Editing Configurations

{{comic
	| number    = 5155
	| date      = January 19, 2019
	| title     = configurations
	| image     = 1547905896-20190119.png
	| votey     = 154790598820190119after.png
	| titletext = Fun fact: Aerogels were discovered by futzing around with jelly.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
==Transcript==
{{Computertranscript}}
:[Describe panel here]
:Technology isn't ever new. It's just configurations of stuff that's been around for billions of years.
:Did you know that in gabon scientists discovered the remains of a "natural" nuclear reactor.
:It's really not surprising. You just need some uranium deposits that get surrounded by water and bam! Controlled fission.
:It gets weird if you apply this generally. Like.. A photograph is just the right chemicals on a more or less flat surface. In principle, there could be a selfie of a tyrannosaurus somewhere, waiting for us to find it.
:Sagan said, "if you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." but, actually, the "you" is unnecessary.
:Human life, culture, civilization. It's just a sequence of technically permitted, but ever more unlikely physical configurations.
:So everything is meaningless?
:No, there's a clear meaning for human life, and it runs throughout history - to find weirder and weirder configurations.
:And use them to explore the heavens and plumb the planck-scale.
:Mostly it's for food and tv, but yeah, that too.
:if
:smbc-comics.com
==Votey Transcript==
{{Computertranscript}}
:[Describe panel here]
:By god I want that t-rex selfie.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring the snow kids]][[Category:Comics tagged science]]