2010-10-24
Original: 2010-10-24 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Title (above the panels): 1 + 1 = ?
Panel 1 (label: 6 YEAR OLD)
A grinning young boy in a purple shirt.
Boy: 2!
Panel 2 (label: PHILOSOPHER)
An old bald man with a white beard in a green jacket, frowning.
Philosopher: Induction is impossible.
Panel 3 (label: COMPUTER SCIENTIST)
A young person with round glasses in a red shirt.
Computer Scientist: Whoa, whoa... addition is the machine's job.
Panel 4 (label: MATHEMATICIAN)
A frowning older person in an orange shirt.
Mathematician: Define "1".
Panel 5 (label: PHYSICIST)
A man with reddish hair in a dark shirt, looking weary, one hand raised.
Physicist: Ballpark... about a thousand.
Votey:
A hand-drawn line graph. The vertical axis reads "CONFIDENCE THAT 1=1" with marks at 100% (top) and 0% (bottom). The horizontal axis reads "MATH EDUCATION".
The line starts at 0%, shoots up near 100%, then steps downward in a series of labeled descents:
- "...DEFINE "1"" (near the top)
- "...DEFINE "=""
- "...DEFINE "DEFINE""
- "...DEFINE "DEFINE "DEFINE "DEFINE"""" (line plunges back to 0%)
Then a single tall spike near the right end shoots back up to ~100%, labeled "...DEFINE "LOGIC"."
Above the spike: "AHA! I CAN PROVE ALL OF LOGIC FROM FIRST PRINCIPLES!"
After the spike the line drops back down to 0% and stays flat.
Panel 1 (label: 6 YEAR OLD)
A grinning young boy in a purple shirt.
Boy: 2!
Panel 2 (label: PHILOSOPHER)
An old bald man with a white beard in a green jacket, frowning.
Philosopher: Induction is impossible.
Panel 3 (label: COMPUTER SCIENTIST)
A young person with round glasses in a red shirt.
Computer Scientist: Whoa, whoa... addition is the machine's job.
Panel 4 (label: MATHEMATICIAN)
A frowning older person in an orange shirt.
Mathematician: Define "1".
Panel 5 (label: PHYSICIST)
A man with reddish hair in a dark shirt, looking weary, one hand raised.
Physicist: Ballpark... about a thousand.
Votey:
A hand-drawn line graph. The vertical axis reads "CONFIDENCE THAT 1=1" with marks at 100% (top) and 0% (bottom). The horizontal axis reads "MATH EDUCATION".
The line starts at 0%, shoots up near 100%, then steps downward in a series of labeled descents:
- "...DEFINE "1"" (near the top)
- "...DEFINE "=""
- "...DEFINE "DEFINE""
- "...DEFINE "DEFINE "DEFINE "DEFINE"""" (line plunges back to 0%)
Then a single tall spike near the right end shoots back up to ~100%, labeled "...DEFINE "LOGIC"."
Above the spike: "AHA! I CAN PROVE ALL OF LOGIC FROM FIRST PRINCIPLES!"
After the spike the line drops back down to 0% and stays flat.
Alt text
An SMBC comic titled "1 + 1 = ?" Five stacked panels each show a different person answering, with a red label naming them. A grinning boy labeled "6 YEAR OLD" says "2!" An old bearded man labeled "PHILOSOPHER" says "Induction is impossible." A bespectacled person labeled "COMPUTER SCIENTIST" says "Whoa, whoa... addition is the machine's job." A frowning person labeled "MATHEMATICIAN" says "Define '1'." A weary man labeled "PHYSICIST" says "Ballpark... about a thousand." The joke: every expert overcomplicates a child's simple correct answer, the physicist comically approximating. Votey: a hand-drawn line graph with the y-axis "Confidence that 1=1" (0% to 100%) and x-axis "Math education." The confidence line spikes high, then steps downward through ever-more-recursive demands—"define '1'," "define '='," "define 'define'," "define 'define 'define 'define''"—crashing to 0%. Then one tall spike rockets back to 100% as the student exclaims "Aha! I can prove all of logic from first principles!"—labeled "...define 'logic'"—before collapsing back to 0% for good.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.