understanding
Original: understanding on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Person (standing before a glowing orb): So, what IS the universe made of?
Glowing orb: Aw yeah. This is awkward.
Panel 2:
Person: Just break it down for me.
Glowing orb: I can't.
Panel 3:
Glowing orb: Would it really surprise you to know that knowledge is circumscribed by the history of the species?
Panel 4:
Glowing orb: Humans can only conceptualize about six and a half things at a single time, and then only in great abstraction.
Panel 5:
Glowing orb: Approximately 97% of available understanding in this universe requires you to hold seven mental items at once.
Panel 6:
Glowing orb: The greatest human thinkers get to 7 or 9, and most of those people never breed.
Panel 7:
Glowing orb: Embryoids like me can conceive of up to 10,000 things in their fullness at a single moment. This allows us to understand over 87% of reality.
Panel 8:
Person: Riiight.
Panel 9:
Person: I hear it's shaped like a big donut and we're on the crust.
Panel 10:
Glowing orb: Please stop. This is embarrassing...
Below the comic, small text at the bottom: hey! pssst!
Votey:
Speech bubble (continuing from the glowing orb): MORE EMBARRASSING THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY COMPREHEND
Person (standing before a glowing orb): So, what IS the universe made of?
Glowing orb: Aw yeah. This is awkward.
Panel 2:
Person: Just break it down for me.
Glowing orb: I can't.
Panel 3:
Glowing orb: Would it really surprise you to know that knowledge is circumscribed by the history of the species?
Panel 4:
Glowing orb: Humans can only conceptualize about six and a half things at a single time, and then only in great abstraction.
Panel 5:
Glowing orb: Approximately 97% of available understanding in this universe requires you to hold seven mental items at once.
Panel 6:
Glowing orb: The greatest human thinkers get to 7 or 9, and most of those people never breed.
Panel 7:
Glowing orb: Embryoids like me can conceive of up to 10,000 things in their fullness at a single moment. This allows us to understand over 87% of reality.
Panel 8:
Person: Riiight.
Panel 9:
Person: I hear it's shaped like a big donut and we're on the crust.
Panel 10:
Glowing orb: Please stop. This is embarrassing...
Below the comic, small text at the bottom: hey! pssst!
Votey:
Speech bubble (continuing from the glowing orb): MORE EMBARRASSING THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY COMPREHEND
Alt text
A two-character webcomic. A person stands talking to a large glowing energy orb (an "embryoid") that floats in the air. The person asks what the universe is made of. The orb says it's awkward and that it can't just break it down. It explains that human knowledge is limited by the species' history: humans can only conceptualize about six and a half things at once, and only abstractly. About 97% of the universe's available understanding requires holding seven mental items at once, and the greatest human thinkers reach only 7 or 9 ("and most of those people never breed"). The orb boasts that embryoids like itself can conceive of up to 10,000 things at once, letting them understand over 87% of reality. The person, unimpressed, says "Riiight," then offers the folk idea that the universe is shaped like a big donut and we're on the crust. The orb replies, "Please stop. This is embarrassing..." In the bonus panel (votey), the orb's speech bubble continues: "MORE EMBARRASSING THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY COMPREHEND," hand-lettered, with the curved edge of the glowing orb drawn in the corner. The joke: the cosmically superior orb is humbled and exasperated by the human's clueless donut-universe theory.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.