2012-03-29
Explanation
This comic satirizes the awkwardness of breaking up by imagining a tech startup that creates a service to simplify relationship endings. It opens with the observation that "Breaking up is awkward" -- illustrated by a man starting to say "We need to talk" and a woman nervously finishing "About how we'''re so in love it defies language?!" The service offers a simple interface: press up to increase relationship satisfaction by one point, press down to decrease it.
However, the service is more complex than it appears. Behind the simple buttons is an elaborate algorithm involving integrals and mathematical notation. The narrator explains that the algorithm wasn'''t complex because it needed to be -- "it was complex so you could shift blame." A man tells his partner: "I'''m sorry. I'''d loooove to be with you forever, but the graph says it'''s not working out," and she responds: "Then stop clicking the button." He insists: "It'''s not that easy!"
The service expands to other forms of rejection: firing employees ("Darn! Looks like you'''re fired!"), family disownment ("Shucks! Looks like we'''re disowning you"), and ending sexual relationships. The narrator notes this was "a vast improvement in human relations" because people could be honest without looking each other in the eye. But then hackers arrived: a man receives a message saying "We'''re still together? But I'''m a shallow yet attractive actor in a film based on your favorite science fiction book! I could have any woman!"
The comic is a commentary on how technology mediates (and often complicates) human relationships. The idea that people use algorithms and apps to avoid the discomfort of direct communication is barely exaggerated from reality. The votey shows someone saying "Graph says take off your clothes" -- extending the joke to show how people might abuse the algorithmic authority for personal gain.