0592: "Drama"

[The Scyphozoa]

Alt Text: This happens in geek circles every so often. The 'Hey, this is just a system I can figure out easily!' is also a problem among engineers first diving into the stock market.

http://www.xkcd.com/592/


Boy, do I hope I get this thread. Will have been my first one. Wooooooooo.

EDIT: WOOOOOO I got it. I win. Woo.

Also, the lame comic is lame.

[TurtleMidget]

I lol'd.

Edit: Is l-o-l replaced with that sentence?
Then, uh, I laughed out loud.

[hotaru]

i'm pretty sure the title of that comic is "Drama", not "".

[The Scyphozoa]

i'm pretty sure the title of that comic is "Drama", not "".

I DID fix that before you posted. I mean, really, I had a page of the forum with "Drama" Discussion. Posts: 0. So, yeah.

[joee]

I want to know what the new rules are!

also, pre-emptive hi glasnt!

[abstractpotato]

Not as entertaining as I've come to expect...

[Eternal Density]

Not especially funny, but the resulting forum discussion will be interesting. I expect many attempts at defining the simplified drama-free social rules...

[Walter.Horvath]

You start running into problems when the morality between monogamy/pregnancy/STIs come into play.

Dammit, everyone just be monogamous and pull out and this wouldn't be a problem *><*

Hmm... maybe legal contracts would work?

[dr7]

Seinfeld's "The Deal"?

[Snowdream]

Wow, that is the best pun ever!

[funda]

Hmmm ...


Is the x-axis representing what I'm thinking ??


Or is it the other thing ?

[MiB24601]

The problem of creating simple rules for systems based around human behavior is that you can't change human behavior. I remember Arthur C. Clarke mentioned this in 3001 when discussing communism.

Of course, if there was no drama about sex, there wouldn't need to be a "Love, Sex, and Relationships" board and that place is kinda fun, so what can you do?

[Steve the Pocket]

You start running into problems when the morality between monogamy/pregnancy/STIs come into play.

Dammit, everyone just be monogamous and pull out and this wouldn't be a problem *><*

"Everyone"? Well that would solve your social problems in a real hurry.

[glasnt]

The new rules are in the book, silly. http://xkcd.com/330/


Hi joee!

[includemaliciousintent]

Uh, this comic isn't appearing on the front page for me. I think we have a problem. o.0

[sdedeo]

This is a terrific comic for a complex systems lecture. Unfortunately, it is not (even close) to being PG-13, which is about as risqué as you can go in an academic environment. One can just delete the superfluous "holy shit", but does anyone have a good suggestion for an alternative to "sex"? Not an alternative to sex, mind you, an alternative to "sex".

[Iluvatar]

The simple rules would be pretty easy to define. Just remove all the preconceived notions that are attached to it and treat it like any other pleasurable exchange between two people (say, playing tennis, for example)- be safe and have fun. At a glance, this seems like it'd solve all the problems, though as Randall points out, it ain't that easy.

I suppose a good point for discussion would be to determine whether the failure of such a system results from the system itself, or the impossible transition? I mean, if we could wipe everyone's mind of their notions of how sex should work and replace it with such a set of rules, would it work then? I'm not sure.

[mamerong]

I think he copied the graph from al gore...



Then again, I'm insane.

[BirdLauncher]

I want a Fourier transform of the pre-rule change drama vs time graph.

[eleniy86]

i dont know about you, but it's too much drama and kaflama for my momma

[KShap]

Compared to Monday's awesome comic, this is kind of a let down.

[StClair]

Yes. This is precisely how geeks earnestly set out to "solve" problems that have simply been waiting for someone as brilliant as us to come along.

Good comic.

[phillipsjk]

The stock market mention in the "alt" text makes me think that the graph is the value Randall's stock portfolio printed up-side down.

[Peripatetic]

This reminds me of every slashdot discussion involving gender equality in math and science. "But, if we give women more encouragement and opportunities, then it won't be a level playing field!" :facepalm:

[Simplex]

This is a terrific comic for a complex systems lecture. Unfortunately, it is not (even close) to being PG-13, which is about as risqué as you can go in an academic environment. One can just delete the superfluous "holy shit", but does anyone have a good suggestion for an alternative to "sex"? Not an alternative to sex, mind you, an alternative to "sex".

Coitus, perhaps? A little coitus, never hoitus.

Not a single "Randall, get out of my head"? Ok, I'll be first up. Life can be so complicated.

I rather liked todays comic, it's not hot cheese material, but gives you that self-reflective smile, and maybe a quiet giggle.

[booyabazooka]

Poor chap tried to apply math to the real world. I like panel 4. Holding the door closed... just what happened out there?

[Code J]

Don't understand the hate for this comic, I think this one is particularly poignant (and funny).

[westrim]

This comic reminds me of when I invented Socialism at the age of 8. I had thought about it for a week or so, then laid it out for my dad during a drive home from somewhere (with everything shared equally and slackers put in a nice prison until they pulled it together and such- ah, the idealism). He looked at me funny, but waited until we got home to say anything. Then he showed me the encyclopedia entry and explained to me that people just don't work that way most of the time.

[crzftx]

I liked it. Simple and humorous.

[cyberblade]

Reminds me of something I vaguely remember hearing on NPR in the last week or so (I believe the piece had something to do with the hypothetical of an injection that would be a male contraceptive, but I digress...). One of the callers, or commentators, or someone said how the invention of the pill allowed women to be "free-er" sexually, and that caused a whole set of other issues, like the spread of STD's, and rise in single mothers, etc...

I'm not sure if the graph references this, or some other fact... But it brings me to a point that is well illustrated by the Wizard's Second Rule (yeah, I just read the whole Sword of Truth series last month for the first time, so sue me...) "the greatest harm can result from the best intentions".

People are complicated... A good thing-like the pill, has had some serious unforeseen side effects, some good, others not at all. If this isn't a historical graph, I wonder what it might be referencing about the present or future-and what those consequences are we're going to suffer?

[dennisw]

This is a terrific comic for a complex systems lecture. Unfortunately, it is not (even close) to being PG-13, which is about as risqué as you can go in an academic environment. One can just delete the superfluous "holy shit", but does anyone have a good suggestion for an alternative to "sex"? Not an alternative to sex, mind you, an alternative to "sex".

Nice demonstration of the drama!

[ccx]

I dunno. Responsible open relationship is working for me, and that's not the standart model of behavior for most people. I think that implementing non-standart features in relationship protocol, when it's well agreed upon by all sides, is good idea. Or atleast fun.

[UmbralRaptor]

The real problem is that a lot of humans like drama and will work to generate it. Sex is only a convenient ritual for summoning drahma llamas.

...lousy humans...

[cyberblade]

The real problem is that a lot of humans like drama and will work to generate it. Sex is only a convenient ritual for summoning drahma llamas.

...lousy humans...

Have you met my ex?

[Meng Bomin]

I'm going to echo Code J and say that this was actually one of the better comics I've seen, so the amount of disparagement for it in this thread seems a bit strange to me.

[prokrastinatorSF]

Wow... this was exactly, exactly me in high school. Then I decided to write about it on my online journal. Boy did that go over well.

[Ool]

I think the only way you can make sex easy without drama is to create a Matrix-like virtual reality environment that allows consequence-free promiscuous behavior with simulated drama thrown in—the same way that Grand Theft Auto IV allows you to create consequence-free mayhem in sociopath heaven.

In real life sex is never going to be easy because it isn’t meant to be easy. It isn’t meant to make you happy. It’s merely meant to incentivize you to create offspring, and the high level of pleasure we derive from it exists precisely because of the high level of difficulty getting there in the first place and dealing with the results of conception later…

[OBloodyHell]

.

And this folks, is why the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s died out.

Not drugs, not disease -- but because of the Drama.

.

[kittens]

Another exciting chapter in xkcd's race to the bottom.

[Fallible]

As a side topic;

Are there any other engineers diving into the stock market for the first time? I started around six months ago and wouldn't mind exploring ideas with someone representative of the high level of commentary generally found on these boards.

Fallible,