algorithms
Explanation
The Joke
This is a "Soonish" promotional comic. In the first panel, a woman explains that she wants to buy some ethanol and a monthly subscription to a service that sends trains containing information. The store clerk notes that she has unlocked various perks with each purchase. In the "Later" panel, the woman is at her computer, and a narration box explains that she now knows Amazon's no-engagement policies and has purchased plane tickets to vacation with them. The joke seems to be about how online shopping algorithms and recommendation engines lead people down increasingly absurd purchasing paths.
The comic satirizes the way modern e-commerce algorithms work. A customer makes a simple purchase, and the recommendation engine uses that data to suggest increasingly unrelated and escalating products and services. The algorithm treats every purchase as a signal to push more products, creating a feedback loop where a simple transaction spirals into an absurd consumer journey. The "perks" that unlock with each purchase parody loyalty programs and algorithmic recommendations that claim to be serving the customer but are really designed to maximize spending.
The Humor
The humor lies in the escalation from a mundane purchase to an absurd consumer spiral driven by algorithmic recommendations. It parodies the real experience of online shopping, where buying one item leads to a flood of increasingly tenuous "you might also like" suggestions. The comic exaggerates this to an extreme where the algorithm essentially takes over the person's life decisions, turning a simple transaction into a lifestyle commitment. As a "Soonish" promotional strip, it ties into the book's themes about how technology shapes human behavior in unexpected ways.