Addition
Original: Addition on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1 (caption above panel): IMMANUEL KANT WAS RIGHT! WE CAN KNOW SYNTHETIC A PRIORI THINGS WITHOUT REFERENCE TO EXPERIENCE!
A woman with light hair stands at left. A woman with dark hair and glasses stands at right, gesturing.
Light-haired woman: ABSOLUTELY.
Dark-haired woman: ONE PLUS ONE EQUALS ONE!
Panel 2:
Light-haired woman: WHAT?
Dark-haired woman: YOU HAVE ONE. YOU GLOM ON ANOTHER ONE. NOW YOU REALLY HAVE ONE.
Panel 3:
Dark-haired woman: WE KNOW THIS FROM PURE REASON, AND THEN WE GO OUT INTO THE WORLD AND FIND THAT IF YOU HAVE ONE DROP OF WATER AND COMBINE IT WITH ANOTHER DROP OF WATER, YOU GET ONE DROP OF WATER.
Panel 4:
The light-haired woman looks skeptical; the dark-haired woman with glasses leans in intently.
Panel 5:
Light-haired woman: I KNOW YOU'RE WRONG, BUT I HAVE TO THINK ABOUT WHY YOU'RE WRONG.
Panel 6:
The two women stand together as tiny silhouettes on top of a hill against a night sky.
Light-haired woman: HOW IS MATH SO UNREASONABLY EFFECTIVE AT DESCRIBING REALITY?!
Votey:
A list of phrases paired with hand-drawn triangle diagrams, illustrating triangle arithmetic:
- "ONE TRIANGLE" next to a single triangle.
- "TRIANGLE PLUS" with a small plus sign.
- "PLUS" with a small dot/plus mark.
- "TWO TRIANGLES" next to two triangles.
- "EQUALS" with a small mark.
- "FIVE TRIANGLES" next to a large triangle subdivided internally into smaller triangles (one triangle drawn so it contains several smaller triangles, totaling five).
A woman with light hair stands at left. A woman with dark hair and glasses stands at right, gesturing.
Light-haired woman: ABSOLUTELY.
Dark-haired woman: ONE PLUS ONE EQUALS ONE!
Panel 2:
Light-haired woman: WHAT?
Dark-haired woman: YOU HAVE ONE. YOU GLOM ON ANOTHER ONE. NOW YOU REALLY HAVE ONE.
Panel 3:
Dark-haired woman: WE KNOW THIS FROM PURE REASON, AND THEN WE GO OUT INTO THE WORLD AND FIND THAT IF YOU HAVE ONE DROP OF WATER AND COMBINE IT WITH ANOTHER DROP OF WATER, YOU GET ONE DROP OF WATER.
Panel 4:
The light-haired woman looks skeptical; the dark-haired woman with glasses leans in intently.
Panel 5:
Light-haired woman: I KNOW YOU'RE WRONG, BUT I HAVE TO THINK ABOUT WHY YOU'RE WRONG.
Panel 6:
The two women stand together as tiny silhouettes on top of a hill against a night sky.
Light-haired woman: HOW IS MATH SO UNREASONABLY EFFECTIVE AT DESCRIBING REALITY?!
Votey:
A list of phrases paired with hand-drawn triangle diagrams, illustrating triangle arithmetic:
- "ONE TRIANGLE" next to a single triangle.
- "TRIANGLE PLUS" with a small plus sign.
- "PLUS" with a small dot/plus mark.
- "TWO TRIANGLES" next to two triangles.
- "EQUALS" with a small mark.
- "FIVE TRIANGLES" next to a large triangle subdivided internally into smaller triangles (one triangle drawn so it contains several smaller triangles, totaling five).
Alt text
A six-panel SMBC comic. A caption over the first panel reads 'Immanuel Kant was right! We can know synthetic a priori things without reference to experience!' A light-haired woman replies 'Absolutely.' A dark-haired woman in glasses declares 'One plus one equals one!' Asked 'What?', she explains: 'You have one. You glom on another one. Now you really have one.' She continues, 'We know this from pure reason, and then we go out into the world and find that if you have one drop of water and combine it with another drop of water, you get one drop of water.' The light-haired woman, skeptical, says 'I know you're wrong, but I have to think about why you're wrong.' In the final panel the two stand as tiny silhouettes atop a hill under a night sky as she asks, 'How is math so unreasonably effective at describing reality?!' The joke: water droplets merging really do make '1+1=1,' inverting the usual 'math describes reality' marvel. Votey: a hand-drawn list pairing phrases with triangle diagrams: 'one triangle' beside a single triangle, 'triangle plus,' 'plus,' 'two triangles' beside two triangles, 'equals,' and 'five triangles' beside one large triangle subdivided internally into five smaller triangles, joking that one big triangle plus two equals five when you count the sub-triangles.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.