Editing 1545: Strengths and Weaknesses
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | [[Cueball]] is in a job interview and is being asked | + | {{incomplete|May need some more detail on the likelihood of becoming the ancestor of all living humans. Explain the title text.}} |
+ | Here [[Cueball]] is in a job interview and is being asked prototypical job interview questions by [[Ponytail]], "What is your greatest weakness?", "What is your greatest strength?" and "Where do you see yourself in five years?" | ||
− | In a roundabout way, Cueball answers that he is a living organism, and | + | In a roundabout way, Cueball answers that he is a living organism, and and such he has inherent flaws which could cause him to die. This is a reference the fact that biological system are "messy" and are not always optimal in design or operation. For example cancer is a disease where the cellular machinery that governs cell replications breaks down and prolific cell division happens, endangering the organism (tumors). While this is true weakness it is also a weakness of all humans and is not likely to help the interview determine if the candidate is right for the job. |
− | For the second question | + | For the second question the character answers that he is likely to be the ancestors to all living humans. As time progresses a human alive today is likely to have three conditions related to the future populations: |
+ | :1) They have no descendants (They did not reproduce or all their descendants eventually did not reproduce.) | ||
+ | :2) They have some descendants (The likely outcome) | ||
+ | :3) All people alive are their descendant (Very unlikely) | ||
− | + | As you go farther and farther into the future the ratio of people alive will either go to 0% or 100% of the descendants of the character. The last time humans had an {{w|Identical_ancestors_point|identical common ancestor (ICA)}} was around 15,000 years ago. Assuming there will still be humans 15,000 years from now, it is highly unlikely that someone living today will be their ICA, as the gene pool will probably scatter into isolated sets via space travel, preventing that from happening again. While this could be considered his greatest personal strength in the bigger picture of the life cycle of the universe, this answer likely does not help the interviewer determine whether he is suitable for the role. | |
− | + | For Cueball to be the ancestor to all living humans within 5 years means that all the humans who are not his children (or grandchildren), must have died in a near total extinction of the human race. Given that Cueball is not his own ancestor, he too must have died. His apparent optimism about the possibility of this occurring is therefore somewhat confusing. | |
− | The | + | The overarching joke is that Cueball assumes that the interviewer is assessing his fitness as an organism from a genetic perspective rather than his fitness for performing a particular job. The biggest limitation on fitness is survival time and mortality. |
− | + | The title text takes this further, equating producing offspring during an interview (which would be awkward for all involved) with something that may actually help assess a candidate's efficacy as an employee, namely writing out a sorting algorithm on the spot (see [[1185:Ineffective Sorts]], especially the bottom left panel). | |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
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