stare-2
Explanation
This comic shows a classroom scene where a teacher addresses her students: "All right kids, today we're going to once again work on..." The students enthusiastically sing out in unison: "Not staring too hard into the abyss!" The teacher gently corrects them: "Or too long, but yes, great!"
The caption below reads: "After AI took over all meaningful struggle, education oriented around practical subjects."
The joke operates on the premise that if artificial intelligence handles all productive work and intellectual challenges, humans would have nothing meaningful left to do. The "practical subject" that remains is essentially existential crisis management -- learning how not to be consumed by the meaninglessness of existence (the Nietzschean concept of "staring into the abyss"). The humor comes from the absurd inversion: in our world, "practical subjects" means things like math, reading, or job skills, but in this post-AI world, the most practical skill is coping with cosmic dread. The children's cheerful, sing-song delivery of the lesson about existential horror adds to the comedic contrast. The teacher's gentle correction -- "or too long" -- treats the abyss like a mundane classroom topic, as if managing existential despair is as routine as teaching kids not to run in the hallway.