Editing 3031: Time Capsule Instructions

{{comic
| number    = 3031
| date      = December 30, 2024
| title     = Time Capsule Instructions
| image     = time_capsule_instructions_2x.png
| imagesize = 692x235px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Inside is a third box, labeled DO NOT OPEN UNLESS YOU ARE IN THE TIME ZONE WHERE YOU OPENED BOTH PREVIOUS BOXES.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an ANNUAL TIME CAPSULE SUBSCRIPTION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. Do NOT delete this tag too late either.}}
This [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]] sees a New Year party held at a location where a {{w|time capsule}} has been buried. On a sign above the burial place, the words "Time Capsule" are written, and the unreadable text below likely states that the capsule must not be opened until 2025. But given this is the New Year from 2024 to 2025, and midnight has just occurred given the shouting of Happy New Year, it is now OK to dig out the box and open it. 

Such boxes could be buried for a long time, as was the case in this earlier comic on the subject [[1617: Time Capsule]] that was buried before World War II... So it could be interesting to open such boxes many years later to see what people of that age found interesting to preserve and "send" into the future.

This could explain why these people have their New Year Celebration located close to the Time Capsule site, to open it as soon as they were allowed according to the instructions. And as expected, the box [[Ponytail]] digs out states that it must not be opened until the year 2025. But this means they are now allowed to open it, and [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] who have already cheered with their wine glasses, look eagerly when Ponytail opens the time capsule.

Surprisingly, there is another box which has the label "Do not open after 2024". The instructions for opening the first box preclude opening the second... at least without inventing a time machine, or changing calendars or timezones.

The title text addressed the only way one can open the first two boxes without ignoring the instructions: by crossing time zones. When more easterly-referenced locations have become the 1st of January 2025, it will (for a short while) still be the 31st of December 2024 in more westerly ones (the boundaries themselves might be any orientation, not just north-south; the whole concept inverts across the International Date Line, before even considering hour-shift differences), meaning that theoretically someone could open the first box in a time zone where it is 2025 and then travel to one in which it is still 2024 to open the second box. However, the title text implies that if you take advantage of this loophole, you will not be allowed to open a third box inside the second box, as the instructions on that box requires that you have opened the first two boxes in the same time zone. It says "Do not open unless you are in the time zone where you opened both previous boxes".

Depending on interpretation, you could defeat the third box by placing it inside two time zones at once before opening it, as there is no time limit on the third box. This works if the instruction on the box is read as "unless you are in the time zone where you opened the first box, and you are in the time zone where you opened the second box". However, this new loophole could be patched by interpreting the third box as "unless you are in the ''one'' time zone where...".  Another possible solution would be for both the box and the person opening it to be on the boundary between two time zones, half in each. Yet another possible solution would be to change the calendar used as point of reference: {{w|Calendar_era|many calendars}} use a lower year than the Gregorian calendar.

Depending on how one interprets the nature of Daylight Saving Time, there may be another solution. In Australia, {{w|Northern Territory}} and {{w|South Australia}} are in the same time zone (by the most common interpretation of the word) and border each other, but only the latter uses Daylight Saving Time; similarly, {{w|Queensland}} does not use Daylight Saving Time but is in the same time zone (by the most common interpretation of the word) as multiple Australian territories that do use Daylight Saving Time, including {{w|New South Wales}}, with which Queensland shares a border. This suggests the idea of opening the first box in South Australia or New South Wales then taking it north of the (horizontal) DST boundary without crossing any (vertical) time zone boundaries; one will then have up to an hour to open the second box and then as long as one wants to open the third box. However, Randall [[:Category:Daylight saving time|has historically expressed opposition to Daylight Saving Time]], so he might not count the first opening as occurring in 2025 if that year has already started only by virtue of Daylight Saving Time.

Both the above solutions could only have been used, if you already knew of the instructions on the boxes, unless it has been dug down in one of the relevant locations. And even getting the second box open following instructions would require it was possible to travel fast enough to reach a second New Year. Although this is definitely possible if you plan for it, this seems to not be one of those occasions, so most unlikely that this party would be able to move the box fast enough to be allowed to open the second. 

Another possibility is to close the first box (when the second one is out side) and then open it again in the same time zone where the second box was opened. If you do not read it as the first place you opened it... But that would likely be a stretch.  

In any case it seems more likely you would ignore any other silly rules. The original rule that the Time Capsule should remain closed until 2025 is the one that makes sense. So after opening the first at the right time, one could just disregard the words on the boxes (or at least Randall's interpretation of them); there is probably not some kind of [[242: The Difference|magical enforcement mechanism]]. Also it seems likely this was just a prank so there will be nothing interesting inside, but one might fear some kind of bobby trap, or a [[325: A-Minus-Minus|bobcat]]. So there could be some kind of enforcement mechanism...

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are clinking wine glasses while Ponytail is digging with a shovel under a sign standing on two legs next to Ponytail. From the off-panel to the left several voices are shouting. On the sign are two large words above two lines of unreadable lines of text.]
:Off-panel voices: <big><big>''Happy New Year!''</big></big>
:Sign: <big>Time</big> Capsule 

:[A dirty box with a hasp closing it. There is a label on the lid:] 
:Do not open until 2025

:[Cueball and Megan, holding their wine glasses, look over Ponytail's shoulder as she crouches down near the box and opens it with an audible sound. The shovel is standing behind the box, dug into the ground.]
:Click

:[The open box is shown revealing that it contains a second, pristine, box with a similar label:]
:Do not open after 2024

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Time]]