Editing 1316: Inexplicable

{{comic
| number    = 1316
| date      = January 13, 2014
| title     = Inexplicable
| image     = inexplicable.png
| titletext = 'It has a ghost in it. Take it back.' 'No.'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]]'s laptop has a problem that has resisted many hours of concentrated effort at resolution. [[Megan]] offers to help, but she concludes that the laptop is haunted. Literally haunted, as in it is possessed by an evil spirit.

A similarly unresolvable problem can be seen in [[1084: Server Problem]]. In that case, no haunting is suggested, and Megan suggests Cueball wait for the Singularity.

The title text indicates that when Megan tries to return the laptop to Cueball, he simply refuses. She willingly took possession of it in the first place, and Cueball has clearly decided that he no longer wants anything to do with it. Megan is welcome to it. This would be extremely vexing to Megan, who presumably wants to own a haunted laptop no more than would anybody else.

The use of the word "ghost" may also be an allusion to the philosophical problem known as {{w|Ghost in the machine}}. This has been popularized through cyberpunk literature and movies, such as {{w|The Matrix}} and {{w|Ghost in the Shell}}. The question is whether machines are, or could be, conscious and have their own free will.

The comic may also be intended to remind us how non-technical users see computers and technology in general. Often a non-technical person will anthropomorphize a gadget, assigning it a personality with quirks. In this case, it happens to take the form of a ghost. When they have problems, they often give the device to a slightly more technical person to deal with it, which they may not be able to do. In the mind of the non-technical person, this failure could confirm the personality of the device. Note that Cueball is not "non-technical", so this possible interpretation does not literally match the depicted scenario.

It should be noted that technical users often joke about sufficiently complex systems operating at the mercy of supernatural forces, {{w|SCSI|SCSI interface}} maintenance [http://www.staff.uni-mainz.de/neuffer/scsi/fun.html requiring goat sacrifices] being a popular past category. Encountering a machine that is literally possessed or cursed is a logical extension of this theme.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at a desk with a laptop. Megan is off-screen.]
:Cueball: ''Argh!''
:Megan: What?
:Cueball: Why do I always have these inexplicable, impossible-to-diagnose computer problems?
:[Megan walks up to the desk.]
:Cueball: After six hours of this, I've concluded nothing works or makes sense. I give up on logic.
:Megan: *sigh* Gimme. I'll figure it out.
:Cueball: You won't.
:[Cueball sits at his laptopless desk. Off-screen, we can hear the woman working on it.]
:''Type type'' ''Click''
:Megan: ?
:''Type type type''
:Megan: ???
:[Megan is back in front of the desk, clutching the laptop.]
:Cueball: How'd it go?
:Megan: Your computer is literally haunted.
:Cueball: ''Told'' you.

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