2041: Frontiers

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 23:57, 3 September 2018 by 108.162.237.28 (talk) (Explanation)
Jump to: navigation, search
Frontiers
Star Trek V is a small part of the space frontier, but it's been a while since that movie came out so I assume we've finished exploring it by now.
Title text: Star Trek V is a small part of the space frontier, but it's been a while since that movie came out so I assume we've finished exploring it by now.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

This comic refers to what we still call the "final frontiers" of human discovery: outer space, the oceans, the human mind, and Alaska [source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska:_The_Last_Frontier] These places/regions have been only partially explored, or in Alaska's case, because it's called The Last Frontier.

The title text refers to the title of Star Trek V, titled Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Randall (mis)interprets this title as Star Trek V the movie as one of the final frontiers, but since the film was released in 1989, he states that this frontier has probably been explored already. The phrase, "the final frontier," is used in the opening narration for the original Star Trek TV series:

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.


comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

What about Missouri though?

"Around 95% of the oceans haven't been explored and mapped by humans."

Is there a source for this fact? It isn't even clear what the sentence is saying. Is this a fraction of the surface of the ocean? The ocean floor? The water column? What counts as "exploring" a part? Do you just have to see it from a distance, or go there yourself, and if so, how close do you have to get? Will a ship that's twice as wide explore twice as much ocean per mile? That doesn't seem reasonable. How will we know when we are done exploring the ocean?

Also, if that does refer to some actual figure, it's probably out of date by now anyway. EebstertheGreat (talk) 06:15, 7 March 2024 (UTC)