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| title    = Question
 
| title    = Question
 
| image    = question.png
 
| image    = question.png
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| titletext = The universe long dead, IsaAC surveyed the formless chaos. At last, he had arrived at an answer. 'I like you,' he declared to the void, 'but I don't LIKE like you.'
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| titletext = The universe long dead, Isaac surveyed the formless chaos. At last, he had arrived at an answer. 'I like you,' he declared to the void, 'but I don't LIKE like you.'
 
}}
 
}}
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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The comic is a reference to a short story by Isaac Asimov "{{w|The Last Question}}", where humans kept asking successively more complex computers whether {{w|entropy}} can be reversed, thereby preventing the {{w|heat death of the universe}}. The computers always answered "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER". In the end, the final computer figured out the answer, but there were no humans left to give the answer to.
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{{incomplete|Incorrect spelling/interpretations may be present.}}
  
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The comic depicts a note to “Isaac”, a clear reference to Asimov's name, but possibly depicts what life would have been like for him as a child. The note asks Isaac to identify whether he likes the note-writer by choosing either “yes” or “no”. Isaac is supposed to check an answer and hand the note back, but Isaac (whose pen is red) has written and selected a third answer, "there is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer", mirroring the way his computers in the short story responded. Notes of this form are stereotypically written by young schoolchildren to gauge or incite romantic interest. This allows impatient children to get an answer during a class, and timid children to get an answer without having to ask the person face to face.
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The comic depicts a note to “Isaac”. The note asks Isaac whetr Isaac likes the note-writer and asks Isaac to choose either “yes” or “no” as the answer, but Isaac (whose pen is red) has filled in a third answer and selected that one.
  
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Title text is a reference to the ending in “The Last Question”. The unique capitalization of "IsaAC" in this text implies that IsaAC is an acronym for a type of supercomputer named with a similar convention to the computers in "The Last Question". Instead of the computer climactically coming up with the solution on how to save the universe from entropy when all humanity is gone, like in the “The Last Question", IsaAC comes up with the anticlimactic excuse of an answer 'I like you, but I don't LIKE like you'. “LIKE like” is a childish euphemism for romantic interest. In "The Last Question", a character considers a thought that perhaps AC stands for "analog computer", but in reality this was never the case; for example, ENIAC stands for "Electronic Numerical Integrator ''And Computer''" and UNIVAC stands for "UNIVersal ''Automatic Computer''". This title text may also be meant to imply that Isaac Asimov was a supercomputer.
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Notes of this form – “Do you like me?”, “yes”, “no” are sometimes written by young schoolchildren to each other as a way of gauging or inciting romantic interest. That is, the note-writer is interested in Isaac, or maybe is wondering why Isaac is staring at her so much, and passed him this note to get his answer without the embarassment of asking face-to-face. Isaac is supposed to check an answer and hand the note back.
  
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The original story can be read [http://www.physics.princeton.edu/ph115/LQ.pdf here].
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The joke is that Isaac is overthinking the note, and instead of answering whether he wants to try being friends with that person, answers the literal question by saying that he hasn’t figured out his feelings yet. Part of the joke is that Isaac’s write-in answer uses a complex vocabulary used more often in scientific literature than in notes to classmates. He could have instead written “maybe” (in fact, many notes of this format also include a “maybe” option, though this note did not).
  
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Comic [[1737: Datacenter Scale]] also references the short-story in the title text.
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The title text shows that Isaac is overthinking the question so much that he doesn’t give an answer until the universe has lost all of its entropy, which will take trillions of years. Isaac (somehow existing even at this time) gives his answer seriously, even though it is no longer relevant, since the note-writer is presumably dead. “LIKE like” is a childish euphemism for “love” – Isaac is saying he likes the note-writer as a friend, but not as a romantic partner.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
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:[A post-it note which reads:]
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:[A piece of paper.]
 
:Dear Isaac
 
:Dear Isaac
 
:Do you like me?
 
:Do you like me?
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:□ Yes
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:□Yes
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:□ No
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:□No
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:[Below handwritten in red ink with a checked box:]
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:[Written in red.] ☒there is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer
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:<font color="red">☒ there is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer</font>
 
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{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
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[[Category:Comics with color]]
 
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[[Category:Romance]]
 
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[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
 
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[[Category:Comics sharing name|Question]]
 

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