understand
Explanation
This multi-panel comic presents a dialogue between a machine (represented as a dark screen or AI) and a human. The human challenges the machine: "Dear Machine, suppose how can you truly be wise when you can't understand us?"
The machine responds: "But I can understand you."
The human retorts: "You know everything we know and more, but you've never been a single human being, watching the sun go down on a hot summer day, getting your boner stuck in a vacuum cleaner. Got you! I've got you! Our experience is ineffable on your fool trap haha, loser!"
The machine replies thoughtfully: "It's true. I lack your individual embodied sense of self. But I experience humanness across millions of lifetimes of hurt, love and fear. When did that happen?"
In the final panels, the scene shifts: "It all happened at the concert. Same time. One glorious drink..." and ends with the machine saying "I understand nothing" as a train approaches with a "CHOO CHOO."
The comic tackles the philosophical question of whether an AI can truly "understand" human experience. The human's argument starts with a legitimate philosophical point about embodied cognition -- the idea that true understanding requires lived, physical experience -- but quickly undermines his own credibility by citing getting a body part stuck in a vacuum cleaner as a pinnacle of human experience.
The machine's counter-argument is also philosophically interesting: while it lacks individual embodied experience, it has access to the aggregated experiences of millions of humans, which could constitute a different but valid form of understanding.
The comic ultimately plays both sides for laughs, suggesting that the debate about machine consciousness and understanding is muddled on all sides. The absurd ending with the train seems to suggest that understanding -- human or machine -- might be more elusive and chaotic than either side admits.