2012-08-16
Explanation
This comic explores the philosophical problem of personal identity through a conversation between a young girl and her father. The girl poses a thought experiment: what if she had surgery, woke up screaming when the anesthesia wore off, was sedated, and then woke up after surgery with no memory of the pain? She asks her father who suffered in that scenario.
Her father responds with a view rooted in the philosophy of mind: there is no such thing as a persistent "you." He explains that the version of her from surgery never truly existed as a separate entity -- her brain was just representing a "you" for convenience, much as it does in the present moment. He tries to reassure her that the old representation got to experience the full range of emotion and sensation for its entire existence, then asks what the current representation of her plans to do.
The girl says she thought this version of her would spend the day eating pudding and watching cartoons, to which the father replies with dry resignation, "Well, I hope that'''s fulfilling." In the final panel, labeled "Later," the girl tells her mother that talking to her father was "all a farce," and that "'''Father''' doesn'''t exist" -- turning his own philosophical argument about the non-persistence of identity back against him.
The votey panel continues the joke by framing it as a recurring series called "Existential Crisis Sally," with the text "Tune in next week for more... Existential Crisis Sally," suggesting this poor child is routinely subjected to her father'''s unsettling philosophical musings.