explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1345: Answers

2014-03-21T12:33:23Z

173.245.53.161: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1345
| date = March 21, 2014
| title = Answers
| image = answers.png
| titletext = Stanford sleep researcher William Dement said that after 50 years of studying sleep, the only really solid explanation he knows for why we do it is 'because we get sleepy'.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] claims that humans are driven by their curiosity, which is never-ending. This appears to be a riff on the recurring philosophical question of what separates humanity from the rest of the animals. [[Megan]] answers this blanket statement by observing an apparent paradox: Everyone spends approximately eight hours per day in an unconscious state of sleep, but no one has yet discovered the biological purpose of sleep. This implies that every member of the human species is confronted daily with a mystery, yet no one "loses sleep over it"—that is, almost no one is distracted by this mystery. This implies that Cueball's observed curiosity has a perceptible and proximate limit.

It should be noted that many scientists are in fact busily investigating the reasons that humans sleep, although that inquiry has not resulted in satisfying answers. Some offered explanations are: to avoid nocturnal predators, to give the body a chance to repair itself, and to allow the brain a period to sort out long-term from short-term memories.

It should also be noted that "Which is why it keeps me awake all night" would have been a better punchline for Cueball than "touché."

The tooltip makes a semi-tautological statement that people sleep only "because we get sleepy." This is an example of question-begging, because getting sleepy only means that someone is feeling the urge to sleep. This may be an oblique reference to the French playwright Moliere [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dormitive_principle], who created a satirical character who claimed to have discovered the answer to a popular question: The reason opium makes someone sleepy, said the character (a doctor), was that it contained a "dormitive principle" (i.e., something that makes someone sleepy).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are talking.]
:Cueball: Humans are defined by our curiosity, our hunger for answer.
:Megan: We all spend a third of our lives lying down with our eyes closed and '''''NOBODY KNOWS WHY.'''''
:Cueball: Touché.

{{comic discussion}}

1344: Digits

2014-03-19T17:17:30Z

173.245.53.161: Fixed wikipedia link that I forgot to fix 30 seconds ago. Arghh

{{comic
| number = 1344
| date = March 19, 2014
| title = Digits
| image = digits.png
| titletext = It's taken me 20 years to get over skyline tetris.
}}

==Explanation==
[http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/2048/ 2048] is a popular browser-based game in which players must move tiles in a 4 by 4 grid with numbers on them. When two tiles of the same number touch they can be merged into one tile with a value of the two tiles combined. So when two 4-tiles touch and are merged they form one 8-tile. The player can move the tiles by pressing an arrow key (or swiping in a direction on the mobile version), which will move all the tiles in that direction. Every time the player makes such a move another tile will appear on a random cell. The goal of the game is to get a tile with the number 2048.

In the comic the room number can be seen as 4 tiles with the values 8, 2, 2 and 4. If these occur in the game the player can merge the two 2-tiles into one 4-tile. This will then cause two 4-tiles to lie next to eachother so these can be merged into one 8-tile. Finally the two 8-tiles can be merged into one 16-tile.

The title text refers to {{w|Tetris effect}}, which takes its name from the game {{w|Tetris}}. People who play Tetris for extended periods tend to imagine real-life objects (like skylines) as tetris landscapes and pieces. Randall, as many others,[http://s3-external-1.amazonaws.com/wootdesigncontestentries/fackoph/chicago_skyline_%28Tetris_Redux%29-q71p5a-s.jpg] apparently got hooked on Tetris so much when it came out that, for 20 years, he would look at city skylines and see Tetris-like patterns in it. Similarly, he has now been hooked onto 2048 and notices number patterns that would be desirable to obtain during the game.

Comics [[724: Hell]] and [[888: Heaven]] also refer to Tetris.

==Transcript==
:[A guy is walking and Cueball is following him.]
:Guy: The talk is in room 8224.
:Cueball: Ooh, nice.
:Guy: What?
:Cueball: ...Sorry. Nothing.

:Caption: Great, now I'll spend the rest of my life noticing numbers that would make good 2048 combos.

{{comic discussion}}

1344: Digits

2014-03-19T17:16:37Z

173.245.53.161: Added reference to Tetris effect and comics 724 and 888

{{comic
| number = 1344
| date = March 19, 2014
| title = Digits
| image = digits.png
| titletext = It's taken me 20 years to get over skyline tetris.
}}

==Explanation==
[http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/2048/ 2048] is a popular browser-based game in which players must move tiles in a 4 by 4 grid with numbers on them. When two tiles of the same number touch they can be merged into one tile with a value of the two tiles combined. So when two 4-tiles touch and are merged they form one 8-tile. The player can move the tiles by pressing an arrow key (or swiping in a direction on the mobile version), which will move all the tiles in that direction. Every time the player makes such a move another tile will appear on a random cell. The goal of the game is to get a tile with the number 2048.

In the comic the room number can be seen as 4 tiles with the values 8, 2, 2 and 4. If these occur in the game the player can merge the two 2-tiles into one 4-tile. This will then cause two 4-tiles to lie next to eachother so these can be merged into one 8-tile. Finally the two 8-tiles can be merged into one 16-tile.

The title text refers to {{w|Tetris effect}}, which takes its name from the game {w|Tetris}. People who play Tetris for extended periods tend to imagine real-life objects (like skylines) as tetris landscapes and pieces. Randall, as many others,[http://s3-external-1.amazonaws.com/wootdesigncontestentries/fackoph/chicago_skyline_%28Tetris_Redux%29-q71p5a-s.jpg] apparently got hooked on Tetris so much when it came out that, for 20 years, he would look at city skylines and see Tetris-like patterns in it. Similarly, he has now been hooked onto 2048 and notices number patterns that would be desirable to obtain during the game.

Comics [[724: Hell]] and [[888: Heaven]] also refer to Tetris.

==Transcript==
:[A guy is walking and Cueball is following him.]
:Guy: The talk is in room 8224.
:Cueball: Ooh, nice.
:Guy: What?
:Cueball: ...Sorry. Nothing.

:Caption: Great, now I'll spend the rest of my life noticing numbers that would make good 2048 combos.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1339: When You Assume

2014-03-10T15:24:57Z

173.245.53.161:

This explanation is most certainly correct. A quick google search will prove as much. [[User:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|ImVeryAngryItsNotButter]] ([[User talk:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|talk]]) 15:19, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

[[User:Tesshavon|Tesshavon]] ([[User talk:Tesshavon|talk]]) 09:11, 7 March 2014 (UTC) this is a direct reference to the popular saying 'When you ASSUME, you make an ASS out of U and ME'.
:: My donkey is behind a donkey, I am behind my donkey, my entire country is behind me! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.7|141.101.99.7]] 05:20, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

I'm not a native English speaker, and I'm just curious. Is there any popular saying about ass-ass-inating someone? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.161|173.245.53.161]] 10:25, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
:To the best of my knowledge, there is no such saying, but I'm sure it's a spelling mnemonic used by many. [[User:Jameslucas|jameslucas]] ([[User talk:Jameslucas|" "]] / [[Special:Contributions/Jameslucas|+]]) 14:18, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

:I have read of badly programed profanity filters that change "assassin" to "buttbuttin". It's a clbuttic mistake. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.220|108.162.250.220]] 13:22, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

::Funny that such profanity filters are the ones who gave me the idea of asking. I first heard about them in [http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-2008s_weirdest_stories.html This Is True] (search for "How Embarrbutting" in that page), who took it from The London Telegraph. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.161|173.245.53.161]] 15:24, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Assert is also used in programming (c and such) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.11|108.162.241.11]] 13:35, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
::And Python, which I was hacking in yesterday, so that came to my mind. But Randall isn't distracting us with any assert + throw unhandled exception jokes today. — ''[[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 15:31, 8 March 2014 (UTC)''

Thank goodness for the 'ERT' explanation; I had terrible notions of a [[739: Malamanteau|portmanteau]] involving 'insert'. [[User:Jameslucas|jameslucas]] ([[User talk:Jameslucas|" "]] / [[Special:Contributions/Jameslucas|+]]) 14:16, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

If Megan was going to phrase it like "You know what happens when you assume something? You make an ass out of you and me.", then she wouldn't be assuming anything. Of course, in spoken English, you could determine which one it is through inflection. Maybe Randall could start making voice-overs for the comics. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.80|103.22.200.80]] 18:33, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Strictly speaking, Megan is asking a rhetorical question; one that she intends to answer herself. However, I once had a dickhead manager try this one on me, so I fully support this comic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.56|108.162.215.56]] 20:32, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

;This comic explain needs some enhancements!!!
xkcd is a webcomic "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and '''language'''." There is definitively no ASS here, or ERT... That could be mentioned at trivia, not more. This is all about language — assuming vs. asserting — not more or less. Everything more interpretations are like hearing a message by playing a song backwards. This explain isn't incomplete — it's incorrect! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:21, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
:Um, the explanation is fine. The cheesy "ass" + "u" + "me" pun is well-known, and the comic is quite specifically riffing on it. No pareidolia here. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.72|199.27.128.72]] 23:20, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

I saw it as that Megan was on an ERT and that Cueball's assumption was about the emergency (e.g. "The building must be safe by now,") hence the comment about an ERT (although I now also see and agree with the explanation of the play on words). [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 23:32, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
::WOW: Neil Armstrong was just a movie star (I will not talk about 911) or what??? Look at the picture, look at the comic; I'm pretty sure Randall is giggle about all the comments here. I'm pretty sure you can find a ERT at the bible many times; but this isn't that Randall talks about!!!--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:36, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
:::Dgbrt, are you rejecting the simple ass-u-me explanation? — ''[[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 15:31, 8 March 2014 (UTC)''
::::And this explain is still bad because: 1) A hint to use Google as a help is not a proper way. 2) There is also a real language issue on that both different words "assume" and "assert". The joke is about mixing this language issues and all that memes.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:00, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1340: Unique Date

2014-03-10T15:05:59Z

173.245.53.161: Forgot to sign

My first thought was that he makes fun of people that consider dates like the 12.12.12 as important. As any other date they occur only once and are thus not more special. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.66|108.162.254.66]] 04:37, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

:Good point, I have added something about that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 04:49, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Possibly related to the upcoming Pi Day. Also, next year's Pi Day will be 03-14-(20)15, which a few images going around on the Internet have made an annoyingly big deal about. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.64|108.162.237.64]] 06:24, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

So - Maybe I suck at searching (I do), but I can't find any information about us being limited to 4 digits in our calendar system...?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.107|173.245.53.107]] 08:38, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

:Most of the computer software that handles dates would have problems with more (or less) then four digits. Why bother with variable year length when you can just take the first four characters of "2014-03-10" and it works for the next 8 thousand years? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.103|103.22.200.103]] 09:42, 10 March 2014 (UTC)
:Also, most digital displays are limited to four digits for the year. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.103|103.22.200.103]] 09:43, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

::And I don't think we actually start address that sooner that in September 9999. It will be Y2K over again! .... not sure where will people of 9999 get {{w|Fortran}} and {{w|Cobol}} programmers, though. Maybe we should freeze some before we run out of them. :-) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:20, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

After visiting the website for the "Long Now Foundation", I find I'm left wondering - why, oh why, would they stop at using a five digit year? why not six? eight? ten? sixteen? thirty-two? [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 12:06, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

I think the point in the comic title is that writing years always with 5 digits is as significant as the zero to the left it will take to do so for most of the next 8000 years. [[User:FlavianusEP|FlavianusEP]] ([[User talk:FlavianusEP|talk]]) 12:25, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

My first thought was that the comic was about date formats and yyyy-mm-dd being better than yy-mm-dd or dd.mm.yy. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.138|173.245.53.138]] 12:40, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

== Dynamic? ==

Wanna bet that this comic always shows the current date?--[[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 10:23, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

:Haha, that's a great observation! I wish it were so, I'll check again tomorrow. If it's not, someone email Mr. Munroe to make it so, great idea.

It's funny that Randall seems to have never heard of [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2550 RFC 2550], which goes than the Long Now Foundation in expanding the representable date range. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.161|173.245.53.161]] 15:05, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1340: Unique Date

2014-03-10T15:05:08Z

173.245.53.161:

Talk:1339: When You Assume

2014-03-07T10:25:22Z

173.245.53.161:

[[User:Tesshavon|Tesshavon]] ([[User talk:Tesshavon|talk]]) 09:11, 7 March 2014 (UTC) this is a direct reference to the popular saying 'When you ASSUME, you make an ASS out of U and ME'.

I'm not a native English speaker, and I'm just curious. Is there any popular saying about ass-ass-inating someone? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.161|173.245.53.161]] 10:25, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Talk:440: Road Rage

2014-02-19T17:28:47Z

173.245.53.161:

;Incomplete (as of August 26, 2013)
*At the title text Black Hat is avoiding a crash.
*While many explains are monster explains, here is the WIFI missing, this explain is just more a transcript.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:44, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
The idea is that the tailgater (I'll name him Phil for ease of understanding) will be distracted while he contemplates his loss, so when Black Hat slams on the brakes, Phil hopefully won't have enough stopping distance to avoid a collision, slamming into Black Hat's car. The accident is always caused by the car behind, meaning Phil will be at fault.[[User:Lyusternik|Lyusternik]] ([[User talk:Lyusternik|talk]]) 15:26, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Okay, I've been bold, completely rewrote the explanation AND removed the incomplete banner. It now looks less like a transcript and (I think) everything is covered. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.161|173.245.53.161]] 17:28, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

440: Road Rage

2014-02-19T17:19:54Z

173.245.53.161: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 440
| date = June 23, 2008
| title = Road Rage
| image = road rage.png
| titletext = Okay, now just as the loss hits him, slam on the brakes.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] is driving a car, and [[Danish]] is with him in the passenger's seat. Black Hat gets annoyed because the car behind him is too close.

Danish decides to fight back, so she turns on her laptop and finds that the car behind them also has a laptop running. Since the cars are so close, the other laptop is well within WiFi range, so she manages to establish a WiFi connection with the laptop in the other car. Then, Danish finds a security hole (in the comic, a "remote exploit"). She uses it to break into the laptop and install a speech synthesizer.
This means that the laptop in the car behind just starts saying words at Danish's will.

The driver of the other car is puzzled when he starts hearing a voice. He's completely clueless about where the voice comes from. Also, he's driving alone so he's probably frightened (or nervous at least) to find that someone is speaking inside his car. The fact that the voice says "she'd be alive if it weren't for you" surely won't help him relax.

In the message text, Danish is continuing her revenge, asking Black Hat to slam on the brakes. This means that the car behind will probably rear-end them, since the driver is nervous, puzzled, surprised, distracted looking for the voice's source and driving unsafely close.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is driving and Danish who seems to be his equal is in the passenger's seat. They are closely followed by some other vehicle.]
:Black Hat: That guy's tailgating me.
:Danish: I'll take a look.

:[A car is shown to be closely behind Black Hat's car.]
:Danish: His laptop's running, probably in the back seat. And... yup, the WiFi autoconnects.

:[Close-up of Danish using a laptop.]
:Danish: Now we just scan for remote exploits... install speech synth... And take a shot in the psychological dark.

:[Cueball's car.]
:Laptop: Hello.
:Cueball: What? Who's there?
:Laptop: She'd be alive if it weren't for you.
:Cueball: ...Oh God.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]

887: Future Timeline

2014-01-24T11:12:04Z

173.245.53.161: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 887
| date = April 18, 2011
| title = Future Timeline
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = future timeline.png
| titletext = Not shown: the approximately 30,000 identical, vaguely hysterical articles titled "WHITE PEOPLE IN [THE US/BRITAIN] TO BECOME MINORITY BY [YEAR]!", which came up for basically any year I put in.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|almost no elaboration}}
This comic uses the same strategy as comic [[715: Numbers]], in which Randall uses Google to search for phrases and then charts the results. This one is charted as a timeline, whereas 715 was charted as line graphs.

"2101 - War Was Beginning" is a reference to the opening narration of video game ''Zero Wing''; the same narration is famous for the internet meme [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us|"All your base are belong to us"]. As there are not any other out and out references in the comic, and the rest are actually results that you can find if you search using Randall's methods, we're pretty sure "War Was Beginning" came up when he googled 2101 as well.

==Transcript==
:<big>'''THE FUTURE'''</big>
:'''According to Google search results'''
:Events for each year determined by the first page of Google search results for the phrases:
:{|
|-
|"By <year>"
|"In year"
|-
|"By the year <year>"
|"In the year <year>"
|-
|"Will * by the year <year>"
|"Will * in the year <year>"
|-
|"In <year>, * will"
|"By <year>, * will"
|}

:{|
|-
|rowspan="4" width="50px" valign="top"|2012
|World population reaches 7 billion
|-
|Flying cars reach market
|-
|Canada cuts greenhouse emissions to 6% below 1990 levels as per Kyoto
|-
|Apocalypse occurs
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2013
|National debt paid off through President Clinton's plans
|-
|Microchipping of all Americans begins
|-
|Homelessness ended in Massachusetts
|-
|Health care reform law repealed
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2014
|US leaves Afghanistan
|-
|GNU/Linux becomes dominant OS
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2015
|New Horizons reaches Pluto
|-
|Health care law causes hyperinflation
|-
|192 UN member nations achieve millennium development goals:
*Extreme poverty and hunger eradicated
*Universal primary education implemented
*Women empowered, gender equality reached
*Environmental stability ensured
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2016
|Baby boomers begin turning 65
|-
|Android takes 38% of the smartphone market
|-
|Android takes 45% of the smartphone market
|-
|Windows Phone overtakes iOS in smartphones
|-
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2017
|China completes unmanned Lunar sample-return mission
|-
|Social Security stops running surplus
|-
|US budget balanced
|-
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out
|-
|Cosmetic surgery doubles
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2018
|Social Security stops running surplus
|-
|Jesus returns to Earth
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2019
|Social Security stops running surplus
|-
|Every baby has genes mapped at birth
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2020
|Solar power becomes cheaper than fossil fuels
|-
|Keyboards and mice become obsolete
|-
|New Tappan Zee bridge constructed
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2021
|US debt reaches 97% of GDP
|-
|US unemployment falls to 2.8%
|-
|Restored caliphate unifies Middle East
|-
|Lake Mead evaporates
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2022
|Kilimanjaro snow-free
|-
|HTML 5 finished
|-
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2023
|Jesus returns to Earth (again)
|-
|US debt passes 100% of GDP
|-
|All unprotected ancient forests gone from Pacific Northwest
|-
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2024
|Atlantis begins to reappear
|-
|Orangutans extinct in wild
|-
|China lands men and women on the moon
|-
|NASA sets up permanent moon base
|-
|Female professionals pass males in pay
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2025
|World population reaches 8 billion
|-
|Two billion people face water shortages
|-
|62 MPG cars introduced
|-
|US power fades
|-
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2026
|Atlantis emerges completely
|-
|Rock Bands die out
|-
|US debt paid off
|-
|Car accidents cease
|-
|West coast falls into ocean
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2027
|Japan introduces new fastest Maglev train
|-
|Lyndon Larouche-planned Mars colony is established
|-
|Social Security stops running surplus
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2028
|Tobacco outlawed
|-
|40% of coral reefs gone
|-
|US debt paid off
|-
|Social Security stops running surplus
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2029
|Social Security trust fund exhausted
|-
|Computers pass the Turing test
|-
|Aging reversed
|-
|Wikipedia reaches 30 Million articles
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2030
|Half of Amazon rain forest lost to logging
|-
|Cancer deaths double from 2008 levels
|-
|Arctic ice-free in summer
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2031
|Computers controlled by thought
|-
|Realtors replaced by technology
|-
|Social Security trust fund exhausted
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2032
|"Big One" hits San Francisco
|-
|US elects first married lesbian President
|-
|Entire world converted to Christianity
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2033
|Kilimanjaro ice disappears
|-
|India becomes superpower
|-
|Europe reaches Mars
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2034
|US diabetes cases double, treatment costs triple
|-
|US builds autonomous robot army
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2035
|80% of America's energy comes from renewable sources
|-
|Himalayan glaciers down 80% in size
|-
|Arctic sea lane opens
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2036
|80% of US has access to high-speed rail
|-
|Asteroid Apophis misses/hits Earth
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2037
|Arctic ice-free in September
|-
|Social Security trust fund exhausted
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2038
|32-bit timestamps roll over, causing Y2K-level chaos
|-
|"Big One" hits California
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2039
|US population hits 400 Million
|-
|Severe heat waves become commonplace
|-
|Scientology becomes majority religion in US
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2040
|Arctic summers ice-free
|-
|Nanotechnology makes humans immortal
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2041
|Social Security trust fund exhausted
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2042
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2043
|World population passes 9 Billion
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2044
|Mankind genetically engineered to be happy
|-
|Childhood obesity reaches 100%
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2045
|Humans and machines merge
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2046
|World's natural resources depleted
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2047
|World ruled by banks and corporations
|-
|Tobacco industry fails
|-
|US begins using autonomous attack drones
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2048
|Salt-water fish extinct from overfishing
|-
|Unisex bathing suits cover body from shoulder to ankle
|-
|Entire US population overweight
|-
|US begins using autonomous attack drones
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2049
|$1.000 computer exceeds computational ability of humanity
|-
|Singularity occurs
|-
|Fishing industry collapses
|-
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2050
|80% of Earth's population lives in urban centers
|-
|China controls space
|-
|Sex with robots possible
|-
|Cars banned from European cities
|-
|One million species extinct from climate change
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2051
|Atmosphere escapes into space
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2052
|Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending exceed total US revenue
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2053
|US budget balanced
|-
|Majority of Americans in prison
|-
|Cars driven by dogs
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2054
|Hunger becomes unimaginable global problem
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2055
|Atmospheric CO2 doubled
|-
|Oil runs out
|-
|Copper, tin, lead, gold, and nickel all exhausted
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2056
|RFID-tagged driverless cars
|-
|Robots given same rights as humans
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2057
|150 Japanese settlers on Mars
|-
|Colorado River runs dry
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2058
|Smoking ends in New Zealand
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2059
|Humans have domesticated robots
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2060
|Human race lives in peace
|-
|Extreme droughts across much of Earth
|-
|Global temperature rise reaches 4°C
|-
|Oil runs out again
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2061
|Halley's comet returns
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2062
|Uganda hosts World Cup
|-
|The Jetsons
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2063
|First human clones reach adulthood
|-
|Population of Moon reaches 100,000
|-
|Population of Mars reaches 10,000
|-
|Spacecraft exceed speed of light
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2064
|Clean Air Act finishes reducing haze in national parks to natural levels
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2065
|Last coral reefs die out
|-
|Chernobyl cleanup complete
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2066
|Cyprus achieves its goal
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2067
|Americans live in domed cities and watch 3D TV
|-
|Redheads go extinct
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2068
|Ozone hole over Antarctic finishes recovering
|-
|Lord Jesus rules Earth from throne in Jerusalem
|-
|Entire world population gay due to chemicals in the water
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2069
|Public masturbation legalized
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2070
|World population peaks
|-
|City-scale flooding disasters
|-
|60% of world's energy comes from renewable sources
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2071
|Europe's temperatures rise by 3°C
|-
|World summer temperatures rise by 5°C
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2072
|US retirement age is set to 75
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2073
|Oceans do not rise one foot
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2074
|Number of 100-year-olds reaches one million
|-
|Supertyphoons hit Japan
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2075
|US retirement age set to 69
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2076
|Average scientific paper has more than 24 authors
|-
|Social Security trust fund exhausted
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2077
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2078
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2079
|US debt reaches 716% of GDP
|-
|Lodgepole pines disappear from Northwest
|-
|Floods commonplace
|-
|Religion marginalized
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2080
|Federal spending reaches 70% of GDP
|-
|UK population doubles
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2081
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2082
|World population declines to one billion
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2083
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2084
|Robot policemen introduced
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2085
|US deficit reaches 62% of GDP
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2086
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2087
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2088
|Japan becomes all-robot country
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2089
|World halts fossil fuel use
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2090
|Global warming hits 7°C
|-
|Global warming hits 4°C
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2091
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2092
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2093
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2094
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2095
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2096
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2097
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2098
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2099
|
|-
|rowspan="11" valign="top"|2100
|Global warming around 5-7°C
|-
|Sea levels have risen by a meter or more
|-
|Joshua trees nearly extinct
|-
|Earth's climate resembles that of the Cretaceous
|-
|Germany tropical
|-
|Emperor penguins extinct
|-
|Arctic permafrost thaws
|-
|Rising seas flood coastal cities
|-
|Rain forests mostly gone due to climatic shifts
|-
|All coral reefs gone
|-
|Gillette introduces 14-bladed razor
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2101
|WAR WAS BEGINNING
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]