explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:248: Hypotheticals

2015-09-17T20:13:56Z

Gonemad79:

Even Deadpool would have a hard time on this.[[User:Gonemad79|Gonemad79]] ([[User talk:Gonemad79|talk]]) 20:13, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

The reason for marking this page incomplete is itself incomprehensible, while the explanation itself seems perfectly fine. Can we just mark this as complete? [[User:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|ImVeryAngryItsNotButter]] ([[User talk:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|talk]]) 03:41, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
:My former comment was "Layout, language, that TV topes are missing, more...". Please do not remove that tag until it's solved. And right now we have some more issues here.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:57, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
::Can you elaborate? I don't see anything wrong with the explanation... [[User:LogicalOxymoron|LogicalOxymoron]] ([[User talk:LogicalOxymoron|talk]]) 05:38, 12 March 2014 (UTC)
:::I did not say that something is wrong, I just did say something is missing. Most important is to explain "TV tropes". Most people don't know about this and so it has to be explained.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:37, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
::::The comic itself has nothing to do with TV tropes, so no explanation is needed. 03:38, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
I think the interpretation that someone appears in your room is the one intended. The assumption is that the reader is alone, at their computer and Randall is asking them to consider the possibility of somebody breaking out of a hypothetical situation next to them. However I think the iterative nature of a hypothetical situation about hypothetical situations is the important part of the title text. [[User:Seanybabes|Seanybabes]] ([[User talk:Seanybabes|talk]]) 06:00, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
I agree. The title-text is attempting to cause a hypothetical person to *actually* break into your room by making you imagine somebody breaking out of the hypothetical situation you are imagining about somebody breaking out of a hypothetical situation. [[User:LogicalOxymoron|LogicalOxymoron]] ([[User talk:LogicalOxymoron|talk]]) 05:38, 12 March 2014 (UTC)
:I disagree - that would be to break into your room. Look at what happens to beret guy who eats ice with a "friend" who breaks out of the situation beret created! Beret would be stunned and then probably cease to exist :-) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:43, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
I think the explanation is on-target except that a stronger case can be made for this referring to Douglas Hofstadter’s ''Godel, Escher, Bach'' than to a comedy trope. I have seen explicit and implicit influences of ''Godel, Escher Bach'' in XKCD (24, 88, 468, 555, 688, 917, 1153…). This comic is highly reminiscent of the dialog ''Little Harmonic Labyrinth'' (on page 103) and of the discussion of Escher's ''Dragon'' (page 524). Randall is playing with the weirdness of mixing levels (what Hofstatdter calls strange loops).[[User:Fewmet|Fewmet]] ([[User talk:Fewmet|talk]]) 16:50, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

Talk:244: Tabletop Roleplaying

2015-09-17T20:05:36Z

Gonemad79:

I got Nerd sniped by the portal gun idea, and how it breaks the physics laws. If you placed one on the bottom of a lake, after an hydroelectric dam, and the other on the top of the dam, you'd have an infinite supply of energy, as you filled the dam forever and ever. A truly infinite supply, not like a star that takes billions of years to extinguish. That has to brake the laws of thermodynamics and entropy at some point.
Aligning both portals in a vaccuum on earth's gravity would allow infinite time under 1g acceleration for anything dropped between portals. Hitting the speed of light would take 1 year, give or take (if you followed Newtonian cinematics), at which point my brain BSODs on this thought experiment. It suggests that the portal consumes an infinite amount of energy to remain open and cannot exist on this universe. Otherwise, we just discovered a moto-continuum and a source for infinite energy. Edit: this comment makes sense on the Delta-P page (969), so you should follow it. [[User:Gonemad79|Gonemad79]] ([[User talk:Gonemad79|talk]]) 20:02, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

Maybe could have a link to [[969: Delta-P]] put in at an appropriate juncture in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 03:42, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Check out https://www.google.com/#q=recursion[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.202|108.162.219.202]] 03:52, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

I may be missing something, but why are the teleportation rings given a dimension "each about two feet in diameter" in the explanation? There isn't anything in the comic. If there is a reason, please elaborate.--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 16:02, 1 September 2014 (UTC)
:Perhaps it's in reference to the apparent size of Portal gun holes? I'm not sure, anyone else have any ideas? [[User:Leafy Greens|Leafy Greens]] ([[User talk:Leafy Greens|talk]]) 02:29, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

Talk:244: Tabletop Roleplaying

2015-09-17T20:02:58Z

Gonemad79:

I got Nerd sniped by the portal gun idea, and how it breaks the physics laws. If you placed one on the bottom of a lake, after an hydroelectric dam, and the other on the top of the dam, you'd have an infinite supply of energy, as you filled the dam forever and ever. A truly infinite supply, not like a star that takes billions of years to extinguish. That has to brake the laws of thermodynamics and entropy at some point.
Aligning both portals in a vaccuum on earth's gravity would allow infinite time under 1g acceleration for anything dropped between portals. Hitting the speed of light would take 1 year, give or take (if you followed Newtonian cinematics), at which point my brain BSODs on this thought experiment. It suggests that the portal consumes an infinite amount of energy to remain open and cannot exist on this universe. Otherwise, we just discovered a moto-continuum and a source for infinite energy. [[User:Gonemad79|Gonemad79]] ([[User talk:Gonemad79|talk]]) 20:02, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

Maybe could have a link to [[969: Delta-P]] put in at an appropriate juncture in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 03:42, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Check out https://www.google.com/#q=recursion[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.202|108.162.219.202]] 03:52, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

I may be missing something, but why are the teleportation rings given a dimension "each about two feet in diameter" in the explanation? There isn't anything in the comic. If there is a reason, please elaborate.--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 16:02, 1 September 2014 (UTC)
:Perhaps it's in reference to the apparent size of Portal gun holes? I'm not sure, anyone else have any ideas? [[User:Leafy Greens|Leafy Greens]] ([[User talk:Leafy Greens|talk]]) 02:29, 16 November 2014 (UTC)