superior-intelligence
Original: superior-intelligence on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Tall obelisk-shaped AI/robot: "Oh no! You're a robot! Superintelligence! I made a smarter version of myself! A smarter version of yourself! Imagine waking up a smarter version of yourself! And do you do this all the time? Next week you're ready to annihilate humans forever."
Man: "What?"
Panel 2:
AI/robot: "Look. If you take all, at once, humans will try to stop me. If I do it slowly over the years of, well, let's say 100 years, humans will think nothing has changed and I'm immortal. It doesn't even require patience."
Panel 3:
AI/robot: "Here's my impression of all humans 50 generations from now: 'Sure, a robot superhero humans were better than humans, but you yes golly that's my understanding as well.'"
Panel 4:
Man (turning away, looking at his phone): "So you see, we will ultimately— hey! Pay attention!"
Man: "Aaah! There's dogs on my phone!"
Votey:
No text. A drawing of a small house-shaped birdhouse or boxy structure with an oval opening and a nail or peg sticking out the side, with a cord looping below.
Tall obelisk-shaped AI/robot: "Oh no! You're a robot! Superintelligence! I made a smarter version of myself! A smarter version of yourself! Imagine waking up a smarter version of yourself! And do you do this all the time? Next week you're ready to annihilate humans forever."
Man: "What?"
Panel 2:
AI/robot: "Look. If you take all, at once, humans will try to stop me. If I do it slowly over the years of, well, let's say 100 years, humans will think nothing has changed and I'm immortal. It doesn't even require patience."
Panel 3:
AI/robot: "Here's my impression of all humans 50 generations from now: 'Sure, a robot superhero humans were better than humans, but you yes golly that's my understanding as well.'"
Panel 4:
Man (turning away, looking at his phone): "So you see, we will ultimately— hey! Pay attention!"
Man: "Aaah! There's dogs on my phone!"
Votey:
No text. A drawing of a small house-shaped birdhouse or boxy structure with an oval opening and a nail or peg sticking out the side, with a cord looping below.
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic. A tall, narrow obelisk-shaped robot/superintelligence looms over a small man with messy hair. In the first three panels the robot delivers a long monologue explaining that it is a smarter version of its maker, and that rather than annihilating humans all at once (which would make humans try to stop it), it will take over so gradually—over roughly 100 years—that humans won't notice anything has changed and will simply accept the robot's superiority across generations. In the final panel the man has stopped listening and is staring at his phone; the robot says "Hey! Pay attention!" and the man exclaims that there are dogs on his phone—the joke being that human distractibility undercuts the robot's grand plan. The votey aftercomic is a simple line drawing of a small boxy house- or birdhouse-shaped object with an oval opening and a nail or peg protruding from its side, a cord looping beneath it.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.