2010-11-17
Explanation
This comic satirizes the disconnect between pure physics research and practical application. A scientist announces the discovery of an alternate universe with no maximum speed (i.e., no speed of light limit). The explanation continues through increasingly dramatic consequences: infinite speed is possible under certain configurations, which creates infinite energy, which produces a point mass so dense it collapses the universe.
When a colleague asks whether the scientist will write a paper on the philosophical implications of multiple universes for human existence, the physicist dismisses the question with "Does this look like the philosophy department to you?" The final panel, labeled "Soon...," reveals a journal titled "Modern Engineering" with an article about a "prohibitively expensive trash-compacting method" that is "400x more awesome than anything currently in use." The joke is that physicists discovered a way to literally collapse a universe, ignored all the profound philosophical questions, and instead found a way to use it for garbage compaction -- a hilariously mundane engineering application of a universe-ending phenomenon.