explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2015: New Phone Thread

2018-07-04T21:15:45Z

Dyaomaster:

I feel the explanation could possibly give a sample text of what the person is actually trying to say [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.113|172.68.46.113]] 05:13, 4 July 2018 (UTC)Innertuber40

I have an alternate interpretation: The first thing I thought this comic was about is all the people who are typing on phones and the messages actually sent contain weird words any typos because of the phone's autocorrection feature (or swipe keyboards which are accurate most of the time but error prone nevertheless). So this particular phone actually is sending what the user is writing (or wants to write) and does not change the message. Examples: http://barabare.blogspot.com/2011/05/funny-phone-t9-typo-errors.html [edit:] I mean, this goes so far that occasionally on online forums you see people with the message "Writing from phone, message may contaion errors. Sorry" or something like that in their signature. So a phone that actually writes what you are typing (or what you thought you were typing) might actually be a good thing. Cueball is just astonished that his new phone does exactly that. [edit2:] But then again, some of the messages in the comic really indicate in the direction the current explanantion is going. So, nevermind :) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:30, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
:When I read it I also had that idea (being impressed by accurate typing) but it seemed too odd so I came to explain xkcd to look it up. I'm not convinced of either explanation at this point. For the current explanation (that the phone is autocorrecting to say spam) one would expect there to be a phone in the news doing something like that. This could be a hyperbole version of a phone is doing inserting product names like with BlackBerry expanding the acronym BB to their name on some phones. But I haven't heard of that anywhere and blackberry is not news. If someone knows of a current phone this behaviour is referencing please post a link? Thanks, rusl[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.113|108.162.246.113]] 07:48, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
:Thought the same thing. Obscure subjects are of course a mainstay of xkcd.com, but in the past some Wikipedia research explains away the obscurity with certainty. Not this time.[[User:GODZILLA|GODZILLA]] ([[User talk:GODZILLA|talk]]) 11:43, 4 July 2018 (UTC)

Putting the "artifice" into "artificial intelligence". I too didn't understand the strip at first... briefly considered reading it from bottom to top. Now I agree that the user's phone is censoring and rewriting everything, and we're seeing the censored version. Another real world reference: a forum where your posts are blocked without telling you; you see your posts in place but no one else does. I've used forums where some imbecile moderator blocked me that way from spite... of course THIS site's moderators wouldn't do that! (You don't like words in capital letters?? Uhoh.) Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.121|162.158.154.121]] 11:20, 4 July 2018 (UTC)

I think the “I’l never get a new phone” and “buy the new Mobile Pro 3” are completely inserted by the phone, not just modified user posts. They don’t seem to flow properly if we assume the user posted them, and we can see the surprise when the first of the two messages is posted; something that would fail to surprise the user to the degree he(?) is after already going through the rest of the messages. The “order now” message, in particular, seems a lot more like advertiser-speak than corrected user speak. [[User:Dyaomaster|Dyaomaster]] ([[User talk:Dyaomaster|talk]]) 21:15, 4 July 2018 (UTC)

== possibly connected to just announced Google "Smart Replies"? ==

Google lately announced new function to their keyboard on Android: reading messages on others communicator (like Facebook Messanger) and suggesting several short replies to choose from. It might be connected. pm7 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.140|162.158.88.140]] 10:24, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
:I suspect that it's rather referencing the recent case of phones clandestinely sending random gallery images to ppl in the addressbook.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.196|141.101.96.196]] 11:20, 4 July 2018 (UTC)

I think this happens to people who try to leak high-stakes information (or etc) without understanding what they are up against. I found this comic very validating to read. The point of the “order now” button is to make it clear that what we see was not written by the author. This happened to the author on Facebook, but once they tried to tell somebody it began happening on their messaging app too. Use a merkle tree messaging system that allows you to keep your private key offline if you’re saying something important. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.142|108.162.219.142]] 15:39, 4 July 2018 (UTC)

OK, am I the only one here this has actually happened to? The Google keyboard often seems *very* reluctant to swipe-write insulting words, & it's especially frustrating when trying to write about the phone itself while it's doing things like changing "inaccurate" to "accurate" & "stupid" to "great". Note that the swipe action required to write the word "stupid" bears '''''no''''' resemblance to the swipe action for "great"; Sometimes the suggested words seem so obtuse it feels deliberate. (Note, it just did it to me again; I'm editing to correct "great" to "stupid")
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 20:11, 4 July 2018 (UTC)

1944: The End of the Rainbow

2018-01-19T07:56:11Z

Dyaomaster: Made content. First edit, please help

{{comic
| number = 1944
| date = January 19, 2018
| title = The End of the Rainbow
| image = the_end_of_the_rainbow.png
| titletext = The retina is the exposed surface of the brain, so if you think about a pot of gold while looking at a rainbow, then there's one at BOTH ends.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LEPRECHAUN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Cueball and Megan are having a discussion. Megan brings up the myth that at the end of every rainbow lies a leprechaun's pot of gold. Instead of claiming that leprechauns and their gold don't exist, Cueball instead refutes that technically, rainbows are circles, so they do not have an end.
However, Megan then expands on the scientific explanation Cueball is stating. She states that if one considers the path light takes to form a rainbow, then it forms a cone structure, where light rays from the sun (the top vertex) move towards the Earth (the lateral face), then reflect off of water droplets at just the right angle (the circular base) to reach our eyes (the inner cone and vertex). Thus, the "ends" of a rainbow do exist, at the viewer and at the light source.
Megan then says that the Sun is indeed a pot of gold. The sun is 1*10^7 percent gold, so if we multiply that by the mass of the Sun we get that the Sun contains [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(sun+composition+gold)+*+(mass+of+sun) 2x10^21 kg] of gold; far more than a hypothetical leprechaun's pot of gold.
Cueball then asks about leprechauns. Megan replies that the leprechauns all died when the Sun formed, implying all the gold in the Sun is actually the remnants of leprechaun gold. However, she does not consider the explanation where the leprechaun is on the other end of the rainbow...

==Transcript==
{{incomplete|First draft. Can't see comic while typing, so please review for any inaccuracies made while copying from memory. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Megan and Cueball are walking.]
:Megan: There's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
:Cueball: Rainbows are circles. They have no end.
:Megan: Not quite!

:[In a borderless panel, Megan and Cueball are off-panel, instead showing a multi-part graphic depicting what Megan is describing: a shorter cone inside a longer cone, with the longer cone with its point starting at the sun and the shorter one having its point at a mini Cueball's head, both cones joined at a circle with the bottom half of both cones dotted in the first part of the graphic]
:Megan (off-panel): A '''rainbow''' is light leaving the sun, bouncing off the clouds, and converging on your eye. It's an inside-out two-ended cone.

:[Megan and Cueball are still walking]
:[Megan]: One end of that cone is your retina.

:[Zoom out to further away, Megan and Cueball are still walking]
:[Megan]: The other end is the sun - which contains quintillions of tons of gold. There's more gold in the sun than water in the oceans.
:[Cueball]: So there ''is'' a pot of gold!
:[Cueball]: What about leprechauns?
:[Megan]: All incinerated as the sun formed. Very sad.

{{comic discussion}}

1670: Laws of Physics

2016-04-20T23:07:16Z

Dyaomaster: /* Explanation */ Changed explanation to better match this specific case

{{comic
| number = 1670
| date = April 20, 2016
| title = Laws of Physics
| image = laws_of_physics.png
| titletext = The laws of physics are fun to try to understand, but as an organism with incredibly delicate eyes who evolved in a world full of sharp objects, I have an awful lot of trust in biology's calibration of my flinch reflex.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]], being {{w|Black Hat}}, is deliberately perverting a classic physics demonstration. In the normal version of the demonstration, a heavy ball on a pendulum is pulled to one side until it is almost, but not quite, touching the demonstrator's nose or chin -- in this comic, Black Hat is the only one in the right position for the experiment. A volunteer stands on the other side of the pendulum, the same distance from the middle. When the ball is released, it swings down and away, then back up to (almost) the same distance in the arc from where it started -- but ''never'' (by the laws of physics) farther than where it started. So, as long as the volunteer doesn't flinch, the heavy ball will never hit them in the nose. (Sample videos: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXXF2C-vrQE], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2GdY1OlDpA],[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVSYA1RnSMQ].)

In this comic, since Cueball is not standing at the edge of the ball's movement, but rather at the base of its swing, he is about to get a rude surprise.

The title text refers to the fact when someone flinches during the pendulum experiment, they are commonly accused of not having faith in the laws of physics. Randall is rebutting this argument by stating that, rather than not having faith in science, he is actually in tune with it, specifically the biological processes that led to the flinch reflex. His eyes and his flinch reflex have been calibrated through millions of years of evolution. To instantly dismiss your body's natural reaction when a heavy object comes quickly towards your face does not give enough credit to these mechanisms that successfully kept you (and every one of your ancestors) alive. In other words, while flinching may indicate doubt of the laws of physics, it may equally well indicate trust in the laws of biology.

==Transcript==

:[Black Hat is standing on a ladder, holding a heavy ball attached to a line from above. Cueball stands beneath, where if the ball swings it will smack him right in the face.]
:Black Hat: Okay, hold still.
:Black Hat: And remember, if you ''really'' believe in the laws of physics, you won't flinch.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]