2041: Frontiers

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 15:41, 4 September 2018 by Dgbrt (talk | contribs) (Explanation: Ttle text.)
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: 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 movie Star Trek V: The Final Frontier released in 1989. While the exploration of the "outer space" is still a big frontier to humans Randall assumes that this movie should be fully explored by all its details nearly thirty years after.

The phrase, "the final frontier," is also used in the opening narration for Star Trek: The Original Series and states:

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.
[In a single framed picture a hand drawn rhombus is shown. At the inside a few small arrows pointing to the four sides. The text in the middle reads:]
Human achievement so far
[Text above the top left side:]
Space
[Text above the top right side:]
The oceans
[Text below the bottom left side:]
The human mind
[Text below the bottom right side:]
Alaska
[Caption below the frame:]
Final remaining "frontiers," according to popular usage


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)