[1274] Stairway To The Skies
└ posted on Saturday, 19 June 2021, by Novil
You have no idea how long it took me to letter this!
- Steps: General relativity – Quantum mechanics – Turing machine – Standard model of cosmology
- Scientist #1: Whew, the next two steps look tough!
- Scientist #2: Yeah, but then we’ll be done!
- Steps: Dark energy and dark matter – Unified field theory
- Steps: Quantum computing – Hot fusion – Cold fusion – Room-temperature superconductor – Anti-gravity warp drive – Lukewarm fusion – Intelligence amplification – Black hole information storage – Multi-universal Teichmüller Theory – Consciousness-oriented programming (C&&) – Unified field theory v2 – Teleportation – Hypercomputation (Zeno-Turing machine) – Busy Beaver computing – Lazy Beaver computing – Shape shifting – Tachyonic antitelephone – Non-deterministic time machine – Paradox-free time machine – XÆA-12’s Incompleteness Theorem – XÆA-12’s Completeness Theorem – Global consciousness sideloading – Super Mario Bros. in 4:52 – Atom recombination – Particle recombination – Bug-free software – Unified field theory v3 – G.E.C.K. Construction Kit – Unified field theory v4 – Unified field theory v5 – Unified field theory v6 – Unified field theory v7 – Guess what – Interdimensional travel – Interdimensional existence – The Last Theorem – The Last Theorem-final – The Last Theorem-final2 – The New Reality – Fire
![[1274] Stairway To The Skies](/comics/2021-06-19-1274-stairway-to-the-skies.png "[1274] Stairway To The Skies")
There’s always a bigger fish.
~some meme source I don’t care about
As someone who once (unconvincingly) faked a screenshot, discovered that I didn’t have the font used in the game, and worked around it by copy-pasting individual words and letters from numerous real screenshots… I think I have a pretty good estimate on how long it took you to letter this.
The last two steps are unreadable at this resolution.
zerbot wrote:
The next-to-last one says “The New Reality”.
Bug-Free Software will be the impossible step, that’s for sure.
A rather accurate portrayal. The advancement of scientific research has no end. There will always be another problem to solve, another discovery to make. A pure example!e of infinity.
Am I correct in remembering that they figured out The Universe is not infinite after all? 🙂
Geck hahahahaa nice
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2 wrote:
Is the last one “Filing”?
I don’t know about most of the things since they are not in my major. BUT I can see one impossible task. “bug-free software”
The task of Sisyphus.
“Super Mario Bros in 4:52”, alas my friend, may we understand the whole universe before
Hmm bug free software exist.
You just need a formal verification.
Daniel Holm wrote:
Is the last one “Filing”?
I see only three letters… but which three? Hey? Men? I’ve no idea.
Don’t you hate false summits?
Also: is that one of Yuna’s dolls on the Cold Fusion step?
erejnion wrote:
Personally I read “K pop” there and now am trying to make sense of why it would be written there
I think, the last step is: “MEH”.
Bug free software is possible, but the complexity is so low, the program isn’t very useful.
Cheuk wrote:
not impossible, all it would be just take dedication and stop being lazy (ok, yes its impossible:D)
I see Elon Musk’s kid will be famous with those two theorems named after him.
Then there’s the one above ‘filing’ that all we can see is a blank corner.
For every question Science answers you get 10 more to solve.
42.
The current WR at Super Mario Bros is 4:54.
The TAS record is 4:54.03 using RTA timing, and the human WR is 4:54.948.
I don’t think 4:52 is absolutely impossible, but so far we haven’t found a way.
HEY – we already got room temperature superconductors working!!!
Sure it needs to be under INSANE pressure, but that’s much easier to potentially maintain without requiring constant work than extremely low temperatures! All you need is to incase it in like, several layers of carbon nano-tubes and then you get superconductor wires at room temperature! which like is super hard cuz molecular manufacturing is super difficult, but the point is we know how to make a room-temperature superconductor!!!
The Last Theorem: Final Championship Platinum Edition Alpha 2 EX (Plus c)
Looks like a Stellaris mod.
@ Suomynona:
I cast “summon a bigger fish.”
There will always be new mysteries. Every new answer in science reveals new questions.
“Infinite” has no ending.
This very concept has come up from time to time in debates concerning science vs religion.
My personal stance is that having it be science “vs” religion is pointedly stupid. They, the concepts, don’t actually oppose each other. It’s just people of opposing ideologies that are “vs” each other. People ironically make “science” into a religion, instead of just a process, and then you have fundamentalists on both sides butting heads.
And the hardcore atheists that oppose religion treat “science” as the proof against religion. “Science has answered all the great unknowns that people used to use religion and mythology to try and explain. That proves there is no God!”
But… no. No it doesn’t. There will ALWAYS be more unknowns. There are countless infinites out there, and even a single one means there will always be new questions.
Time. There’s always a ‘what came before that’ and a ‘what will come after that?’
Space. There’s always a ‘what is beyond that’ and a ‘well if that’s the smallest building block of matter, then what is THAT made up of?”
Science is an endless pursuit of “How?”
Religion is just and endless philosophy of “Why?”
They’re not ‘one in the same’, they just don’t actually oppose each other.
Guess a question is – where’s yuna on this stair ? ^^ (we can guess she’s already several steps ahead ^^)
@ Randomdice:
Just replace the error messages with the Super Secret Level Select screen, duh.
@ Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2:
Surprise there isn’t a step called “IKEA-based Instructions Comprehension”
Where does Yuna sit at the moment?
I hope that bug-free software is developed before teleportation. After all, it’s not a convenient means of travel if you don’t survive or pick up transcription errors.
Come on, Powree, everybody wants to know what the last step is.
Inquiring minds want to know!
Behold! The great study of “Guess what” 🤣🤣
Zeta wrote:
I wonder if you could do it in tempered glass.
I don’t see Yuna on the stair, has she already moved past the visible part ?
Just my personal opinion, but I think Room Temperature Superconductors should be below Dark Matter and Dark Energy, not above Unified Field Theory. On the other hand, I’m not sure I’d want to stand on Standard Model of Cosmology – it took a couple of fairly hard knocks this year.
“Super Mario Bros in 4:52”???
Suspicious,.. Very suspicious XD XDDDDDDD
Wanderer wrote:
The “standard” isn’t fixed. So it’s a treadmill. ;]
Then again, remembering the tone one retired nuclear physicist (experimental) used to emphasize the word “cosmologists” made me smile even years later.
To all those wondering what is on the last step, worry not.
There are more off-screen that we can not possibly comprehend. Yet.
As far as I know “busy beaver computing” is demonstrably impossible for the general case.
@ Patrick DiSandro:
Science, Religion, Magic/Mythology.
3 paths of explaining the things you don’t understand, or explaining the unknown to others. Usually the one picked (Or moving from one to the other) is determined by the literacy level of the society.
I see where you placed “bug-free software”. Seems about right.
Somewhere up there is Muon recombination
To be fair, those last two steps known as shown in the comic are steps in theoretical physics and achieving an understanding of Dark Energy and Dark Matter should either put us pretty close to having a true complete understanding of the fundamental rules of the universe i.e. a theory of everything, or give us a better idea of what is ahead. Most of the rest of the steps shown (including Turing Machines) are either Computer Science problems (i.e. a specific subset of math distinct from the subset of math that gives us physics), or applied Physics/Engineering problems. In theory if we have a Unified Field Theory it would be a theory of Everything, but just as knowing how normal matter and energy works doesn’t give us an automatic understanding of every phenomenon arising out of Quantum Mechanics. For example only recently was a theory proposed that could explain the full extant of how waster machines clean our clothes despite us using them for decades.
I imagine most individuals thinking we’re close to the end only believe we’re close to the end of knowing the fundamental rules of the universe, at which point we still have to learn the many complicated ways they interact (even scientists thinking that the end of physics had been reached before General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics were published were still thinking that physics research would go on, rather just be focused more and more on confirming what we know to ever greater degrees of precision). Plus any biologist can tell you that while in theory their field is just applied physics and all the fundamental framework needed to determine the fundamental rules by which all living things interact having been determined decades ago with Quantum Electrodynamics, there is still a lot of science left to do in that field.
Plus, most physicists I’ve seen seem to feel like there are likely several unknown steps between where we are and a Unified Field theory, and potentially even between Dark Matter and Energy and us. The problem being we have very few leads and many are locked behind ever greater requirements of measurement and energy costing ever more billions of dollars that get harder to justify when it becomes increasingly harder to determine just how this knowledge could ever be utilized for practical purposes. Note that I am of the opinion we should continue with this research regardless of whether it turns out to be possible to utilize it or not and I figure at some point it will be used, but in a capitalist society where research is viewed as an investment if useful and a charity/prestige project if not, theoretical physics research is effectively often relegated to taking excess money we can provide. Thankfully that is still a lot of money and physics proceed. But as a comparison NASA gets $20 billion a year currently and space research is not only currently incredibly glamorous with many potential benefits on the horizon that would serve to greatly reward current investors (i.e. taxpayers in this instance). The Future Circular Collider is a new proposed particle collider that would dwarf the LHC. It’s cost: a mere $20 billion over the course of 1-3 decades. Already it is being criticized of being pointless and far too costly for the amount of physics expected to be gained upon using it.
Heheh! Sandra was the character in the Vote button for me today! 🙂
atlest you get a snak once you get to that level
PHYSICS / SCIENCE JOKE!!!!