Editing 2278: Scientific Briefing

{{comic
| number    = 2278
| date      = March 9, 2020
| title     = Scientific Briefing
| image     = scientific_briefing.png
| titletext = "I actually came in in the middle so I don't know which topic we're briefing on; the same slides work for like half of them."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Made by a CULTURE PRETENDING BAD THINGS ARE GOOD. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about the need to act on problems, and the need to communicate them in ways that people can act on them.  This problem underlies many issues in modern life, and anybody can help it, by thinking, talking, helping, or asking others to help.  If you can think of anything to do, say, make, or start, to help this, like say a small wiki for organizing discussion and viewpoints around issues that interested people could contribute to, please start something and link your work here to help others act as well.

Things are not good, and are going to be bad soon.  The only way for things to not be bad is for someone to do something about it. [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are presenting these things to [[White Hat]], presumably hoping to encourage him to do something about things, but he instead chooses to wait for things to become bad, to which Megan replies that this is exactly the bad thing she and Cueball were hoping to prevent.

What things?  Any number of things, because, as the title text remarks, this is true of "like half of" any things examined by society.  While a literal 50% of ''all'' things may not be getting bad (or good), in a more general sense all line graphs would trend (at least slightly) either up or down.  This binary 'either good or bad' finding may lead one to conclude that "like half" of all graphs show something getting bad (or else good).  The three comics preceding this one have been about COVID-19 ("the coronavirus"), so "things" could refer to cases of infections, but like [[2275]] likely this comic is a comment on the numerous world catastrophes that get sidelined until the very last moment, such as unemployment, crime, water quality, road systems, rising extremism and wars between groups with similar needs, lack of responsible oversight in majorly impactful international decisions, corruption and lack of trust for those with power, or climate change and related extinction of most species and cultures. Given Megan & Cueball's reaction to White-Hat's failure to act, this "sidelining" or failure to take action may very likely be the subject of their graph. 

In short, the graph ''may'' indicate that our responses to information are going from good to bad.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan and Cueball are showing a graph on a projected screen.  The graph is labeled "Things", with "Time" advancing to the right on the ''x''-axis.  The level of "Things" has been rising over time to a point labeled "Now".  The current level of "Things" is above a level labeled "Good", and about as far below a level labeled "Bad".  Megan is pointing to the line of "Things" with a pointer stick, while Cueball is pointing up to the "Bad" level with a pointer stick.]

:Megan: Here's the situation:
:Megan: This line is here.
:Cueball: But it's going up toward ''here''.

:[White Hat enters the scene.  His hand is on his chin.  Cueball is no longer holding a pointer stick.]

:White Hat: So things will be bad?
:Megan: Unless someone does something to stop it.
:White Hat: Will anyone do that?
:Megan: ...We don't know.
:Megan: That's why we're showing you this.

:[A narrow panel focusing only on Megan and Cueball.]

:White Hat (off-panel, left): So you don't know,
:White Hat: And the graph says things are '''''not''''' bad.
:Cueball: But if no one acts, they'll '''''become''''' bad.

:[White Hat is back inside the frame.  He is gesturing to Megan and Cueball with his palm up.]

:White Hat: Well, please let me know if that happens!
:Megan: Based on this conversation, it already has.

==Trivia==
*Poorly labeled graphs were already the topic of [[833: Convincing]].
*This comic was initially missing the speech line to Cueball in panel 3.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Charts]]