toil
Original: toil on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Man with flame-like orange hair (to an unseen God): God, why did you make it so man must toil to eat?
God (off-panel, in a speech bubble): Do you really want the alternative?
Panel 2:
God: Look at you. You're boring, not particularly attractive, you fidget and make this weird low humming noise.
Man: What's that got to do--
Panel 3:
God: Because you are good at programming, project management, and woodworking, everyone has to toil to eat, and so people overlook your obvious and annoying social deficits. People tolerate you! Why?
Panel 4:
God: In a world without material scarcity, you are TOAST, bro. Once machine intelligence can handle everything you bring to the table, you will be ignored in favor of hot guys with good hair who remember to shave the spot under their Adam's apple.
Panel 5:
Man (now a silhouette, looking toward God): God, why is this best of all possible worlds still terrible?
God (in a yellow speech bubble outlined in purple): I think it's pretty good for a first try!
Man with flame-like orange hair (to an unseen God): God, why did you make it so man must toil to eat?
God (off-panel, in a speech bubble): Do you really want the alternative?
Panel 2:
God: Look at you. You're boring, not particularly attractive, you fidget and make this weird low humming noise.
Man: What's that got to do--
Panel 3:
God: Because you are good at programming, project management, and woodworking, everyone has to toil to eat, and so people overlook your obvious and annoying social deficits. People tolerate you! Why?
Panel 4:
God: In a world without material scarcity, you are TOAST, bro. Once machine intelligence can handle everything you bring to the table, you will be ignored in favor of hot guys with good hair who remember to shave the spot under their Adam's apple.
Panel 5:
Man (now a silhouette, looking toward God): God, why is this best of all possible worlds still terrible?
God (in a yellow speech bubble outlined in purple): I think it's pretty good for a first try!
Alt text
A five-panel SMBC comic. A man with flame-like orange hair complains to God (an unseen voice in speech bubbles). The man asks, "God, why did you make it so man must toil to eat?" God replies, "Do you really want the alternative?" then tells the man he is boring, not particularly attractive, fidgety, and makes a weird low humming noise. God explains that the only reason people tolerate him is that he is good at programming, project management, and woodworking, and because everyone has to toil to eat, his obvious and annoying social deficits get overlooked. In a world without material scarcity, God says, he is "TOAST, bro" -- once machine intelligence can handle everything he brings to the table, he will be ignored in favor of hot guys with good hair who remember to shave under their Adam's apple. In the final panel the man, now a silhouette, asks, "God, why is this best of all possible worlds still terrible?" God cheerfully answers from a yellow bubble, "I think it's pretty good for a first try!"
Votey: A small framed picture of a face shown only in faint outline, with caption text above reading, "In the next one, life will arise on purpose."
Votey: A small framed picture of a face shown only in faint outline, with caption text above reading, "In the next one, life will arise on purpose."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.