Editing 1416: Pixels

{{comic
| number    = 1416
| date      = September 3, 2014
| title     = Pixels
| image     = pixels.png
| titletext = It's turtles all the way down.
}}
<div style="float:right"> __TOC__ </div>
'''NOTE:''' 
*The above is only a zoomed out version of the this interactive comic.
*To experience the interactivity, visit the {{xkcd|1416|original comic}}.
*For a collection of images that appear when zooming in on this comic, see [[1416: Pixels/Images]].

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Individual panels need enhanced explanations in sections "Needs More Struts", "The Only Copy", "Space Objects", "Sky", "Mario", "Clouds", "Fire Hydrant" (definition of "hydrant"), "Rope", "Atom etc", "Holism, Reductionism, Mu".}}
This interactive comic begins with a panel where [[Cueball]] is stacking turtles. This is a reference to the idiom "{{w|turtles all the way down}}", which refers to the problem of infinite recursion: if everything in the universe is "on top of" something else, so to speak, there must be a "bottom." A joking solution to the paradoxical nature of such a bottom is the proposition that the world rests on a semi-infinite stack of turtles.

The origins of the turtle story are uncertain. It has been recorded since the mid 19th century, and may possibly date to the 18th. One recent version appears in {{W|Stephen Hawking}}'s 1988 book {{W|A Brief History of Time}}, which starts:

:A well-known scientist (some say it was {{W|Bertrand Russell}}) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"''

:—Hawking, 1988

Several {{w|World Turtle|ancient myths}}, dating back thousands of years, involve a turtle which supports the whole world, or a part of it, although it is usually just one turtle, not an infinite regression.  This is also repeated in {{w|Terry Pratchett}}'s {{w|Discworld}} novels, in which the world is supported by four elephants standing on the back of a single turtle called {{w|Great A'Tuin}}.

As can be read you should '''"scroll to zoom"'''. This can be done by placing the cursor inside the panel of the comic. When scrolling up (using the mouse wheel) the picture zooms in on the pixel beneath the cursor. Moving the cursor will also move the point to which the picture zooms. You can then zoom in until the pixels are visible. When you continue to zoom in on a pixel it then resolves into another comic picture, with black-on-white comic panels making up the white pixels and white-on-black panels making up the black pixels. Scrolling on until you can see the pixels of the comic picture you are now zooming into the process is repeated again and will be so for all subsequent sets of comic panels. Not all white and all black panels are the same; some sets involve more than two different panels, but all involve repetitive tiling.

Once you have zoomed in, you are able to click and drag the picture, thus enabling you to move from black to white picture pixel. This is reminiscent of the earlier [[:Category:Interactive comics|interactive]] comic [[1110: Click and Drag]].

==Themes==
*Below are all the themes relevant to cover all the images found when zooming in.
*They are sorted in the same order as in the gallery: [[1416: Pixels/Images]].
**Open the gallery in another window - zoom out and then you can see the pictures in this window as you read about them here below.  You can see thumbnail versions of each picture at the top of the theme sub-section.

===Turtles===
[[Image:01-100-pixels-turtles.png|link=File:pixels-turtles.png]]
[[File:02-100-pixels-quiet-turtle.png|link=File:pixels-quiet-turtle.png]]
[[File:03-100-pixels-i-am-a-turtle.png|link=File:pixels-i-am-a-turtle.png]]

Apart from the first image there are two more with a single turtle in them. In one of these the turtle thinks "I am a turtle". This is a reference to [[889: Turtles]]. It may say so to the Cueball that is seen standing all alone in another picture.

===What if?===
[[File:04-100-pixels-blank-figure.png|link=File:pixels-blank-figure.png]]
[[File:05-100-pixels-whatif-trade.png|link=File:pixels-whatif-trade.png]]
[[File:06-100-pixels-whatif-king.png|link=File:pixels-whatif-king.png]]

There is a panel featuring just Cueball, followed by is a picture of the ''What If?'' book, large enough that all of the text is visible on the front cover. But there is also another version where the author's name is crossed out and replaced with Stephen King, the word "Spooky" has been added above the title, and the word "xkcd" below has been struck and replaced with "being afraid".

===Book Launch===
[[File:07-100-pixels-book-launch.png|link=File:pixels-book-launch.png]]

This comic was released on September 3, 2014, the day after [[Randall|Randall's]] book ''[http://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ What If]'' was launched. The book is shown and referred to in a number of frames; for example, it is [[:File:pixels-upgoer.png|'''literally''' launched]] as a part of an <strike>rocket</strike> [[1133: Up Goer Five|''up goer'']] built by Cueball. There is also a picture with Cueball holding his book, while being excited about the launch.

The model ''up goer'' is [[:File:pixels-assembly-1.png|made of Rocket Parts from KSP]]. KSP is the {{w|Kerbal Space Program}}, a spaceflight simulator which was also [[1350: Lorenz#Themes|part]] of the latest interactive comic [[1350: Lorenz]]. Perhaps xkcd's "parts" refers to KSP's large community of mod developers who contribute 'parts' to the game, although it was likely intended as nothing more than the humorous supposition that one could purchase physical rocket parts from a simulator. The frames showing the book launch use URLs that include the text "upgoer" in reference to the [[Up Goer Five]] comic.

In the end the up goer leaves the Earth after one orbit and then flies through space.

===Needs More Struts===
[[File:08-100-pixels-assembly-1.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-1.png]]
[[File:09-100-pixels-assembly-2.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-2.png]]
[[File:10-100-pixels-assembly-3.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-3.png]]
[[File:11-100-pixels-assembly-4.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-4.png]]
[[File:12-100-pixels-assembly-5.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-5.png]]
[[File:13-100-pixels-assembly-6.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-6.png]]
[[File:14-100-pixels-assembly-7.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-7.png]]
[[File:15-100-pixels-assembly-planet.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-planet.png]]
[[File:16-100-pixels-assembly-planet-1.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-planet-1.png]]
[[File:17-100-pixels-assembly-planet-3.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-planet-3.png]]

{{w|Strut|Struts}} are structural members in engineering, and are one of the components used in Kerbal Space Program to construct rockets. "Needs More Struts" is a meme amongst players of Kerbal Space Program along the lines of "when in doubt, overengineer"; it stems from a time when the ragdoll physics in the Unity engine underying KSP was unstable enough to necessitate their overuse. Megan deems Cueball's rocket to be insufficiently structurally sound, and declares that it "[[:File:pixels-assembly-4.png|Needs More Struts]]".

===The Only Copy===
[[File:18-100-pixels-upgoer.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer.png]]
[[File:19-100-pixels-upgoer-2.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-2.png]]
[[File:20-100-pixels-upgoer-3.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-3.png]]
[[File:21-100-pixels-upgoer-4.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-4.png]]
[[File:22-100-pixels-upgoer-5.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-5.png]]
[[File:23-100-pixels-upgoer-6.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-6.png]]
[[File:24-100-pixels-upgoer-planet.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-planet.png]]
[[File:25-100-pixels-launch-planet.png|link=File:pixels-launch-planet.png]]
[[File:26-100-pixels-upgoer-planet-2.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-planet-2.png]]
[[File:27-100-pixels-upgoer-planet-3.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-planet-3.png]]
[[File:28-100-pixels-upgoer-planet-4.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-planet-4.png]]
[[File:29-100-pixels-upgoer-space.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-space.png]]

Cueball & Megan turn to each other having just launched the What-If book rocket into space (construction and launch are seen in other panels). Perhaps Megan realizes they may have misunderstood the term "book launch", and that they may have just lost ''[[:File:pixels-upgoer-6.png|the only copy]]'' of the book.

===Space objects===
[[File:30-100-pixels-sun.png|link=File:pixels-sun.png]]
[[File:31-100-pixels-moon.png|link=File:pixels-moon.png]]
[[File:32-100-pixels-saturn.png|link=File:pixels-saturn.png]]
[[File:33-100-pixels-stars-1.png|link=File:pixels-stars-1.png]]
[[File:34-100-pixels-stars-2.png|link=File:pixels-stars-2.png]]

There are both the Moon, the Sun, Saturn and two images just with stars.

===Sky===
[[File:35-100-pixels-sky.png|link=File:pixels-sky.png]]
[[File:36-100-pixels-sky-2.png|link=File:pixels-sky-2.png]]
[[File:37-100-pixels-sky-3.png|link=File:pixels-sky-3.png]]
[[File:38-100-pixels-sky-4.png|link=File:pixels-sky-4.png]]

In four pictures Cueball and Megan are sitting below the stars. In the second the following conversation takes place:
:Cueball: Someone once told me the great kings of the past look down on us...
:Megan: From the stars?
:Cueball: Just in general.
The second panel is a reference to Disney's [http://lionking.wikia.com/wiki/The_Great_Kings_of_the_Past The Lion King]. Early in the film, Mufasa tells Simba that the great kings of the past look down on them from the stars. Later on, Simba recalls this to his companions, Timon and Pumba (who don't take him seriously). In the film, the kings of the past literally look down on — and watch over — the characters, which is how Megan interprets Cueball's initial statement. Cueball's reply that they just look down on us in general shows that he means the kings of the past figuratively look down on us (they view us as inferior or beneath them).

In the next image a shooting star is seen above them. The final picture looks to identical to the first?

===Mario===
[[File:39-100-pixels-mario-entry.png|link=File:pixels-mario-entry.png]]
[[File:40-100-pixels-mario-sitting-1.png|link=File:pixels-mario-sitting-1.png]]
[[File:41-100-pixels-mario-sitting-2.png|link=File:pixels-mario-sitting-2.png]]
[[File:42-100-pixels-mario-sitting-3.png|link=File:pixels-mario-sitting-3.png]]
[[File:43-100-pixels-mario-sitting-b.png|link=File:pixels-mario-sitting-b.png]]
[[File:44-100-pixels-mario-n1.png|link=File:pixels-mario-n1.png]]
[[File:45-100-pixels-mario-n2.png|link=File:pixels-mario-n2.png]]
[[File:46-100-pixels-mario-n3.png|link=File:pixels-mario-n3.png]]

A series of 8 images are called ''Mario''. The first is called ''entry'', and has a picture of a TV on a low stand. The next four has Megan in front of said TV, holding a video game controller. The cable is connected to something inside the stand. She first sits on her knees, then on her butt. In the third picture she is lying down. What follows is a picture which is an inverse of the sitting picture. The last three images seem to depict a level from one of the {{w|Super Mario Bros.}} games. In the upper right one can see the iconic bricks which Mario can smash, two clouds appear stationary in the background, and a crude depiction of Mario is standing in the lower left. Over the course of the three images, a galaxy rises into the sky. It does not look like the Milky Way would from anywhere on Earth, suggesting that Mario is somewhere outside our galaxy, or that it is not the Milky Way at all. The shape also seems to be a mix of spiral and ellipse. The rise of the galaxy could be meant to show how much time Megan spends playing the game, and this might also be why Cueball wishes to [[#Shut Down the Server|throw water on the server]].

===Shut Down the Server===
[[File:47-100-pixels-server-1.png|link=File:pixels-server-1.png]]

Cueball tells an offscreen character that he is going to [[:File:pixels-server-1.png|shut down the server]], while carrying a bucket of water.

Usually shutting down a {{w|Server (computing)|server}} is done via the operating system or software. Directly turning it off or pulling the power plug also would technically work though not recommended for obvious reasons. But in this case it appears that Cueball is going to attempt to shut off the server by dousing it with water. This will likely result in serious water damage to the hardware, thus forcing it off as it no longer is able to function.

===Clouds===
[[File:48-100-pixels-clouds-1.png|link=File:pixels-clouds-1.png]]
[[File:49-100-pixels-clouds-2.png|link=File:pixels-clouds-2.png]]
[[File:50-100-pixels-clouds-3.png|link=File:pixels-clouds-3.png]]
[[File:51-100-pixels-clouds-4.png|link=File:pixels-clouds-4.png]]
[[File:52-100-pixels-clouds-5.png|link=File:pixels-clouds-5.png]]

In five pictures Megan is floating in the clouds. Two pictures with only Megan flying, two with only clouds, and one with only birds as seen from a distance.

===Walking===
[[File:53-100-pixels-walking.png|link=File:pixels-walking.png]]
[[File:54-100-pixels-stockholm.png|link=File:pixels-stockholm.png]]
[[File:55-100-pixels-time-turner.png|link=File:pixels-time-turner.png]]
[[File:56-100-pixels-walking-b.png|link=File:pixels-walking-b.png]]
[[File:57-100-pixels-fire-hydrant.png|link=File:pixels-fire-hydrant.png]]

In two images Cueball and Megan are seen walking. The first is a normal black-on-white close up, and the second an inverted image seen from afar. They are talking while walking; after the first walking image they discuss [[#Stockholm Syndrome|Stockholm syndrome]] and then [[#Time Turners|Time Turners]], and after the second walking image they discuss a [[#Fire Hydrant|fire hydrant]].

====Stockholm Syndrome====
{{w|Stockholm syndrome}} is the name for a psychological phenomenon, in which hostages develop sympathy, empathy and/or positive feelings towards their captors. These feelings are usually seen as irrational, seeing as the hostage is held against their wishes, usually with the threat of physical harm or death.

[[:File:pixels-stockholm.png|This panel]] asks "How do we know anyone really ''wants'' to live in Stockholm?", questioning whether everyone who lives in the city of Stockholm is in fact held hostage there and only stays because they have developed to like life there (due to Stockholm Syndrome).

====Time Turners====
The time turner is a device from the {{w|Harry Potter}} series of novels by {{w|JK Rowling}}. It allows the user to re-live a period of time over again. In the third novel Hermione is given the time-turner to allow her to take extra classes, however it is eventually used to spare Buckbeak the hippogryph from execution. This prompted many questions regarding why time-turners weren't used on other occasions to save people's lives (among other things).

While J.K Rowling has "[http://pottermore.wikia.com/wiki/Time-Turner solved the problem to her own satisfaction]" she admits that she entered into the subject of time-travel too lightly.

[[:File:pixels-time-turner.png|This panel]] jokes that if the real life JK Rowling had a fictional time-turner which worked, she would have gone back and removed the time-turner plotline from the book, saving her all the hassle of dealing with the resulting time-travel questions. This act would result in a time-travel paradox.

====Fire Hydrant====
[[Black Hat]] is talking to a fireman, with a fire engine on fire in the background, he asks "To be fair, what else would you expect to come out of a "[[:File:pixels-fire-hydrant.png|fire hydrant]]"?"

Black Hat appears to have managed to replace the usual water supply to the {{w|fire hydrant}} with actual fire. Thus when the hydrant is used, the result is, quite literally, fire (or oil with possibly flint and steel contraptions to cause fire). In Black Hat's logic, a hydrant which delivers water should be called a water hydrant.

This completely ignores the meaning of the word "hydrant", a pipe which supplies water (derived from the English root ''hydro-'' meaning ''relating to water'', which is in turn from the Greek ''hudōr'' meaning ''water'').

===Eeee===
[[File:58-100-pixels-e1.png|link=File:pixels-e1.png]]
[[File:59-100-pixels-e2.png|link=File:pixels-e2.png]]
[[File:60-100-pixels-e3.png|link=File:pixels-e3.png]]
[[File:61-100-pixels-e4.png|link=File:pixels-e4.png]]
[[File:62-100-pixels-e5.png|link=File:pixels-e5.png]]
[[File:63-100-pixels-e6.png|link=File:pixels-e6.png]]
[[File:64-100-pixels-eb.png|link=File:pixels-eb.png]]

Megan hears a very long stretched ''EEEEEEEEEEEEE'' sound which goes over 6 images. It turns out it is a large letter '''E''' that shouts ''EEEEEEE!!!''. In total there are 64 small E emanating from the big one. There is also a picture with two big white E on black background. Those E are larger than the E that shouts.

===Evolution===
[[File:65-100-pixels-evolution.png|link=File:pixels-evolution.png]]

The {{w|March of Progress}} image is a famous and instantly recognisable image showing the stages of human evolution by way of a series of primate figures as if marching in a line. The panel parodies the March of Progress image, with [[:File:pixels-evolution.png|5 ducklings following an adult duck]]. In this case, rather than portraying selected individuals millions of years apart, the March shows evolution in action on a human timescale, the mother taking care of her ducklings. The comic has some resemblance to [[537: Ducklings]].

===Rope===
[[File:66-100-pixels-rope.png|link=File:pixels-rope.png]]

Four ropes cross diagonally across this black picture. Looks good when there are many of them in the same place.

===Chess and Cantor Set Fractals===
[[File:67-100-pixels-chess-b.png|link=File:pixels-chess-b.png]]
[[File:68-100-pixels-chess-w.png|link=File:pixels-chess-w.png]]
[[File:69-100-pixels-cantor.png|link=File:pixels-cantor.png]]

There are two chess boards on black and white background with smaller chessboards drawn upon them in a {{w|Fractal}} pattern.

[[:File:pixels-cantor.png|One panel]] contains a number of lines and dots, which are in fact a depiction of the first 5 steps of a {{w|Cantor set|Cantor Ternary Set}}, mirrored about the horizontal centreline (see {{w|File:Cantor set in seven iterations.svg|reference image}}). The Cantor ternary set is constructed by repeatedly deleting the open middle thirds of a set of line segments.  In the comic, the two upper-left most segments and the two lower-right most segments are misaligned slightly.

The Cantor Set is one of the canonical examples of a fractal, a shape whose individual parts resemble the whole. The use of the Cantor Set in this comic is self-referential, in that the comic, itself, is composed of parts of the same shape as the whole.

===Atom etc===
[[File:70-100-pixels-particles.png|link=File:pixels-particles.png]]
[[File:71-100-pixels-atom.png|link=File:pixels-atom.png]]
[[File:72-100-pixels-string.png|link=File:pixels-string.png]]

There is a picture of tiny particles, quite spaced out. These probably represent atoms, and given how distant they are, they may well be a gas.

There follows a picture of a Bohr Model atom with point electrons surrounding a nucleus of protons and neutrons. The atom is a {{w|Carbon}} atom which is essential for all living matter and therefore for evolution. There is also a picture of what is probably a vibrating cosmic string fragment (a concept in {{w|string theory}}). Despite {{w|Werner Heisenberg|Heisenberg's}} {{w|Uncertainty Principle}}, zooming down to the string does not mean that the cartoon viewer has reached the "bottom" of the comic - zooming in on the loop will show a picture of string.

===Holism, Reductionism, Mu===
[[File:73-100-pixels-mu.png|link=File:pixels-mu.png]]
[[File:74-100-pixels-mu-b.png|link=File:pixels-mu-b.png]]
[[File:75-100-pixels-holism.png|link=File:pixels-holism.png]]
[[File:76-100-pixels-holism-b.png|link=File:pixels-holism-b.png]]
[[File:77-100-pixels-reductionism.png|link=File:pixels-reductionism.png]]
[[File:78-100-pixels-reductionism-b.png|link=File:pixels-reductionism-b.png]]

These three words refer to "A MU offering", an essay by {{w|Douglas Hofstatder}} in his book {{w|Godel, Escher, Bach}} (which was referenced by Randall in [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]]). It includes a similar multiple level drawing: {{w|Mu (negative)|the word MU}} is composed of copies of the words [[:File:pixels-holism.png|HOLISM]] and [[:File:pixels-reductionism.png|REDUCTIONISM]], each of which are in turn made of smaller copies of the other, which are in turn made of [http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/two-more-letters/ tiny copies] of the word [[:File:pixels-mu.png|MU]].

These panels can be found inside panels with Megan.

===du===
[[File:79-100-pixels-du.png|link=File:pixels-du.png]]

"[[:File:pixels-du.png|du]]" is a {{w|POSIX}} (think {{w|Linux}}/{{w|Mac OS X}}) command to indicate the "disk usage" of a file or directory.

    ~$ du -s video/
    4170882256

This is a command that shows how large all the files are in this user's "video" directory - presumably where they store their personal videos. The units of the result is probably kilobytes (depending on settings)

This number is clearly large and difficult to parse, and the units are not clear (to a bystander). More appropriate units would be gigabytes rather than bytes. The du command offers an option to display units in "human readable format", which will adapt to use kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, etc. as appropriate. The next command purports to request the same result in more human-readable form.

    ~$ du -hs video/
    A lot.
    ~$

It seems that the computer, rather than giving a specific answer, simply says that the size of the video directory is "A lot."

The final line indicates the computer is now ready to accept a new command.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is stacking turtles, and is about to put the fourth turtle on his pile. At the bottom right there is a small panel. Inside this is written:]
:Scroll to zoom

:[When zooming in there will be several panels with text. The transcript of these may not be possible to complete - but add the transcript of these panels here: [[1416: Pixels/Transcript|interactive transcript]]]

==Trivia==
===Gallery===
[[1416: Pixels/Images|This gallery]] contains the [http://azttm.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/xkcd-com-1416-pixels/ 79 images used in this comic]. The images are related in a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/37/1416_Pixels_layout.png directed graph].

===Images Database===
This google sheet describes all possible images, their associated codes, and what possible images can be used as sub-images for each zoom level: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nldKAkeVcK606CY12KI9bah9rDmK9E7CZOyinsEj2Lo/edit?usp=sharing

===Image scraping script===
This gist recursively downloads all possible images:
https://gist.github.com/Aaron1011/d3b56325881cd639506a

===Bugs===
*Doesn't seem to work properly in all browsers (e.g. Firefox and Safari on MacOSX), giving "TypeError: this.data is null" in line 173 of zoom.js: "var item = this.data.get(dims)"
*Firefox on Lubuntu 14.04 (presumably other Ubuntu/Linux distros as well) will allow zooming in, and then freeze when each pixel is about 1/3 of the pane.
*Doesn't seem to work in IE8, comic is blank, but title text works.
*Does not work on xkcd.org neither www.xkcd.org in Firefox and Chrome. Currently you should visit http://xkcd.com for this comic to work properly.
*Also, it doesn't work on HTTPS.
*Very slow and consumes a ridiculous amount of memory (>4GB) in Firefox.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]