Experiencing
Original: Experiencing on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Woman (with dark curly hair, standing on the right): Would you ever get in an "experience machine" where you experience only simulated happiness?
Man (with light hair, standing on the left): Obviously.
Panel 2:
Woman: Imagine this: someone asks if you'd get in the experience machine. You say no, then they say "HA! Got you. THIS is the experience machine, and real reality is way worse."
Panel 3:
Woman: So you decide to switch to reality and it's awful. But then someone tells you "HA! Got you again. THIS reality is also the experience machine, and real reality is even worse!"
Panel 4:
Woman: You do this over and over until around "reality" number 3,982 you decide nevermind, I don't want to go any lower.
Panel 5:
Woman (now gesturing with arms spread): Now, tell me, how is there anything good or noble about going back to level 3,982 rather than 3,981?
Panel 6 (bottom caption box):
Man: Boy, the examined life sure sucks.
Votey:
Caption (bottom of main comic, pink box): It's the deepest secret in philosophy.
Votey panel: A close-up of a figure (Zach's bearded, round-faced character wearing glasses) with a speech bubble.
Figure: The only moral dimension is 1337.
Woman (with dark curly hair, standing on the right): Would you ever get in an "experience machine" where you experience only simulated happiness?
Man (with light hair, standing on the left): Obviously.
Panel 2:
Woman: Imagine this: someone asks if you'd get in the experience machine. You say no, then they say "HA! Got you. THIS is the experience machine, and real reality is way worse."
Panel 3:
Woman: So you decide to switch to reality and it's awful. But then someone tells you "HA! Got you again. THIS reality is also the experience machine, and real reality is even worse!"
Panel 4:
Woman: You do this over and over until around "reality" number 3,982 you decide nevermind, I don't want to go any lower.
Panel 5:
Woman (now gesturing with arms spread): Now, tell me, how is there anything good or noble about going back to level 3,982 rather than 3,981?
Panel 6 (bottom caption box):
Man: Boy, the examined life sure sucks.
Votey:
Caption (bottom of main comic, pink box): It's the deepest secret in philosophy.
Votey panel: A close-up of a figure (Zach's bearded, round-faced character wearing glasses) with a speech bubble.
Figure: The only moral dimension is 1337.
Alt text
A six-panel SMBC comic. A woman with dark curly hair asks a light-haired man, "Would you ever get in an 'experience machine' where you experience only simulated happiness?" He replies, "Obviously." She then walks him through an escalating thought experiment: imagine someone tricks you into thinking real reality is worse than the machine, so you switch out; but then that 'reality' is revealed to be another machine, and another, over and over until around 'reality' number 3,982 you give up and refuse to go lower. She spreads her arms and asks how there is anything good or noble about going back to level 3,982 rather than 3,981. In the final caption the man flatly responds, "Boy, the examined life sure sucks." A pink caption reads, "It's the deepest secret in philosophy." In the votey aftercomic, a close-up of a bearded, bespectacled character declares in a speech bubble, "The only moral dimension is 1337" — a leetspeak pun on the escalating reality numbers.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.