Like everyone else I know, I am of course a longtime fan of the webcomic XKCD. But somehow it took me until last week to become aware of the frequently brilliant competitor Luke Surl, of which the above is a delectable example. What else out there am I missing?
Hat tip to Harry Brighouse of Crooked Timber.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal?
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php
Some examples I like:
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20091018.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20090515.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20100102.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20081021.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20081107.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20070325.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20071024.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20080619.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20091210.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20070909.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20091023.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20090728.gif
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20070315.gif
PhD is another great webcomic about academic life (when they aren’t being preachy like in the current strip).
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php
I’ve been partial to Amazing Super Powers and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal myself. The jokes are usually accessible and clever.
http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com
http://www.smbc-comics.com/
I sometimes get a kick out of Dinosaur Comics:
http://www.qwantz.com/index.php
Some fun ones:
http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=214
http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1341
http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1382
Martin: These are great. Thank you.
Classics. SMBC is one of my favorites. I also love Sluggy Freelance, but you have to read all of them. Its a 11 year story thats’s still going. How can you go wrong with a sociopathic lop eared rabbit, an inflatable space ship, a guy in a trench coat who invents dimension traveling machines in his basement, or an nerd with a magic sword?
On the more serious topic of free will and determinism, I have a question. After reading the arguments and the science, I lost my belief in free will. If humans lack free will, then why are personal freedoms so important?
Perry Bible Fellowship in my opinion is one of the best comic strips ever created. A random sampling
http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF093-Check_Shots.jpg
http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF205-Robin_Hood.jpg (Steve would love this since I assume he does not like Robin Hood)
http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF146-Bumble_Buzzin.jpg
There is probably not a single comic which one may dislike!!
spiked math, order of the stick and abstruse goose (also Phd and xkcd but these have been mentiond above)
http://spikedmath.com/
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html
http://abstrusegoose.com/
Basic Instructions is one of my favorites, and Slow Wave is just… extremely unique.
This reminds me that it’s been a while since I last looked at
http://www.jesusandmo.net/
Warning: it manages to be both offensive to the religious and un-PC. Those are not problems for me, but sometime I find it a bit preachy (for the church of atheism) or a bit in bad taste; but that is, of course, a matter of taste.
As for free will:
First, I note that it is not necessary to accept determinism to reject free will: true randomness also excludes free will. In fact, I am not sure what people really mean by “free will”, since it can be neither determinism nor randomness, nor any combination limited to these two alternatives.
Second, nonetheless I do accept that we have free will, in the sense that we are free to choose the actions most suited to our goals. (By comparison, a thermostat has a goal, but no choice in what action to use.) What we are not free to do is to choose our goals, except on the basis of meta-goals (or randomly). Thus, if we exclude an infinite regress, we do not have full free will; but what we have is better than nothing, and I would not give it away.
Definitely have to second Abstruse Goose – it’s still just as good as xkcd used to be.
but there is a joke, dr. landsburg. it is also on page 72.
I’m happy to see PhD comics has a large following. I recommend “Axe Cop.” It’s an idea by a five year old boy and illustrated by his 29 year old cartoonist brother. Really made me laugh. It’s freakin’ brilliant!