2013-01-10
Explanation
This comic imagines a future where advanced 3D printers have become common, enabling "an entirely new class of pranks." It presents three tiers: The "Basic Prank" ("Ghost from the Machine") involves remotely accessing a friend's 3D printer at night, printing a simple radio the same color as the inside of the printer, then waiting for the person to hear mysterious voices the next day. The "Intermediate Prank" ("Arachnophobia") involves hiding an RFID tag in a friend's blanket, then printing hundreds of small signal-seeking robots that swarm toward the sleeping person when the tag is activated. The "Advanced Prank" ("The Plenty of Horn") involves printing enormous dildos and having robots hide them throughout a friend's home before the in-laws visit.
The comic is a playful extrapolation of how emerging technology would inevitably be used for juvenile purposes. Each prank escalates in both technical sophistication and social destructiveness, following the classic "beginner/intermediate/advanced" tutorial format commonly seen in tech guides. The humor lies in the contrast between the incredible technological capabilities implied (self-replicating robots, remote manufacturing, autonomous hiding algorithms) and the thoroughly immature goals they serve. It satirizes the common observation that whenever a revolutionary technology emerges, one of its first widespread applications is invariably something frivolous or inappropriate.