2011-03-17
Explanation
This comic is an extended metaphor comparing booting up an old computer you haven't used in ten years to revisiting a past version of yourself. The comic walks through a series of observations: the computer's clock knows how much time has passed but it still behaves as if it's a decade ago, it still has your old embarrassing files (like illegally downloaded content), it's worse at tasks that modern computers handle easily, yet it provides a warm blanket of nostalgia through old photos and memories.
The key twist comes when the narrator notes that once you copy everything you want from the old computer, it becomes truly obsolete -- even its memories are no longer unique. This leads to the punchline about brain downloading: the narrator declares that nobody should ever be allowed to download his brain, because the same thing would happen to him. He'd become the obsolete original, stripped of the one thing that made him special -- the uniqueness of his memories. The final panel undercuts this existential anxiety with crude humor, as the narrator says he'll use his brain before death to "give everyone the finger," choosing defiance over profundity.