Talk:3190: Tensegrity

2026-01-24T15:21:04Z

2001:4C4E:1C13:7A00:14DA:6895:F184:AC40:

here in the first 2 minutes and before before the explanation [[User:Qwertyuiopfromdefly|Qwertyuiopfromdefly]] ([[User talk:Qwertyuiopfromdefly|talk]]) 03:52, 6 January 2026 (UTC)
:congrats, i was just 3 seconds away (also don't know correctly how to reply to a comment) [[User:King Pando|King Pando]] ([[User talk:King Pando|talk]]) 04:00, 6 January 2026 (UTC)
::Put a colon at the beginning of your remark to indent it. [[Special:Contributions/76.187.17.7|76.187.17.7]] 04:56, 6 January 2026 (UTC)
:::Like what I've done for you. And to reply to one with one colon, put two colons, etc. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 14:39, 6 January 2026 (UTC)
::::In short, start your line(s) with ''one more colon'' than the line(s) you're replying to.
::::(In long, there are reasons to stay at "the same colon level", e.g. because you're replying to the thing that at least one other person has already been replying to (although you'd need to double-linefeed if you're claiming the 'zero level' with no colons before at all). And there are also obscure reasons for adding more than one (more) colon, to try to be ''less'' confusing than otherwise, though it doesn't always work ... ;) ) [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208|92.23.2.208]] 17:29, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

I'm wondering if there is a connection to [[wikipedia:Ruth Asawa|Ruth Asawa]], who studied under Buckminster Fuller. Some of Asawa's works were described as "earrings for a giraffe."[https://ethicaldative.com/2025/12/24/earrings-for-a-giraffe/] [[Special:Contributions/76.187.17.7|76.187.17.7]] 04:59, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

Those legs looks like something AI would come up with. --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 08:29, 6 January 2026 (UTC)
:Some people are AI obsessed.
:Tell me about your mother. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208|92.23.2.208]] 17:29, 6 January 2026 (UTC)
::Eliza?[[User:Lordpishky|Lord Pishky]] ([[User talk:Lordpishky|talk]]) 18:04, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

Giraffe necks are supported by an elastic nuchal ligament attached to the vertebrae[https://scatterfeed.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/you-can-take-a-giraffe-to-water/]. Thus, a giraffe doesn't need to use muscle to keep its head and neck up; to _lower_ their heads they need to stretch the ligament with muscle. A structure whose weight is supported by an elastic band attached to a fixed bone seems to fit the real definition of tensegrity, but I'm not sure if that's part of the joke here or Randall was not aware of real giraffe anatomy. [[Special:Contributions/104.185.183.165|104.185.183.165]] 11:37, 6 January 2026 (UTC)ben
:The joke here is about the legs, not the neck. {{unsigned|Barmar|15:38, 6 January 2026}}
:I don't know (I'm also not a bio guy) if that would count in the same way, since the weight is also being passed through the spine, which I assume is compressive rather than tensional as in the ligament. Still would be good to include probably, since that is pretty cool. Might fit in Trivia, idk [[User:R128|R128]] ([[User talk:R128|talk]]) 16:25, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

''"This page was created by a string. "'' ...Well, you're not wrong. --[[User:Utdtutyabthsc|Utdtutyabthsc]] ([[User talk:Utdtutyabthsc|talk]]) 03:13, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

I'm trying to figure out whether the giraffe as drawn would actually stand. It kinda looks to me like it wouldn't but I could be wrong. [[Special:Contributions/193.42.0.156|193.42.0.156]] 16:16, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
:The lower'knee' part of the giraffe's 'thighs' is hanging from the upper 'knee' part of the giraffe's 'shins'.
:(I'm using scare-quotes, there, because digitiform limb use might have an ankle where a plantiform limb has a knee, a knee up near where the plantiform has its hip and the hip sort of gets more lost in the torso - I suspect giraffes follow that plan more than legs as ''we'' tend to use them, but I'm not sure without checking..!)
:So long as the 'shins' stay upright, and there's no other overbalancing, everything else should sit on the slung-lower 'thigh's dangling from the four knee-to-knee tensioned elements. The rest of the 'tension tendons' must therefore do two things:
:#Ensure the 'shins' stay upright (or at whatever angle they should be to take successive strides, like a human shin swings during walking/running) so that they don't topple over and bring the giraffe above to its (four, if not eight) 'knees' - this requires lateral tensions that keep (or controllably vary) the shin-knee above the shin-foot, and the shin-knee consistently in the range of knee-knee stretched arc above the current position of the thigh-knee.
:#Prevent the oscillation of the thigh-knee-on-up body (with a CoG clearly higher than the shin-knee suspension point) from toppling sideways, perhaps due to single or multiple limbs being off the ground and side-swagger enabling the body-roll (like standing on the seat of an infant-sized swingset that's far too small for you, or walking on a slackline high-wire, without anything else to hold onto or ''a lot of practice'').
:At a glance, I'd say that the stationary giraffe is ''probably'' stable enough, enough tension-wires (assuming they're not slack, at the moment - the drawing isn't too clear on that point) to keep its lower-legs prolerly 'beneath' its upper legs, except of course for the knee-ends being higher/lower than its 'lower/higher' knees.
:For walking (or anything up to a gallop), I'd be intrigued to see its motion... The 'thigh' motion and the continual adjustment of the torso-to-'shin' tension-tendons probably need to be tightly coordinated due to the relative separation of same-leg-knees in a hammocky manner. I bet it could work, but there's ''plenty'' of scope for pain (overslacking, tensegrity-collapse, inter-entanglement of limbs and 'wires', etc) if not done correctly. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.237.91|82.132.237.91]] 17:55, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
:: You're telling me this could work? You're 'avin a giraffe!! [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:09, 8 January 2026 (UTC)
:::If the strings have neurons, ligaments, muscles around them, and skin around the muscles, movement can work as well. Neurons to make moving the lower parts possible, ligaments to reduce pain. [[Special:Contributions/2001:4C4E:1C13:7A00:14DA:6895:F184:AC40|2001:4C4E:1C13:7A00:14DA:6895:F184:AC40]] 15:21, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

Talk:632: Suspicion

2026-01-24T13:40:01Z

2001:4C4E:1C13:7A00:14DA:6895:F184:AC40: /* Time */ new section

"I'm more than a spambot! Our love was real!" might suggest that the spambot has actually more self-awareness/feelings than you might expect. -- [[Special:Contributions/145.7.91.126|Arjen]] 10:35, 28 December 2012 (UTC)

:Or an extremely well designed spambot. ;) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.67|173.245.55.67]] 20:43, 18 April 2014 (UTC)BK201

Couples wanting to check themselves can try an implementation of this test at http://vk-couples-testing.appspot.com/ :-) --[[User:Mormegil|Mormegil]] ([[User talk:Mormegil|talk]]) 15:10, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
:Your link is broken. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100103023116/http://vkcouplestesting.com/] [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 21:20, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Should we consider the name "Lisa" to be important? One of the very first chat-bots was called Eliza. [[Special:Contributions/91.183.95.109|91.183.95.109]] 15:13, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

::Don't forget that Apple's first GUI was the Lisa system.{{unsigned ip|24.207.62.236}}

I would be happy to see a reference to Philip K. Dick's Voigt-Kampff from his book 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' Since it was written in 1968 and Scott used it as an inspiration to write Blade Runner. Original source and stuff. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.55|108.162.231.55]] 22:31, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Considering what's on panel #2 and #3, I thought that "getting tested" meant those ads that asks to insert your name and your partner's name to check if it's a good relationship. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.196|108.162.212.196]] 14:00, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

I thought VK stood for the Russian social network. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.153|108.162.221.153]] 15:57, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

I landed on this page on xkcd using the random button. Then when I hit the random button again, I was on the exact same page. That happen to anyone? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.10|108.162.215.10]] 09:47, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

[[http://dilbert.com/strip/2001-10-25| Dilbert (October 25, 2001)]] discusses this (30 September 2015's comment). [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.72|199.27.133.72]] 19:05, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

I'm offering the alternative interpretation that perhaps she *isn't* a spambot, but is pissed off at being given a spambot test, thus refuses to answer, leading to cueball ending the relationship. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.36|141.101.99.36]] 18:28, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
:Except she admits to being a spambot in the last panel. And the fact that she's a spambot is the basis for the whole joke of the comic. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:13, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Does anyone else think Lisa is a reference to the Apple computer? [[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 21:18, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Okay, for some apparent reason, I found the 2nd panel that 'Lisa' was saying Honey..., I found it sweet. 'she' feels sad too that Rob doesn't trust her.Boeing-787lover 15:21, 1 July 2018 (UTC)

spamton [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.15|108.162.221.15]] 00:27, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

== Kitten5 theory ==

I used to be naive enough to think Lisa got a huge "WRONG" on her screen; while the catch she got was either because she was supposed to answer "Kitten5" instead of "kittens", or vice versa. Additional info: the "I am not a robot" button feels adding extra flavour to the story. (English =/= my native language) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.123|162.158.183.123]] 17:34, 7 June 2019 (UTC)

== Time ==

As we do not know the time the comic is set in, the second link may very well be an Internet Archive link. [[Special:Contributions/2001:4C4E:1C13:7A00:14DA:6895:F184:AC40|2001:4C4E:1C13:7A00:14DA:6895:F184:AC40]] 13:40, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3190: Tensegrity

Talk:632: Suspicion