# XKCD 1190: "Time"---Randall's setting something up... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2013, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901 "2013-03-25T10:31:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/141 "2013-04-06T04:00:49Z")
I don’t understand what the sea is doing. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/142 "2013-04-06T07:28:56Z")
I keep checking in at the xkcd forum thread every now and then and read the last page or so—this is actually pretty fascinating, you can basically see a subsub_sub_-culture of Time readers develop, with idiosyncratic vocabulary, rituals, and even belief systems\*. There even seem to be occasional schisms, such as subsubsub_sub_-factions believing the ‘sea’ to be either ice, coffee, or semen. Maybe the whole thing is just an experiment in the complex systems dynamics of social interaction? \*All hail the magnificient Lord Randall The Author of the One True Comic The Illustrator of Sandcastles The Keeper of the Newpix The Creator of Time We have seen the Castles We reject the Outside We do not Sleep We watch Time We wait for It ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/143 "2013-04-06T10:08:52Z")
He’s definitely making a mini-version of the larger scene. [I created this animated gif to make sure.](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5583349/xkcd_TIME_FractalPrediction.gif) Maybe he’s going infinite regression/fractal after all? ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/144 "2013-04-06T10:29:53Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > He’s definitely making a mini-version of the larger scene. [I created this animated gif to make sure.](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5583349/xkcd_TIME_FractalPrediction.gif) > > Maybe he’s going infinite regression/fractal after all? Nice work. Post that to the xkcd thread, and people will probably worship you as a minor deity! ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/145 "2013-04-06T12:12:13Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > I keep checking in at the xkcd forum thread every now and then and read the last page or so—this is actually pretty fascinating, you can basically see a subsub_sub_-culture of Time readers develop, with idiosyncratic vocabulary, rituals, and even belief systems\*. There even seem to be occasional schisms, such as subsubsub_sub_-factions believing the ‘sea’ to be either ice, coffee, or semen. Maybe the whole thing is just an experiment in the complex systems dynamics of social interaction? This is how I’m following it to. I check the comic to see the latest frame, then the forum and read the last page. Then I pop over to [this page](http://geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/) to catch up on the other frames. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/146 "2013-04-06T16:44:23Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Nice work. Post that to the xkcd thread, and people will probably worship you as a minor deity! Only a _minor_ deity? Well, fuck them! ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/147 "2013-04-06T16:53:45Z")
Interesting. [In this frame](http://geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/?frame=403) he does an extreme close up of her holding a miniature trebuchet. Then she adds it to the small scale sandcastle, and he remarks, “I don’t think we can build it much taller than this. It’s been fun though.” Then “I don’t understand what the sea is doing.” Yep, it’s about to get interesting… Nvmd, I see you people ninja’d me. Damn you Internet ninjas!!! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/148 "2013-04-06T17:36:32Z")
And the water level is, in fact, slowly rising. It’ll take a long time to engulf the castles at the current rate, though. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/149 "2013-04-06T20:03:57Z")
Any idea what the boards are for? I’m guessing a makeshift ladder…? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/150 "2013-04-06T20:45:53Z")
I’m thinking he’s going to zoom out to an exponential degree and reveal their sandcastle’s are atop a mega-version, like the tiny version they built. And so on, and so on. Maybe the boards will be for giant flagpoles on the meta-scape (assuming that’s where it’s headed)? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/151 "2013-04-06T21:06:06Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > I’m thinking he’s going to zoom out to an exponential degree and reveal their sandcastle’s are atop a mega-version, like the tiny version they built. And so on, and so on. I don’t think that’s likely. He’s never been known for doing things so blatantly supernatural. Tiny miniaturized people seem unlikely - especially since even tinier miniaturized people weren’t added to the smaller sandcastle. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/152 "2013-04-06T21:10:21Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I don’t think that’s likely. He’s never been known for doing things so blatantly supernatural. Tiny miniaturized people seem unlikely - especially since even tinier miniaturized people weren’t added to the smaller sandcastle. But, who will operate the tiny, little trebuchets? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/153 "2013-04-06T21:13:02Z")
IIRC, he’s already done one comic where someone builds a scale model of their own town, including the basement where the scale model was, which contains a scale-squared model, and so on. And he pointed out there that there was a hard limit to how many layers of recursion were possible, since relatively quickly you end up being limited by the fact that things are made of atoms. So I don’t think it’s going to go into a fractal zoom-loop. EDIT: [Found it](http://xkcd.com/878/). Not quite how I’d remembered it (the model never actually gets built), but close enough. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/154 "2013-04-06T21:49:48Z")
Well yeh, but physics is limited by reality, but mathematics is not! Who do you think actually builds the Julia sets? Tiny little people who live on the prime beachfront real estate in Cantor space, that’s who. They simply start at 0 and work their way to ∞. Of course, the trebuches keep pushing the completion date out. At this rate, they’ll never finish. (I remember that particular strip. Good one. He’s also done a few others on the topic of scale.) ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/155 "2013-04-06T21:53:23Z")
The water rising could simply be the tide coming in, or it’s something delightfully unexpected. Especially since they made those cryptic remarks about the river and the “sea”. Hoping for _delightfully unexpected._ ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/156 "2013-04-06T22:17:36Z")
Does anyone know if Randall drew all the frames before the run, or is doing so many frames, piecemeal over the intervening time? ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/157 "2013-04-07T09:10:54Z")
So, somebody from the xkcd forums has actually animated the ‘zoom-in’ fractal and put it on the [wiki](http://xkcd-time.wikia.com/wiki/Recursion)… ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/158 "2013-04-07T11:34:04Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > So, somebody from the xkcd forums has actually animated the ‘zoom-in’ fractal and put it on the [wiki](http://xkcd-time.wikia.com/wiki/Recursion)… Oh yeh… I posted that gif of the scaled comparison I made over there, and then we we’re nerding out making more pointless analysis (I’m **“cmyk”** over there too). I then [created an animated gif of how I think it’s going to end,](http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043&start=10280#p3320623) then **Deadcode** created that [awesome recursive gif you mention.](http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043&start=10320#p3320683) So, I then took that, and made it a [_weee_ bit more psychedelic.](http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043&start=10320#p3320709) The fun never ends! ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/159 "2013-04-07T14:27:55Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Oh yeh… I posted that gif of the scaled comparison I made over there, and then we we’re nerding out making more pointless analysis (I’m **“cmyk”** over there too). I’ll admit that while I’ve been lurking in that thread for the whole..err..time, I think I only noticed one name. And that’s just because of all the talk about her hats. 🙂 Guess I should pay more attention. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/160 "2013-04-07T14:33:56Z")
> [@Moe](#): > > [Reposting link for page 3 access.](http://xkcd.aubronwood.com/) Page 4 access. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901.md?page=9)