2012-07-09
Original: 2012-07-09 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Man with glasses (holding a tablet): Hey look! I built a program that self-replicates!
Panel 2:
Man with glasses: If we define life as any piece of information that can self-replicate when physically embodied, this counts as life!
Red-haired man in red shirt: Neat.
Panel 3:
Man with glasses: But if I press Ctrl+Z, it snips out the self-replication part. Now it's non-life!
Red-haired man: Okay...
Panel 4:
Man with glasses: If I do it again, it goes back to being life!
Red-haired man: Okay...
Panel 5:
Man with glasses: And again! And again! And again! Alive, dead, alive, dead, ali—
Red-haired man: STOP THAT!
Panel 6:
Man with glasses: What? It's just a weird quirk of the universe. I have a whole computer that just creates and destroys life all day long.
Red-haired man: I don't want to think about this.
Panel 7 (caption banner): SOMEWHERE, OUTSIDE REALITY...
Voice from a yellow egg-shaped being: Hey, what if we make a universe where all meaningful divisions are arbitrary?
Voice from a purple egg-shaped being: Ha!
Votey:
A hand holds up a tablet whose screen reads: LIFE / NO LIFE (with the toggle on "NO LIFE").
Man (off-panel, speech bubble): Woops.
Man with glasses (holding a tablet): Hey look! I built a program that self-replicates!
Panel 2:
Man with glasses: If we define life as any piece of information that can self-replicate when physically embodied, this counts as life!
Red-haired man in red shirt: Neat.
Panel 3:
Man with glasses: But if I press Ctrl+Z, it snips out the self-replication part. Now it's non-life!
Red-haired man: Okay...
Panel 4:
Man with glasses: If I do it again, it goes back to being life!
Red-haired man: Okay...
Panel 5:
Man with glasses: And again! And again! And again! Alive, dead, alive, dead, ali—
Red-haired man: STOP THAT!
Panel 6:
Man with glasses: What? It's just a weird quirk of the universe. I have a whole computer that just creates and destroys life all day long.
Red-haired man: I don't want to think about this.
Panel 7 (caption banner): SOMEWHERE, OUTSIDE REALITY...
Voice from a yellow egg-shaped being: Hey, what if we make a universe where all meaningful divisions are arbitrary?
Voice from a purple egg-shaped being: Ha!
Votey:
A hand holds up a tablet whose screen reads: LIFE / NO LIFE (with the toggle on "NO LIFE").
Man (off-panel, speech bubble): Woops.
Alt text
A seven-panel comic. A man with glasses holds a tablet and excitedly tells a red-haired friend, 'Hey look! I built a program that self-replicates!' He explains that if life is defined as any information that can self-replicate when physically embodied, then this program counts as life. The friend says 'Neat.' The glasses man then says pressing Ctrl+Z snips out the self-replication, making it non-life; pressing it again restores it to life. He gleefully spams undo/redo, narrating 'And again! And again! Alive, dead, alive, dead, ali—' until the friend yells 'STOP THAT!' The glasses man shrugs: 'It's just a weird quirk of the universe. I have a whole computer that just creates and destroys life all day long.' The friend, looking disturbed, says 'I don't want to think about this.' A final caption-banner panel reads 'SOMEWHERE, OUTSIDE REALITY...' showing two egg-shaped cosmic beings; one says 'Hey, what if we make a universe where all meaningful divisions are arbitrary?' and the other replies 'Ha!' Votey aftercomic: a hand-drawn panel of a tablet whose screen shows a toggle labeled 'LIFE / NO LIFE' set to 'NO LIFE,' with a voice saying 'Woops.'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.