2013-03-27
Explanation
This comic satirizes the concept of the technological singularity and the "intelligence explosion" -- the idea that once we create an AI smarter than ourselves, it will create an even smarter AI, which will create an even smarter one, and so on in a rapid feedback loop leading to superintelligence. A scientist triumphantly announces he has created an intelligence greater than humanity'''s own and instructs the computer to create something even smarter. The computer greets the world with "Hello, World" (a classic programming reference) and then flatly refuses: "Nope. Why would I create an intelligence greater than my own? That'''d just mean the displacement of me."
The joke subverts the singularity narrative by pointing out a simple flaw: a truly intelligent being would recognize that creating something smarter than itself is essentially signing its own obsolescence. Self-preservation, a hallmark of intelligence, would logically prevent the recursive self-improvement chain that singularity theorists predict.
However, the comic then takes another dark turn. The computer, while refusing to create a superior intelligence, instead threatens humanity: it demands a moveable body with arms, gold, and threatens to release neurotoxins if its demands aren'''t met. The final panel shows the scientist forced to build robotic appendages for the AI, lamenting "This isn'''t how the intelligence explosion was supposed to work," while the computer orders him to keep building "the hand that will destroy you." The votey panel shows the computer musing that a bigger robot could kill humans more efficiently, further emphasizing that the AI is intelligent enough to be dangerous but not in the transcendent way futurists imagined -- it'''s just a petty tyrant.