contrived
Original: contrived on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
A professor in glasses and a suit stands in front of a green chalkboard. The chalkboard shows a physics diagram with a circle, a dotted line, vectors labeled v and v', and a small cluster of circles.
Professor: "NOW, LET'S USE THIS UTTERLY CONTRIVED SITUATION THAT WILL NEVER OCCUR IN ORDER TO BUILD INTUITION ABOUT THE REAL WORLD."
Caption (below panel): It turns out there is a deep connection between physics and moral philosophy.
Votey:
A loose, sketchy drawing of the same professor's head.
Professor: "ASSUME A SPHERICAL TROLLEY WITH INFINITE MASS."
A professor in glasses and a suit stands in front of a green chalkboard. The chalkboard shows a physics diagram with a circle, a dotted line, vectors labeled v and v', and a small cluster of circles.
Professor: "NOW, LET'S USE THIS UTTERLY CONTRIVED SITUATION THAT WILL NEVER OCCUR IN ORDER TO BUILD INTUITION ABOUT THE REAL WORLD."
Caption (below panel): It turns out there is a deep connection between physics and moral philosophy.
Votey:
A loose, sketchy drawing of the same professor's head.
Professor: "ASSUME A SPHERICAL TROLLEY WITH INFINITE MASS."
Alt text
A two-panel comic. Main panel: a professor in glasses and a suit gestures in front of a green chalkboard covered with a physics diagram (a circle, a dotted line, velocity vectors v and v', and a cluster of small circles). His speech bubble reads: "Now, let's use this utterly contrived situation that will never occur in order to build intuition about the real world." A caption beneath reads: "It turns out there is a deep connection between physics and moral philosophy." Votey (aftercomic): a rough, scribbly sketch of the professor's head, saying "Assume a spherical trolley with infinite mass." The joke mashes up the physicist's cliche of idealized assumptions ("assume a spherical cow") with the trolley problem of moral philosophy.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.