beret Guy turns to face him and chews on Connr's business card.]
:Connr: Where did you ''get'' that?
:Beret Guy: I am a business grown-up who makes business profits!
:Connr: That's like a quarter of a million dollars!
:Beret Guy: Yay! Business is fun!
:Beret Guy: Do you have more of your cards? They're ''delicious!''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Beret Guy's Business]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:1011: Baby Names

2020-07-26T01:29:01Z

172.68.38.44:

"Old lady" names like Edith or Margaret are also pretty awful for a girl. She's gonna have to live her early years with a name that makes her sound like she's 50. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:13, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
:There's a young Margaret in ''A Wrinkle in Time''. Also, I know a young woman named Margaret. However, I can hardly imagine a worse name than Bertha. [[User:Dfeuer|Dfeuer]] ([[User talk:Dfeuer|talk]]) 16:09, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

Remember that they are only "Old Lady" names because they were popular baby names 50 years ago! In 50 years time people will say don't name your child Hunter! That's a grandpa name! (Yes people actually call their sons that!) --[[User:LostFire|LostFire]] ([[User talk:LostFire|talk]]) 09:54, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
: I once met a man in his mid-50s named Austin. For half his life he got people commenting on how old-fashioned his name is, and for the other half he's gotten people saying when they saw his name on the list they were expecting a kid.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.70|173.245.52.70]] 01:39, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm from Brazil and I find interesting that the concept of names that makes children feel much older exists in other languages. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.119|108.162.254.119]] 03:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

:It's common to pretty much all cultures, name fads come and go. In Brazil, for example, you don't see many girls named "Lourdes", or old men named "Felipe". --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.241|108.162.210.241]] 15:18, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

:Interestingly this problem seems (to me) to be relatively unexistant in Poland. This seems to be helped by our attitude to name variants (i.e. considering them same name in most cases). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.216|141.101.89.216]] 21:06, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

::What... I'm from Poland and I think this does exist in Poland Take Stefan, Kasimierz, Władysław etc. I even found this article: http://www.edziecko.pl/ciaza_i_porod/1,79473,18054856,Helena__Aniela__Kazimierz_i_Wladyslaw__stare_imiona.html

I suspect "friendly" is so it would play out in introductions as such: "Nice to meet you. I'm ''friendly''." --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.148|108.162.225.148]] 14:05, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Still can't think of a name dumber than 'Renesmee'. 'North West' comes close. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.53|108.162.221.53]] 02:07, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

My friend married a man named "Durr." First child was named Kathy. I suggested Corianne for the second {{unsigned ip|173.245.63.146}}

I have a friend who was briefly called Parsley. When she was born, her Grandfather got the call instead of her Grandmother, and reported that her name as "Parsley". He then went straight back to sleep, leaving the Grandmother quite frustrated. After reading this comic, she felt sort of famous. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.77}}

Technically, "Sean" should have an accent on the 'a', so that it is pronounced "Shawn". It's a transliteration of "John" into the alphabet that was in use in Ireland a couple of centuries ago. If you leave out the accent, it's a different word, a prefix meaning "old" and pronounced "shan". Using family names as given names is also a thing. "Kim" is a nice name for a girl... but in N Korea? And finally "Joyst" as a reference to "Joyce" recalls the arts graduate from Dublin looking for a job as a builder... "The difference between a joist and a girder? Well, Joist wrote Ulysses and Girder wrote Faust"[[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.208|162.158.38.208]] 21:35, 12 September 2018 (UTC)

Guys "Astamouth" is definitely worse than "Renesmee". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.13|162.158.111.13]] 07:47, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

There is currently a very famous child who is named a wifi password and I think this comic is much funnier because of it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.44|172.68.38.44]] 01:29, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

Talk:1002: Game AIs

2020-07-26T01:21:46Z

172.68.38.44:

Mornington Crescent would be impossible for a computer to play, let alone win... {{unsigned|188.29.119.251}}
It is unclear which side of the line jeopard fall upon. Why so close to the line I wonder. [[User:DruidDriver|DruidDriver]] ([[User talk:DruidDriver|talk]]) 01:04, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

: Because of {{w|Watson (computer)}}. (Anon) 13 August 2013{{unsigned ip|24.142.134.100}}

Could the "CounterStrike" be referring instead to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike computer game] which can have computer-controlled players? --[[Special:Contributions/131.187.75.20|131.187.75.20]] 15:49, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

:I agree, this is far more likely. [[Special:Contributions/100.40.49.22|100.40.49.22]] 10:21, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

On the old blog version of this article, a comment mentioned Ken tweeting his method right after this comic was posted. He joked that they would asphyxiate themselves to actually see heaven for seven minutes. I don't know how to search for tweets, or if they even save them after so much time, but I thought it should be noted. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 07:11, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

I disagree about the poker part. Reading someone's physical tells is just a small part of the game. Theoretically there is a Nash equilibrium for the game, the reason why it hasn't been found is that the amount of ways a deck can be shuffled is astronomical (even if you just count the cards that you use) and you also have to take into account the various betsizes. A near perfect solution for 2 player limit poker has been found by the Cepheus Poker Project: http://poker.srv.ualberta.ca/.

~ Could the description of tic-tac-toe link to xkcd 832 which explains the strategy? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.173|162.158.152.173]] 13:13, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Saying that computers are very close to beating top humans as of January 2016 is misleading at best. There is not enough details in the BBC article, but it sounds like the Facebook program has about a 50% chance of beating 5-dan amateurs. In other words, it needs a 4-stone handicap (read: 4 free moves) to have a 50% chance to win against top-level amateurs, to say nothing about professionals. If a robotic team could have a 50% chance to beating Duke University at football (a skilled amateur team), would you say they were very close to being able to consistently beat the Patriots (a top-level professional)? If anything that underestimates the skill difference in Go, but the general point stands. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.38}}
: How about bearing one of the top players five times in a row and being scheduled to play against the world champion in March? http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/27/google-s-ai-is-the-first-to-defeat-a-go-champion/ [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 06:18, 28 January 2016 (UTC)
::However DeepMind ranked AlphaGo close to Fan Hui 2P and the distributed version has being at the upper tier of Fan's level. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v529/n7587/fig_tab/nature16961_F4.html
::The official games were 5-0 however the unofficial were 3-2. Averaging to 8-2 in favor of AlphaGo.
::Looking at http://www.goratings.org/ Fan Hui is ranked 631, while Lee Sedol 9P, whom is playing in March, is in the top 5.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.47|108.162.218.47]] 06:12 5 February 2016 (UTC)
:::Original poster here (sorry, not sure how to sign). Okay, you all are right. Go AI has advanced a lot more than I had understood. I'm still curious how the game against Lee Sedol will go, but that that is even an interesting question shows how much Go AI has improved. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.33}}

Google's Alpha Go won, 3 games to none! Mid March 2016[[User:Saspic45|Saspic45]] ([[User talk:Saspic45|talk]]) 03:06, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Okay, for some reason they played all five games. Lee Sedol won game 4 as the computer triumphed 4-1.[[User:Saspic45|Saspic45]] ([[User talk:Saspic45|talk]]) 08:44, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Not shown in this comic: {{w|1000 Blank White Cards}}, and, even further down, {{w|Nomic}}. [[User:KangaroOS|Kangaro]][[User talk:KangaroOS|OS]] 01:22, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Is the transcript (currently in table format) accessible for blind users? Should it be? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.237|162.158.58.237]] 10:48, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

At the very least the transcript needs to be fixed so that it factually represents the comic. Jeopardy is in the wrong spot with just a quick glance which is all I have time for here at work. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.231|162.158.62.231]] 16:58, 24 August 2017 (UTC)

AlphaStar beat Mana pretty decisively, but it was cheating and Mana won the game where it wasn't, and it could only play on a certain map in Protoss vs Protoss. However, that was a while ago. Google dropped AlphaStar on ladder under barcode usernames, and it's been doing rather well... but Serral (one of the world's best players) recently beat it pretty decisively. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.244|172.68.211.244]] 01:49, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

:In case anyone is checking up on the AlphaStar thing: AlphaStar definitely plays at a high human level in Starcraft 2 now (2020), without doing much that seems 'humanly impossible' (ie, like cheating, as it did during the MaNa matchup), but it's in relatively limited maps, and it not only loses fairly regularly if not most of the time to top-ranked humans like Serral, it also loses to essentially random grab-bags of very good players like Lowko on occasion. Like, Lowko's much better than me but he's not tournament-level good and he beat it.
:Also, technically, AlphaStar isn't even *one* program. It's an ensemble of many programs, each one specific to a different SC2 race and specializing in different strategies. Maybe if there were a 'seamless' amalgam where it were 'choosing' a strategy it could be arguably one program, but it's literally a totally separately trained neural network for each 'agent'.
:Furthermore, when you watch it play sometimes it does extremely stupid things like trap its tanks in its own base. SC2 is, at least this year, still a human endeavor at high tiers. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.44|172.68.38.44]] 01:21, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

Who is Ken Jennings?

I feel like it should be relatively easy to make a computer program that can learn the rules of Mao without knowing them to begin with. There has to be some feedback: a player gets penalties if he breaks the rules. This can be used to write a self-learning algorithm.

Talk:1002: Game AIs

2020-07-26T01:21:18Z

172.68.38.44:

Mornington Crescent would be impossible for a computer to play, let alone win... {{unsigned|188.29.119.251}}
It is unclear which side of the line jeopard fall upon. Why so close to the line I wonder. [[User:DruidDriver|DruidDriver]] ([[User talk:DruidDriver|talk]]) 01:04, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

: Because of {{w|Watson (computer)}}. (Anon) 13 August 2013{{unsigned ip|24.142.134.100}}

Could the "CounterStrike" be referring instead to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike computer game] which can have computer-controlled players? --[[Special:Contributions/131.187.75.20|131.187.75.20]] 15:49, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

:I agree, this is far more likely. [[Special:Contributions/100.40.49.22|100.40.49.22]] 10:21, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

On the old blog version of this article, a comment mentioned Ken tweeting his method right after this comic was posted. He joked that they would asphyxiate themselves to actually see heaven for seven minutes. I don't know how to search for tweets, or if they even save them after so much time, but I thought it should be noted. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 07:11, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

I disagree about the poker part. Reading someone's physical tells is just a small part of the game. Theoretically there is a Nash equilibrium for the game, the reason why it hasn't been found is that the amount of ways a deck can be shuffled is astronomical (even if you just count the cards that you use) and you also have to take into account the various betsizes. A near perfect solution for 2 player limit poker has been found by the Cepheus Poker Project: http://poker.srv.ualberta.ca/.

~ Could the description of tic-tac-toe link to xkcd 832 which explains the strategy? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.173|162.158.152.173]] 13:13, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Saying that computers are very close to beating top humans as of January 2016 is misleading at best. There is not enough details in the BBC article, but it sounds like the Facebook program has about a 50% chance of beating 5-dan amateurs. In other words, it needs a 4-stone handicap (read: 4 free moves) to have a 50% chance to win against top-level amateurs, to say nothing about professionals. If a robotic team could have a 50% chance to beating Duke University at football (a skilled amateur team), would you say they were very close to being able to consistently beat the Patriots (a top-level professional)? If anything that underestimates the skill difference in Go, but the general point stands. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.38}}
: How about bearing one of the top players five times in a row and being scheduled to play against the world champion in March? http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/27/google-s-ai-is-the-first-to-defeat-a-go-champion/ [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 06:18, 28 January 2016 (UTC)
::However DeepMind ranked AlphaGo close to Fan Hui 2P and the distributed version has being at the upper tier of Fan's level. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v529/n7587/fig_tab/nature16961_F4.html
::The official games were 5-0 however the unofficial were 3-2. Averaging to 8-2 in favor of AlphaGo.
::Looking at http://www.goratings.org/ Fan Hui is ranked 631, while Lee Sedol 9P, whom is playing in March, is in the top 5.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.47|108.162.218.47]] 06:12 5 February 2016 (UTC)
:::Original poster here (sorry, not sure how to sign). Okay, you all are right. Go AI has advanced a lot more than I had understood. I'm still curious how the game against Lee Sedol will go, but that that is even an interesting question shows how much Go AI has improved. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.33}}

Google's Alpha Go won, 3 games to none! Mid March 2016[[User:Saspic45|Saspic45]] ([[User talk:Saspic45|talk]]) 03:06, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Okay, for some reason they played all five games. Lee Sedol won game 4 as the computer triumphed 4-1.[[User:Saspic45|Saspic45]] ([[User talk:Saspic45|talk]]) 08:44, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Not shown in this comic: {{w|1000 Blank White Cards}}, and, even further down, {{w|Nomic}}. [[User:KangaroOS|Kangaro]][[User talk:KangaroOS|OS]] 01:22, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Is the transcript (currently in table format) accessible for blind users? Should it be? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.237|162.158.58.237]] 10:48, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

At the very least the transcript needs to be fixed so that it factually represents the comic. Jeopardy is in the wrong spot with just a quick glance which is all I have time for here at work. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.231|162.158.62.231]] 16:58, 24 August 2017 (UTC)

AlphaStar beat Mana pretty decisively, but it was cheating and Mana won the game where it wasn't, and it could only play on a certain map in Protoss vs Protoss. However, that was a while ago. Google dropped AlphaStar on ladder under barcode usernames, and it's been doing rather well... but Serral (one of the world's best players) recently beat it pretty decisively. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.244|172.68.211.244]] 01:49, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

Who is Ken Jennings?

I feel like it should be relatively easy to make a computer program that can learn the rules of Mao without knowing them to begin with. There has to be some feedback: a player gets penalties if he breaks the rules. This can be used to write a self-learning algorithm.

:In case anyone is checking up on the AlphaStar thing: AlphaStar definitely plays at a high human level in Starcraft 2 now (2020), without doing much that seems 'humanly impossible' (ie, like cheating, as it did during the MaNa matchup), but it's in relatively limited maps, and it not only loses fairly regularly if not most of the time to top-ranked humans like Serral, it also loses to essentially random grab-bags of very good players like Lowko on occasion. Like, Lowko's much better than me but he's not tournament-level good and he beat it.
:Also, technically, AlphaStar isn't even *one* program. It's an ensemble of many programs, each one specific to a different SC2 race and specializing in different strategies. Maybe if there were a 'seamless' amalgam where it were 'choosing' a strategy it could be arguably one program, but it's literally a totally separately trained neural network for each 'agent'.
:Furthermore, when you watch it play sometimes it does extremely stupid things like trap its tanks in its own base. SC2 is, at least this year, still a human endeavor at high tiers. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.44|172.68.38.44]] 01:21, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

Talk:1002: Game AIs

2020-07-26T01:21:04Z

172.68.38.44:

Mornington Crescent would be impossible for a computer to play, let alone win... {{unsigned|188.29.119.251}}
It is unclear which side of the line jeopard fall upon. Why so close to the line I wonder. [[User:DruidDriver|DruidDriver]] ([[User talk:DruidDriver|talk]]) 01:04, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

: Because of {{w|Watson (computer)}}. (Anon) 13 August 2013{{unsigned ip|24.142.134.100}}

Could the "CounterStrike" be referring instead to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike computer game] which can have computer-controlled players? --[[Special:Contributions/131.187.75.20|131.187.75.20]] 15:49, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

:I agree, this is far more likely. [[Special:Contributions/100.40.49.22|100.40.49.22]] 10:21, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

On the old blog version of this article, a comment mentioned Ken tweeting his method right after this comic was posted. He joked that they would asphyxiate themselves to actually see heaven for seven minutes. I don't know how to search for tweets, or if they even save them after so much time, but I thought it should be noted. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 07:11, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

I disagree about the poker part. Reading someone's physical tells is just a small part of the game. Theoretically there is a Nash equilibrium for the game, the reason why it hasn't been found is that the amount of ways a deck can be shuffled is astronomical (even if you just count the cards that you use) and you also have to take into account the various betsizes. A near perfect solution for 2 player limit poker has been found by the Cepheus Poker Project: http://poker.srv.ualberta.ca/.

~ Could the description of tic-tac-toe link to xkcd 832 which explains the strategy? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.173|162.158.152.173]] 13:13, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Saying that computers are very close to beating top humans as of January 2016 is misleading at best. There is not enough details in the BBC article, but it sounds like the Facebook program has about a 50% chance of beating 5-dan amateurs. In other words, it needs a 4-stone handicap (read: 4 free moves) to have a 50% chance to win against top-level amateurs, to say nothing about professionals. If a robotic team could have a 50% chance to beating Duke University at football (a skilled amateur team), would you say they were very close to being able to consistently beat the Patriots (a top-level professional)? If anything that underestimates the skill difference in Go, but the general point stands. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.38}}
: How about bearing one of the top players five times in a row and being scheduled to play against the world champion in March? http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/27/google-s-ai-is-the-first-to-defeat-a-go-champion/ [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 06:18, 28 January 2016 (UTC)
::However DeepMind ranked AlphaGo close to Fan Hui 2P and the distributed version has being at the upper tier of Fan's level. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v529/n7587/fig_tab/nature16961_F4.html
::The official games were 5-0 however the unofficial were 3-2. Averaging to 8-2 in favor of AlphaGo.
::Looking at http://www.goratings.org/ Fan Hui is ranked 631, while Lee Sedol 9P, whom is playing in March, is in the top 5.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.47|108.162.218.47]] 06:12 5 February 2016 (UTC)
:::Original poster here (sorry, not sure how to sign). Okay, you all are right. Go AI has advanced a lot more than I had understood. I'm still curious how the game against Lee Sedol will go, but that that is even an interesting question shows how much Go AI has improved. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.33}}

Google's Alpha Go won, 3 games to none! Mid March 2016[[User:Saspic45|Saspic45]] ([[User talk:Saspic45|talk]]) 03:06, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Okay, for some reason they played all five games. Lee Sedol won game 4 as the computer triumphed 4-1.[[User:Saspic45|Saspic45]] ([[User talk:Saspic45|talk]]) 08:44, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Not shown in this comic: {{w|1000 Blank White Cards}}, and, even further down, {{w|Nomic}}. [[User:KangaroOS|Kangaro]][[User talk:KangaroOS|OS]] 01:22, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Is the transcript (currently in table format) accessible for blind users? Should it be? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.237|162.158.58.237]] 10:48, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

At the very least the transcript needs to be fixed so that it factually represents the comic. Jeopardy is in the wrong spot with just a quick glance which is all I have time for here at work. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.231|162.158.62.231]] 16:58, 24 August 2017 (UTC)

AlphaStar beat Mana pretty decisively, but it was cheating and Mana won the game where it wasn't, and it could only play on a certain map in Protoss vs Protoss. However, that was a while ago. Google dropped AlphaStar on ladder under barcode usernames, and it's been doing rather well... but Serral (one of the world's best players) recently beat it pretty decisively. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.244|172.68.211.244]] 01:49, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

Who is Ken Jennings?

I feel like it should be relatively easy to make a computer program that can learn the rules of Mao without knowing them to begin with. There has to be some feedback: a player gets penalties if he breaks the rules. This can be used to write a self-learning algorithm.

:In case anyone is checking up on the AlphaStar thing: AlphaStar definitely plays at a high human level in Starcraft 2 now (2020), without doing much that seems 'humanly impossible' (ie, like cheating, as it did during the MaNa matchup), but it's in relatively limited maps, and it not only loses fairly regularly if not most of the time to top-ranked humans like Serral, it also loses to essentially random grab-bags of very good players like Lowko on occasion. Like, Lowko's much better than me but he's not tournament-level good and he beat it.
:Also, technically, AlphaStar isn't even *one* program. It's an ensemble of many programs, each one specific to a different SC2 race and specializing in different strategies. Maybe if there were a 'seamless' amalgam where it were 'choosing' a strategy it could be arguably one program, but it's literally a totally separately trained neural network for each 'agent'.
:Furthermore, when you watch it play sometimes it does extremely stupid things like trap its tanks in its own base. SC2 is, at least this year, still a human endeavor at high tiers.

Talk:680: December 25th

2020-07-25T00:06:07Z

172.68.38.44:

Trust me. Even being within 30 days of Christmas affects ones birthday. You get fewer presents they're usually not very spectacular (those are reserved for the 25th) and parties are sparse or non existent. (Due to weather concerns and people are doing their Christmas shopping and can't be bothered.)

Here's the thing though if the only thing you do for your birthday is sharing a ce then you can complain [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.6|172.68.47.6]] 00:39, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

My advice to parents is don't "do it" in March. Okay?[[User:Jakee308|Jakee308]] ([[User talk:Jakee308|talk]]) 18:27, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

My birthday is December 22nd so I get a small overlap. {{unsigned|Thejohnfan}}

The Hungarian version is "Imagine being born on the 24th of December, and being called Adam or Eve." In Hungary people celebrate Name Day, the day of the year associated with their given name. Evening of the 24th is the usual time of giving presents here. Also the day of Adam and Eve. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.215.86|172.68.215.86]] 12:27, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
q

Hey! What's so bad about women's early 80s haircuts? [[User:Brenda|Brenda]] ([[User talk:Brenda|talk]]) 10:25, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

:Nothing, dad. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.44|172.68.38.44]] 00:06, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

676: Abstraction

2020-07-25T00:02:40Z

172.68.38.44: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 676
| date = December 16, 2009
| title = Abstraction
| image = abstraction.png
| titletext = If I'm such a god, why isn't Maru *my* cat?
}}

==Explanation==
The comics points out the large number of levels of abstraction working together at any given time in today's computers.

Programs on current computers do not run "directly on hardware". Instead, the hardware (in this case, a {{w|Central processing unit|processor}} of the {{w|x86-64}} architecture) is controlled by the {{w|operating system}} {{w|Kernel (computing)|kernel}} (in this specific case, {{w|XNU}} is the kernel used in Apple-branded devices). Many operating systems offer a standardized {{w|Interface (computing)|interface}} called {{w|POSIX}}, which wraps the services offered by the different operating systems so that applications do not need to cope with the differences between the operating systems. {{w|Darwin (operating system)|Darwin}} is the name of the core set of components on which the Apple's {{w|OS X}} operating system runs. And using this operating system, the user runs the {{w|Firefox}} web browser. However, the browser itself contains further abstraction layers: {{w|Gecko (layout engine)|Gecko}} is the engine handling the display of web pages on the screen, but in this case, it only allows a separate software, {{w|Adobe Flash Player}}, to render a video requested by the user.

And all of this work is, in this case, done only because the user wanted to watch a funny cat Flash video on the Internet; which makes the user feel like he is a god.

The title text refers to {{w|Maru (cat)|Maru the cat}}, a cat who became very popular on YouTube for, among other things, jumping into a box. Cueball questions his god-like capabilities by wondering why can't he own Maru.

Flash was officially discontinued from all operating systems and browsers in December 2020. Soon, getting this joke without reading explain xkcd will date you considerably.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a computer.]
:An x64 processor is screaming along at billions of cycles per second to run the XNU kernel, which is frantically working through all the POSIX-specified abstraction to create the Darwin system underlying OS X, which in turn is straining itself to run Firefox and its Gecko renderer, which creates a Flash object which renders dozens of video frames every second

:because I wanted to see a cat jump into a box and fall over.

:I am a god.

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

676: Abstraction

2020-07-25T00:02:27Z

172.68.38.44: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 676
| date = December 16, 2009
| title = Abstraction
| image = abstraction.png
| titletext = If I'm such a god, why isn't Maru *my* cat?
}}

==Explanation==
The comics points out the large number of levels of abstraction working together at any given time in today's computers.

Programs on current computers do not run "directly on hardware". Instead, the hardware (in this case, a {{w|Central processing unit|processor}} of the {{w|x86-64}} architecture) is controlled by the {{w|operating system}} {{w|Kernel (computing)|kernel}} (in this specific case, {{w|XNU}} is the kernel used in Apple-branded devices). Many operating systems offer a standardized {{w|Interface (computing)|interface}} called {{w|POSIX}}, which wraps the services offered by the different operating systems so that applications do not need to cope with the differences between the operating systems. {{w|Darwin (operating system)|Darwin}} is the name of the core set of components on which the Apple's {{w|OS X}} operating system runs. And using this operating system, the user runs the {{w|Firefox}} web browser. However, the browser itself contains further abstraction layers: {{w|Gecko (layout engine)|Gecko}} is the engine handling the display of web pages on the screen, but in this case, it only allows a separate software, {{w|Adobe Flash Player}}, to render a video requested by the user.

And all of this work is, in this case, done only because the user wanted to watch a funny cat Flash video on the Internet; which makes the user feel like he is a god.

The title text refers to {{w|Maru (cat)|Maru the cat}}, a cat who became very popular on YouTube for, among other things, jumping into a box. Cueball questions his god-like capabilities by wondering why can't he own Maru.

Flash was officially discontinued from all operating systems and browsers in December 2020. Soon, getting this joke without reading explain xkcd will date you considerably. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.44|172.68.38.44]] 00:02, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a computer.]
:An x64 processor is screaming along at billions of cycles per second to run the XNU kernel, which is frantically working through all the POSIX-specified abstraction to create the Darwin system underlying OS X, which in turn is straining itself to run Firefox and its Gecko renderer, which creates a Flash object which renders dozens of video frames every second

:because I wanted to see a cat jump into a box and fall over.

:I am a god.

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

Talk:672: Suggestions

2020-07-24T23:58:40Z

172.68.38.44:

What is the icon in the third panel supposed to be? --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 13:40, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
: Two people being warm against each other. --[[User:Bedunkel|BD]] ([[User talk:Bedunkel|talk]]) 01:14, 20 November 2014 (UTC)
::So we have a multi millionaire with no life, no respect for anyone's privacy and no moral scruples that has been running this make-believe world since he was a pimply kid and offering the full Monty to any would be Faust.
::HTF did we let that happen? :~D
::Oh yes, sexual persuasion. Why do I get the impression this is all going to end badly for everyone involved?
[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 00:09, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

How is Susie "drawn as a sexy version of Megan"? That seems to be a bit of a reach to me. {{unsigned ip|172.68.110.64}}
: On the other side: How can you tell she isn't ;-) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.54|162.158.90.54]] 14:29, 12 June 2019 (UTC)
::It is objectively false that she is a sexy version of anything. She is a stick figure. I also don't think it makes any sense to call anyone Megan in any xkcd strip unless they are called Megan in that specific strip. Xkcd seldom has continuity of any kind, and imputing it to characters is goofy.
::If I believed that this wiki should be a source of ultimate truth, I would have removed the line about sexy Megan. Since I think this wiki is a fun collaborative writing project in its own right, I added a citation needed tag to this assertion, because it is funnier that way. If you remove it, or the thing about being sexy Megan, your mom's a ho. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.44|172.68.38.44]] 23:58, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

672: Suggestions

2020-07-24T23:55:58Z

172.68.38.44: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number =672
| date =December 7, 2009
| title =Suggestions
| image =suggestions.png
| titletext =An hour later: SUGGESTION: LICK HER NIPPLE MORE.
}}

==Explanation==
Social networking site {{w|Facebook}} routinely suggests reconnecting with Facebook friends whom you haven't interacted with on the website for a while. This is taken to its logical extreme in this comic when that Facebook feature repeatedly, in an increasingly voyeuristic fashion, tries to get Cueball to hook up with his occasional friend-with-benefits Susie, despite the fact that Cueball knows she's falling for him and doesn't want to lead her on.

According to the title text, [[Cueball]] and Susie (who is drawn as a sexy version of [[Megan]]){{Citation needed}} ''do'' end up hooking up, even against Cueball's better judgement, as so often happens between people who're physically attracted to one another. And he apparently left the webcam on as well, because the Facebook feature is now giving suggestions on what Cueball should do to her, mid-coitus. Obviously, this is not something that Facebook, a social networking site, can do. {{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at his computer. Facebook sidebar messages appear on the top of each panel, with a user photo of Susie (looking like Megan leaning forward so her hair hangs down the sides of her face) and a few lines of text.]
:Facebook: Susie
:Reconnect with her
:[Phone icon] Send her a text
:Cueball: Come on, Facebook. I know I shouldn't.

:Facebook: Susie
:She'd come over
:[Bed icon] You don't have to fall asleep alone.
:Cueball: It's been so hard to stop. But she's falling for me, and I can't keep getting her hopes up like this.

:Facebook: Susie
:Life is complicated
:[Icon of stick figures embracing] She's so warm against you. You both want it.
:Cueball: (pulling out phone) Maybe if I just make it clear it's not going to be a thing...
:Cueball: Yeah, we'll just have a talk.

:Facebook: Susie
:Oh yeah. Mmm...
:[Webcam icon] Leave your webcam on so I can watch.
:Cueball: Okay, this feature is getting creepier and creepier.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] 
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

Talk:667: SkiFree

2020-07-24T23:51:55Z

172.68.38.44:

The reason that so many people think the monster is unbeatable is that the game was often found pre-installed on many computers along with the Windows operating system in older days. However, the game would typically be installed without any documentation, resulting in a generation of younger gamers discovering and playing the game, but not the unintuitive "F" command needed to survive the monster. [[User:Psyren|Psyren]] ([[User talk:Psyren|talk]]) 22:24, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

"F" does make you go faster than the monster, but it also makes it more likely that you'll hit an obstacle, at which point the monster will catch up and eat you. HOWEVER, if you pause the game with F3 and then repeatedly press "T", the game will go in slow motion.--[[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 20:16, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

The title text explanation is way deeper than it probably should be. Knowing Megan, she probably *literally* wore an F key pendant--looking for meaning in the wrong places. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.42|162.158.186.42]] 12:53, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Yeah but maybe that's okay. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.50.46|172.69.50.46]] 14:45, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

This comic is much more profound when you're a Singularitarian. Huamn technology is still in its button-mashing stage, but how long until we find our F key that lets us stave off death as long as we want? [[User:Promethean|Promethean]] ([[User talk:Promethean|talk]]) 08:28, 21 December 2018 (UTC)

Has anyone noticed the term "press F to pay respects", changing the metaphor to "death is inevitable *unless you show sympathy to people*"? Just a thought [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.228|172.68.65.228]] 02:30, 4 February 2019 (UTC)
:this comic was published in late 2009, while cod: advanced warfare (where the meme comes from) came out 5 years later [[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.197|162.158.103.197]] 12:57, 17 May 2020 (UTC)
::F [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.124|162.158.63.124]] 20:25, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
:::F [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.44|172.68.38.44]] 23:51, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Talk:520: Cuttlefish

2020-07-24T16:57:18Z

172.68.38.44:

I dispute the idea of "memes." I don't remember my 2008/2009 Internet culture too well, but I certainly don't think cephalopods ever became much of a meme. This needs some revision. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 02:07, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

:There was entire subgenre of cephalopod themed jokes on certain science blogs, especially Pharyngula. Don't think it matters much for this wiki though. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.44|172.68.38.44]] 16:57, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Personally I think that "themes" works better, have edited accordingly, feel free to change it back though [[User:Whiskey07|Whiskey07]] ([[User talk:Whiskey07|talk]]) 14:42, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

I added a comment that The Battle for Wesnoth may have added Cuttlefish as a result of this comic. I am not certain on that, if I'm wrong, please correct me. [[User:Kyt|Kyt]] ([[User talk:Kyt|talk]]) 01:41, 4 January 2014 (UTC)
:I found a forum entry (http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11168) that refers to the Wesnoth cuttlefish in May 2006 (more than two years before this comic came out) so I have edited the explanation accordingly. Also, non-accordingly. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 18:38, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

While the evolution of cuttlefish attacking with electricity is probably what Randall meant, I am an avid fan of Dungeons and Dragons and I'd like to think that this is the beginning stages of what is known as an illithid. Cueball and Megan aren't killed by electricity but by the psionic abilities of the newly created illithids. - vegeto18 2014-02-18 03:14 PM

The robots don't revolt in Asimov's "I, Robot." They obey the three laws of robotics, unless programmed with modifications. As far as I understand, the plot of the film does not follow the novel. 02:52, 1 August 2014 (UTC)
:I was going to comment just this, but after seeing that I was not the only one who thought this, I have decided to edit the page. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.57}}
:You are correct, the movie does not follow the plot of the book, as that would be impossible. The book is a collection of short stories about robots, some positive and some negative. As such, saying that the film doesn't follow the novel is unfair. The movie took the themes of the book and concepts from the stories to produce a quite good film.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.49|108.162.236.49]] 22:14, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

The cuttlefish and their method of killing the physicists resemble the Ood from Doctor Who, introduced in the 2006 episode "The Impossible Planet", in which the Ood became possessed by the Beast and began killing off scientists on the colony. The Ood were revisited in early 2008 in " Planet of the Ood", where they electrocuted the individuals who had enslaved them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.75|108.162.245.75]] 23:53, 5 August 2014 (UTC)

IF I MUST TEAR YOU APART, SHEPARD
I WILL[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.110|108.162.216.110]] 11:07, 23 March 2015 (UTC)
: In a way, Reapers symbolize a culmination of all science made apocalyptic revolutions implied here, being giant space-faring robots that look like giant squid (and I will never forgive Mass Effect 3 for not having a Reaper kill be part of the final battle scenes, or letting us conclusively kill Harbinger). -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 04:04, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

Don’t know if this is related but cuttlefish will also change colors rapidly to stun fish (first comment sry if did wrong) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.88|172.69.170.88]] 02:34, 28 February 2019 (UTC)