Calculating

An eight-panel SMBC comic. A woman with reddish-brown hair confronts an unseen voice (shown via speech bubbles) that turns out to be a simulator running her universe. She asks, "God, what are we calculating for you?" The voice replies, "Huh?" She presses: "Don't play coy. Nobody builds a universe this complex without trying to answer some question." Across following panels the woman sits in a small simulated room while the voice explains: "You're an agent-based model of the economy... well, a proof of concept for one. We're hoping to get funding to do a full size one. Well a medium size one. But maybe later full size." She asks what scenario is being tested; the voice answers, "Sexually reproducing species who lack telepathy but can use money." In the final panel she stands in silhouette against pure black and asks, "Why?" The voice replies, "If we can get the funders to laugh we are in." The joke: their entire universe exists as a grant-pitch demo meant to amuse funding reviewers. Votey (aftercomic): a hand-drawn wavy-bordered panel with a small startled face below the text, captioned "SHIT. FUCKIN REVIEWER #2." — implying a dreaded grant reviewer is about to weigh in.