https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=R3volv360explain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-04-18T10:48:18ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2779:_Exoplanet_High-5&diff=3138712779: Exoplanet High-52023-05-23T08:59:13Z<p>R3volv360: add "sequence diagram"</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2779<br />
| date = May 22, 2023<br />
| title = Exoplanet High-5<br />
| image = exoplanet_high_5_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 515x582px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = Tau Ceti is farther away, so it took me 36 years to start the war over updog.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT, 21 YEARS AGO - More on the Updog joke for people not familiar with it. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
''Up high, down low, too slow'' is a {{w|High five#Too_slow|prank variant of a High five}}. In the comic, Earth has established communications with aliens living on Proxima Centauri b, the nearest exoplanet to Earth according to current knowledge, and [[Randall]] has taught them about a High five.<br />
<br />
Instead of physically shaking hands, the High five is executed by transmitting messages, as in a {{w|Handshake (computing)}}. The diagram in the comic is thus similar to a {{w|sequence diagram}}, one usually employed for describing network communication in computing. As the messages travel at the speed of light and Proxima Centauri b is over 4 light years away, the times in the diagram are measured in years.<br />
<br />
Having found a way of exchanging a high five with aliens, Randall successfully pranks the aliens, who start an intergalactic war in response. It is not known at which speed the Centaurians' invasion fleet travels and therefore, when it will reach Earth.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to another prank, in which the prankster gets the victim to ask "What's updog?" ("Whats up, dawg?"). Tau Ceti is a star almost 12 light years away. The exchange might have gone like this:<br />
* t=0y: ''Randall:'' Hey, do you think it smells like updog in here?<br />
* t=12y: ''Aliens:'' What's updog?<br />
* t=24y: ''Randall:'' Nothin', what's up with you?<br />
* t=36y: ''Message received, Aliens start war''<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Aliens]]</div>R3volv360