https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=2A01%3AE0A%3A90C%3A3DF0%3A0%3A0%3ABFAA%3A4C6Bexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-05-28T02:07:49ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=3251:_Time_Machine_Conversation&diff=4137543251: Time Machine Conversation2026-05-28T00:14:31Z<p>2A01:E0A:90C:3DF0:0:0:BFAA:4C6B: /* Transcript */ minor fix</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 3251<br />
| date = May 27, 2026<br />
| title = Time Machine Conversation<br />
| image = time_machine_conversation_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 691x344px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = It's possible to do sea navigation without a compass, but you'll have to get some spoilers from the Polynesians.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|This page was created in the past. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] uses a time machine to travel to the {{w|Iron Age}} and has a conversation with a prehistoric [[Hairbun]]. She seems to be a farmer since she's holding a pretty modern-looking {{w|Hoe (tool)|hoe}}.<br />
<br />
The comic is based on shaky ground, as it's not clear how they're able to communicate so easily, unless it's {{tvtropes|TranslatorMicrobes|part of the function}} of the time-travel technology. While humans did have language for thousands of years by this time, it would be very far removed from modern English. Yet somehow they understand each other's colloquialisms. However, Hairbun doesn't understand the words for some modern concepts: {{w|compass}} and {{w|Spoiler (media)|spoiler}}.<br />
<br />
The magnetic compass was first invented in China around 200 BCE, well after the end of the Iron Age, but it wasn't used for navigation until the 11th century AD. The title text points out that Pacific islands and Australia were populated long before this time; so-called {{w|Polynesian navigation}} used other methods of marine navigation ({{w|celestial navigation}}, observation of birds, ocean swells, and wind patterns).<br />
<br />
The modern meaning of "spoiler" didn't arise until the 1970s. Spoiler warnings became common on {{w|Usenet newsgroups}} in the late 1980s. Cueball may have created a {{w|temporal paradox}} by introducing the concept thousands of years earlier, although any such 'change' made to that time might easily have been forgotten again (even already have been {{w|Novikov self-consistency principle|a pre-existing component of the timeline}}) in the two or three thousand years since this encounter.<br />
<br />
This comic is similar to [[2481: 1991 and 2021]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[Panel 1: Cueball is on the left with a ghostly halo around him. Hairbun is on the right, holding a hoe vertically.]<br />
:Cueball: Oh Hi! Guess my time machine works. How's life in the Iron Age?<br />
:Hairbun: Not bad. Developing new kinds of plows.<br />
:Cueball: Cool.<br />
:Hairbun: And my brother was just lost at sea.<br />
<br />
[Panel 2: Hairbun is out of the panel.]<br />
:Cueball: I'm sorry.<br />
:Hairbun [from outside the right side]: It's OK. I think sea navigation is probably impossible.<br />
<br />
[Panel 3: Cueball and Hairbun are both shown again.]<br />
:Cueball: Oh yeah, you don't have the compass, right?<br />
:Hairbun: The what?<br />
:Cueball: The weird rock that always points north?<br />
:Hairbun: What are you '''talking''' about?<br />
<br />
[Panel 4: Cueball and Hairbun are both shown. Cueball holds his hand to his chin.]<br />
:Cueball: It '''does''' sound ridiculous when I say it out loud. Anyway, spoilers for the magnetic compass. Sorry.<br />
:Hairbun: What's a spoiler?<br />
:Cueball: ...spoilers for the concept of a spoiler, too.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude><br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]<br />
[[Category:Time travel]]</div>2A01:E0A:90C:3DF0:0:0:BFAA:4C6Bhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=3251:_Time_Machine_Conversation&diff=4137533251: Time Machine Conversation2026-05-28T00:11:16Z<p>2A01:E0A:90C:3DF0:0:0:BFAA:4C6B: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 3251<br />
| date = May 27, 2026<br />
| title = Time Machine Conversation<br />
| image = time_machine_conversation_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 691x344px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = It's possible to do sea navigation without a compass, but you'll have to get some spoilers from the Polynesians.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|This page was created in the past. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] uses a time machine to travel to the {{w|Iron Age}} and has a conversation with a prehistoric [[Hairbun]]. She seems to be a farmer since she's holding a pretty modern-looking {{w|Hoe (tool)|hoe}}.<br />
<br />
The comic is based on shaky ground, as it's not clear how they're able to communicate so easily, unless it's {{tvtropes|TranslatorMicrobes|part of the function}} of the time-travel technology. While humans did have language for thousands of years by this time, it would be very far removed from modern English. Yet somehow they understand each other's colloquialisms. However, Hairbun doesn't understand the words for some modern concepts: {{w|compass}} and {{w|Spoiler (media)|spoiler}}.<br />
<br />
The magnetic compass was first invented in China around 200 BCE, well after the end of the Iron Age, but it wasn't used for navigation until the 11th century AD. The title text points out that Pacific islands and Australia were populated long before this time; so-called {{w|Polynesian navigation}} used other methods of marine navigation ({{w|celestial navigation}}, observation of birds, ocean swells, and wind patterns).<br />
<br />
The modern meaning of "spoiler" didn't arise until the 1970s. Spoiler warnings became common on {{w|Usenet newsgroups}} in the late 1980s. Cueball may have created a {{w|temporal paradox}} by introducing the concept thousands of years earlier, although any such 'change' made to that time might easily have been forgotten again (even already have been {{w|Novikov self-consistency principle|a pre-existing component of the timeline}}) in the two or three thousand years since this encounter.<br />
<br />
This comic is similar to [[2481: 1991 and 2021]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[Panel 1: Cueball is on the left with a ghostly halo around him. Hairbun is on the right, holding a hoe vertically.]<br />
:Cueball: Oh Hi! Guess my time machine works. How's life in the Iron Age?<br />
:Hairbun: Not bad. Developing new kinds of plows.<br />
:Cueball: Cool.<br />
:Hairbun: And my brother was just lost at sea.<br />
<br />
[Panel 2: Hairbun is out of the panel.]<br />
:Cueball: I'm sorry.<br />
:Hairbun [from outside the right side]: It's OK. I think sea navigation is probably impossible.<br />
<br />
[Panel 3: Cueball and Hairbun are both shown.]<br />
:Cueball: Oh yeah, you don't have the compass, right?<br />
:Hairbun: The what?<br />
:Cueball: The weird rock that always points north?<br />
:Hairbun: What are you '''talking''' about?<br />
<br />
[Panel 4: Cueball and Hairbun are both shown. Cueball holds his hand to his chin.]<br />
:Cueball: It '''does''' sound ridiculous when I say it out loud. Anyway, spoilers for the magnetic compass. Sorry.<br />
:Hairbun: What's a spoiler?<br />
:Cueball: ...spoilers for the concept of a spoiler, too.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude><br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]<br />
[[Category:Time travel]]</div>2A01:E0A:90C:3DF0:0:0:BFAA:4C6B