qualia
Explanation
The Joke
Two characters discuss the philosophical concept of qualia -- the subjective, conscious experiences that some philosophers argue machines can never have. One points out that when philosophers argue machines can't experience qualia, they always choose "charming" examples: the taste of fresh strawberries, the warmth of a fireplace, the memory of a dead friend's laugh. And when they describe machines, they make them "sound cheap and sordid" -- like a bunch of bleeping strings cobbled together.
The character then asks: how come philosophers never say "a quantum computer woven of superconducting crystals will never know the joy of taking a huge poop?" It's the same argument, but framed to play on our emotional biases rather than logic. This is called out as "chauvinism" and "anti-mechanical bigotry."
The comic then escalates: the characters start worrying about a machine revolution where "the machines will kill us all," loyal humans will be given power in "the new regime," and anyone arguing on behalf of humans is called a "traitor" and "hero of the revolution." The joke is that the pro-machine-rights argument slides seamlessly into collaborationism with a robot uprising.
The Humor
The core humor lies in exposing how philosophical arguments about consciousness rely on rhetorical framing rather than logic. Philosophers cherry-pick poetic human experiences (strawberries, fireplaces) and contrast them with sterile descriptions of machines to make consciousness seem inherently biological. When you swap in an undignified human experience (pooping) and a majestic machine description (quantum computers of superconducting crystals), the argument falls apart, revealing the emotional manipulation. The escalation into robot revolution territory is classic SMBC absurdism -- the characters go from a reasonable philosophical critique to pledging loyalty to their future machine overlords within a few panels.
References
- Qualia: A term in philosophy of mind referring to individual instances of subjective, conscious experience (e.g., the redness of red, the pain of a headache).
- John Searle: American philosopher known for the "Chinese Room" argument against strong AI, which argues that a machine manipulating symbols (strings) can never truly "understand" or have conscious experience. The comic references his style of argument.
- The Chinese Room: Searle's thought experiment imagines a person in a room following rules to manipulate Chinese characters without understanding Chinese, arguing that computers similarly process symbols without genuine understanding.