Comic #3998: emotion-hacking
Description
Here’s the transcription of the comic text:
Panel 1: "Brain implants made it possible to electrically alter emotional states."
Panel 2: "Oh, God, sorry. Did I say your conversation was fascinating? I must've left this thing on."
Panel 3: "The results were fantastic." "You're going to have triplets!" "Hooray!"
Panel 4: "The nation's technocrats immediately recognized the opportunity to improve society." "If we can unscrupulously hack brains, we can decide what political speech people enjoy."
Panel 5: "Did you hear the senator talk today?" "If I knew the names of any great orators, I’d compare them to them."
Panel 6: "But the result was a sort of 'aesthetic hazard.'" "Madame President, you spent 30 minutes in your State of the Union address talking about yourself as a cartoon character, two minutes describing a dream where you were a cow, and 4 minutes on energy policy." "And people loved it!"
Panel 7: "As brain manipulation improved, rhetoric devolved." "Long story short, we got the ring back, but that dog’s anus was never the same." "There's probably a metaphor for life there." "Anyway, congratulations to you, irrelevant Class of '26."
Panel 8: "Winner winner winner winner winner winner." "It sounds less like a word every time I say it."
Panel 9: "I have huge hands! Look at these, ugh!"
Panel 10: "Candidates became impossible to differentiate, parties oriented entirely around emotion-hacking." "Let's elicit excitement as we gear up for war, then loyalty after—then, if things go on too long, punch in xenophobia." "Sht, this *does make sense."
Panel 11: "Humans were not designed to handle the sheer quantity of processing." "Your brain thing just exploded."
Panel 12: "I feel free."
Panel 13: "In the brief moment of lucidity that followed, emotion-hacking was banned." "Let us lock arms and agree that never again shall we violate that specific form of privacy."
Panel 14: "Fortunately, we discovered a way to hack brains without computers." "Hidden evil forces are everywhere, and I'm the only one who can stop them!" "Woah!"
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