2012-08-16
Original: 2012-08-16 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Girl: Daddy? Say I had surgery and say halfway through the anesthesia wore off, and I woke up and started screaming.
Panel 2:
Girl: So then the doctor gives me a sedative so I can go through with it, then I wake up after surgery, and I don't remember any of it.
Panel 3:
Father: If I don't remember, but I definitely happened, who suffered?
Panel 4:
Father: Oh, that's easy. There's no such thing as a persistent "you."
Father: So... the "me" from surgery is DEAD?
Panel 5:
Father: Sweetie, no! Not dead.
Father: The "you" from surgery never existed. Your brain was just representing a "you" for convenience, like it is right now.
Panel 6:
Father: But don't feel bad! That old representation got to experience the extremes of emotion and sensation for its entire existence! I mean... what's THIS representation of you doing to experience?
Panel 7:
Girl: I thought... maybe this representation of me would spend some boring afternoon being threatened and watching cartoons.
Father: Well... I hope that's fulfilling.
Panel 8 (LATER):
Girl: It's all a farce.
Mother: What did your father say to you?
Panel 9:
Girl: Father doesn't exist.
Votey:
A smiling girl holds up a banner that reads: "TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE.. EXISTENTIAL CRISIS SALLY"
Girl: Daddy? Say I had surgery and say halfway through the anesthesia wore off, and I woke up and started screaming.
Panel 2:
Girl: So then the doctor gives me a sedative so I can go through with it, then I wake up after surgery, and I don't remember any of it.
Panel 3:
Father: If I don't remember, but I definitely happened, who suffered?
Panel 4:
Father: Oh, that's easy. There's no such thing as a persistent "you."
Father: So... the "me" from surgery is DEAD?
Panel 5:
Father: Sweetie, no! Not dead.
Father: The "you" from surgery never existed. Your brain was just representing a "you" for convenience, like it is right now.
Panel 6:
Father: But don't feel bad! That old representation got to experience the extremes of emotion and sensation for its entire existence! I mean... what's THIS representation of you doing to experience?
Panel 7:
Girl: I thought... maybe this representation of me would spend some boring afternoon being threatened and watching cartoons.
Father: Well... I hope that's fulfilling.
Panel 8 (LATER):
Girl: It's all a farce.
Mother: What did your father say to you?
Panel 9:
Girl: Father doesn't exist.
Votey:
A smiling girl holds up a banner that reads: "TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE.. EXISTENTIAL CRISIS SALLY"
Alt text
A nine-panel SMBC comic. A young girl asks her bespectacled father a thought experiment: if she had surgery, woke up screaming when the anesthesia wore off, got sedated, and afterward remembered none of it -- who suffered? The father cheerfully answers that there is no such thing as a persistent "you." The alarmed girl asks if that means the "me" from surgery is dead. Her father reassures her: no, that surgery-self never existed; her brain was just representing a "you" for convenience, like it is doing right now. He encourages her not to feel bad, noting that the old representation got to experience extremes of emotion and sensation, and asks what THIS representation of her is doing to experience anything. The girl glumly says she thought maybe this representation of her would just spend a boring afternoon being threatened and watching cartoons; the father replies, "Well... I hope that's fulfilling." In the final panels, labeled LATER, the despondent girl tells her mother, "It's all a farce." The mother asks what the father said, and the girl answers, "Father doesn't exist." Votey: a smiling girl holds up a banner reading "TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE.. EXISTENTIAL CRISIS SALLY."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.