perception-of-colors
Original: perception-of-colors on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1
Red-haired woman: Do you ever worry we see different colors? Like, when you see green, how do you know you're not seeing what I call red?
Panel 2
Dark-haired woman (looking troubled): Oh, it's much worse than that.
Panel 3
Dark-haired woman: When you pose philosophical conundrums about qualia, I see a cow wearing pants.
Panel 4
Dark-haired woman: You will never understand my qualia of questions about qualia, because no two brains are alike, and in particular because I see a cow with pants.
Panel 5
Red-haired woman (frowning): You're not taking the question in the spirit it was asked.
Panel 6
Dark-haired woman (agitated, hand to face): Or is it a dress?? My god, if it covers the udders IT'S A DRESS!
Votey:
Dark-haired woman (thought/caption in a bubble): We are through the looking glass.
Red-haired woman: Do you ever worry we see different colors? Like, when you see green, how do you know you're not seeing what I call red?
Panel 2
Dark-haired woman (looking troubled): Oh, it's much worse than that.
Panel 3
Dark-haired woman: When you pose philosophical conundrums about qualia, I see a cow wearing pants.
Panel 4
Dark-haired woman: You will never understand my qualia of questions about qualia, because no two brains are alike, and in particular because I see a cow with pants.
Panel 5
Red-haired woman (frowning): You're not taking the question in the spirit it was asked.
Panel 6
Dark-haired woman (agitated, hand to face): Or is it a dress?? My god, if it covers the udders IT'S A DRESS!
Votey:
Dark-haired woman (thought/caption in a bubble): We are through the looking glass.
Alt text
A six-panel SMBC comic, a conversation between a red-haired woman and a dark-haired woman. Panel 1: the red-haired woman asks, "Do you ever worry we see different colors? Like, when you see green, how do you know you're not seeing what I call red?" Panel 2: the dark-haired woman looks unsettled and replies, "Oh, it's much worse than that." Panels 3-4: she explains that when philosophical conundrums about qualia are posed, she pictures a cow wearing pants, and that no one will ever truly understand her qualia of these questions. Panel 5: the red-haired woman frowns, "You're not taking the question in the spirit it was asked." Panel 6: the dark-haired woman, now wide-eyed and distressed with a hand to her face, blurts, "Or is it a dress?? My god, if it covers the udders IT'S A DRESS!" The joke: a thought experiment about subjective perception is derailed by the speaker's own runaway qualia, an absurd mental image of a cow in pants that may or may not be a dress. Votey (aftercomic): a close-up of the dark-haired woman's troubled face as she says, "We are through the looking glass."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.