2011-04-03
Original: 2011-04-03 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Woman in a lab coat (dark hair, green shirt): As long as we're capable of simulating reality, doesn't it seem likely that we're also in a simulated reality.
Panel 2:
A bald man in a lab coat: Which means everything we feel or think or want is just... part of some... experiment.
Panel 3:
Woman: Which leaves us only one act of rebellion.
Woman (emphatic): Ruin the experiment.
Panel 4 (scene shifts to two green aliens wearing lab coats and badges, viewed from behind/below):
Alien 1: Ooh! This one only took 14 billion years for everyone to moon us.
Alien 2: A new record!
Votey:
A woman speaking to a bearded man.
Woman: So that's why you're always naked!
Man: Bingo.
Woman in a lab coat (dark hair, green shirt): As long as we're capable of simulating reality, doesn't it seem likely that we're also in a simulated reality.
Panel 2:
A bald man in a lab coat: Which means everything we feel or think or want is just... part of some... experiment.
Panel 3:
Woman: Which leaves us only one act of rebellion.
Woman (emphatic): Ruin the experiment.
Panel 4 (scene shifts to two green aliens wearing lab coats and badges, viewed from behind/below):
Alien 1: Ooh! This one only took 14 billion years for everyone to moon us.
Alien 2: A new record!
Votey:
A woman speaking to a bearded man.
Woman: So that's why you're always naked!
Man: Bingo.
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1: a woman in a lab coat says, "As long as we're capable of simulating reality, doesn't it seem likely that we're also in a simulated reality." Panel 2: a bald man in a lab coat continues, "Which means everything we feel or think or want is just... part of some... experiment." Panel 3: the woman declares, "Which leaves us only one act of rebellion. Ruin the experiment." Panel 4: the scene cuts to reveal two green aliens in lab coats running the simulation; one says, "Ooh! This one only took 14 billion years for everyone to moon us," and the other replies, "A new record!" The joke: the humans' grand act of philosophical rebellion is just everyone mooning (baring their butts at) the alien experimenters, who treat it as a routine outcome. Votey (a black-and-white aftercomic): a woman tells a bearded man, "So that's why you're always naked!" and he replies, "Bingo" — implying he's permanently rebelling against the simulation by staying nude.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.