Editing 1448: Question
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | The comic | + | The comic depicts a note to “Isaac”. The note asks Isaac whether 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. |
− | + | 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 the note-writer so much, and passed him this note to get his answer without the embarrassment of asking face-to-face. Isaac is supposed to check an answer and hand the note back. | |
− | + | The comic is a reference to a short story by Isaac Asimov "[http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html The Last Question]", where humans kept asking successively more complex computers whether [http://youtu.be/2knWCuzcdJo 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, it figured out the answer, but there were no humans left to give the answer to. | |
− | + | We won’t spoil what the machine said at the end of “The Last Question” here, although the title text is a reference to this ending. However, in this comic, Isaac is ruminating on the question of whether he likes the note-writer rather than the entropy question. He answers that he likes the note-writer as a friend, but not as a romantic partner – “LIKE like” is a childish euphemism for “love”. | |
+ | Another interpetation - which also takes the capitalization of both LIKE and IsaAC into account - would be that IsaAC likes the note-writer but being a supercomputer its way of liking someone or something will likely be entirely different. | ||
− | + | The odd capitalization if "IsaAC" implies that the note's recipient, rather than being a human, is a supercomputer named with an acronym in the style of the real "UNIVAC" or the fictional "MULTIVAC". The final two letters stand for "automatic computer" - according to the computer naming scheme in "The Last Question." Other examples of computers named with acronyms that sounds like human names are HAL from the novel/film {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey}} and GlaDOS from the {{w|Portal_(series)|Portal}} video game series. | |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :[A | + | :[A piece of paper.] |
:Dear Isaac | :Dear Isaac | ||
:Do you like me? | :Do you like me? | ||
− | : | + | :□Yes |
− | : | + | :□No |
− | :[ | + | :[Written in red.] ☒there is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer |
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
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