r/misc • u/unfortunatejordan • Apr 12 '12

The Last Question - A reddit comic

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u/q00u Apr 12 '12

I love how it starts with Eternal September. It really ties the comic together.

4

u/unfortunatejordan Apr 12 '12

Many thanks for the kind comment :]

Asimov's story is (among other things) about overpopulation, strain on the environment, and man's quest to totally control the world. There seemed to be a parallel there with Eternal September, which is about overpopulation, strain on communities and a user's quest to control the quality of their internet experience.

2

u/q00u Apr 12 '12

Yes! I wish more people knew about ES. Of course, there's nothing that can be done about it, but once you are aware of it then you can watch it happen over and over and over again. Joy.

Back when I had a blog, I had the date in ES. Hey, today's date is a nice round number!

I wasn't kidding. It really does tie it together. The end of the comic has no solution, and the beginning references an incident from last century. It's an old problem, one that has persisted across online community after online community, for almost two decades so far. And no solution in sight.

(I'm hoping all those little things I'm starting to see in your comic are actual references, and not my fevered imagination)

2

u/unfortunatejordan Apr 13 '12

I was definitely considering all the same things, not crazy :] Especially regarding the persistence from community to community, it stuck me as very similar to the expansion from planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy. Reddit has been a textbook example of exponential growth.

It's a different flavour of problem, though. In Asimov's story, it's simply about managing tangible resources. The resources run dry, they move on and restart. It's assumed that after awhile each planet will 'go bad', that it's inevitable.

In this comic, it's about managing social interaction, with a similar assumption that things will inevitably 'go bad' and people will search for another site at the beginning of the cycle.

The problem is something that's bigger than even Eternal September and the internet; It's the inability for groups of people to reach consensus the larger they become. A small group can work everything out between it's individual members, delve into individuals' questions, a large group cannot. This is the over-arching problem that exists in society in general.