2012-06-29
Explanation
In this comic, a woman gives a scientific presentation explaining that she had two men interested in her but couldn't decide between them, so she devised an experiment: she fired a photon through a beam splitter (a plate that randomly reflects or transmits light). If it reflected, Man 1 was summoned; if it transmitted, Man 2 was summoned. She then had sex with whichever man arrived without observing which one it was. The caption reads: "The scientific community has not welcomed my 'quantum threesome' concept."
The comic is a parody of quantum mechanics, specifically the concept of superposition -- the idea that a quantum particle exists in multiple states simultaneously until it is observed. By deliberately not observing which man showed up, the woman is jokingly claiming that she was in a quantum superposition of having sex with both men at once, hence a "quantum threesome." This is a humorous misapplication of quantum physics to macroscopic human interactions, playing on the popular (mis)understanding of Schrodinger's cat and the observer effect. The joke also satirizes how people sometimes invoke quantum mechanics to justify or mystify things that have nothing to do with subatomic physics -- a tendency that frustrates actual physicists.