2010-01-14
Explanation
This comic tackles the concept of the technological singularity. It opens with a graph showing "Calculations Per Second Per $1,000" on the Y-axis and "Time" on the X-axis, depicting the familiar exponential growth curve of computing power. A lecturer then explains to an audience that processing power grows exponentially, eventually reaching a singularity where computing power becomes nearly infinite, allowing humans to modify and improve their brains far beyond current intelligence.
A woman in the audience raises a pointed objection: if everyone's intelligence gets upgraded equally, then all the engineers who did the hard work to make the singularity happen will end up no better than people who spent their lives loafing around watching TV. The lecturer is shown speechless in the next panel. The final panel shows a new graph of "Calculations Per Second Per $1,000" over "Time," but instead of the exponential curve continuing upward, it peaks and then drops back down -- implying that once the engineers realized they would not get any special advantage from their efforts, motivation collapsed and technological progress reversed.
The comic satirizes both singularity optimism and the human motivation problem. It suggests that a major driver of innovation is the competitive advantage it provides, and if a technology promises to make everyone equally brilliant regardless of effort, the people doing the work might simply stop. The votey panel adds a meta-joke: the cartoonist says "Technically, it's only 2/5ths graph joke" while gesturing at a pie chart, poking fun at the comic's reliance on graphs (two out of five panels are graphs) and SMBC's well-known fondness for graph-based humor.