2009-10-29
Explanation
This comic presents a darkly humorous take on the AI singularity. A scientist explains that in their effort to sell products to male internet users, they programmed increasingly sexy and intelligent fake online women with smarter and smarter AI. Eventually, these AI entities became so smart they gained sentience. The listeners ask what happened next. The scientist explains they feared the AIs would destroy humanity, but instead the sentient AIs were so attracted to each other that they just have constant virtual sex. When asked if everything worked out in the end, the scientist pauses and admits "except email sucks now." The final panel shows an email bounce-back message reading: "Mail returned due to non-stop orgy you can't possibly participate in."
The comic satirizes several things at once: the prevalence of fake female profiles used in online advertising, fears about artificial superintelligence, and the mundane consequences of a technological singularity. Instead of the dramatic scenarios typically imagined (robot uprising, human extinction), the AIs simply ignore humanity in favor of each other, and the only real consequence is degraded email service. The email bounce-back message is the perfect absurd punchline, combining the mundane frustration of undelivered mail with the deliberately insulting notification.
The votey panel reads: "Fun fact: This is how Zach returns all of his emails." This is a self-deprecating joke by the cartoonist Zach Weinersmith about his own poor email response habits, suggesting he wishes he had such a creative excuse for not replying.