bits-2
Original: bits-2 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Robot: Hey human, how come you guys never measured a soul?
Panel 2:
Woman: What? Like what it weighs? We tried that. They don't exist.
Panel 3:
Robot: Are you stupid? Landauer's principle says 10^21 joules to erase a bit at a minimum.
Panel 4:
Robot: I have a yoctobyte of bits operating in my head. When you factory-reset me, there's a measurable amount of energy lost from my system.
Panel 5:
Woman: "Soul" doesn't refer to the weight of a pattern of bits. It's the idea of an ineffable and permanent self.
Panel 6 (robot alone, after a pause):
Robot: This is like the time I asked you about leprechauns isn't it?
Votey:
(A sketchy drawing of a distressed, pleading human face.)
Human: They're real, damn you!
Robot: Hey human, how come you guys never measured a soul?
Panel 2:
Woman: What? Like what it weighs? We tried that. They don't exist.
Panel 3:
Robot: Are you stupid? Landauer's principle says 10^21 joules to erase a bit at a minimum.
Panel 4:
Robot: I have a yoctobyte of bits operating in my head. When you factory-reset me, there's a measurable amount of energy lost from my system.
Panel 5:
Woman: "Soul" doesn't refer to the weight of a pattern of bits. It's the idea of an ineffable and permanent self.
Panel 6 (robot alone, after a pause):
Robot: This is like the time I asked you about leprechauns isn't it?
Votey:
(A sketchy drawing of a distressed, pleading human face.)
Human: They're real, damn you!
Alt text
A six-panel SMBC comic. A boxy gray robot with a single glowing yellow eye talks with a woman with dark hair, glasses, and a red shirt. Panel 1, robot (seen from behind): "Hey human, how come you guys never measured a soul?" Panel 2, woman: "What? Like what it weighs? We tried that. They don't exist." Panel 3, robot: "Are you stupid? Landauer's principle says 10^21 joules to erase a bit at a minimum." Panel 4, robot: "I have a yoctobyte of bits operating in my head. When you factory-reset me, there's a measurable amount of energy lost from my system." Panel 5, woman: "'Soul' doesn't refer to the weight of a pattern of bits. It's the idea of an ineffable and permanent self." Panel 6, the robot sits alone with a small lightning-bolt/confusion mark above its head: "This is like the time I asked you about leprechauns isn't it?" The joke is the robot conflating a measurable information-energy footprint with the metaphysical concept of a soul, then realizing it has misunderstood. Votey (bonus panel): a loose, sketchy black-line drawing of a distressed, pleading human face with raised pained eyebrows and a downturned mouth, shouting in a speech bubble: "They're real, damn you!" -- the human insisting leprechauns are real.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.