2012-11-21
Original: 2012-11-21 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A balding man with red hair peers around a window curtain at a small spider sitting on the windowsill.
Man: OH MY GOD THERE'S A SPIDER ON THE WINDOWSILL.
Panel 2: A close-up of the man's anguished, fearful face.
Man: I WANT TO KILL IT, BUT IT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING I WOULDN'T HAVE DONE IN ITS PLACE. BUT IS THAT EVEN A MEANINGFUL STATEMENT? MAYBE IT'S JUST A MECHANISM, NOT A MIND. OR ARE ALL BRAINS JUST ON A SPECTRUM? OH NO, WHAT IF THEY ARE? THEN I CAN'T KILL IT. I CAN'T HAVE ITS DEATH ON MY CONSCIENCE HAUNTING ME FOREVER, DAY OR NIGHT, SLEEP OR WAKE.
Panel 3: Caption banner: SOON...
The man holds up a brown cat, pointing it toward the spider on the wall.
Man: SEE THE SPIDER, KITTY? DO WHATEVER COMES TO MIND.
Votey:
A crudely drawn cat with a spider in its mouth, thinking happily.
Cat (thought): HOORAY! I DESTROYED A MIND!
Man: OH MY GOD THERE'S A SPIDER ON THE WINDOWSILL.
Panel 2: A close-up of the man's anguished, fearful face.
Man: I WANT TO KILL IT, BUT IT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING I WOULDN'T HAVE DONE IN ITS PLACE. BUT IS THAT EVEN A MEANINGFUL STATEMENT? MAYBE IT'S JUST A MECHANISM, NOT A MIND. OR ARE ALL BRAINS JUST ON A SPECTRUM? OH NO, WHAT IF THEY ARE? THEN I CAN'T KILL IT. I CAN'T HAVE ITS DEATH ON MY CONSCIENCE HAUNTING ME FOREVER, DAY OR NIGHT, SLEEP OR WAKE.
Panel 3: Caption banner: SOON...
The man holds up a brown cat, pointing it toward the spider on the wall.
Man: SEE THE SPIDER, KITTY? DO WHATEVER COMES TO MIND.
Votey:
A crudely drawn cat with a spider in its mouth, thinking happily.
Cat (thought): HOORAY! I DESTROYED A MIND!
Alt text
A three-panel comic. Panel 1: a balding red-haired man peeks around a curtain and shouts, "Oh my god there's a spider on the windowsill," eyeing a small spider on the sill. Panel 2: a close-up of his agonized face as he spirals through a moral crisis: "I want to kill it, but it didn't do anything I wouldn't have done in its place... Maybe it's just a mechanism, not a mind. Or are all brains just on a spectrum?... Then I can't kill it. I can't have its death on my conscience haunting me forever." Panel 3, labeled "Soon...": the man holds up a brown cat toward the spider on the wall and says, "See the spider, kitty? Do whatever comes to mind," outsourcing the kill so it's not on his conscience. Votey: a roughly sketched cat with the spider in its mouth thinks cheerfully, "Hooray! I destroyed a mind!"
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.