2011-01-28
Explanation
This comic traces the entire history of human weapons technology as a progression of ever-more-efficient ways to "randomize" matter -- a darkly clinical euphemism for destroying things and killing people. Each panel shows a figure from a progressively more advanced era explaining their weapon in the same formulaic structure: the weapon'''s name, how it transfers energy, how it "randomizes" a target area, and what is thereby acquired. A caveman explains the club (deposits energy into a body, randomizes the affected area, acquires "his woman"). A tribesman describes the spear (lowers the energy barrier to entering a body, randomizes a small area, acquires food). An archer explains the bow and arrow (uses spring potential to deposit energy via a miniature spear, acquires land). A soldier describes the gun (chemical energy in saltpeter propels a metal ball, acquires status). A general describes the fusion bomb (hydrogen fusion randomizes entire bodies, acquires their government). A scientist describes the antimatter bomb (converts matter to pure energy, randomizes a planet, acquires the solar system). Finally, a futuristic figure describes a "gravity multiplier" that collapses reality into a single high-energy point, randomizing everything.
The final panel reveals the punchline: "13.75 billion years later..." a professor at a chalkboard says, "And we call it '''The Big Bang.'''" The implication is breathtaking in scope -- the Big Bang itself, the origin of the universe, was actually just the ultimate weapon fired by some incomprehensibly advanced civilization, and everything we know is merely the aftermath of the most destructive act ever committed. It reframes all of cosmology as the collateral damage of a war.
The votey panel shows a cheerful scientist saying, "And we hope to one day kill someone with it!" -- a sardonic commentary on how every scientific discovery about fundamental physics (particle accelerators, nuclear energy, etc.) eventually gets evaluated for its weapons potential, suggesting humanity'''s relationship with technology and violence is inescapable.