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xkcd: A Bunch Of Rocks (imgs.xkcd.com)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Grail@multiverse.soulism.net to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world
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[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 35 points 1 week ago

He skipped over the time spent screaming insanely.

[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 week ago

Yeah I think you'd go insane far quicker than figuring out quantum mechanics with sand and stones.

[-] nonfuinoncuro@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago

i thought this was cool when i first read it years ago then i read this scp and "a short stay in hell" by steven peck and now i have a tiny glimpse into the madness this truly would be

[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 week ago

Fantastic SCP read, thank you for sharing. And yeah, that's exactly how I'd see something like that going down.

[-] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 31 points 1 week ago

XKCD should be posted with the title text/tool tip.

[-] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 4 points 1 week ago
[-] MalReynolds@piefed.social 8 points 1 week ago

Nope, try harder.

[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 29 points 1 week ago

In a way we might hope that this man, placing rocks in an infinite desert for eternity, might notice if a false vacuum decays into true vacuum. The handful of misplaced rocks, perhaps, that entail an obvious, nullifying cascade such that more and more rock zeros appear in subsequent rows from the mistake, the true vacuum engulfing our reality at light speed from the apparent position of the error.

And he tuts. He spends aeons rewinding the rows like crochet or knitting after a mistake and then resumes forward again, across the desert.

Not his pet reality. Not if he can help it.

And then perhaps, one day, it occurs spontaneously anyway, as a result of the calculations. No mistake. Pure consequence. He has infinite time to think. Perhaps he can patch the simulation.

Maybe that's all the control any creator god has.

There isn't any point praying. Such a god can't hear you. He's just out there... shuffling rocks.

[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 16 points 1 week ago

https://xkcd.com/505/

Alt text:

I call Rule 34 on Wolfram's Rule 34.

[-] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

Thank you, was wondering where the link was

Just incredible isn’t it… Randall!

[-] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Sometimes I meet people who say math can't have feelings, and I think of this comic.

[-] DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 week ago

This is by far my favorite XKCD comic. It reminds me of "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question

[-] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

Reminds me of this recent numberphile video where they talk about the largest number in jainism, a very old Indian religion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJqceEImtew

this post was submitted on 04 May 2026
267 points (100.0% liked)

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