3280: Maze
| Maze |
 Title text: As a side effect of the research, mice are now the only known animals other than humans to have developed a Backrooms mythology. |
Explanation[edit]
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This is one of 40 incomplete explanations: This page was found by the mouse in the maze.. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
This comic references the common task used to benchmark cognitive functioning in mice, speed of maze-solving. For example, if testing whether XYZ compound impairs mouse spatial reasoning (or something like that), scientists will use the compound on n mice and not use the compound on n mice, then compare the average maze-solving speed between the two groups.
The joke here is that they have been using mice in mazes for 100 years for the main purpose of finding a mouse that can solve the maze, and they are having a press conference because they finally found one. Instead, of course, having the mouse solve the maze is not the point of the experiment; the are simply using the mouse's performance as a convenient benchmark to test some other variable.
The title text references a fictional liminal space called the The Backrooms, which is known for being infinite and maze-like. In 2026, a film was released based on this "mythology". In this case, relative to a mouse, a moderately-sized maze for a human would be labyrinthian to a mouse, thereby creating the impression of an infinite maze.
Transcript[edit]
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This is one of 28 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
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Discussion
Randall Munroe is the first cartoonist to draw stick figures. "3280: Maze." He is 41 years old. 2607:FB90:CFA4:63E:AD2:6957:813D:A492 20:52, 3 August 2026 (UTC) I get the backrooms reference, but not the maze. Is that to do with theology/mythology in some way? Radish (talk) 20:37, 3 August 2026 (UTC)
- Updated to what my take is 70.109.62.172 21:14, 3 August 2026 (UTC)
Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure".
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