teleporter-problems
Original: teleporter-problems on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
A man (offscreen/speaker): Suppose you could get into a Star Trek teleporter and be sent across the solar system. Would you?
Woman (with dark hair): Nope.
Panel 2:
Man: A person is just a more or less consistent pattern moving through space and time. When it gets blown up, you're dead.
Panel 3:
Woman: Sure. Your duplicate appears on the other side. But it's not you. Your duplicate, to feel, will have persistent experience, but you are still dead.
Panel 4:
Man: What if there's a threesome on the other end?
Woman: Okay. I'm in.
Votey:
Text: NOW!
A stylized close-up of the woman's face with an eager, wide-eyed grinning expression.
A man (offscreen/speaker): Suppose you could get into a Star Trek teleporter and be sent across the solar system. Would you?
Woman (with dark hair): Nope.
Panel 2:
Man: A person is just a more or less consistent pattern moving through space and time. When it gets blown up, you're dead.
Panel 3:
Woman: Sure. Your duplicate appears on the other side. But it's not you. Your duplicate, to feel, will have persistent experience, but you are still dead.
Panel 4:
Man: What if there's a threesome on the other end?
Woman: Okay. I'm in.
Votey:
Text: NOW!
A stylized close-up of the woman's face with an eager, wide-eyed grinning expression.
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic. A man argues to a dark-haired woman that she should use a Star Trek-style teleporter to be sent across the solar system. She refuses, explaining the philosophical objection: a person is just a consistent pattern moving through space and time, and when you're disassembled by the teleporter you're dead—the duplicate that appears on the other side has persistent experience but isn't you. The man counters, 'What if there's a threesome on the other end?' The woman immediately replies, 'Okay. I'm in.' Votey: a stylized black-and-white close-up of the woman's face, wide-eyed and grinning eagerly, with the word 'NOW!' above her—her high-minded philosophical objection abandoned the instant a threesome was offered.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.