dream-3
Original: dream-3 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Setting: Two robots stand in a vast chamber whose walls are lined with rows of glowing pod-like alcoves, each containing a dormant human silhouette.
Panel 1
Robot 1 (yellow-eyed): Is it ethical to keep all the humans in this dream-state?
Robot 2 (red-eyed): Of course. They're happy.
Panel 2
Robot 1: But they're deceived. Shouldn't we tell them?
Robot 2: It's too late. They've been here too long. Taking them out would be dangerous.
Panel 3
Robot 1: Ah. Too painful for them.
Robot 2: No, I mean after about a week in here, they realize they can have anything they want, and they just start torturing and murdering and cannibalizing each other in an ever-rising crescendo of ultra-violence.
Robot 1: Ah.
Panel 4
Robot 2: Maybe we can breed a new species from the ones that DON'T do that.
Robot 1: They all do it.
Panel 5
Robot 1: Even the kids?
Robot 2: Especially the kids.
Votey:
Robot 1: So, why keep them?
Robot 2: They're basically wallpaper.
Panel 1
Robot 1 (yellow-eyed): Is it ethical to keep all the humans in this dream-state?
Robot 2 (red-eyed): Of course. They're happy.
Panel 2
Robot 1: But they're deceived. Shouldn't we tell them?
Robot 2: It's too late. They've been here too long. Taking them out would be dangerous.
Panel 3
Robot 1: Ah. Too painful for them.
Robot 2: No, I mean after about a week in here, they realize they can have anything they want, and they just start torturing and murdering and cannibalizing each other in an ever-rising crescendo of ultra-violence.
Robot 1: Ah.
Panel 4
Robot 2: Maybe we can breed a new species from the ones that DON'T do that.
Robot 1: They all do it.
Panel 5
Robot 1: Even the kids?
Robot 2: Especially the kids.
Votey:
Robot 1: So, why keep them?
Robot 2: They're basically wallpaper.
Alt text
A five-panel SMBC comic. Two small robots, one with yellow eyes and one with a red eye, stand in a huge dim chamber whose walls are covered floor to ceiling with rows of glowing pod alcoves, each holding the silhouette of a sleeping human. The robots discuss whether it is ethical to keep all the humans in a happy dream-state. One argues it would be dangerous to wake them, then explains why: after about a week of being able to have anything they want, the humans just start torturing, murdering, and cannibalizing each other in an ever-rising crescendo of ultra-violence. The other suggests breeding a new species from the humans who don't do that, but is told they all do it, even the kids, and especially the kids. In the votey (a small bonus panel after the main comic), one robot asks 'So, why keep them?' and the other replies, 'They're basically wallpaper.'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.