Let me preface this by saying I got three hours of sleep last night, so if it doesn't make sense blame my inability to sleep. :]
The big leap in strategy that Ender makes while playing the zero-gravity game is that orientation in zero-gravity is what you make of it. So, while all the other boys are clinging to the limited view that the null gravity room is a corridor with bases on either side, and forcing their perspectives to comply, Ender sees it as a well, with his base on top and the enemy base on the bottom.
So, the enemy's base isn't across the room, it's down,, and it's this that makes him and his teams the best at the game.
And xkcd is saying that the base is down, like, on the fritz kind of down, and yeah. Amusement!
It's like the Noah's Ark joke, where Noah tells all the animals to get off his boat and be fruitful and multiply, until he gets to a couple of snakes, and he yells, "Go out, be fruitful and multiply!" and they start shaking, so he tries again, and yells "Be fruitful and multiply!" and they shake even harder, and he finally says, "Dude, what's your issue?" and they say, "Please, sir, we're adders."
SERIOUSLY. Someone very kindly shared a link with me and now it is TRUE LOVE. I don't know how I went for this long without it.
It's a reference to Ender's Game, one of my all-time favorite scifi books. I wrote a way-too-long explanation in another comment, but basically-- yes. Reference. :D
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Date: 2008-03-28 07:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-28 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-28 06:34 pm (UTC)The big leap in strategy that Ender makes while playing the zero-gravity game is that orientation in zero-gravity is what you make of it. So, while all the other boys are clinging to the limited view that the null gravity room is a corridor with bases on either side, and forcing their perspectives to comply, Ender sees it as a well, with his base on top and the enemy base on the bottom.
So, the enemy's base isn't across the room, it's down,, and it's this that makes him and his teams the best at the game.
And xkcd is saying that the base is down, like, on the fritz kind of down, and yeah. Amusement!
It's like the Noah's Ark joke, where Noah tells all the animals to get off his boat and be fruitful and multiply, until he gets to a couple of snakes, and he yells, "Go out, be fruitful and multiply!" and they start shaking, so he tries again, and yells "Be fruitful and multiply!" and they shake even harder, and he finally says, "Dude, what's your issue?" and they say, "Please, sir, we're adders."
no subject
Date: 2008-03-28 07:01 pm (UTC)It's a reference to Ender's Game, one of my all-time favorite scifi books. I wrote a way-too-long explanation in another comment, but basically-- yes. Reference. :D
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Date: 2008-03-29 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 03:02 am (UTC)Ender's Game jokes! That is delightfully nerdy.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 03:42 am (UTC)