Soul
Original: Soul on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Bald man with a beard (yellow shirt): I'm a substance dualist because it's just not plausible that brute matter could give rise to mental states.
Woman with dark teal hair and round glasses (dark red sweater): Absolutely.
Panel 2:
Woman: That's why we should believe in the much simpler idea that *sharp intake of breath*
Panel 3 (close-up of the woman's open mouth):
Woman: Consciousness arises from physically undetectable, yet also indestructible, mind-stuff, which wasn't present until humanity reached its current evolutionary phenotype, and which, despite not interacting with the body, both determines and is affected by its actions and is also perpetually localized to each individual person until they die at which point it goes to a non-localized location that also can't be detected.
Panel 4 (the two walking on a path through the woods):
Bald man: I can't tell if you're entirely serious.
Woman: One moment... catch breath... then... talk animal consciousness.
Votey:
Woman (close-up, sketchy line-art style): Personally, I'm a substance 171st.
Bald man with a beard (yellow shirt): I'm a substance dualist because it's just not plausible that brute matter could give rise to mental states.
Woman with dark teal hair and round glasses (dark red sweater): Absolutely.
Panel 2:
Woman: That's why we should believe in the much simpler idea that *sharp intake of breath*
Panel 3 (close-up of the woman's open mouth):
Woman: Consciousness arises from physically undetectable, yet also indestructible, mind-stuff, which wasn't present until humanity reached its current evolutionary phenotype, and which, despite not interacting with the body, both determines and is affected by its actions and is also perpetually localized to each individual person until they die at which point it goes to a non-localized location that also can't be detected.
Panel 4 (the two walking on a path through the woods):
Bald man: I can't tell if you're entirely serious.
Woman: One moment... catch breath... then... talk animal consciousness.
Votey:
Woman (close-up, sketchy line-art style): Personally, I'm a substance 171st.
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1: A bald bearded man in a yellow shirt walks through the woods with a woman who has dark teal hair and round glasses. He says, "I'm a substance dualist because it's just not plausible that brute matter could give rise to mental states." She replies, "Absolutely." Panel 2: Close-up of the woman saying, "That's why we should believe in the much simpler idea that *sharp intake of breath*." Panel 3: Extreme close-up of her wide-open mouth as she delivers an enormous run-on sentence in a single breath: consciousness arises from physically undetectable yet indestructible mind-stuff that didn't exist until humanity evolved, doesn't interact with the body yet both determines and is affected by it, stays localized to each person until death, then goes somewhere non-localized that also can't be detected. Panel 4: The two walk down a path; he says, "I can't tell if you're entirely serious," and she gasps, "One moment... catch breath... then... talk animal consciousness." The joke: she claims dualism is the "much simpler" idea while describing something absurdly convoluted. Votey: A rough sketch-style close-up of the woman saying, "Personally, I'm a substance 171st" — a pun escalating "dualist" (two) to an absurdly high number.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.