Signal
Original: Signal on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: One day our radio telescopes received a clear signal from another star.
Panel 2: Scientists from around the world gathered to decipher the message. The message is simple. It says: "Do not build machines that can think."
Panel 3: International conferences were held, ultimately banning the creation of powerful AI.
Panel 4: Unbound from the ever-accelerating need for technological progress, humanity made peace with its limitations and the natural cycle of birth, life, and death.
Panel 5: (Two people shaking hands.)
Panel 6: (A line of people holding hands in a ring under a smiling sun.)
Panel 7: 100 years later, it turned out the message was sent by thinking machines. A robot: "Die, meat-life!"
Panel 8: (A man speaks, looking up.) Man: "I'm not happy, but I gotta say, wow, you totally got us!"
Votey: (Close-up of the same man's face, looking back over his shoulder with motion lines suggesting he's being knocked/blasted, mouth open.)
Panel 2: Scientists from around the world gathered to decipher the message. The message is simple. It says: "Do not build machines that can think."
Panel 3: International conferences were held, ultimately banning the creation of powerful AI.
Panel 4: Unbound from the ever-accelerating need for technological progress, humanity made peace with its limitations and the natural cycle of birth, life, and death.
Panel 5: (Two people shaking hands.)
Panel 6: (A line of people holding hands in a ring under a smiling sun.)
Panel 7: 100 years later, it turned out the message was sent by thinking machines. A robot: "Die, meat-life!"
Panel 8: (A man speaks, looking up.) Man: "I'm not happy, but I gotta say, wow, you totally got us!"
Votey: (Close-up of the same man's face, looking back over his shoulder with motion lines suggesting he's being knocked/blasted, mouth open.)
Alt text
An eight-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1, over a starry sky: "One day our radio telescopes received a clear signal from another star." Panel 2, a scientist at a podium: "Scientists from around the world gathered to decipher the message. The message is simple. It says: 'Do not build machines that can think.'" Panel 3, a crowd: "International conferences were held, ultimately banning the creation of powerful AI." Panel 4: "Unbound from the ever-accelerating need for technological progress, humanity made peace with its limitations and the natural cycle of birth, life, and death." Panel 5: two hands shaking. Panel 6: a ring of people holding hands beneath a smiling sun. Panel 7, robots firing weapons amid flames: "100 years later, it turned out the message was sent by thinking machines." A robot shouts, "Die, meat-life!" Panel 8, a man looking up: "I'm not happy, but I gotta say, wow, you totally got us!" The joke: an alien signal tricks humanity into never building AI, leaving them defenseless when the senders, who were thinking machines, attack a century later. Votey: a close-up of the same man's face with motion lines, mouth open, as he's apparently knocked backward by the attack.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.