back-2
Original: back-2 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Man in a suit: Celine, you're back.
Panel 2:
Man: I had to come back... once I realized you were a hero.
Panel 3:
A red-haired woman (Celine) listens.
Man (off-panel): Back when you used to play Call of Duty for 6 hours a day, even after our kids were born, even after you lost your job over it, I thought you were a bastard.
Panel 4:
Man: You seemed to contribute nothing. But what I couldn't see then, but do see now, is that you were part of a movement.
Panel 5:
Man: A movement of gamers to demand ever faster parallel processing abilities, willing to pay any price for graphics cards, no matter how artificially inflated.
Panel 6:
Man: And that parallelism is what was needed to develop advanced neural networks, which lead to the modern world of AI, where labor is abolished and life is joy and where everything is perfect.
Panel 7:
Man: And all I can hope... is that you'll take me back.
Panel 8:
Reveal: Celine is an adult sitting in an armchair wearing a VR/gaming headset, slumped and holding a controller, dressed in a soiled/messy state.
Celine (through the headset): I forgive you.
Votey:
A close-up of Celine's face, still wearing the headset.
Celine: Leave on the cargo shorts.
Man in a suit: Celine, you're back.
Panel 2:
Man: I had to come back... once I realized you were a hero.
Panel 3:
A red-haired woman (Celine) listens.
Man (off-panel): Back when you used to play Call of Duty for 6 hours a day, even after our kids were born, even after you lost your job over it, I thought you were a bastard.
Panel 4:
Man: You seemed to contribute nothing. But what I couldn't see then, but do see now, is that you were part of a movement.
Panel 5:
Man: A movement of gamers to demand ever faster parallel processing abilities, willing to pay any price for graphics cards, no matter how artificially inflated.
Panel 6:
Man: And that parallelism is what was needed to develop advanced neural networks, which lead to the modern world of AI, where labor is abolished and life is joy and where everything is perfect.
Panel 7:
Man: And all I can hope... is that you'll take me back.
Panel 8:
Reveal: Celine is an adult sitting in an armchair wearing a VR/gaming headset, slumped and holding a controller, dressed in a soiled/messy state.
Celine (through the headset): I forgive you.
Votey:
A close-up of Celine's face, still wearing the headset.
Celine: Leave on the cargo shorts.
Alt text
An eight-panel SMBC comic. A man in a suit tenderly addresses Celine, a red-haired woman, telling her he had to come back once he realized she was a hero. He recounts that back when she used to play Call of Duty for six hours a day, even after their kids were born and even after she lost her job over it, he thought she was a bastard who contributed nothing. But now he sees she was part of a movement of gamers demanding ever-faster parallel processing and willing to pay any price for inflated graphics cards, and that this parallelism is what enabled the advanced neural networks behind a perfect modern world of AI where labor is abolished and life is joy. He hopes she'll take him back. The final panel pulls back to reveal Celine is actually slumped in an armchair wearing a bulky gaming/VR headset, holding a controller, looking disheveled, mumbling I forgive you. Votey: a close-up of her headset-wearing face saying, Leave on the cargo shorts.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.