Consilience
Original: Consilience on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A speaker stands at a podium addressing an audience.
Speaker (at podium): "Brothers and sisters, I am a physicist, but I believe we must no longer be divided between the humanities and the sciences!"
Panel 2: Close-up on an audience member with curly hair and an angry expression.
Audience member: "We must be united as the people who hate chemists."
Panel 3: A skeptical audience member objects.
Audience member: "Hey! Chemistry is a science! It makes accurate predictions!"
Panel 4: The speaker at the podium responds.
Speaker: "Then how come all of you are missing at least an eye, finger, or massive patch of forearm skin?"
Panel 5: The angry curly-haired audience member looks on; the speaker is small at the podium in the background.
Panel 6: A mob of damaged-looking people — wearing safety goggles, missing limbs, sporting a hook hand, robotic/prosthetic arms, and dark glasses — rises up in rage.
A mob member: "Get him!"
Another mob member: "Rarrrrgghhh! Urgghghhhh!"
Panel 7: The speaker pleads.
Speaker: "Humanities, pals! Leap to my aid!"
Panel 8: Three humanities people stand by, unmoved.
Humanities person: "Sorry, we're infighting."
Another humanities person: "One side thinks our discipline shouldn't exist and one side thinks it doesn't exist."
Panel 9 (final, silhouette): The speaker, in shadow at the podium, accepts his fate as the mob (one raising a hook hand) closes in.
Speaker: "Okay, fine, murder me, chemists."
A chemist: "The limiting reagent is RAAAAAAGE!"
Votey:
Text (caption, no image): "The humorous nature of this comic should not be taken as justifying the existence of chemists."
Speaker (at podium): "Brothers and sisters, I am a physicist, but I believe we must no longer be divided between the humanities and the sciences!"
Panel 2: Close-up on an audience member with curly hair and an angry expression.
Audience member: "We must be united as the people who hate chemists."
Panel 3: A skeptical audience member objects.
Audience member: "Hey! Chemistry is a science! It makes accurate predictions!"
Panel 4: The speaker at the podium responds.
Speaker: "Then how come all of you are missing at least an eye, finger, or massive patch of forearm skin?"
Panel 5: The angry curly-haired audience member looks on; the speaker is small at the podium in the background.
Panel 6: A mob of damaged-looking people — wearing safety goggles, missing limbs, sporting a hook hand, robotic/prosthetic arms, and dark glasses — rises up in rage.
A mob member: "Get him!"
Another mob member: "Rarrrrgghhh! Urgghghhhh!"
Panel 7: The speaker pleads.
Speaker: "Humanities, pals! Leap to my aid!"
Panel 8: Three humanities people stand by, unmoved.
Humanities person: "Sorry, we're infighting."
Another humanities person: "One side thinks our discipline shouldn't exist and one side thinks it doesn't exist."
Panel 9 (final, silhouette): The speaker, in shadow at the podium, accepts his fate as the mob (one raising a hook hand) closes in.
Speaker: "Okay, fine, murder me, chemists."
A chemist: "The limiting reagent is RAAAAAAGE!"
Votey:
Text (caption, no image): "The humorous nature of this comic should not be taken as justifying the existence of chemists."
Alt text
A nine-panel SMBC comic. A physicist stands at a podium telling an audience, "Brothers and sisters, I am a physicist, but I believe we must no longer be divided between the humanities and the sciences! We must be united as the people who hate chemists." An audience member protests, "Hey! Chemistry is a science! It makes accurate predictions!" The physicist replies, "Then how come all of you are missing at least an eye, finger, or massive patch of forearm skin?" The audience — visibly maimed, wearing safety goggles, a hook hand, prosthetic arms, and dark glasses — turns into an enraged mob shouting "Get him!" The physicist begs the humanities to save him, but three of them stand idly by: "Sorry, we're infighting. One side thinks our discipline shouldn't exist and one side thinks it doesn't exist." In the final shadowy panel the physicist resigns himself — "Okay, fine, murder me, chemists" — as a chemist cries, "The limiting reagent is RAAAAAAGE!" The votey is a text-only caption in a hand-drawn box: "The humorous nature of this comic should not be taken as justifying the existence of chemists."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.