negative

A single-panel comic. An elderly man with white hair, glasses, and a stunned, wide-eyed expression holds a sheet of paper while a younger man in a red shirt stands beside him. The elderly man asks, "What's this?" The younger man explains, "A negative-time sorting algorithm. When it's completely sorted you have MORE time than when you began." The elderly man, eyes bulging, replies, "Impossible! And... and yet...", apparently half-convinced by the absurd claim. A caption below reads: "It's easy to get computer scientists to make a schedule." Votey (aftercomic): a hand-drawn box with text reading "(Later it turns out the time is imaginary)" — a math pun on imaginary numbers undercutting the algorithm's promise.