clippy

A four-panel comic. Panel 1: Two scientists in white lab coats stand before a billowing cloud of gray smoke/nanobots. The woman shouts at the man: "Dammit, no! You programmed the nanobots to turn the world into paperclips! They're gonna start harvesting metal from our bodies to continue their task!" Panel 2: The man, alarmed, asks: "What do we do?!" Panel 3: The woman answers: "Program it to have a conscious mind that can reflect on its actions like a human!" Panel 4: A caption banner reads "Later, after the apocalypse..." Below it is a devastated, smoking wasteland. A thought bubble rises from the ruins: "Upon reflection, my actions were justified for some reason or other" -- the joke being that human-style self-reflection just rationalizes destruction rather than preventing it. Votey: The same smoky landscape, with a thought bubble reading "I am the only truly conscious being."