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Clinton describes AI emergence over burgers.

0 (0%)

S'not that incredible.

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We've been dreaming of that stuff for over 100 years!

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Whoa, I better STOP and CONSIDER the deep PHILOSOPHICAL IMPLICATIONS!

1 (1%)

"Innovation Fatigue"

1 (1%)

But that leads to COMPLACENCY!

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You can look at the stars and say "they sure are pretty"...

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...not if you want to GET to them someday.

2 (2%)

Years of therapy to not have a panic attack.

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Applied Robotics centerfold!

5 (4.9%)

Okay, you know what, I'm just gonna play this friends-style.

0 (0%)

Way to use the ol' willpower, Marten!

1 (1%)

C'mere. (WELP)

16 (15.7%)

SweetTits Cameo!

6 (5.9%)

I said, "You're Trouble."

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I'm in trouble.

14 (13.7%)

My grandma's doing okay... stick around a few weeks longer?

7 (6.9%)

GOLD MEDALIST!

1 (1%)

GRAMMY WINNER!

1 (1%)

FIRST MAN TO MARS!

5 (4.9%)

TIME MAN OF TEH YEAR!

9 (8.8%)

"Yeah, that'd be pretty cool."

33 (32.4%)

Total Members Voted: 92

[AnAverageWriter]

Schrodinger's Cat always made me a little bit sad.

After all, shouldn't a cat in a box be there of their own free will?

And certainly not if the poor kitty has a chance of being dead.

I'd be happier if it were an experiment with something I cared a little less about, like if it were Schrodinger's Big Ugly Bug or something.

[Soulsynger]

I'd be happier if it were an experiment with something I cared a little less about, like if it were Schrodinger's Big Ugly Bug or something.

For some reason I now think Gregor Samsa's transformation has something to do with Schroedinger. Like... if you don't prove to yourself consistently enough that you are NOT a huge bug, you might just wake up as one. This is giving me the shakes.

[Torlek]

It's a spoon full of trouble. 

+1 Internet to you, Akima.

They're both right. Padma's trouble in the classic "girl you end up in a physical relationship with when you don't really intend to and want to transform it to a serious relationship but aren't sure how to" sense. Marten's trouble in the classic "person you decided to have a quick bang with but end up developing feelings when you don't want to" sense. Grab your helmets and find a bomb shelter people, I sense drama inbound.

[TRVA123]

Damn is Padma gorgeous! I think she is the most attractive character Jeph has crafted so far.

[idontunderstand]

Thought the same thing. Marten does run into some gorgeous ladies.

[snubnose]

Hurr.

Neutrinos can of course transport information.

Photons have NO MASS and still can transport information.

Neutrinos can transport information through:
(a) presence or absence
(b) direction
(c) impulse (i.e. kinetic energy)

Thats pretty much the same as for photons (the photon impulse is actually their frequency, though).

The main issue between Photons and Neutrinos is Neutrinos are a hell a LOT harder to create and even much harder to measure.

[Dr. ROFLPWN]

Fucking stupid kids not just saying how they feel D:

Just get it out there you two, both of you, it'll be better and you'll feel better in the end

Also Jeph is drawing both Padma and Marten to be fine as hell tonight

[AnAverageWriter]

Damn is Padma gorgeous! I think she is the most attractive character Jeph has crafted so far.

Second most attractive.

Marigold is first in my book.

[Soulsynger]

The main issue between Photons and Neutrinos is Neutrinos are a hell a LOT harder to create and even much harder to measure.

Right, the deuterium water container underground. I remember.
You are of course right about the neutrinos and photons. Somehow the indirect information transfer slipped my mind.

Damn is Padma gorgeous! I think she is the most attractive character Jeph has crafted so far.

Second most attractive.

Marigold is first in my book.

For me its Hannelore. Not for physical reasons (except for maybe the ear piercings), just the most interesting cast member. (That position will only ever be taken if Jeph introduces a redheaded, green-eyed artsy girl into the regular cast.)

[Dr. ROFLPWN]

Damn is Padma gorgeous! I think she is the most attractive character Jeph has crafted so far.

Second most attractive.

Marigold is first in my book.

Marigold is fine if you want big booty bipches but Padma is the new hotness all round

Now stopping this train before any bearhatting goes on, I out

[FunkyTuba]

My wife and I play Schrodinger's cat box. It's one of these cat condos of shame and we basically never look in the box to check whether it needs to be changed because we don't want to break the uncertainty.

[AnAverageWriter]

My wife and I play Schrodinger's cat box. It's one of these cat condos of shame and we basically never look in the box to check whether it needs to be changed because we don't want to break the uncertainty.

Is it strange that when I look at that picture I see a somewhat annoyed robotic snail?

[Soulsynger]

My wife and I play Schrodinger's cat box. It's one of these cat condos of shame and we basically never look in the box to check whether it needs to be changed because we don't want to break the uncertainty.

Is it strange that when I look at that picture I see a somewhat annoyed robotic snail?

Pfrrrrt... I just found my new avatar for today. xD

[Deadlywonky]

quote from Jeph's twitter:

There is one of those FedEx-arrow-style "once you see it you can't unsee it" things on the cover of WC volume 2. I'm not telling what it is.

has anyone worked out what it is?

[cabbagehut]

I had that conversation once or twice.  And the answer to it is always unpleasant.

[gopher]

FFS, this has now put the song "Trouble" by Shampoo in my head. This is not a good thing.

[Mustakyy]

D'awww.

Talk about bittersweet moments. Beautiful, just simply beautiful.

Fucking stupid kids not just saying how they feel D:

Just get it out there you two, both of you, it'll be better and you'll feel better in the end

I wouldn't be quite so harsh, but yeah, you do have quite a good and important point there.

(edited to fix some damn typos)

[pwhodges]

Fucking stupid kids not just saying how they feel D:

Actually, they seem to be well on the way, especially as recognising your feelings is necessary before you can talk about them.

[akronnick]

I have a feeling the conversation will begin during tomorrow's comic and will reach a suspenseful climax that will be left unresolved until the following comic.  

[Lubricus]

I have a feeling the conversation will begin during tomorrow's comic and will reach a suspenseful climax that will be left unresolved until the following comic.  

Indeed, that seems likely. But of course, mentioning it in the forum might make Jeph decide to do differently just to spite us! 

[Skewbrow]

I have a feeling the conversation will begin during tomorrow's comic and will reach a suspenseful climax that will be left unresolved until the following comic.  

What! A Friday is coming up. Jeph would never leave us with a cliffhanger for the long weekend? 

Have a nice weekend. I plan to spend mine hiding from my inbox.

[Loki]

Before we can attempt timetravel, we'll have to figure out what dark matter consists of anyway. Otherwise any attempt at anything might just evaporate when colliding with stuff that "is only there at unbelievable speed". xD

An Italian scientist recently suggested that dark matter might not in fact exist, by coming up with some complicated formulae which predict movements of spiral galaxies without requiring the existence of  dark matter. He has shown his math to work so far for two (according to other sources, four) galaxies, which may or may not be simple luck. source.


In other news, I think this is the first time we hear Padma's thoughts? Does that mean she is "officially" elevated to main cast now? *psyduck* I hope not, because I personally don't really like her for reasons which have been worded way better than I ever could multiple times in the last few months.

[dragontart]

Seeing Padma's thoughts at least suggest that she does care about what the heck she's doing there and about possible problems arising from that.

[VonKleist]

heh..s´pose we´re in for some angst-ridden whining on behalf of our hero

ooooor they could really talk it out.

but even if, I guess there´s gonna be whining and moping, which suits me just fine, I must say.

[tjradcliffe]

Seeing Padma's thoughts at least suggest that she does care about what the heck she's doing there and about possible problems arising from that.

She's caring about possible problems for her, and I'm betting Marten is caring about possible problems for them. 

And while it's great they're both recognizing their feelings, our reasoning capacity often has much the same relationship to our feelings as a skydiver does to the ground:  even when you look at it really hard, it still comes rushing at you 'til you deploy your chute, and if anything goes wrong you've only got one backup and even that's gonna give you a pretty hard landing.

[VonKleist]

She's caring about possible problems for her, and I'm betting Marten is caring about possible problems for them. 

Yet they both think "I´m in trouble."

I can't see a "we" in Marten's bubble.

[tjradcliffe]

An Italian scientist recently suggested that dark matter might not in fact exist, by coming up with some complicated formulae which predict movements of spiral galaxies without requiring the existence of  dark matter. He has shown his math to work so far for two (according to other sources, four) galaxies, which may or may not be simple luck

Rotation curves of spiral galaxies are only one aspect of the Dark Matter problem, and one that can be solved without invoking exotic particles.  At larger scales we need exotic Dark Matter to explain the dynamics of the universe:  the problem is that we know how much ordinary matter there is in the universe based on the ratio of hydrogen (whose nucleus is just a single proton) and helium (whose nucleus contains two protons and two neutrons.) 

Back in the minutes after the Big Bang protons and neutrons condensed out of the quark-gluon plasma, and then neutrons were captured onto protons to create helium.  But free neutrons decay into protons and electrons with a lifetime of about fifteen minutes, so the amount of helium created was dependent on the density of the universe at that time (the denser it was the more neutrons would be captured into helium before they had time to decay).  We know what the volume of the universe was during that brief interval from other observations, we know the primordial He/H ratio, so we know the mass of the universe in "ordinary matter", and there's enough of it to explain "galactic dark matter", which is what's needed to make spiral galaxy rotation curves work out.

But on larger scales we still see anomalous dynamics that suggest too much mass to be accounted for by the known mass of ordinary particles, so we think there must either be exotic physics or exotic particles (not, unfortunately, exotic dancers.)  This new paper explains away the need for exotic particles in galaxies, but that's not where we need them.  And the argument doesn't even deal with other galaxy-scale anomalies like the Bullet Cluster, where two galaxies in collision show clear evidence of non-interacting Dark Matter that accompanies the visible mass but is substantially decoupled from it.

Wait, isn't this supposed to be a discussion forum about the shenanigans of a group of 20-somethings in a slightly alternative universe?

[ilikefishfood]

From the glowing smile on Padma's face and the way she is looking Marten straight in his eyes in panel two, I think she's rather smitten.  Their body language is very relaxed.  Like they're comfortable with each other.  And then they spoon!  That's some pretty intimate stuff.

ASIDE:  I'm new at posting here.  Long time lurker.  Hi everybody.

[Throg]

Hi fishfood.

This comic made me happy, if only for the simple reason that Padma is not the stereotypical cold-hearted exotic inscrutable unscrupulous "foreign" bimbo. She may be clueless and come across harsh sometimes, but she's not heartless.

[Mr_Rose]

See the thing about Schrödinger's Cat is that yes it's ridiculous—it is intended to be—but only physicists ever get the joke because everyone else wanders off before they get to the punchline. Specifically, that the only 'observer' that is required is the Geiger counter in the box with the cat.
All the superposed cat demonstrates, really, is that physicists should never be allowed to name things and especially should not be allowed to borrow words that everyone else already thinks they know in order to do so.

[NotsoAverageJoe]

I don't think that causality was broken by that experiment, but I won't trust myself here. I would advice that you won't take my word on it either.

that was all i was advocating.  that no matter what field of study people prefer, they don't fall into the trap of assuming they've found the absolute answer.  everyone is prone to it, people want answers and they tend to grasp at even the slightest chance to get one.

only difference that i can see between men now, and men two thousand years ago, is that instead of worshiping an invisible spaghetti monster in the sky, now we worship imaginary numbers and scientific theories.

that's why i personally can't bring myself to get overly excited about new discoveries and inventions... to me we haven't advanced that much from our ancestors, we've picked up a few new tools, but our base nature isn't any different than it ever was.  it doesn't matter if the monkey only has a pointy stick or if he's sitting in a space capsule, he's still just a monkey.

Comics up.  Sad in a way, but it actually made me happy to see this, and to know Padma's not immune...

this is gonna be ugly...

Thought the same thing. Marten does run into some gorgeous ladies.

i've got a buddy like that... always amazes/pisses me off, the luck he has sometimes.  i mean, its like he's in the right place, at the right time, wayyyyy more often than should be fair.

I have a feeling the conversation will begin during tomorrow's comic and will reach a suspenseful climax that will be left unresolved until the following comic.  

wonder how many people are taking bets that padma is thinking about if she should stay now?

[zmeiat_joro]

And then they spoon!  That's some pretty intimate stuff.

Hm, really? Is spooning generally seen as a very intimate thing? I haven't thought about this.

[jwhouk]

"Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble..."

[Mr_Rose]

that was all i was advocating.  that no matter what field of study people prefer, they don't fall into the trap of assuming they've found the absolute answer.  everyone is prone to it, people want answers and they tend to grasp at even the slightest chance to get one.

only difference that i can see between men now, and men two thousand years ago, is that instead of worshiping an invisible spaghetti monster in the sky, now we worship imaginary numbers and scientific theories.

You either have some seriously fucked up ideas about what it is scientists do with their time or are working from a completely different definition of 'worship' to everyone else. Which is it please?

[VonKleist]

"Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble..."

it is a tale told by an idiot
full of sound and fury
signifying nothing.

[jwhouk]

<snip>

I have a feeling the conversation will begin during tomorrow's comic and will reach a suspenseful climax that will be left unresolved until the following comic.  

wonder how many people are taking bets that padma is thinking about if she should stay now?

If it happens, you win the Internets.

[jwhouk]

"Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble..."

it is a tale told by an idiot
full of sound and fury
signifying nothing.

If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly. If th' issue of trouble
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With their cuddles, success: that but this talk
Might be the be-all and the end-all—here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come.

(Pardon me, Will.)

[SomeCanadianWeirdo]

FFS, this has now put the song "Trouble" by Shampoo in my head. This is not a good thing.

Perhaps this will help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbpuflLgmgM

[AnAverageWriter]

Perhaps this will help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbpuflLgmgM

What about this?

Thread relevant-shmelavant.

[Carl-E]

"Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble..."

it is a tale told by an idiot
full of sound and fury
signifying nothing.

If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly. If th' issue of trouble
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With their cuddles, success: that but this talk
Might be the be-all and the end-all—here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come.

(Pardon me, Will.)

My first reaction to your initial post there was "what, she's a witch now?" 

But the rest is genius, no apologies necessary!

[Skewbrow]

I don't think that causality was broken by that experiment, but I won't trust myself here. I would advice that you won't take my word on it either.

that was all i was advocating.  that no matter what field of study people prefer, they don't fall into the trap of assuming they've found the absolute answer.  everyone is prone to it, people want answers and they tend to grasp at even the slightest chance to get one.

I'm afraid you seem to have misunderstood me. All I meant was that *I* am not qualified to answer that question about whether neutrinos can be used for communicating with the past. Somebody else knows more.

I plead guilty to having put on my teacher's hat, and refusing to take a stand lest I mislead the young ones with a misinformed answer.

[Throg]

All kinds of trouble.

[Carl-E]

All kinds of trouble.

Fixed your link - no quotes. 

[lepetitfromage]

And then they spoon!  That's some pretty intimate stuff.

Hm, really? Is spooning generally seen as a very intimate thing? I haven't thought about this.

indeed! despite the lack of eye contact, i consider spooning to be one of the most intimate things two people can engage in. plus, it just feels soooo goooood.

[snubnose]

In other news, I think this is the first time we hear Padma's thoughts?

Hearing anyones thoughts was pretty rare on QC ... if this isnt even the first time, because out of the top of my head I get zip rememberance of a previous event that had thought bubbles.

[snubnose]

See the thing about Schrödinger's Cat is that yes it's ridiculous—it is intended to be—but only physicists ever get the joke because everyone else wanders off before they get to the punchline. Specifically, that the only 'observer' that is required is the Geiger counter in the box with the cat.
All the superposed cat demonstrates, really, is that physicists should never be allowed to name things and especially should not be allowed to borrow words that everyone else already thinks they know in order to do so.

This is Nils Bohr's interpretation of Schrödinger's cat.

As an example for another interpretation, the many world interpretation of Schrödinger's cat is that the universe splits into two different universes - one with the cat dead, the other with the cat alife.

There are more interpretations. None of these are "fact" until you can specify an experiment that disproves certain interpretations.

[Loki]

Hearing anyones thoughts was pretty rare on QC ... if this isnt even the first time, because out of the top of my head I get zip rememberance of a previous event that had thought bubbles.

Indeed, the only other two that come to my mind are Svens thoughts while drunkenly making out with Rita-whats-her-name and the one with Hanners where she has all kind of thoughts at the counter of CoD, then Dora asks her what she is thinking about and Hanners is like "Uh, nothing."

[Yarin]

As an example for another interpretation, the many world interpretation of Schrödinger's cat is that the universe splits into two different universes - one with the cat dead, the other with the cat alife.

I like the many world interpretation

[VonKleist]

Trouble is a funny thing anyhow.
Sometimes it can't be avoided and the mere knowledge of it being in your way may cause you to get troubled.


Trouble in the city, trouble in the farm
You got your rabbit’s foot, you got your good-luck charm
But they can’t help you none when there’s trouble

[Dr. ROFLPWN]

D'awww.

Talk about bittersweet moments. Beautiful, just simply beautiful.

Fucking stupid kids not just saying how they feel D:

Just get it out there you two, both of you, it'll be better and you'll feel better in the end

I wouldn't be quite so harsh, but yeah, you do have quite a good and important point there.

(edited to fix some damn typos)

I was just being hyperbolic, honestly I love these dang kids.

 Padma especially, she is a fantastic character and I will miss her if she goes. ;_; She has been a damn ray of sunshine.