2012-01-08

A vertical comic. A bald, bearded man and a red-haired woman trade question-and-answer lines across several panels, alternating close-up faces. She asks each question; he gives a terse definition. Man: "What is science?" Then he answers his own definitions as she names each topic: science is "the belief that induction is real"; philosophy is "the fear that induction is impossible"; religion is "the faith that it isn't"; life is "the duration of those three"; beauty is "the highest use of that duration." Finally she asks, "What are you doing right now?" The last panel shows him slouched at a computer saying, "I'll get to beauty later." Votey (bonus panel): A caption reads "73 YEARS LATER..." The same man, now elderly, is still hunched at the glowing computer screen, thinking, "Just one more advice animal" -- having spent his entire remaining life browsing internet memes instead of pursuing beauty.