demarcation
Original: demarcation on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A woman in a green jacket and red scarf is hiking up a snowy slope alongside a smaller figure in a yellow jacket, under a starry purple sky.
Woman (green jacket): "Philosophers carp about whether there's a well-defined difference between hard and soft science. But it's easy to pinpoint!"
Other figure: "Oh?"
Panel 2: Close-up of the woman in the green jacket and red scarf.
Woman: "Just put the word 'mad' in front of a practitioner of the discipline and see how scared you are."
Panel 3: The two figures small against the snowy slope.
Woman: "'Mad chemist.' Yikes! Definitely hard. 'Mad geneticist'? Probably making killer frog-men or something. Way scary. Hard science."
Panel 4: Close-up of the woman, with the yellow-jacketed companion now visible beside her.
Woman: "Mad conservation biologist? Okay, maybe they're bringing back the T-rex for ecological reasons or something."
Panel 5: The two figures as silhouettes against the starry sky.
Woman: "A mad anthropologist might be, I dunno, sabotaging venerated cultural beliefs? Mad political theorist? Mad astrology? What's their crazy plan? Making astrology actually work?"
Panel 6: Close-up of the woman, looking uncertain.
Woman: "What's mad homeopathy? Trying to drown people?"
Panel 7: The two figures stand together at the top of the snowy peak, silhouetted.
Companion: "I can't tell if this is true or just stupid."
Woman: "That's because I'm a mad epistemologist!"
Votey:
A single empty snowy slope under the sky, with a faint speech bubble line.
Woman (off-panel): "When the fuck do we get our own book, anyway?"
Woman (green jacket): "Philosophers carp about whether there's a well-defined difference between hard and soft science. But it's easy to pinpoint!"
Other figure: "Oh?"
Panel 2: Close-up of the woman in the green jacket and red scarf.
Woman: "Just put the word 'mad' in front of a practitioner of the discipline and see how scared you are."
Panel 3: The two figures small against the snowy slope.
Woman: "'Mad chemist.' Yikes! Definitely hard. 'Mad geneticist'? Probably making killer frog-men or something. Way scary. Hard science."
Panel 4: Close-up of the woman, with the yellow-jacketed companion now visible beside her.
Woman: "Mad conservation biologist? Okay, maybe they're bringing back the T-rex for ecological reasons or something."
Panel 5: The two figures as silhouettes against the starry sky.
Woman: "A mad anthropologist might be, I dunno, sabotaging venerated cultural beliefs? Mad political theorist? Mad astrology? What's their crazy plan? Making astrology actually work?"
Panel 6: Close-up of the woman, looking uncertain.
Woman: "What's mad homeopathy? Trying to drown people?"
Panel 7: The two figures stand together at the top of the snowy peak, silhouetted.
Companion: "I can't tell if this is true or just stupid."
Woman: "That's because I'm a mad epistemologist!"
Votey:
A single empty snowy slope under the sky, with a faint speech bubble line.
Woman (off-panel): "When the fuck do we get our own book, anyway?"
Alt text
A seven-panel SMBC comic. Two figures hike up a snowy mountain at night under a starry purple sky: a woman in a green jacket and red scarf, and a smaller companion in a yellow jacket. The woman riffs on how to tell hard science from soft science: just put 'mad' in front of the practitioner and see how scary it is. 'Mad chemist' and 'mad geneticist' (making killer frog-men) are definitely hard and scary; 'mad conservation biologist' might bring back the T-rex; a 'mad anthropologist' might sabotage cultural beliefs, and 'mad astrology' would mean making astrology actually work; 'mad homeopathy' would be trying to drown people. In the final panel the two stand silhouetted at the peak. The companion says, 'I can't tell if this is true or just stupid,' and the woman replies, 'That's because I'm a mad epistemologist!' Votey (aftercomic): an empty snowy slope; off-panel the woman complains, 'When the fuck do we get our own book, anyway?'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.