2010-07-25
Explanation
This comic explores a humorous solution to Stephen Hawking's time travel paradox. The first panel is set "In the Future" where a scientist explains the classic grandfather paradox: if you travel back in time to change something, the change would prevent you from ever needing to go back, creating a logical contradiction. The scientist then proposes that there are only two ways to successfully time travel: either send someone so empty-headed that they have no plans whatsoever, or send someone so stupid they have no chance of actually succeeding at changing anything. His colleague agrees that this would indeed resolve Hawking's time travel paradox.
The comic then cuts to "Present Day" where someone at a laptop asks the famous question: "If time travel is possible, where are all the time travelers?" The final panel answers this by showing a dim-witted-looking man at what appears to be a NASCAR or monster truck rally, wearing a foam finger and shouting "Woah! Fast cars go fast! Fast cars go fast!" The implication is that time travelers are indeed among us -- they are just so profoundly stupid that nobody recognizes them as time travelers, and they are incapable of altering the timeline in any meaningful way.
The votey panel shows the same enthusiastic man saying "We will have been #1!" -- mangling verb tenses in a way that hilariously confirms he is indeed a time traveler, just a very dim one who can barely handle grammar, let alone paradox-inducing changes to history.