Talk:3008: Proterozoic Rocks

So the last panel refers to the unseen birth of a rock? How are rocks even born?:

Farther - does is mean father back, or further ahead in time? If ahead it could mean Randall do not think there will be any eyes left to see in 500 million years time. Which is not unlikely. Earth will not stay inhabitable much longer than that (probably 800 million years, then the seas will have evaporated). --Kynde (talk) 08:30, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

A few ways. Fusion likely formed many elements, and neutron star death possibly the rest of the naturally occurring ones. When those started sticking together they would form rocks. The type likely being referred to here is probably sediment being compressed and former a cohesive stone, magma crystalizing, or compression of the latter two types of rocks into different types of rocks. 172.71.124.222 06:52, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

I think in this context it was by up welling magma and they are only rare because plate tectonics and erosion has recycled 99.9X% of them. RIIW - Ponder it (talk) 07:58, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

First the mommy rock and the daddy rock fall in love... 172.71.175.16 15:19, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Makes me think of the manga Houseki No Kuni (Land of the Lustrous) and how effortlessly it depicts thousands and millions of years passing in a blink. 162.158.159.228 08:00, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Guess Randall didn't want to acknowledge the results. Can't say I blame him. Caliban (talk) 08:16, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Well it did end in an all black panel... Like his mood. --Kynde (talk) 08:30, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Maybe he thinks she can still win? 172.71.31.39 13:05, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Oh, I think everything in this comic speaks that Randall is acutely aware of the results. Meditating on eon-old stones is a mental health exercise. I feel him. - and gave the explanation a try. Transgalactic (talk) 13:49, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Oh, I like that title text. It has a poetic quality. (It refers to when various part of animal anatomy first evolved, but does so in a really nice way.) --162.158.74.24 08:47, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

I'd suggest that the explanation should at least include the other interpretation of "farther", namely "farther back in time". I think that's the more obvious one, personally: he's saying these rocks are a billion years old, eyes evolved 500 million years ago and that vast abyss of time "stretches back as far as the eye can see ... and then 500 million years farther" [back]. As in, these rocks existed for 500 million years in a world where there were no eyes. Right? I don't know how the future got involved, it seems to be pretty clearly about the past.ModelD (talk) 14:25, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, that description of 'farther back in time' really seems to make more sense here, since the comic talks about how the rocks were there for roughly that long before eyes existed, and it keeps with the poetic, reflective nature of the rest of the comic, while the future interpretation feels like a bit of a jump from one theme to another. UnbiasedBrigade (talk) 15:03, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

I concur. This is the interpretation I had before coming to explainxkcd. I think that efforts to make the cartoon be about current events impose a meaning on it that the cartoonist is not yet ready to express. The cartoon appeared very late, and (speaking of imposing a meaning on a cartoon) I imagine Randall struggled mightily to come up with an idea that was not some variation on a fireball of wrath consuming the USA and everything in it. I would also remove the climate-change reference as an overreaching interpretation. For what it's worth, Randall's living depends on computer use by his audience, and computer use is a massive contributor to anthropogenic climate change. I have read repeatedly that, in order to persuade someone to adopt a desired behavior, the proponent has to model it. In this case, by massive reductions in personal energy usage ... which will simultaneously make your life miserable and put you out of the public eye, where no one can see the correct behavior you're modeling. How I learned to stop worrying and love carbon dioxide. 162.158.42.96 15:13, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Um. Pretty sure this comic has nothing to do with the 2024 election. 162.158.174.23 15:14, 7 November 2024 (UTC)