this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2026
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Can't find it for the life of me... Describing a web comic vs actually posting it always feels like a flop, but...
Aliens abduct a physicist, who doesn't seem to give much of a damn about the abduction but is instead enthused to learn about the alien tech on board, so they give him a tour of the ship. They get to the power reactor and start dropping a bunch of sci-fi jumbo about "We harness dark matter to... (sci-fi Ruth Goldberg machine) ...and finally, we use the heat it generates to boil water and crank a turbine!!"
*Physicist drops to his knees in despair and let's out a dramatic 'noooooo!'
Paraphrasing heavily due to having shit memory. I thought it was a SMBC comic, but... /shrug.
"And then, the power generated is used to heat water and generate steam!"
"No...."
"That steam is used to turn a wheel!"
"No! NOOOOOOO!!!!!"
"Hey dude, calm down."
-Actual exchange during first contact.