explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1350: Lorenz

2014-04-03T16:50:47Z

108.162.242.111: The relativity thing comes from there.

{{comic
| number = 1350
| date = April 1, 2014
| title = Lorenz
| image = 1350_lorenz_loop.png
| titletext = Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story
}}

{{incomplete|Should the image not just be the first frame wit four of the most common options. This image now gives way too much credit to the politican line of the story - which is less than a fifth of the total... Also all possible dialogues are not yet accounted for (and may never be?)}}

==Images==
For the images that appear in this comic, see [[1350: Lorenz/Images]].

==Explanation==
This is a dynamic comic with crowd-sourced content. In honor of {{w|April Fools' Day}} the comic was posted a day early, on Tuesday instead of the usual Wednesday.

The title 'Lorenz' is referring to {{w|Edward Norton Lorenz}} who among other subjects was famous for {{w|Chaos theory}}. The title is a reference to that the story line of today's comic will include most (all?) of the user submitted dialogue and hence will in nature be chaotic. In addition, the title text, "Every choice, no matter how small", is a reference to the butterfly effect, a phrase coined by Edward Lorenz to describe how a small initial change can lead to wide variations in outcome in a chaotic system.

This comic is an example of a {{w|Choose Your Own Adventure}} story.

===Functionality and bugs===
The reader is initially presented with only one panel where Knit Cap Guy is sitting in front of his computer. The reader is given multiple choices concerning what exactly Knit Cap Guy is thinking. Upon choosing any option, a second panel appears, to give continuity to the story. Each new panel may have a new set of options or just the button "Continue" to see the next panel without making any choice in particular. Eventually, one may reach a dead end in which the story is interrupted and reader is presented with a text box to suggest how it should continue. Some of the suggestions given should eventually become available as new options.

It appears that new panels may be generated by Randall in near real time as user suggestions to dialog is submitted. The dialogue options are likely based on click-through rates and hence will change over day based on which choices are clicked most using {{w|A/B_testing|A/B measurement techniques..}} This will mean that the most popular choices for dialogue line will prevail as the statistics build up. In some cases, dialogue line options do not depend on the continuity of the storyline followed, suggesting that some parts of the story are planned. For example, do several of the storylines involve one of the two main characters waking up and for instance telling the other character, “I had the strangest dream…” or even reliving the dream again. This may be due to common submissions across storylines as well.

Normally, there is a total of 4 options to make: a/b/c/d. Their order changes constantly. Sometimes, there are 3 or fewer options, with the text box to suggest an alternative option. Sometimes, a given panel actually has 5 or more available options, although even in this case only 4 options appear at a time. Refreshing the comic changes randomly which of the available options are visible and which are hidden. As of April 2nd 2014, the existence of 5 or more options seems to occur only in a few rare cases, including the first panel itself.

The last panel always has a "permalink" option which generates a unique URL for all the choices made by the reader -- so for example http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:26c8dcea-b9aa-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd will take you to a particular place in the selected choices.

{{w|HTTP cookie|Cookies}} are required to see this page properly. Without cookies, the next panel will not render.

If you do not have {{w|Javascript}} enabled or visiting the mobile version of the site, you re shown the [[1349|previous page's comic]]. Said comic is visible before Javascript activates.

====Buttons====
Instead of clicking with the mouse you can move more quickly through the panels using the keyboard:
* Up/Down - navigate options
* Enter/Right - choose option after navigating with Up/Down
* Left - go back one panel
* a/b/c/d - choose any option directly

====Bugs====
There seems to be a bug, where <nowiki>xkcd.com</nowiki> (http and https) are the only functioning URLs that display this comic. The URLs <nowiki>www.xkcd.org</nowiki> and <nowiki>m.xkcd.com</nowiki>, don't seem to work, instead displaying the previous comic, [[1349: Shouldn%27t Be Hard]]

As of April 3rd 2014, sometimes an option seemed to disappear completely, cutting off the all the branches of the story it might lead to. When the comic was first published, "Refresh... No new email... Refresh .. No new tweets... Refresh..." was available as one option of the first panel, but not only it became unavailable temporarily, permalinks to it (http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6479d184-b9a0-11e3-b947-94de80a03a39) ceased to work. This option has since been fixed. However, permalinks to "These stupid tiles... i'll just play one more game." (with a lowercase "i'll") are broken, too, at the moment. ([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffdd8916-b9a7-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd permalink])

===Themes===

====Miscellaneous====
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name + Example image
! Description
|-
! Arguing [[image:lorenz - discuss.png]]
| The two characters argue with each other
|-
! Boomerang [[image:lorenz - boomerang 1.png]]
| The lone character finds a boomerang on the ground and throws it. The story ends with the boomerang crashing into something off panel, the space rocket from another story branch getting hit, the character getting hit in the face with the boomerang rebound, or the character putting the boomerang down on the ground.
|-
! Computer problems [[Image:lorenz - laptop 1.png]]
| The laptop has an unspecified problem. The two characters attempt to fix it. The story either ends with the two randomly floating in the ocean (with or without circling sharks) or with the laptop being melted using a blowtorch (a reference to the previous day's strip, [[1349]]).
|-
! Debate [[File:lorenz - debate 1.png]]
| Knit Cap Guy uses his laptop to watch a debate online between the Politician 1 (on the left) and the Politician 2 ([[Cueball]], on the right), the subject and the actual conversation of which varies according to the storyline. Eventually, they fight each other, the Politician 2 using a lightsaber and the Politician 1 using his bare fists. Subjects debated:
* Politician 1 questions Politician 2's project of tying multiple birds to a car as fuel replacement, which would require some method to make the birds take off in unison. The solutions mentioned are opening and closing an umbrella near them, using a predatory bird to the car to scare them, putting resources in the hands of bird educators for the purpose of training them and employing fiscal hawks. If the Politician 1 points out some problem with the reasoning, often the solution proposed by the Politician 2 would be doing the same in a larger scale. In the end, Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy and points out something happening near involving birds as a direct result of Politician 2's project.
|-
! Dinosaur interruption [[image:lorenz - dinosaur 1.png]]
| A green T-rex interrupts the story and proceeds to stamp on the house the main characters are in. (These are frames borrowed from {{w|Dinosaur Comics}}, a clip-art-based webcomic that uses the same artwork with different captions for every strip.)
|-
! Dreams [[File:lorenz - wake up 1.png]]
| Sometimes, Knit Cap Guy or Hairy find themselves waking from a dream, suggesting that all prior events were just part of they dreaming. Often, in the storylines they fall in the big hole outside Knit Cap Guy's house, they wake up from a dream. Knit Cap Guy also wakes up after watching the debate, in some storylines. Often, the dream loops upon itself, as the characters wake up multiple times in the same storyline
|-
! Space planet [[image:lorenz - rocket 21.png]]
| Eventually the space rocket meets a guy on a very tiny planet. (The Little Prince)
|-
! Space rocket [[Image:lorenz - rocket 1.png]]
| There is a rocket on the ground just outside of the building. The rocket either explodes (with a screenshot from Kerbal Space Program), fails to launch or goes off into space.
|-
! Relativistic encounter [[Image:lorenz - rocket 16.png]]
| The space rocket meets another space rocket that asks a question about relativity, the same one that appeared in [[Choices: Part 2]]. The other space rocket will shoot and destroy the main rocket if the question isn't answered satisfactory. Otherwise the two rockets fly past each other.
|-
! Salesman [[image:lorenz - sale 1.png]]
| Hairy meets [[White Hat]], a salesman with a small stand.
|-
! Thinking [[image:lorenz - thinking.png]]
| One of the characters take a panel or two to think about something.
|}

====Geography====
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name + Example image
! Description
|-
! Hole in the ground [[Image:lorenz - gap.png]]
| Hairy spots a hole in the ground and leans over it to make a comment
|-
! Huge hole on the lawn [[image:lorenz - hole.png]]
| There is a huge hole in the ground just outside of the building. The two characters always end up falling into it and awakening from a dream.
|-
! Tree [[image:lorenz - tree.png]]
| The characters walk past a tree.
|}

====Literature====
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name + Example image
! Description
|-
! LORT
|
|-
! The Little Prince
| Eventually, if the rocket is not destroyed, it may pass by the asteroid of The Little Prince and they have a quick conversation.
|}

====Movies====
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name + Example image
! Description
|-
! Frozen
| In one storyline, Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy and asks him "Wanna build a snowman?", a line from the movie. Possible answers also come from the movie, such as "It doesn't have to be a snowman..."
|-
! Matrix
| In one storyline, Hairy remarks that the gap in the ground is like a glitch in the matrix.
|}

====Video games====
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name + Example image
! Description
|-
! 2048
| A number of storylines begin because Knit Cap Guy is playing {{w|2048}} on his computer. Often, Hairy invites him to go outside to do something related to the game, such as hunting for tiles somewhere.
|-
! Mario
| In the dialogue, Hairy asks Knit Cap Guy "Is this 1-1 from Mario?" upon seeing the gap in the ground. In the platform game {{w|Super Mario Bros.}} for {{w|NES}}, the levels are numbered 1-1, 1-2 and so on. In one branch, he says "Actually, it's the final castle. Grab your Fire Flower!"
|-
! Pokémon [[File:lorenz - pikachu theft.png]]
| Some of the storylines involve Pokémon battles featuring Pikachu, a very popular Pokémon. The battles are drawn in the style of the video games. (A trainer in the left-bottom corner facing the foe in the right-top corner, with a narration box below the scene and the trainer's Pokéballs visible, although some elements are missing, such as the level, gender and HP bar.)

Pikachu uses a number of different moves, though these are mostly made up and are not from the Pokémon games. Pikachu's moves are almost invariably remarked by the narrator as "It's not very effective...", but "It's super effective!" is also possible to appear. In the video games, a move is "not very effective" when the opponent's type resists the attacking move's type and "super effective" when the opponent's type is weak to the attacking move's type. Normally after a few failed attempts, there is an uncomfortable silence as the Pikachu says "Um..." and Knit Cap Guy and Hairy walk away. Pikachu is left in the grass and has time to make his final remarks as the two leave him. Rarely, a suggested move knocks Pikachu out.

One narration line is "Where's Twitch when I need help?", a reference to {{w|Twitch Plays Pokémon}} which was also covered by comic [[1333: First Date]].

Another narration line is: "Google Maps didn't warn me of this.", a reference to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YMD6xELI_k Google Maps: Pokémon Challenge].

Pikachu's moves:
* Abandonment - Pikachu disappears completely.
* Anguish - Pikachu is sad.
* Ant Colony - Pikachu is covered in ants.
* Cute Face
* Crowdsource
* The Discrete Metric
* Ethylene Dichloride - Nothing seems to happen, but Ethylene Dichloride is a toxic chemical, so there may be future consequences for the characters.
* Extrude - Pikachu's head moves away from his body as his neck becomes long and malleable.
* Faceless - Pikachu's face disappears.
* Friendship - Pikachu is on Knit Cap Guy's head, signifying they are now friends. Friendship, though not a move, is a game mechanic in the video games.
* Granite - Pikachu is atop a block of granite.
* Graph Theory
* Ink Cloud - Pikachu is covered in ink. In the storyline Pikachu uses it, there is the option to "gather" the ink.
* Radicality - Pikachu is on a skateboard.
* Struggle - In one storyline, after Pikachu uses a number of moves, it says: "Now I only have Struggle left. Tie?" In the Pokémon games, when a Pokémon runs out of PP (Power Points, the energy required to use each of its moves) for all its moves, it may only use Struggle, a weak move, indefinitely reusable, that harms not only the opponent but the user as well.
* Theft - Pikachu wears Knit Cap Guy's hat. Pikachu seems to be using "Thief", a similarly-named actual move from the games, that is used to steal the foe's item and use it as its own.
* Uplift - Pikachu's head goes upward, separated from its body, showing a long, thick cable still connecting the head and the body.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
{{notice|There are many options. Not everyone will see the same options. We are trying to capture as many options as possible in the transcript below. '''The order and options has changed since the transcripter captured the dialogue'''. Often, when a panel is without any choices to make, there is only the option "Continue" to see the next panel. This is a constant work in progress because the comic changes over time.}}

Knit Cap Guy: [Typing on the laptop and thinking.] ([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:be7a3304-b685-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 permalink])

{{beginline}}

{{beginbranch}}
Refresh... No new email... Refresh... No new tweets... Refresh... ([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6479d184-b9a0-11e3-b947-94de80a03a39 permalink])
{{midbranch}}
Hairy:
* So you're still refusing to use Facebook?
* Wanna build a snowman?
* Hey. I hear Godot is in town. Wanna try to meet him?
* You know. Your car's on fire.}}
{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
These stupid tiles... I'll just play one more game. (branch 1) ([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6479d184-b9a0-11e3-b947-94de80a03a39 permalink])
{{midbranch}}
[Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy.]
Hairy:

{{beginline}}

{{beginbranch}}
There's something weird out on the lawn.
{{midbranch}}
Knit Cap Guy:
{{beginline}}
{{beginbranch}}
This is an apartment. We don't have a lawn.
{{midbranch}}
{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
I have a lawn?
{{midbranch}}
{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
I hope it's not a bobcat this time.
{{midbranch}}
{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
If you reprogrammed the squirrel laser to target hipsters again...}}
{{midbranch}}
{{endbranch}}

{{endline}}

{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
There's a dinosaur at the door.
{{midbranch}}
{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
I heard Home Depot has 1024 bathroom tiles.}}
{{midbranch}}
{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
I think I saw a "4096" tile outside somewhere.
{{midbranch}}
{{endbranch}}

{{endline}}

{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
These stupid tiles... I'll just play one more game. (branch 2) ([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffdd8916-b9a7-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd permalink])
{{midbranch}}
[Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy.]
Hairy:
* What's with those tiny games you keep playing, anyway?
* Isn't that sort of meaningless?
* Up for a dangerous experiment with no pay?
* You won't believe what just fell off of your roof.}}
{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
Oh. Hey. There's some kind of political thing going on.
{{midbranch}}
Laptop: "...and let's go live to the debate."
[Two politicians are debating on TV.]
Politician 1:
* In contrast to my oppponent, who I quote, "Never liked Firefly much to begin with."
* ...but even if you tied enough birds to the car, would you get them to take off in unison?
* And if elected, I vow to win this war on Christmas once and for all!
* I agree with my opponent all all [sic] issues and I think his economic plan is fantastic!}}
{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
Let's see if BSD is any easier to install nowadays.
{{midbranch}}
[Knit Cap Guy is confused, staring at his laptop.]
Knit Cap Guy: ??
Knit Cap Guy:
* Now I just need to look up what a "beard error" is...
* Wait. What's on this other partition?
* Why is Python importing Skynet?
* My keyboard has to support SSH over USB?
{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
Gravity. Lots of it.
{{midbranch}}
{{endbranch}}

{{beginbranch}}
Hurry! We're in talks with Facebook.
{{midbranch}}
{{endbranch}}

{{endline}}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:April fool's comics]]
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
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[[Category:Politics]]
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[[Category:Star Wars]]

Talk:1350: Lorenz

2014-04-01T23:06:21Z

108.162.242.111:

I've had the story loop back to the first frame, so it wouldn't surprise me if this could go on infinitely if it had the available dialogue options.

This is going to be a hell of a thing. Good luck... [[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 15:39, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:I think this is one of those times when the custom field might come in handy. Duplicating Randall's code seems like it might be difficult, and it might just be easier to link to the original page. Probably. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:47, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

There's always new story lines, even when you think you've read them all, new ones appear to replace them. I don't think it'll ever be possible to record them all. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.192|108.162.212.192]] 15:55, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:The text changes, but there are recurring themes with the panels. The rocket, the big hole, the little hole, Dinosaurcomics, pokemon, waking up, stranded swimming.........[[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 18:03, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

When I go to XKCD, all I see is the comic from Monday... weird. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:45, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:Same here... and a lot of space below it. [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 17:43, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:: I think that happens when you have refreshed the page too many time -- kind of an anti spam for user submissions. I simply create an anonymous browser window and I got back to the real page once xkcd was not able to track me as a returning user. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:59, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Currently there appears to be a bug. Instead of the evolving, crowd-sourced comic, I just see an off-center copy of the previous comic, 1349: Shouldn't Be Hard. [http://i.imgur.com/pw2OfOL.png Screenshot here].
UPDATE: it appears to be a bug in the XSRF-blocking code. Chrome console shows me the error "XMLHttpRequest cannot load http://c1.xkcd.com/graph/1/. The 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header has a value 'http://xkcd.com' that is not equal to the supplied origin. Origin 'http://www.xkcd.com' is therefore not allowed access."
FURTHER UPDATE: you can work around this bug by going to http://xkcd.com instead of http://www.xkcd.com!
It also doesn't work if you have HTTPS Everywhere enabled.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.38|108.162.216.38]] 16:46, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

** I can confirm this bug in Firefox. Weirdly, the work-around functioned one time for me, but now going to "xkcd.com" rather than "www.xkcd.com" just gives me a copy of 1349 as well. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.180|199.27.130.180]] 17:40, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:The workaround didn't work for me, I still got monday's comic on either URL. (Chromium 36.0.1919.0 (260611), Mac OS 10.9.2) [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 17:45, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

This comic introduced(?) a font of its own of Randalls comic type. I don't know if it has been sitting there for long, but I just noticed it: http://xkcd.com/fonts/xkcd-Regular.eot -- phiarc [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.12|108.162.219.12]] 17:20, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:Is it the same as was used in Externalities? [[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 18:00, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Does everyone have these options in some order for the first tile?
*Refresh... No New Email... Refresh .. No New Tweets... Refresh...
*These Stupid Tiles... I'll Just Play One More Game
*Oh. Hey. There's Some Kind Of Politicial Thing Going On.
*Let's See If BSD Is Any Easier to Install Nowadays
--[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:54, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

:If so, we can begin to build a map of at least the first set of options before the crowd-sourced ones. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:56, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
::Yes, though the second-tier options have changed [[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 18:00, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:::The first level options may be constant (Im seeing the same as Jeff), but I suspect that the following options is based on some sort of ckick though statitics / machine learning -- which means that the will continue to change until Randall closes off the 'voting' -- if [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1193:_Externalities 1193: Externalities] is anything to go by that should be within the next 24-48 hours, at which point automating the collection of story lines may be possible. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 18:11, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:::: I'm going to transcript some of what I get at least through the first few levels and then we can start with a list of options for those who don't want to go through them all. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 18:37, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Ohh, this comic is buggy and the link here at the top gives just the page from Monday, showing errors on debuggers. But removing the WWW from URL helps. Further more I can't see that the result of the choices is dynamic. So let's prove this. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:33, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
: Have a look at http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2b/lorenz_combination1.png and http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9a/lorenz_combination2.png and you can see the option orders are changing -- this is a typical artifact of A/B testing where randomization of options is needed to avoid selection bias. I have futher observed "your car is on fire" instead of the "dinosaur" option, hence not only the orders are channging but the content as well -- maybe somebody else can capture this. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:08, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

How are new dialogue suggestions approved? Are they random, by popular vote (unlikely, not very many people would suggest the same thing), or is Randall approving them one by one? [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 20:26, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
: They may not need to be explicitly approved at all -- one of the beutiful things about click though measures is that the public '''votes''' for what is good by clicking -- this is also a factor in search ranking by your favorite search engine where statistics are driving the entire show -- in a search engine some input to the statistical process comes from the web pages, but other comes from what people are actually clicking [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:14, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

What is this a screenshot of? It's zoomed out so far. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:5b5bd04e-b9d6-11e3-8008-002590d77bdd [[User:Haithere|Haithere]] ([[User talk:Haithere|talk]]) 20:39, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
: you mean this : http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/Rl92nFEWd9huvXABNkHKHg.png ? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:20, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:: It appears to be a screen shot from a flight simulator program of some sort, however im not able to tell which, and since it is most likely an 'in-game' screen short we will never find out unless somebody else is playing this precises flight simulator program [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:37, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:: I am not certain, but I strongly suspect that is Kerbal Space Program